Happy New Year The MIDWEEK Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2013 Goodland1205 Main Avenue, Goodland, Star-News KS 67735 • Phone (785) 899-2338 $1 Volume 81, Number 01 8 Pages Goodland, Kansas 67735 weather report 21° 9 a.m. Saturday Today • Sunset, 4:34 p.m. Wednesday • Sunrise, 7:07 a.m. The dry conditions in 2012 contributed to numerous County Roads 20 and 54. The fire was one of several often hampered firefighting efforts. • Sunset, 4:35 p.m. fires, such as this one in a stubble field in June near believed to have been started by lightning. High winds Midday Conditions • Soil temperature 29 degrees • Humidity 54 percent • Sky sunny • Winds west 10 mph Drought, bricks are top stories • Barometer 30.23 inches and rising Was 2012 a year of great change? cember added to the total precipita- • Record High today 70° (1997) Or a year of the same-old same- tion. As of Dec. 28, Goodland had • Record Low today -15° (1928) old? A little bit of both as it turned seen 9.52 inches of precipitation out. The Goodland Star-News staff during 2012, making it not the dri- Last 24 Hours* has voted on the top 10 local news est year on record. The Blizzard on High Friday 27° stories of 2012. Stories 10 through Dec. 19 pushed Goodland over the Low Friday 1° six appeared in the Friday, Dec. 28, edge. 1956, which saw 9.19 inches, Precipitation none paper. The top five stories of the year remains the driest year. This month 0.50 appear below. The National Weather Service is Year to date 9.52 predicting snow for Monday, so the Below normal 10.10 inches In the top story of 2012, year-end total may be higher. The Topside Forecast the crippling drought The yearly total is a dramatic drop Today: Sunny with a high near that stretched across the from the past several years. In 2011, 28 and a low around 13. Wednes- United1 States this year was readily the area got 19.3 inches if precipi- day: Mostly sunny with a high near apparent in Sherman County. Even tation. In 2010 it was 19.46 and in 30 and a low around 9. in December, the area is still listed 2009 it was 22.66. Meteorologist Extended Forecast under the most extreme classifica- Dave Floyd said part of the reason Thursday: Sunny with a high tion of drought by the U.S. Drought for the dry year was a big, stagnant near 31 and a low around 14. Fri- Monitor, and it was much the same area of high pressure that sat over day: Sunny with a high near 38. all year. the plains states all summer. (National Weather Service) Dry weather combined with a That high pressure resulted in Get 24-hour weather info. at 162.400 MHz. record-setting heat wave took its a mass of warm, dry air, in which toll on local dryland crops and water it was difficult for thunderstorms wells. Harvest began earlier due to to form. When thunderstorms did plants maturing faster. Groundwater form, they were often small and Management District Four Man- localized, Floyd said. Winds at high ager Wayne Bossert said one well altitude were not strong enough to in Thomas County had reached its blow the thunderstorms around. lowest-ever recorded water level. Floyd said the area hadn’t been The governor suspended motor doing too bad the first three to four carrier rules and regulations so months of the year, before the high- that more hay could be taken to pressure mass set in. drought-stricken areas, especially That lack of thunderstorms, how- in southwestern Kansas, Oklahoma ever, did result in fewer tornadoes. and Texas. In an average year, the Goodland The dry crops and grasslands weather station issues 43 tornado With less than half the normal amount of precipitation throughout the year and no rain when it was prompted both the city and county warnings for the tri-state area. This most needed, the drought took its toll on this year’s dryland corn crop. to put burn bans in place. Despite a year, it issued 11, with only five local respite or two, the bans remained in actual tornadoes reported. the water mains and filled the dirt Patrol units with explosive-sniffing criminal threat. place until December. Fireworks back in. They then poured a layer of dogs from Hays to arrive. Three fire markets were also banned except for the Goodland spent most of reinforced concrete over which was engines and an ambulance were also One story that will con- professional display on the Fourth its summer with a good poured a layer a sand. The bricks called out and placed on standby at tinue making headlines 9 a.m. of July. Goodland ended up having chunk of Main Street in- were laid by hand over the layer of the scene. next year is the Goodland Wheat — $7.66 bushel one of the only fireworks displays in accessible2 due to the brick replace- sand. No mortar was used. School stayed in session, with School4 district’s search for fund- Posted county price — $7.66 the area this year, which made for a ment project. That first phase was completed teachers conducting study halls at ing to update and consolidate its Corn — $6.95 bushel lot of out-of-town visitors. Two blocks of the 90-year-old and opened to traffic on July 11. the college. School board members schools. Posted county price — $6.93 As the year came to a close, downtown bricks were replaced. Some work was left, but the crews contacted parents to inform them of Superintendent Bill Biermann Milo — $6.55 bushel it looked like 2012 might be on In previous years, bricks at several had already begun excavating phase the situation. said he and the board had not really Soybeans — $13.39 bushel track to be the driest year on record intersections were replaced. two, the section between 12th and A Kansas Highway Patrol Special wanted to approach the remodeling Posted county price — $13.78 Millet — no bid for Goodland. In late November, This year’s project also included 13th Streets. Phase two was com- Operations search teams arrived issue with a school bond but that Sunflowers the National Weather Service had replacing the water mains below pleted on Aug. 17. on scene about 10 a.m. The dogs maintenance issues and future plan- Oil current crop — $24 cwt. recorded only 9.02 inches of pre- Main Street. The mains under the The original bricks on Main Street checked the high school building ning kept leading back to remodel- Confection — no bid cipitation for the year, less than half street were taken out and new ones were laid in 1921 for $109,703. Pri- first and then the fieldhouse but ing and where to get the money to Pinto beans — $28 of the normal. If the area were to installed under the sidewalks. or to that, the streets were dirt. Jim were unable to find any threatening do that. (Markets by Scoular Grain, Sun Opta, receive less than 17 hundredths of The project was done in two Garfield Brown, a Native American, devices. The current thought of the district Frontier Ag and 21st Century Bean. an inch of rain, it would be drier than phases. In May, crews began tearing laid all the bricks himself, putting in At 10:45 a.m., teachers were is to go to three buildings, pre kin- These may not be closing figures. ) 1956, the worst year for precipita- out the old bricks from 11th to 12th about 125 to 150 bricks a minute, released back to their classrooms. dergarten through second at West tion since record-keeping began. Streets. The sidewalks were kept going as fast as eight men could Superintendent Bill Biermann told Elementary, third through sixth However, snowfall in mid-De- mostly open. The workers replaced bring the bricks to him. them to check their rooms for any- at North Elementary and seventh Brown worked for Cook and thing suspicious. through 12th at Goodland High Ransom, the Ottawa firm who won Police Chief Cliff Couch gave the School, he said. inside the contract. Black and Veatch did all clear at 11:20 a.m. and students The Goodland School Board vot- the engineering for the project. Like resumed regular classes. ed unanimously on Tuesday, Dec. 4, today today’s project, it included water A second threat was found in a to move forward on a $14,984,000 line replacement. bathroom on Feb. 22. The written renovation for West Elementary, More local The original project was contro- message was found in the evening North Elementary and Goodland news, views versial, with petitions, protests and saying the school needed to be High School. To pay for it, the from your Goodland threats of court injunctions. There evacuated by that Friday because district will seek a combination of Star-News were plenty on both sides, including there was a bomb in the building, a .25 percent sales tax increase and some who thought the brick project and the school was searched during an increase of 8.25 mills on property should be expanded. the night. K-9 units from the Kansas taxes. Highway Patrol were again brought The .25 percent sales tax increase Goodland High School out to assist in the search. added to the current 8.65 sales tax endured two bomb threats No suspicious items were found, rate in the county would still leave early in the year.