Great Bend Community Theater will be holding auditions for ALMOST MAINE at The Crest Theater on Sunday, Dec. 9 at 2 pm and Monday, Dec. 10 at 7 pm. They are looking for 8-12 actors and actresses between the ages of 20-40. Practice will not start until Jan. 2.

BUSINESS NEWS

Through much of his pre-med curriculum and medical school, Jonathan Pike, MD, thought about eventually caring for patients in his hometown. And it just so happened that the timing is right for Dr. Pike to fulfill that dream. He recently joined The University of Kansas Health System Family Medicine at 1309 Polk St. in Great Bend. (Its former name was Central Kansas Family Practice.)

“I was just finishing up my residency in family medicine and this great opportunity opened up,” said Dr. Pike, who is accepting new patients. “Great Bend has always been home, and this was clearly the right choice for me.”

He also noted that he made the right decision by concentrating on family medicine.

“I have the privilege of building relationships with each generation of families – from delivering babies to caring for newborns to end-of-life care and everything in between,” he said. “This is what drew me to family medicine.

“I will enjoy having the ability to form relationships across a lifetime. You can’t do that in some other areas of medicine.”

As a Great Bend native, Dr. Pike has known his new colleagues Perry Smith, MD, and Jeff Brozek, MD, for many years.

“Dr. Smith was a mentor to me throughout pre-med and medical school. He allowed me to learn during multiple family medicine rotations, teaching me as I went along.”

His other colleagues are Teri Turkle-Huslig, MD, Charles Keener, MD, Stanley Hatesohl, MD, Gina Westhoff, physician assistant, and Elise Snapp, advanced practice registered nurse. One of the physicians is always on call.

Dr. Pike considers himself fortunate to be part of the family medicine group, which is now part of The University of Kansas Health System.

“The transition to The University of Kansas Health System has increased our recognition around the state and elsewhere, which will help with recruiting doctors and advanced practice providers,” he explained. “In addition, our patients now have greater access to multiple specialists.

“The transfer of information among all these specialists will benefit our patients and their families,” he said. “We can keep everyone in the loop with our open communications.”

Dr. Pike is a 2006 graduate of Great Bend High School, where he played on the 2005 and 2006 5A state championship basketball teams. His parents still live in Great Bend. In 2008, Dr. Pike earned an associate degree in liberal studies at Barton Community College and two years later he received his bachelor’s degree in biology from Kansas State University.

Dr. Pike earned his doctor of medicine degree from the University of Kansas School of Medicine in 2015. He completed his residency and postgraduate training at Via Christi Health in Wichita a few months ago.

Dr. Smith said he and his colleagues are “certainly excited to welcome a physician of Dr. Pike’s quality, especially because he is a hometown boy and a fine individual.

“We need more primary care physicians in this region and Dr. Pike will help fill that void,” Dr. Smith added. “He will offer the full range of services – from obstetrics to geriatrics. He is well trained and will do an excellent job.”

Great Bend City Administrator Kendal Francis told the Great Bend City Council Monday night that a committee determined the installation of artificial turf at the ballfields at the Great Bend Sports Complex can wait. The committee was formed in early October to research the possibility of turf at the baseball and softball fields and whether or not it was in the best interest for the City of Great Bend to move forward.

While the committee felt like turf had many benefits over the natural fields, they concluded that other features or maintenance were priorities.

Kendal Francis Audio

Francis referenced the lighting at the ballparks at Veterans Memorial Park as a priority. The lights at Vets Park are old and oftentimes unsafe on windy days.

The committee which consisted of city staff, council members, USD 428 and Great Bend Recreation Commission representatives, did want the installation of turf to be added to an overall facilities master plan. The committee also encouraged the City to develop that master plan and a possible funding mechanism to implement the improvements.

Although placing turf at the Sports Complex is a motion that Great Bend has heard before, it received more of a push as community members and coaches presented before the City Council in August to encourage the idea. The coaches wanted to keep the Sports Complex, that opened in 2012, ahead of the game for recruiting outside tournaments to the facility and prevent cancellations and postponements because of rainouts.

Other City Council news from Dec. 3, 2018…

– The City recognized employees with Service Awards that have worked with the City for 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, and 40 years.

– Francis noted the 8th Street construction between McKinley and Grant is behind schedule because of weather, but expects asphalt to be poured next week.

– Allison Urban was hired as the next Deputy City Clerk.

– After much discussion, the Council voted 5-3 to table a decision to hire Retail Strategies for $50,000 to assist with retail development and recruitment. The discussion will be picked up at the Jan. 21, 2019 meeting when the new council members will be present.

– The Council approved a motion to have Austin Peters Group provide a 3-year strategic plan for $10,867.50 plus travel expenses.

Education is full of data, benchmarks, and numbers. As a teacher or even a principal it can be overwhelming to gather the information you need to keep track of students and their requirements for the school and state. USD 428 in Great Bend has taken advantage of eduCLIMBER software that organizes various state, district, and teacher-made assessments.

Jefferson Elementary School teacher Catrina McGurk says eduCLIMBER helps track absences and just as importantly…tardy numbers.

Catrina McGurk Audio

Logging into eduCLIMBER will allow teachers or administration to see each student’s attendance rate.

To encourage good attendance, Jefferson brought traveling trophies that are given to the class that has the least number of tardy marks and to the class with the best attendance each month.

Barton County Commissioners Monday voted 5-0 to grant Christmas Eve, December 24, as an official employee holiday. Since county employees are granted 10 such holidays a year, the board also had to make a decision to remove one of those paid holidays which turned out to be the Martin Luther King holiday on January 21 of 2019.

County Administrator Phil Hathcock feels that any employee who felt it important to take the King holiday off, would still be able to thanks to the employee agreement that is already in place.

Phil Hathcock Audio

The resolution passed Monday means that all county offices and buildings will be closed on Christmas eve with the exception of law enforcement and the landfill which will be open on the morning of the 24. It also means that those same offices and buildings will now be open on Monday January 21 of 2019.