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Thursday, May 31, 2007Volume 82, Number 22Bird City, Kansas 67731 Bird City Times

Members of the American Legion Honor Guard perform their duties during the Memorial Day Services held at the Bird City Cemetery. Times Staff photo by Casey McCormick

Color Guard members Demi Shahan, Keith Dorsch, John Dapron, and Bob Brubaker wait to show their colors at the MemorialDay Service. Times Staff photo by Casey McCormick

Local servicehonors all vets

By Casey McCormickA windy, gray morning was the

setting for the Bird City MemorialDay Service. A large group ofpeople were present for the programtitled, “In Memory of Veterans ofAll Wars.”

Legion Commander, CharlesColeman, presided over the cer-emony. Local veterans made up theColor Guard and Honor Guard.

Shirley Daire, of St. JohnLutheran Church, was the speakerand gave the benediction. The me-morial wreath was placed by HollisDapron and Joy Anderegg. Theywere joined by this year’s PoppyGirl, Cheylin third grader,ElsaCraig Burr.

Several veterans were recognizedduring this year’s Legionnaire RollCall. They were Martin Busse,Marvin L. Dowdy, Oscar Johnson,Donald Kramer and Otto Lillich.

The service closed with NikkiJohnson playing Taps. Nikki Johnson

Administrator reports extremelybusy week to board members

Many enjoy alumnipotluck and visiting

By Vera KacirekThe McDonald Alumni Day 2007 was

well attended on Sunday, May 27, at theMcDonald school gym. Tables were setup for 240 place settings, and there wereonly a few empty spaces.

Fran Harwerth, class of 1955 wel-comed everyone to the dinner and offereda prayer before the meal.

Rod Klepper of the 50 year class actedas master of ceremonies and acknowl-edged the honored classes. Only twoalumni from the 65-year class werepresent. They were Goldie (Halligan)Nygaard and Duane Smith. Alumni fromthe 60-year class were LeRoy Enfield,Bob Johnson, Keith Loker, Elaine (Goltl)Johnson, and Margie (Courtright) White.

The class of 1952 enjoyed supper onSaturday evening at Two Lee’s and laterwere guests of C.W. and Sandy Antholz.Those attending were Lois (Johnson)Morelock, Ronard Moreland, Julianna(Harwerth) Layne, Phyllis (Officer)Cass, C.W. and Sandy Antholz, Nadine(Goltl) Kehlbeck and husband Arlie, andMr. and Mrs. Edwin Simon.

The 50-year class had the largest rep-resentation. Members were introducedby Beth Klepper. Attending were Larryand Patty Frisbie of Payson, Ariz.,Patricia (Sramek) Egle of Stratton, Neb.,Dennis and Joyce Sis of Ogallala, Neb.,Don and Jan Hartman of Loxley, Ala.,Myron Jacobs of Lakewood, Colo.,Albert Holub of Witchita, Calif., Carolyn(Larson) Williams of Arlington Heights,Fla., Rod and Beth Klepper of Bird City,Glen Pickett of Greeley, Colo., Tom andJudy Kopriva of Excelsior Springs, Mo.,and Lloyd and Maxine Rooney of Col-lege Station, Texas. Following the din-

ner, all were guests of Rod and BethKlepper in Bird City.

From the class of 45 years were JerryFrisbie, Doris (Knapp) Martin, andJohnny Johnson. Kathy (Andrews)Frisbie was the only member of the 40-year class that was present.

A drawing was held for the door prizeswhich were potted plants used as tabledecorations. Winners were: AmeliaBanister, Barb Ewing, Glen Pickett,Vera Kacirek, Greg Moyer, CharleneKramer, John Phifer, Julianna Layne,Denis Burk and Davie Kacirek.

The tables, decorated by theMcDonald Garden Club, carried out apatriotic theme with potted plants ascenterpieces.

Alumni books which were firstprinted in 1989 had another printing andwere on sale. They end with the class of1975 which was the last class before theconsolidation with Bird City. Anyonewho did not get a book can contact KathyFrisbie or Margie Hubbard.

It was a day to be remembered withgood food, lots of visiting, and nostorms. People lingered to visit withold friends and classmates, and prom-ised to come back in 2008. Lots ofwork goes into this day. There aretables to be set up, tables to be deco-rated, food to set out, and the clean-upafterwards. Margie and Dan Hubbardare always at the registration table. Thisday doesn’t just happen, it take a lot ofpeople to keep this celebration going onyear after year.

After the day was over, many went toBird City to attend the program given byJamie Banister on the archeological digshe had attended in 2006 in Jordan.

By Karen Krienkarenk@nwkansas.com

The administrator reported that thehospital had been extremely busy whenthe Cheyenne County Hospital Boardmet on Thursday, May 24.

Les Lacy, administrator, said they had12 patients at one time during that week.

He said the Community ServiceProject Tax Credit application had beencompleted and sent in on time. The boardwill know if the project has been acceptedor denied early in July.

The tax credits will be used to purchasepatient lifts for rooms and to remodel thehospital’s kitchen and dining area. He feltvery confident that the patient lifts wouldbe considered as a worthy project but howinterested the state would be in a dietaryremodel. Both projects are needed at thehospital.

Mr. Lacy reported that Darrell Reed,Medical Technologist is looking at aRobert Woods-Johnson grant whichcould be used help provide primary pro-fessional education locally.

Business officeHeidi Tice, business office manager,

talked about the functions of her office.She took over the position nine years ago,following the retirement of BlancheGoff. There are five employees in the of-fice and they deal with payroll, billingand payments.

The future includes centralized billingto improve the hospital’s cash flow andreimbursement. Great Plains Health Al-liance, the company which leases thehospital is planning to provide this ser-vice. No local jobs will be lost in the tran-sition. When asked what she saw as anecessary capital improvement for the

office, she said the hospital needed moreparking.

“I have a good staff and good supportfrom Les and Great Plains,” she said. “Itmakes my job much easier.”

TornadoJackie John, area director for Great

Plains, told about the Greensburg tornadoand the Kiowa County Memorial Hospi-tal which was destroyed. She said thestaff was able to get themselves and pa-tients to the basement of the hospital andall survived.

She said teams from Great Plains hos-pitals and staff were able to help in the re-covery of medical records, X-rays andother important documents. The major-ity of the documents were dry but wetrecords and X-rays are being sent for spe-cial handling. All financial records werebacked up by the Data Center. The fore-sight to remove the medical recordsserver had prevented the loss of impor-tant information, she said.

She said health services are continuingto be offered and the Federal EmergencyManagement Agency and the KansasNational Guard are supplying a field sitewhich was to be assembled that week.

“When the hospital is completed andemployees oriented, the business of hos-pital related services will resume,” shesaid.

This service, she said, will provide careto the community, jobs to the employeesand a beacon of hope to the people inKiowa County.

Memorial gardenTraci Neitzel, board member, reported

on the memorial garden which will be in-corporated to the landscaping on thenorth of the hospital. The landscaping

will be worked on when the “Join Hands”group meets on May 31. Board memberswere asked to volunteer to help.

In other businessIn other business:• It was noted that Mrs. John has 44

years of health care experience while Mr.Lacy has 30 years.

• The administrator said KristleNeuhalfen, physician assistant student,will be working at the hospital for a shorttime on a rural rotation.

• The final payment on the generatorwas approved. Mr. Lacy said the equip-ment works well and is quiet. However,it may need a taller exhaust system.

• The board was asked to check out thehospital’s advertisement on CBS,Goodland, and ABC, Colby, television.The ad is scheduled to be shown aroundthe daily news for the next three months.

• The board noted several items theywould like to discuss on future agendas.Suggestions included business and envi-ronmental issues, business and economy,needed services, disaster preparedness,safety, risks, obstetrics and county health.

• The fire marshal had made another visitto the hospital and found several minor de-ficiencies. They have been corrected or willbe in the near future.

• The power door at the emergency roomis now operational. The door was donatedby Eddie Lauer.

Executive sessionThe board briefly went into executive

session to discuss personnel. No decisionwas made after coming out of the session.

Next meetingThe next meeting of the board has been

set at 3 p.m. on Thursday, June 28, in thebasement of the St. Francis clinic.