Month: April 2015

Homegrown KCKCC golfers in best performance of spring

by Alan Hoskins, KCKCC

Kansas City Kansas Community College’s corps of homegrown golfers threw a scare at the elite of Jayhawk Conference Monday.

Turning in their best performance of the season at Alvamar in Lawrence, the Blue Devils led the first 18 holes of the second Jayhawk Designated Tournament of the spring before settling for second behind Dodge City – but ahead of another perennial conference power, Hutchinson, which won the first Designated Tournament.

Dodge City rallied with a 313-305-618 total followed by KCKCC, 310-319-629 and Hutchinson 316-315-631. Garden City finished fourth at 634 followed by Barton County, 639; Allen County, 675; and Coffeyville, 684.

Freshman Marc McClain of Bonner Springs led the Blue Devils, tying for fourth with a 78-76-154, while Charlie Rinehart of Piper was ninth (76-80-156), Alex Forristal of Olathe East 16th (78-82-160) and Montanta Fasching of Piper (87-76-163) and Seve Sites of SM Northwest (78-85-163) tied for 18th.

“We hit the ball pretty good and got it close, especially the first 18 when we had four of the low nine scores,” said KCKCC coach Gary Shrader. “The greens had just been aeriated so putting was difficult all day. The thing I really liked is that we finished second with all Kansas kids, no international players or transfers which says a lot for golf in the state.”

The Blue Devils will renew their Jayhawk Conference rivalry Sunday and Monday when the conference championship will be decided at Sand Creek in Newton.

– Alan Hoskins is the sports information director at KCKCC.

Children’s Cabinet to tout benefits of public-private partnerships

by Dave Ranney, KHI News Service

The Kansas Children’s Cabinet is in the beginning stages of launching an initiative aimed at reinvigorating its efforts to build public-private support for early childhood development programs.

The initiative, which has yet to be named, is driven by concerns that as much as one-fourth of the tobacco master settlement monies won’t be available in 2018.

In Kansas, settlement monies are used to underwrite children’s programs throughout the state.

“We’re on the cusp of being in a really difficult position in terms of settlement dollars,” said Shannon Cotsoradis, a Children’s Cabinet member and chief executive of Kansas Action for Children.

The money — between $15 million and $20 million a year — won’t be available because it’s tied to a “strategic contribution formula” that’s scheduled to end in 2018.

“We’ve known this from the beginning, that a significant portion of the payment would be going away,” Cotsoradis said during the Children’s Cabinet meeting Friday in Topeka.

Children’s Cabinet members hope the initiative will help communities cope with the loss of funds.

“This is all very preliminary at this point,” said Janice Smith, executive director of the Children’s Cabinet.

The initiative, she said, was first proposed during a December meeting with Gov. Sam Brownback.

The governor, Smith said, liked the idea of convening meetings with school officials, business leaders, philanthropists and Head Start program directors to see how partnerships that have proven to be successful in some communities might be replicated in others.

A Children’s Cabinet-led group, Smith said, eventually will pick three communities it thinks have the most potential for building successful coalitions. Lessons learned in these communities will be shared with others.

Smith said the governor’s office will be involved in the group’s deliberations.

The initiative is expected to focus on services for children from birth to age 5.

“The seeds are there,” said Children’s Cabinet Chairwoman Amanda Adkins. “Now we just need to make sure they flower.”
Erick Vaughan, director of the Kansas Head Start Association, said he looked forward to taking part in the group’s deliberations.

“I’m just excited about the opportunity to get in front of the governor and work with something that’s birth-to-5,” he said. “There are lots of questions yet to be answered. But I’m excited about the possibilities.”

Kansas programs currently funded with tobacco revenues include Tiny K, Children’s Mental Health Initiative, Head Start, Early Head Start, Parents as Teachers and Kansas Reads to Succeed.

The nonprofit KHI News Service is an editorially independent initiative of the Kansas Health Institute and a partner in the Heartland Health Monitor reporting collaboration. All stories and photos may be republished at no cost with proper attribution and a link back to KHI.org when a story is reposted online.

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Accident on I-70 sends man to hospital

An accident at 11:04 p.m. April 13 on I-70 in eastern Kansas City, Kan., between 10th and 7th Street, sent a local man to the hospital.

The driver, a 32-year-old man from Kansas City, Kan., was westbound on I-70 in a Honda Civic when his vehicle entered the median, hit the barrier wall, crossed three lanes of traffic and came to rest in the right embankment, according to the Kansas Turnpike Authority trooper’s report.

The man was injured and taken to a hospital, the report stated.