Finding that “there are no factual issues to be decided and the case is ripe for summary judgment,” District Court Judge Steven Hornbaker ruled Tuesday, Aug. 19, in favor of USD 410 in the lawsuit filed by patron Raymond Brandt.
The decision clears the way for the district and Tabor College to move ahead on constructing and jointly owning a new football and track facility on the private college campus.
Brandt has until Sept. 18 to appeal the decision.
The lawsuit contested an agreement made between the district and Tabor College to be equal owners of a proposed football and track facility. The district and the college would each commit half of the $4.03 million cost of the new facility.
Kansas Sen. Pat Roberts (left, photo) chats with Tabor College President Jules Glanzer during the senator’s hour-long visit in Hillsboro on Monday. His appearance in Marion County was the 102nd stop on a 105-county listening tour. The noon luncheon at the Wohlgemuth Music Education Center on the Tabor campus was hosted by the Marion County Republican Committee and drew about 80 people. During his remarks, the two-term senator barely alluded to his reelection campaign against Democratic challenger Jim Slattery. Instead Roberts talked about his contributions toward a national energy policy that would expand offshore drilling, Medicare reform and rural health care, tax relief and educational issues such as additional federal funding for special education and college students and reforms to No Child Left Behind. He fielded three questions from the public: one about mandatory health insurance, one about tax reform through the “fair tax” and “flat tax” initiatives, and one about the future of Social Security. “These are tough times,” Roberts said about the diversity of serious issues facing the country.
Jason Goeckler explains the issues surrounding zebra mussels during the public meeting on Thursday evening sponsored by the Kansas Department of Wildlife & Parks.
The only way to prevent an exponential infestation of zebra mussels in a lake is to keep them from entering the water in the first place.
That blunt assessment from experts from the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks at a public meeting last Thursday evening at the Lake Hall at Marion County Lake was both a word of frustration and encouragement for the 40 or so people who attended.
It frustrated those concerned about the future of nearby Marion Reservoir, where the foreign-born mollusks were discovered in early August.
Veterinarian Norman Galle holds the high-tech “scalpel” he’s using these days at HIllsboro Animal Clinic to perform laser surgeries.
If you had brought your adult cat into the Hillsboro Animal Clinic two months ago to have it de-clawed, you could expect at least a week, maybe two, to pass before Tabby would be comfortably back on her feet again.
If that same appointment occurred now, she’d probably be back on her feet by the next day.
What’s the difference?
About a month ago, veterinarian Norman Galle added laser surgery to his practice, something fewer than 10 percent of animal clinics across the country have done. To his knowledge, only two other clinics in central Kansas offer the laser option.
“Laser surgery has been around for more than 30 years,” Galle said. “It’s just now in the past five to 10 years that it has come into the veterinary profession.”
Cost of the equipment was the primary obstacle in earlier days.
Although the driveways and parking lot at Hillsboro Elementary School indicate a lot of work to go, the space created inside could be ready for full occupation as soon as Monday, according to school officials. If the weather cooperates, the projects at HES and the high school could be entirely finished by the end of the month.
Facility progress wasn’t where USD 410 administrators had hoped it would be when the new school year began last Wednesday.
But the inconvenience caused by unfinished building projects really hasn’t been any worse than it was when those projects were launched last spring.
An usually wet spring and summer prevented the district’s building contractor, Coonrod & Associates, from meeting the Aug. 10 target date for completing the improvement projects at the high school and elementary school.
“I’m the last one to make excuses, but the weather wasn’t overly cooperative—and I think everybody understands that,” said Superintendent Doug Huxman.
At a special meeting of the USD 410 Board of Education on Tuesday night, Aug. 19, Superintendent Doug Huxman announced that the district judge has ruled in favor of the district in a summary judgment regarding the lawsuit brought against USD 410.
The suit, filed by Raymond Brandt, a patron of the district, contested an agreement between the district and Tabor College to be co-owners of a new football and track facility to be built on the college campus. The district and the college would each commit half of the $4.03 million cost of the facility.
The partnership was approved by voters in June 2007 as part of a larger package of facility improvements for USD 410. Brandt’s lawsuit contested only the football and track facility.
“We always felt like we acted in an appropriate way,” said Huxman, who received the news from the district’s attorney late afternoon Tuesday. “Working with Tabor we wanted to do something positive for the community.”
Huxman said the district is pleased with the court’s ruling.
“We will need to meet with our attorney to see what happens from here,” he said.
The special meeting had been called to give the board an opportunity to hear and approve the budget for the upcoming school year.
Following a review by clerk Jerry Hinerman, the board unanimously approved the published 2009 budget of $5.4 million with a mill levy of 57.537.
