Each year, Haven High School students drive their tractors — or other farm vehicles — to school to celebrate FFA week. Because these students live on nearby farms, driving these vehicles is second nature to them. The machines come in different colors – dependent on the make. They were also from different decades – from state-of-the-art vehicles to 1990s to a 1947 fixer-upper tractor. “This shows people who don’t live on a farm what we do,” said Grace Sawatzky, 17, of Yoder. Like most of the other students, her family raises wheat, corn, soy, alfalfa and milo.
Source: Hutch News.

Alack of child care slots and locations exists in Garden City and the wider Finney County area. Lona DuVall, president/CEO of the Finney County Economic Development Corporation, said the lack of child care in the area was noticed by the FCEDC as early as 2012. The problem has since gotten worse, DuVall said. In 2012 there was a shortage of about 485 child care slots, by 2018 shortage had more than doubled to about 1,850 slots. DuVall said they knew there was a shortage, but nobody did anything, FCEDC didn’t even get involved until the lack of child care started affecting employers, who were having a hard time recruiting and retaining staff because of the lack of reliable and accessible child care. A perfect storm caused the shortage, DuVall said. It started with population growth, economic growth and an increase in demand for qualified workforce but the biggest factor was a change in state regulations.
Source: GC Telegram.

Denison is a town of about 180 people that now owes about $241,400 in gas bills, which is double the $125,000 it paid for gas in all of 2020. Vickie Wold, Denison city council president, said the Kansas Attorney General’s Office is opening an investigation into price gouging during a disaster, but that might not help Denison in time. “That’ll take time, we know that. We are going to have a bill coming that we can’t pay,” she said. “We could lose our city status.” Wold said the Kansas Municipal Gas Association could get a loan big enough for all 49 municipalities it represents to help them pay off the bills, which would ease the burden on residents.
Source: CJonline.com.

The downtown Topeka area known as “the Bottoms” was admittedly old, rundown and blighted when Topeka’s city government did away with it in the 1960s, says Tom Rodriguez. Still, those who lived there tend to look back fondly on that time, said Rodriguez, the author of a book published in 2012 titled “The Bottoms: A Place We Once Called Home.” “In recorded interviews with former residents, almost all of them expressed a longing for the days when they used to sit out on their front porches and say ‘Hello’ or talk to everyone who passed by,” he wrote. “They remember the time when they knew every one of their neighbors, and when neighbors helped each other out when times were tough.”
Source: CJonline.com.

Officially, Jane Foltz is retiring from the city of Abilene after 20 years, starting with the Abilene Parks and Recreation Department in 2000 and ending as the Abilene city manager. But Foltz’ service with the city of Abilene goes back a bit further. She started as a lifeguard at the Abilene Municipal Pool when she was still a junior attending Abilene High School. Foltz said that summer she was babysitting a couple kids and taking them to the pool. One day she was told one of the lifeguards had broken her arm and was asked to be the replacement. “They knew I had my senior lifeguarding certification. That is what started me in parks and rec,” she said.
Source: Abilene Reflector-Chronicle.

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) today announced that USDA is seeking comments on a final rule to expand broadband service in rural areas by simplifying program requirements to make more companies eligible to participate in USDA’s ReConnect Program. The rule will eliminate paperwork requirements and will shorten the application process. It also enables an applicant to submit a letter of credit as proof of its financial ability to complete a project. These changes are expected to enable more companies to participate in the ReConnect program, resulting in more broadband coverage in rural areas. The changes take effect April 27, 2021, at the end of a 60-day comment period. The ReConnect Program offers loans, grants and loan/grant combinations to facilitate broadband deployment in rural areas that do not currently have sufficient access to it. Comments must be submitted through https://www.regulations.gov by April 27, 2021. For additional information, see page 11603 of the February 26, 2021, Federal Register.