Garden City Telegram (Newspaper) - February 11, 2012, Garden City, Kansas 6 72472 00075 0 What’s inside Annie’s Advice B6 Classified C1 Comics B5 Obituaries A2 Opinion A4 State A3 TV Listings . B4 Weather A8 Go to www. GCTelegram. com to see a slideshow of the new Scott County Hospital. SATURDAY, February 11, 2012 $ 1.25 Volume 83, No. 34 4 sections 30 pages Zoo: Growing up with the animals. PAGE B1 Weather Forecast Today, mostly cloudy, high 26, low 9. Sunday, mostly cloudy, high 38, low 18. Details on page A8. Market Prices Wheat........... 6.30 Corn.............. 6.52 Milo.............. 5.99 Soybean...... 11.44 Grain prices at the Garden City Co- op Schwieterman Inc. reported Chicago Live Cattle Futures: Feb. April June High........... 125.22...... 128.12..... 127.05 Low............ 123.77...... 126.62..... 125.80 Stand......... 124.20...... 127.05..... 126.25 FREE ADMISSION! SHOW The 2012 Bridal See Ad Inside For More Info SUNDAY, Feb 12 th, 1- 4 pm at the Clarion Inn Sponsored by The Garden City Telegram, The Clarion Inn & Ewe’s Specialties SAVE $ 54 WITH COUPONS INSIDE By JOSEPH JACKMOVICH jjackmovich@ gctelegram. com SCOTT CITY — The new Scott County Hospital is rapidly approaching completion nearly two months ahead of its construction schedule. The 68,000- square- foot building is estimated to be cleared by the fire marshal for occupancy in mid- or late March, with patients planned to be moved to the new facility on April 9. The original plan had the hospital set for a May 28 completion date. Groundbreaking for the $ 24 million hospital took place on Aug. 30, 2010. With the hospital currently in its final stages of mostly cosmetic touches, Scott County Hospital President and CEO Mark Burnett said the design was meant to be as efficient and appealing as possible to staff, patients and guests. Hospital staff were deeply involved with the design of the hospital, because Burnett said they know best what kind of layout and design would work. Efficiency was the absolute core of the project, with even the building’s southwest face designed specifically to allow the maximum amount of sunlight on the parking lot to melt away ice and snow during winter weather. The hospital will have 20 acute care beds, two operating rooms, two delivery rooms, 30 exam rooms for resident and out- of- town physicians and four ER patient rooms. The hospital also will provide various rehabilitation and imaging services, a women’s care section and an outpatient clinic. There are approximately 200 Scott County Hospital staff, with the core medical team consisting of four family practice physicians, four midlevel caregivers and a surgeon who was recently hired specifically to work at the new facility. Surgeries previously were done by traveling physicians. “ For a small town, we have a surprisingly large array of services to offer,” Burnett said. Project Superintendent Kenny Giese of Nabholz Construction said the only items left to complete were flooring, some electrical work and the IT infrastructure that the hospital’s network will work from. Giese said the project was great to work on, with very few change orders during construction and no budget issues. He said the people of the community were excellent to work with, and that he was happy with his team and how the building turned out. “ I’m tickled with the building,” Giese said. “ Got a great project and a great team.” Burnett said he was pleased Consumers struggle to stretch their dollar. By ANGIE HAFLICH ahaflich@ gctelegram. com While fuel prices continue to increase, food prices continue to follow suite. As a result, consumers are having to find ways to stretch their grocery dollars. Economically, a number of factors are at play with rising food prices. The most common tool in determining what percentage Americans as a whole spend on particular items is the consumer price index ( CPI). According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, CPI is a measure of the average change over time in prices paid by urban consumers for a market basket of consumer goods and services. Within the CPI calculation, which according to the bureau was at 3 percent for November 2010 through December 2011, are five categories: food and beverages, housing, apparel, transportation and medical costs. Charles Marcy, economics instructor at Garden City Community College, said that based on the bureau’s CPI calculation between November 2010 and December 2011, there are a couple of categories that stand out in terms of the rise in grocery prices. “ In particular, in western Kansas, think about the fuel component that it takes. They have to pay to ship everything out here from Wichita or from wherever it may be. Even the beef from Tyson gets shipped to Wichita or somewhere with a warehouse, where Dillons buys it and then ships it back to Garden City,” he said. “ A good portion of the cost of the groceries we buy is that fuel we use to transport it.” Beef prices are expected to increase this year, due to cattle producers downsizing their herds, which also contributes to the overall CPI of groceries. “ The meat, poultry and fish category ... makes up almost 2 percent of the whole CPI,” Marcy said. Meat items alone account for half of that category, at almost 1 percent of the total CPI. “ Looking at what’s been hap- Close Call: Buffs win thriller PAGE D1 By RACHAEL GRAY rgray@ gctelegram. com Kansas farmers and producers can now apply for the Ogallala Aquifer Initiative and receive funding for water conservation from the U. S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service. The deadline to be considered for fiscal year 2012 funds is Feb. 24. The NRCS will fund this initiative through its Environmental Quality Incentives Program ( EQIP). Much of the High Plains region relies on the Ogallala for water but the resource is being depleted due to widespread irrigation use in the High Plains states. The Ogallala Aquifer, also known as the High Plains Aquifer, is a vast but shallow underground water table aquifer located beneath the Great Plains in the United States. It is one of the world’s largest aquifers and covers an area that includes portions of eight states: Colorado, South Dakota, Nebraska, Wyoming, Kansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Texas. Amanda Shaw, supervisory district conservationist for the local NRCS division, said the funding is available for farmers and producers who engage in water- conservation practices such as switching from irrigated crops to dryland crops and converting flood irrigation system to center- pivot irrigation systems. “ Those are the primarily the practices in this area,” she said. She said the land has to be agricultural land or land used for livestock production that produces at least $ 1,000 of agriculture products within the year. Financial assistance is available through the OAI for producers considering converting from irrigated cropland to dryland cropland, as well as assistance for more efficient irrigation systems and management. All participants must meet EQIP eligibility requirements. In Kansas, socially disadvantaged, limited resource, and beginning farmers and ranchers will receive a higher payment rate for conservation practices related to OAI, according to a release from NRCS. Laurie Sisk/ Telegram Carolynn Polk looks over the selection of meats at Dillons East on Friday. Polk uses coupons to help lower her grocery bills. Laurie Sisk/ Telegram An exterior view of the new Scott County Hospital shows the progress being made on the facility. Laurie Sisk/ Telegram Tom Collins, of Intego, works on the wiring for a nurses’ call station at the new Scott County Hospital on Friday. As fuel prices rise, so does cost of food Hospital on the horizon New Scott City facility nearing completion Conserving water aim of initiative See Aquifer, Page A5 See Groceries, Page A5 See Hospital, Page A5
