Monday Night Rattler Game Canceled

Tonight's Rattler Game Rained Out.

Armina (Haines) King Passes Away

Armina Alberta “Bert” King, 82, of Topeka, passed away Saturday, July 4, 2015.

She was born February 23, 1933 in Rossville, Kansas, the daughter of Alvi Bert and Morvid (Lewis) Haines. She attended Topeka public schools.

Bert was retired from Security Benefit Group in Topeka.

She was a member of Women of the Moose Lodge No. 555. 

Bert married Edwin L. Kelley in July of 1949 in Topeka. He preceded her in death. She married Leslie L. “Bud” King on November 2, 1962 in Topeka. He preceded her in death on May 28, 2014. Survivors include two daughters, Shelley (Bo) Branch and Gloria (Rick) Henderson, all of Topeka; a son, Mark (Glenda) Kelley, Topeka; six grandchildren, Lance, Talley, Dirk, Cassie, Tyler and Dalton; 17 great-grandchildren; and several nieces and nephews. 

She was preceded in death by her parents; two sisters, Mickey Baker and Janie Loecker; and a brother, Victor E. Haines. 

Bert enjoyed shopping, going to casinos and garage sales, bird watching, cooking, spending time with family, especially her grandchildren, friends and neighbors. She also loved sports, especially the K.C. Royals and Chiefs.

Honoring her request, Bert was cremated. A memorial ceremony will be 10 a.m., Wednesday, July 8, 2015 at the Penwell-Gabel Parker-Price Chapel, 245 NW Independence Ave, Topeka. The family will receive friends an hour prior to the service. Private entombment will be at Penwell-Gabel Cemetery, Topeka. 

Memorial contributions may be made to the Topeka Rescue Mission, 600 N. Kansas, Topeka, KS 66608.   To leave a message in her guestbook,  go to:   http://www.penwellgabeltopeka.com/obituary/105691/A-Alberta-King/Topeka-Kansas

Patrick Lytle (00) Singing On YouTube

I Will Follow You Into The Dark

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-6Fypk7WVI

1952 Vincent Black Lightning 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhGFFbJICEg

Head Full Of Ghosts

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sAhuJGaStQ

Mother

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0kTzvJIM7U

MPL All Star Game

    The Mid-Plains League All-Stars rallied from a 2-0 first-inning deficit and went on to defeat a Puerto Rico summer collegeiate baseball team at Rathert Field Sunday night 11-6.

    Aaron Marshall of Baldwin City, Jonathan Valenzuela-Reece of Rossville, and Cade Bunnell of Rossville all hit home runs for the Mid-Plains League squad.  Their head coach for the game, Seth Wheeler of Junction City said he thought the performance of the team showed the talent in the league. I think it proves that we have a lot of good talent in our league. All of our arms were 86-88 with breaking balls, and then we had some guys who could really hit too.”
    The Mid-Plains squad tied the game 2-2 in the bottom of the 1st inning and then just kept adding one or two runs each at-bat through the seventh inning, as they rolled to the victory.  Every one on the team played in the contest, and they used six different pitchers.
    The general manager for the Junction City Brigade, Cecil Aska estimated attendance totaled approximately 300 people.  Corvias Military Living Military Appreciation Night was also a part of the activities, and they sponsored a post-game fireworks display put on by Bennett Fireworks of Junction City.

Two Rattlers Drafted By MLB

    Two  Rossville Rattler players were selected in the 2015 major league draft.   Nate Greip,  who also played for the Topeka Golden Giants was selected in the eighth round of the draft by the Milwaukee Brewers.  Nate  played for KSU.  John Boushelle was selected in the 20th round by the Los Angeles Dodgers.  John also played at KSU.

Patrick Lytle (00) Passes Away (updated)

       Patrick W. Lytle, 33, passed away in Topeka

       He was born February 23, 1982 at Topeka, the son of Calvin and Helen Wehner Lytle.  He graduated from Rossville High School in 2000.  Patrick received a degree from Wichita Technical Institute in Advanced Electronics and Computer Science.
      He was an amazing musician, artist, and friend to all.  He was employed as a Computer Technician at HF Rubber Manufacturing in Topeka.
      Survivors include his parents Calvin and Helen, Rossville; three sisters, Barbara Weybrew, Topeka, Bridget (Kelly) Remer, Silver Lake and Betsy (Sean) Mullis, Topeka; his brother, Paul (Denice) Weybrew, Shawnee; 3 nieces and 5 nephews along with numerous other relatives and friends
      Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at 10:00 A.M. Thursday, July 9, 2015 at St. Stanislaus Catholic Church in Rossville.  Interment will be in the Rossville Cemetery.  Patrick will lie in state Wednesday, July 8, 2015 at the church after 5:00 P.M where a rosary will be recited at 5:30 P.M. and the family will greet friends from 6:00 until 8:00 P.M.  Memorial contributions may be made to the family for Caleb Weybrews’ Education Fund and sent in care of Piper Funeral Home, 714 Maple St., St. Marys, Kansas 66536.
      To leave condolences,  go to:  http://piperfuneralhome.com/obituaries/patrick-w-lytle/

Baseball Week Coming Up

Click on image to enlarge

Mitchell Porter 9th At FBLA Nationals

    The Rossville High FBLA national convention attendees returned form Chicago Friday after having a great trip.
     Mitchell Porter placed 9th in Personal Finance.
     Others attending and competing were Makayla Crow, Michaela Little, Ryan Ehrlich, Andrea Rietcheck, Ashley Rietcheck who are pictured below along with sponsor Nola Miller.

Rattlers Split Tue Night.

    The Rattlers played a double header against the Junction City Brigade on Tue. night.
    The Brigade won the first game 11-5.   Back to back homers by Tim Schaareman and Derrick McGreevey helped the Rattlers jump out to a 5-2 lead in game two which ended up with the Rattlers on top 7-3
     As the league takes a break for their All Star game,  the Ratters stand at 11-10.

TV Show About Town Team Baseball

    A documentary TV show about baseball has started filming.  Its first stop was the Joe Campbell Stadium in Rossville.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLaciGTG_RQ

MPL All Star Roster

TOPEKA, KS - The Mid-Plains League is proud to announce it's roster for the 2015 All-Star Game.

The game will be played on Sunday July 5th in Junction City, Kansas at 7:00 PM. This year's opponent is the Puerto Rican Summer Collegiate Baseball Club.

Each team in the Mid-Plains League has at least one representative at the All-Star Game, the Junction City Brigade and the Midwest Athletics both sent 7 players apiece.

The Mid-Plains League All-Stars will be coached by Seth Wheeler, the head coach of the Junction City Brigade. His assistant coach will be Rafi Cedeno of the Liberty Monarchs.

The game will be a 9-inning contest and will be held at historic Rathert Stadium in Junction City. Rathert was also the host to the 2014 MPL All-Star Game, which ended in dramatic fashion as Baldwin City's Tyler Moore hit a walk-off Grand Slam to win the game for the MPL All-Stars.

	2015 Mid-Plains League All-Stars
#	Name	POS	College	MPL Team
2	Tucker Perkins	2B	Emporia State University	Midwest Athletics
3	Riley Krane	3B	Washburn University	Topeka Golden Giants
3	Jacob Head	OF	Washburn University	Rossville Rattlers
3	Jared Lloyd	RHP	Missouri Western State University	Liberty Monarchs
4	Zach Lichten	LHP	Missouri Southern University	Junction City Brigade
7	Jake Hosey	RHP	Emporia State (Graduated)	Rossville Rattlers
10	Cade Bunnell	SS	Kansas State University	Rossville Rattlers
12	Connor Arcobasso	OF	Maple Woods CC	Liberty Monarchs
15	Riley Landuyt	DH	Creighton University	Baldwin City Blues
15	Jonathan Valenzuela-Reece	2B	Indiana-Purdue-Fort Wayne	Rossville Rattlers
16	Danny Rowley	C	Missouri State University	Junction City Brigade
17	Aaron Marshall	OF	Ottawa University	Baldwin City Blues
17	Ryan Ihle	P/SS	Columbus State University	Topeka Golden Giants
18	Andrew Kreiling	OF	Pittsburg State University	Midwest Athletics
22	Tim Roberts	P	Avila University	Midwest Athletics
23	Travis Stroup	SS	Kansas City Kansas CC	Midwest Athletics
24	Tristan Perkins	OF	Scottsdale CC	Liberty Monarchs
24	Noah Draper	RHP	Garden City CC	Junction City Brigade
25	Chase Knott	DH	Rogers State University	Topeka Senators
25	Matt Fultz	C	Missouri State University	Midwest Athletics
26	Jacob Boylan	1B	Pittsburg State University	Midwest Athletics
33	Bo Ritter	RHP	Arkansas State University	Junction City Brigade
34	Nick Brandecker	P	Pittsburg State University	Midwest Athletics
35	Brett Nickel	1B	Johnson County CC	Junction City Brigade
38	Ben Dalke	P	Colby CC	Topeka Golden Giants
51	Sam Chadick	OF	Kansas State University	Junction City Brigade
55	Ethan Klosterboer	3B	Kansas State University	Junction City Brigade

 

Avian Flu Keeps Chickens Home

      For the past four years, Rossville Rustlers 4-H Club member Leah Hudson has inspected her small flock of chickens to pick the best three to enter in the poultry division at the Shawnee County Fair.
     She makes her selection based on which chickens have the most feathers, look the prettiest and are in the best condition. Her judgment has proven pretty good — one year she brought home a purple ribbon.
      This year, however, Leah’s birds will stay in their pens when the county fair rolls around in late July.
      The Kansas Department of Agriculture, Division of Animal Health, issued a stop movement order on June 9 that targets poultry and other live birds in an effort to prevent the spread of the highly pathogenic H5N2 avian influenza.
      The order resulted in the cancellation of all poultry-related shows and events through Dec. 31 in Kansas, including county and state fairs, swap meets, exotic sales, live bird auctions and other poultry activities where birds of different flock commingle. More than 2,000 4-Hers will be affected statewide.
      “It wasn’t really that much of a shock,” Leah, 12, an eighth-grader at Rossville Junior High, said, noting a positive case of avian flu had been found earlier this year in Leavenworth County.
      While live birds will be restricted from county fairs, egg exhibits will still be allowed.
      Lynette Hudson, Leah’s mother and a leader for the Rossville Rustlers 4-H Club, said she appreciates the KDA’s efforts to try to protect the state’s poultry industry and its decision to pull live birds from the fairs.
      As a parent, it takes that hard decision off us,” she said, adding she also understands the disappointment of senior 4-Hers for whom this year was the final opportunity to show their poultry projects. “But, I’d rather not take (the birds) and get them exposed.”
      K-State Research and Extension staff, county and state fair officials and poultry industry representatives are trying to find ways 4-Hers enrolled in poultry projects can still showcase their work without having their birds present.
      Brooke Gray, 4-H youth development program assistant at the Shawnee County Extension Office, said Extension staff and others are working on options to the regular way 4-Hers participate in the poultry division at the Shawnee County Fair, which will run July 30-Aug. 2 at the Kansas Expocentre.
      “It’s still a work in progress,” she said, adding 4-Hers might create a poster with photographs of their birds, give a talk or complete a project notebook as substitutes for exhibiting their birds.
      Although Gray said she didn’t know how many poultry exhibits were entered in last year’s Shawnee County Fair, Cara Robinson, 4-H project manager for the Meadowlark District of K-State Research and Extension in Holton, said about 30 4-Hers typically exhibit poultry at the Jackson County Fair.
      Robinson said those youngsters are being encouraged to enter posters, notebooks with photos and information, record books or videos explaining their poultry projects at this year’s fair, from July 27 to 31 at the fairgrounds in Holton.
      “The majority of them also have other projects, like food or livestock,” she said, estimating last year’s fair brought in about 2,700 4-H entries.
      Denny Stoecklein, general manger of the Kansas State Fair in Hutchinson, said about 1,200 pigeons, chickens, ducks and other types of poultry were on display at the 2014 state fair.
      Stoecklein said the ban on poultry gives the state fair — scheduled Sept. 11 through 20 — the opportunity to educate visitors about the avian flu while offering alternative ways 4-Hers can enter their projects in the poultry division. As an example, he said a youngster could use a stuffed toy bird instead of a live bird during the poultry showmanship competition.
      “People won’t walk through the poultry barn and see an empty building,” Stoecklein said.
      Details on how to handle the poultry ban at the state fair, he said, will be discussed this week during a conference call that will include the state fair poultry superintendent and officials from K-State Extension and Research and the Kansas Department of Agriculture, Division of Animal Health.

All-Star Game July 5th

    The 2015 Mid Plains League  All-Star Game will be  in Junction City, Kansas this year on Sunday July 5th at 7:00 pm as the MPL All-Stars take on the Puerto Rican Summer Collegiate Baseball Club.

Archer Calls For Willard Bridge Closure

From the Capital-Journal: 

      Shawnee County Commissioner Bob Archer on Thursday called for the closure of the structurally deficient Willard Bridge in northwest Shawnee County.
      Reading from a report commissioned by the county, Archer described the dangerous deterioration and gaping holes in the bridge, comparing it repeatedly to a Minnesota bridge that collapsed in 2007.     
      “I want to go on the record saying I think we should close the Willard Bridge to all traffic beginning October 1st,” Archer said.     
      Archer’s comments came near the end of a two-hour meeting and immediately after Public Works Director Tom Vlach gave a presentation showing no further deterioration of the bridge had occurred since an update one month ago.     
      “The bridge is still safe,” Commissioner Kevin Cook said before Archer’s remarks. “It has not had further deterioration.”    “That is correct,” Vlach responded.     
      “I must respectfully disagree with Commissioner Cook,” Archer said as began reading from the county’s June 5 application for a federal Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery, or TIGER, grant.      In making the case for why Shawnee County deserves millions of dollars in federal funding to replace the Willard Bridge, the application bleakly details its deterioration.     
      “The bridge has the same fracture critical design as the I-35W Mississippi River Bridge that collapsed in Minneapolis, Minnesota to devastating consequences in August of 2007,” the report states.   
      “Compounding the issues related to the fracture critical design, there is substantial rusting in the superstructure of the bridge,” the report continues. “In many areas, there are series of holes that span over a foot long. Cracks in the copes appear near every floor beam in the substructure. Piles of rust debris show that the bridge is disintegrating.”   
       As the county’s chief engineer, Vlach has the sole responsibility of closing the bridge whenever he deems it unsafe, a duty he said “wears on my mind a lot.”   
      “You don’t know how much I wish the decision to close or not close the bridge didn’t fall on me. But it does, by state statute,” Vlach told the commission.   
      Commissioner Shelly Buhler, a Rossville resident who represents those most directly affected by the bridge, admonished Cook and Archer for not taking an interest in the bridge’s deterioration last year.   
      “I wish this would have been a priority of this commission last summer. I really wish we would have given it priority then,” Buhler said.     
      Vlach said his department is driving over the bridge “almost daily” and monitoring the worst portions of the bridge.   
       “We will get some indication that something is going on in advance,” Vlach said.   
       “This commission does not want a catastrophic event under its watch,” Archer responded.     
       “Neither do I,” Vlach said. “We all have the same opinion.”   
       Cook recalled a text message he received May 19 informing him a bridge had collapsed. While the text was referring to a pedestrian bridge at Heartland Park Topeka racetrack, Cook said his mind went first to the Willard Bridge.   
       “My heart sunk,” Cook said.      Cook said he has spoken to residents near the Willard Bridge who continue to drive combines and farm equipment across it, despite a weight limit barring all but passenger vehicles and emergency vehicles. The commissioner advised warning residents of the dangers they face in disobeying the weight limit.   
      “We don’t have the ability to monitor the traffic on the bridge 24/7. We just don’t,” Archer responded.      Buhler asked Vlach to rely on facts and the opinions of engineers in making his decision.   
      “The impact that will have on communities is huge,” Buhler said. “So there are other things that have to be thought of and are being thought of.”     
      Before the debate over closing Willard Bridge began, Vlach said he anticipated the county will know by the end of September whether it will be awarded a TIGER grant. He thanked U.S. Rep. Lynn Jenkins and U.S. Sens. Jerry Moran and Pat Roberts for issuing a letter of support for the TIGER application.   
      “That’s a really big deal, for them to come together,” Vlach said.     
      Vlach also told commissioners that the Kansas Department of Transportation had agreed Thursday to advance Shawnee County between $7 million and $10 million in interest-free loans for replacing the Willard Bridge.      “That is tremendous news,” Vlach said, adding that he was “shocked” by KDOT’s decision. “That alone puts us in an extremely good position.”     
      Projections given to the commission Thursday show design for the new Willard Bridge will be completed by the end of the summer and construction will begin in February 2016. The new bridge is expected to open by the start of 2018, according to Vlach’s projections.