In the like-father-like-son department, I headed to the James Thomas
Invitational track meet Friday. I ran into Greg Topham, his wife and
her parents just after the boys’ 3,200-meter race. They were delighted
as Topham’s son, Andrew, running for Peabody-Burns, had just bettered
Greg’s all-time high school best by about a second.
They now have a special memory that will stay with them for a
lifetime. Andrew is listed as having one of the state’s best times this
season in the 3,200.
The community of Hillsboro not only enjoys some of the best water in the entire state, thanks to the recent $3.5 million upgrades made thies past year at the local water-treatment plant, but now it officially has the state’s best water-treatment plant operator running the show.
Morgan Marler recently was named Water Plant Supervisor of the Year by the Kansas Rural Water Association (see story Page 5), which has more than 775 municipal and rural members. We don’t know much about the competition she faced, but having observed her in action, we’re not surprised by the honor. She knows the business of making safe water inside and out. Her input in the recent upgrade project was indispensible.
We were already aware that she has become a frequent source of advice and education for water-plant supervisors around the state. Her knowledge is widely respected and sought.
Generally, Morgan prefers to remain behind the scenes, fulfilling the expectations of her job without public attention and fanfare. We gladly embarrass her this time, at least. She deserves the recognition. And our gratitude. —DR
We had a serious problem with our e-mail at the Free Press this past
Friday and Saturday and we hope we haven’t missed anything that will
cause big problems for anyone. E-mail is one of our key ways to
communicate these days.
We determined Saturday night that our spam filter had diverted
284,000 e-mails to a folder reated for unwanted e-mail. That number is
the maximum number of files a folder on our server can hold. So once it
was full it started chucking everything that came in at that point,
which means those e-mails are gone forever.
That folder is now set to automatically empty. Now we’ll just have to wait for the next problem we don’t yet know about.
Americans often wonder whether their vote really makes a difference. Whether it has the impact we’d like isn’t as important as fulfilling our duty to participate in the democratic process. If you don’t vote for public officials, you haven’t earned the right to criticize them either.
Having said that, in no other arena will a vote make more impact than at the local level. For one thing, the electorate is smaller so every vote carries more weight. Even more significant, no other level of government affects you more directly than than the local level. Your mayor and city council are responsible for the streets you drive every day, the utilities that feed your home with energy, and the services your family will need in an emergency.
As Yogi Berra used to say, “It was déja vu all over again.”
We’re starting to believe that all we need to do is leave town and it will snow—even if it is April. All we saw when we returned Saturday night were the unmelted little white scoopfuls where people had cleared walks and drives.
Don’t put your snow shovels away yet. I’m leaving again on Thursday for Iowa.
Spring storms bring the potential for deliverance from drought but also the prospect of devastation.
As we write this, weather forecasters are promising us the probability of rain for almost every day this week, with some severe storms possible. Folks with any grasp of our local agricultural conditions will be praying that the prospect of significant rain comes to fruition. Our producers need it desperately. Though surface moisture has improved from a few of months ago, subsoil moisture is still seriously lagging.
We were away during the big snow of April
’07 last week. We heard reports of 6 to 7 inches in Hillsboro. When we
got back to Kansas late Saturday night, we started to think everyone
had been pulling our leg. Where was all of the snow since it was also
supposed to have been 16 degrees? When daylight arrived on Sunday, we
saw the telltale signs that something really had happened.
Memorial Day and summer travel isn’t far
off. You can tell it’s coming because gasoline prices have been
steadily inching upward for the past few weeks.
Opinion 
