TEG
THURSDAY, MARCH 24, 2016
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PULITZER PRIZE-WINNING
FAMILY OWNED SINCE 1895
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Good Evening
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Kansas experienced
more wind than the
presidential election.
WWW.EMPORIAGAZETTE.COM
WIND RAVAGES EMPORIA
TRAVIS MORISSE/THE HUTCHINSON NEWS
By Jessie Wagoner
[email protected]
Kansans experienced a wide
range of weather threats on
Wednesday — wildfires, high
wind and even blizzard like conditions appeared throughout the
state. Emporia remained under
a red flag warning for the majority of the day due to gusting wind
and dry conditions.
The high winds in Emporia left
residents scrambling — tracking
down trash cans that had blown
away in the wind and removing broken tree limbs from their
yards. Zeida Chea reports that a
downed tree led to vehicle damage in her neighborhood.
“My brother-in-law’s windshield got struck by my neighbor’s
tree,” Chea said on Facebook.
Carla Fessler of rural Lyon
County reported damage to her
barn.
“We came home to see the
gutter on our barn was barely
still attached,” Fessler said. “The
screws had been stripped.”
Michelle Dugan had a section
of her privacy fence blown down
by the wind and Channon Farrell
reported that large tree branches
were down in her neighborhood.
Traffic was blocked on Burlingame Road for a short period of
time on Wednesday evening due
to a large tree being downed by
the wind.
The wind advisory remained
in effect until 7 a.m. Thursday.
The National Weather Service
in Topeka reports that sustained
winds of 30 mph and gusts up to
45 mph were reported.
“Winds this strong can make
driving difficult, especially for
high profile vehicles,” the National Weather Service Wind Advisory said. “Use extra caution.”
Darren Wilson of Emporia was
commuting between Topeka and
Emporia on Wednesday night and
said that driving was indeed hazardous.
“I saw lots of semi trucks
struggling to stay on the road,”
Fire threatens towns
Jeff Clark and
Roger Van
Rankin watch
the fire east
of Lake City,
Wednesday.
The two were
watching to see
if the fire would
jump the road
onto Clark’s
land. Above, a
old train trestle
bridge burns
near Lake City,
Wednesday.
The bridge was
set afire by
a large grass
fire burning in
Barber County.
Please see Wind, Page 5
TRAVIS MORISSE/THE HUTCHINSON NEWS
EDIBLE FIRE NOT FOR SALE
RENOVATIONS
BEGIN ON
WATER TANK
EVCO holds
annual food show
By Cathryne Scharton
[email protected]
By Cathryne Scharton
[email protected]
EVCO held its annual food
show Wednesday at the William
Lindsay White Auditorium. This
year’s theme was Mardi Gras
featuring fire eating performers,
however none of EVCO’s vendors
offer edible fire.
Representatives from schools,
restaurants, nursing homes and
more came from all over Kansas,
with some even traveling in from
Oklahoma and Missouri for the
EVCO food show.
EVCO President David Evans
said over 25 years they have had
25 different themes for the show,
which are thought up by EVCO
employees. EVCO does the planning in-house and they subcontract out decorations to David
Mai, an art teacher at Emporia
High School.
Evans said attendance was
good.
“We’ve had very good attendance this year,” said Evans. “It
seems like so far it’s been very
steady and we’ve been very happy
with it.”
The show allows EVCO’s customers to see many products all
at once. Evans said the amount
of samples available at the show
would take a salesperson more
than a year to show the customer;
the show allows everyone to view
a lot of different things at one
time. Evans estimated there to be
a couple thousand people attending the show.
“It helps us kick off our year
and this is when we like to introduce a lot new items to the marVOL. 124, NO. 227
ket,” said Evans.
Evans said review of this year’s
event will take place next week
and in the next two to three weeks
they will pick a theme for next
year.
The show featured a wide
range of products from including
Please see EVCO, Page 5
KENDRA JOHNSON/GAZETTE
Attendees look at the various food vendors at the EVCO food show
at White Auditorium on Wednesday.
At Wednesday’s city commission meeting, commissioners voted in favor of two water projects
in the first portion of the council
meeting, which was an action session continued from last week.
In July of 2015, the commission approved a contract with
Xylem/Wedeco Water Solutions
to provide detailed manufacturing specification and production
of specialized ozone replacement
equipment located at the water
treatment plant. The current
ozone equipment was installed in
1995 with a 15-20 year life expectancy and is utilized for disinfection of the city drinking water.
After the initial award totaled
$1,387,685, during the manufacturing plan development for the
equipment it was discovered that
additional changes would be necessary to assure the equipment
would function as designed in the
city water treatment plant. The
original award amount covered
the general cost of the building,
however, in many respects, the
equipment must be custom built
to fit in the existing plant. This
was not discovered until the final
manufacturing details were reviewed.
The changes to plan increase
the costs by $111,912 or 8.1 percent and were approved by the
commission.
“The whole project, at this
point, is waiting for final approval
from KDHE,” said Frank Abart,
public works director. “We expect
probably before the end of next
week (they will approve it) and
then we will request authority
KENDRA JOHNSON/GAZETTE
Nutritionists for various agencies peruse Reser’s Fine Food vendor table at the EVCO food show.
Please see City, Page 5