The Halstead Planning and Zoning Commission opened a public hearing as the board tried to draft regulations regarding battery energy storage systems or BESS. Concurrent, a renewable energy company, wants to build the Tallgrass Prairie Energy Center in the Halstead Industrial Park. The lithium ion battery storage system would use the Evergy transmission system and substation located on the south side of the Industrial Park. Concurrent would build the facility and then sell it to a private company. Aidan Pelligrino, Concurrent’s managing director of development, asked the commission to make changes in some of the wording to the draft of the regulations. “Thank you for putting so much thought into drafting this language,” he said. “It will allow us to have a productive discussion about BESS as a use, when one side is less familiar.”
Source: Harvey County Now

Most married couples figuratively put out fires together, whether it’s visiting a principal about one of their kids or baking cupcakes last minute the night before a school bake sale. In the case of Jeremy and Stephanie Ashby of Walton, though, they literally put out fires together. Both are on the Walton Fire Department. Jeremy is the fire chief, while Stephanie is a firefighter/EMT. Stephanie has worked for the City of Walton since 2012. There, she’s the city clerk and became an EMT for Walton in 2020 and a firefighter at one point. “She literally looked at me one day and said, ‘I want to do what you do,’” Jeremy said about his wife and firefighting. Both are volunteers. “Being a volunteer is like a second job sometimes,” Jeremy said. “It takes up a lot of extra time.” Stephanie also is the secretary/treasurer of the fire department. Jeremy said being an officer in the fire department takes a lot of extra hours. It’s also a challenge when firefighters have children. “We have a single dad, and if he has his kids, he might not be able to run a call,” Stephanie said. For his firefighter training, Jeremy went through the University of Kansas at Hutchinson Community College in 2003, and Stephanie got her Firefighter 1, which is a basic level. She also trained through Hutchinson Community College for her EMT designation and earned a 4.0 grade-point average. Jeremy has been with the Walton Fire Department since 2009. They’ve served alongside each other. “We’ve been at fires, just us two,” Stephanie said. “It’s a different dynamic. I have to acknowledge he’s the chief and I’m the subordinate. You’re not married when you walk in the door.” “And hopefully we’re married when we walk out,” Jeremy said, laughing.
Source: Harvey County Now

Hesston’s new dog park will begin to take more shape very soon, as crews are slated to start setting posts for the new canine enclosure. “They may not string the fence until we are done with some of the construction,” Parks Foreman Josh Hastings said. “They’ll set posts and come back and string fence as one of the latter things.” While the posts are being set, Hesston Park crews will be over-seeding the area, as irrigation will be installed for good grass inside the fence for the dogs. There will also be the construction of a simple, yet effective, bathroom. “We’re going to re-purpose the lights that are at the existing location to the new area,” he said. “There will be drinking fountains as well as fountains for the dogs.” The original opening date for the new dog park was slated for Oct. 1 but has been pushed back. Hastings estimated a mid-October opening date. “We’ve had trouble with getting someone to build a bathroom, but we have someone for that,” Hastings said. “It’s a fairly quick process is what he said, and then we’ll go overseed it. We want to give that grass a week or two to get fairly established before we turn the four-legged folk on it.” Hastings is very familiar with the Newton Dog Park, as he helped build it when he worked for Newton, so he felt there were some things Hesston could do differently, including the irrigation. The park will feature some obstacles for both sides of the park, as it will be divided into a small and large dog side, with small dogs being considered to be 25 pounds or less. “If nothing else, it’s something else to pee on,” Hastings said. In terms of the rest of the parks around Hesston, Hastings said they are currently getting bids for replacing some playground equipment as they develop a plan for the parks. Some of the equipment in the parks is dated and needs to be replaced. The Heritage Park shelter remodel is slated to be wrapped up by mid-October.
Source: Harvey County Now