General News in the 316

[SubGod22]

Mad respect for Buster.

Eagle - How pediatric cancer has become charity focus for Buster Posey in Wichita

An annual two-day trip to Wichita has become something former MLB star catcher Buster Posey looks forward to every year.

The 2012 National League MVP and three-time World Series champion arrived in Wichita on Tuesday in preparation to present the National Collegiate Catcher of the Year award at the Greater Wichita Sports Banquet at Intrust Bank Arena on Wednesday evening.

Having a national award named in his honor is humbling, Posey said, but the real treat during his stay in Wichita is when he and the three finalists for the award visit Wesley Children’s Hospital.

“It’s something that’s become near and dear to myself and my wife is trying to help raise funds for pediatric cancer research,” Posey said. “You go and visit these kids in the hospital and sometimes you don’t realize how long the kids and their siblings and their parents have been there. If you can put a smile on their face and maybe distract them from what they’re going through, then it’s all worthwhile.”

I'll never truly know the impact something like this has on those kids. But I can imagine it's pretty special.

Wednesday will begin with Posey and the three finalists, North Carolina State’s Jacob Cozard, Sam Houston State’s Walker Janek and Cal Poly’s Ryan Stafford, conducting a catcher’s camp for nearly 200 children at Wichita State’s Eck Stadium.

After their clinic, they will then head to Wesley Children’s Hospital for what usually promises to be the most rewarding part of their stay in Wichita.

The college-aged players are excited to spend the day with Posey.

“I grew up a Giants fan in California and I had a Buster Posey Fat Head in my room,” Stafford said. “He’s someone I’ve always looked up to on the field and off the field. (The hospital visit) is the first time I’ll get to do something like that, so it will be really cool to be able to do it alongside Buster.”

I hope it has a positive impact on these three catchers as well. Even if their potential future charity endeavors take them in a different direction, seeing the impact you as a player can have on others in this setting can only be a positive I would think.


Finalists for the Greater Wichita Sports Banquet

Lynette Woodard High School Female Athlete of the Year

Adryana Shelby, Wichita Northwest track and field
Hayden Snodgrass, Andover Central volleyball and basketball
Elizabeth Tjaden, Clearwater volleyball, basketball and softball

Barry Sanders High School Male Athlete of the Year

Bryce Barkdull, Andover Central track and field
Omari Elias, Kapaun Mt. Carmel football and wrestling
DaeOnte Mitchell, Wichita East football

Junior College Female Athlete of the Year

Rossana Papa, Cowley College volleyball
Kiki Smith, Hutchinson Community College basketball
Freddie Wallace, Butler Community College basketball

Junior College Male Athlete of the Year

Caden Kickhaefer, Butler Community College baseball
Jeff Nwankwo, Cowley College basketball
Cooper Wesslund, Hutchinson Community College baseball

College Female Athlete of the Year

Patricia Limo, Newman cross country
Destiny Masters, Wichita State track and field
Gianna Moreno, Friends wrestling

College Male Athlete of the Year

Michael Beltran, McPherson tennis
Caden Favors, Wichita State baseball
Keegan Martin, Friends football

Professional Athlete of the Year

David Banuelos, Wichita Wind Surge
Jay Dickman, Wichita Thunder
Emma Koepp, Wichita Aero FC

If Destiny doesn't win College Female Athlete of the Year we riot!

[SubGod22]

KSN - Exploration Place to break ground on new destination playscape

Exploration Place will break ground Thursday at 9 a.m. on the museum’s new destination playscape.

The museum says the $25 million, 6.5-acre playscape will open in fall 2025 on property along the Arkansas River. It is designed by the renowned landscape architect Hoerr Schaudt.

The playscape will have interactive elements of the Flight Adventure, Foggy Flint Hills, Agriculture Overlook, Sunflower Meadow, Water Play Cascades and Bison Hill. The play structures will have a Beechcraft Staggerwing biplane, an explorable Cessna Citation business jet, rocket ship connecting to the Ad Astra motto, great bison, towering stalks of wheat, a combine harvester and more.

This really is a big deal I think for not only Exploration Place, but Wichita. If this is done right, and I think it will be, it's a big win.

Forgot to mention that Exploration Place leadership believes that the new playscape will increase their visitor numbers to over 1 million per year. They recently set an attendance record (2023) of a little over 400k.

[SubGod22]

Eagle - Local bbq chef key in developer's plan to give ballpark-adjacent property a major makeover

The image showing what Laham Development wants for its property at 620 W. Maple, which sits just west of Riverfront Stadium at Maple and Sycamore and has been home to a string of bars over the years, is bound to get ballpark fans excited.

It features a modern building with retractable garage doors and a fenced-in patio that’s surrounded by manicured landscaping and has string lights glowing above. Lots of outdoor seating and yard games that people can enjoy before or after ball games are also part of the plan.

That vision is likely still a ways off, but Laham Development has made what it hopes are the first steps toward it, said Amy J. Liebau, chief operating officer for the company, which co-owns the property with Justin Cooke. They’ve leased the address to Tanker BBQ owner Bruce Nielsen, who over the last few months has already spruced it up and started operating his restaurant from it.

Nielsen, who started his barbecue business late last year as a pop-up based out of his buddy’s roofing company at 608 W. Texas, is worried that people will get too excited too soon about the impressive drawing. In his mind, that version of the property is still years away.

Has anyone stopped by and had Tanker BBQ yet? I'm not sure I'd heard of it, but it's only been open there for a couple of months.

When the renovations and upgrades are complete, this will be a pretty nice spot near the stadium and if the BBQ is any good, it should do well.

It can't hurt that the area in general is going to see quite a bit of action over the next few years with the hotel and apartments along with retail space going up beyond right field and the work expected to start in the next few years beyond center field. There should be quite a few more people down there on a more regular basis within the next decade.

[SubGod22]

KSN - Grant received to study improving Wichita's Canal Route

The U.S. Department of Transporation announced that a project in Sedgwick County is one of four in Kansas to receive part $45 million from the Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) discretionary grant program.

The Canal Route modernization study will receive a $1.6 million grant. The money will be used to complete a planning and environmental linkages study to develop options for replacing infrastructure along an approximate 5.5-mile segment of Interstate 135 in Wichita. The Canal Route is comprised of the two largest bridge structures in Kansas, two interchanges, 53 roadway bridges, and four pedestrian bridges.

It will also evaluate ways to bring crash rates well below the statewide average, explore solutions to help increase
walkability to amenities, reduce transportation costs and look at utilizing nature-based solutions to address air quality and stormwater runoff.

We'll have to wait and see what this leads to.

[SubGod22]

WBJ - Group of business owners open Augusta's first brewery

After an initial conversation between the two in February 2023, plans quickly developed to open Redbud Brewing with Scott being approached by El Dorado-based Walnut River Brewing. Brown said the brewing company was excited to venture into something different.

After Walnut River's involvement became concrete, Brown said they were "on the hunt" for a brewer when they approached Denver Ridgeway, the head brewer at River City Brewing in Wichita.

"He lived here in Augusta. We talked to him and he decided to come on board and join the team," he said.

After buying the building on 418 State Street from Scott in October, Brown and the co-owners established Redbud Brewing and started remodeling the location.

They're now open and sold 1,000 pints of beer in week one.

They plan to always have 14 beers on tap with 8 of those being theirs and Walnut River Brewing. They want to have local options but will also be looking to bring in some from outside of the state.

This is a nice addition for Augusta.

[SubGod22]

MSN - Inaugural Elsewhere Fest & Conference brings 12K to downtown Wichita

The Elsewhere Fest & Conference, Wichita’s new music event, brought around 12,000 people to downtown Wichita on June 21 and 22.

Midtopia, an artist and music worker collective dedicated to building a new model for the music industry, created Elsewhere Fest & Conference.

“We’ve been working towards this moment for years––even before we started Midtopia, we dreamed of making our own music festival,” says Midtopia Director Jessie Hartke. “We’re so proud to finally see that dream come to life, and to see so many people come out and support our mission.”

The event had multiple stages for live music across downtown Wichita, including one that was free to the public. There was also conference programming, visual art installations, and events held in partnership with community and social change partner organizations.

Midtopia says they featured a total of 12 social change partners, 36 speakers, over 60 visual artists, and over 75 bands, which included headliners Killer Mike, both as a speaker and a performer, Steve Aoki, Vince Staples and Lane 8, as well as speakers from TikTok, The Orchard, No Depression, and more. Social change and community partners included The Phoenix, Greater Wichita Partnership, Café Momentum, and more.

Midtopia says they look forward to next year’s Elsewhere Fest & Conference.

First actual number on attendance I've seen out there. I wonder what the economic impact of this event figures to be.

[SubGod22]

KSN - Greater Wichita Sports Banquet honors award winners

The Lynette Woodard High School Female Athlete of the Year Award was given to Elizabeth Tjaden, a multi-sport athlete out of Clearwater High School.

The Barry Sanders High School Male Athlete of the Year winner was Omari Elias, a running back out of Kapaun Mt. Carmel High School.

Kiki Smith, a basketball guard from Hutchinson Community College, won the Junior College Female Athlete of the Year Award.

The Junior College Male Athlete of the Year Award was given to basketball guard Jeff Nwonkwo out of Cowley Community College.

The College Female Athlete of the Year Award was given to Wichita State pentathlon athlete Destiny Masters.

The College Male Athlete of the Year Award was given to Keegan Martin, an offensive lineman out of Friends University.

The Professional Athlete of the Year Award was given to Jay Dickman, a hockey player with the Wichita Thunder.

The Greater Wichita Sports Banquet also gave out the Buster Posey Collegiate Catcher of the Year award, which is given to the nation’s best college catcher in the nation.

The winner of that award was Walker Janek from Sam Houston State University.

Destiny won so no riot necessary

[SubGod22]

WBJ - Wichita's Largest Employers in 2024

Apparently they sent out the questionnaire to over 3,000 companies in the metro area and received 306 replies. Over 100K people work for the 306 in the metro and they employ over 2M worldwide.

Spirit Aerosystems (13,095)
Textron Aviation (10,700)
McConnell AFB (5,976)
Wichita Public Schools (5,503)
Steven Enterprises (3,573)
Ascension Via Christi (3,440)
Wichita State (3,016)
City of Wichita (2,818)
Koch Industries (2,764)
Sedgwick County (2,670)
Wesley Healthcare (1,970)
Bombardier (1,400)
Maize Public Schools (1,357)
The Arnold Group (1,200)
Derby Public Schools (1,146)
Cox (836)
Dold Foods (725)
Intrust Bank (663)
T-Mobile USA (592)
NMC Health (585)
Newton Public Schools (550)
BG Products (515)
Andover Public Schools (504)
NetApp (475)
Goodwill Industries (430)
Foley Industries (420)
Butler Community College (418)
COMCARE SG CO (405)
Friends (399)
Heartspring (390)
Fidelity Bank (386)
Metal Finishing (380)
Meritrust CU (346)
Equity Bank (340)
Metal-Fab (333)
OxyChem Wichita (325)
Pratt Industries (325)
Starkey Inc. (324)
IMA Financial (320)
Bluestem Communities (296)
WSU Tech (296)
Airbus Americas (285)
CU of America (282)
InfoSync Services (277)
Globe Engineering (265)
Dondlinger Construction (248)
HM Dunn AeroSystems (245)
RedGuard (245)
Kice Industries (241)
Sharpline Converting (240)


I believe InfoSync, despite having the biggest gains in the last year is still below the employee total from when I worked there about a decade ago.

Aviation obviously has the largest job totals approximately 25,700 (minus the 300 or so that were/are being laid off)

Government and education (often the same but splitting them here) are up there with approximately 12,000 and 13,000.

Healthcare is around 6,300 (I'm sure this will grow in the next 5-10 years by quite a bit)

Banking is around 2,000.

I don't want to breakdown everything else as that would require looking into some of these companies that I'm not entirely sure what field they might fall under. But it provides a snap shot of what we see right now.

And these are just the top 50 or so of respondents. I know aviation as a whole is more than what's shown here as there are a lot of smaller businesses tied to it as well as space.

Here in a couple of years (hopefully) we'll see a bit increase in tech related jobs with the Integra expansion coming. I think between Integra and the suppliers they'll have nearby, they're expecting around 5K jobs connected to it.

[SubGod22]

New gas station brand entering the market.

WBJ - Utah-based Maverik gas station convenience store expands to Park City

A popular gas station convenience store from the southwest is headed to Park City.

Maverik, a Utah-based gas station convenience store operator, is set to build its first location in the Wichita area on the northwest corner of 77th Street and I-135, Park City administrator Sean Fox tells the WBJ.

The convenience store operates about 400 locations across 12 states, which include Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, Nebraska and Idaho, according to its website. The company acquired Iowa-based Kum & Go in April last year and has since rebranded Kum & Go in Colorado, Idaho, Utah and Wyoming.

Fox said Maverik reached out to the suburb in April and has been in contact since.

"They reached out to us and started looking for the area," Fox said. "I believe that they were looking at rebranding all the Kum & Go's and then were just trying to figure out where to connect the dots. It seemed logical for a place in Kansas."

KC Star is reporting another location in the works in Edgerton.

Sounds like they also promote fresh made food/snacks kind of like QT. Not sure if they have kitchens like QT, but they mention food made fresh daily. Looks like they offer burritos, salads, wraps, pizzas, and sandwiches.

Can't recall ever being to a Maverik or a Kum & Go now that I think about it.

[WstateU]

Can't recall ever being to a Maverik or a Kum & Go now that I think about it.

'Kum & Go' and 'Hawk Tuah' should team up...

[ShockTalk]

New gas station brand entering the market.

WBJ - Utah-based Maverik gas station convenience store expands to Park City



KC Star is reporting another location in the works in Edgerton.

Sounds like they also promote fresh made food/snacks kind of like QT. Not sure if they have kitchens like QT, but they mention food made fresh daily. Looks like they offer burritos, salads, wraps, pizzas, and sandwiches.

Can't recall ever being to a Maverik or a Kum & Go now that I think about it.

We travel the southwest and see them often. I think they will/would find moving into Kansas (Wichita), Oklahoma and Texas difficult in a large scale. From the ones I seen and been in, they are a step or two down from Quik Trip.

[SubGod22]

KSN - Wichita native competing at USA Boxing Junior Olympics

Wichita native Evelyn Hernandez is only 14, but age is just a number when you have the talent she possesses.

“Competing in some of the skills is a privilege,” Hernandez said. “I worked really hard to get here, and I’m just I’m just grateful for it.”

This is the first time Hernandez is competing at the Junior Olympics and she’s punched her ticket to Saturday’s championship.

“It’s just been amazing,” Hernandez said. “I’ve been meeting a lot of people, and I’ve been able to get my name out. You know, I am. I’m an unrecognized person, and a lot of people are starting to know me.”

Nice to see a local having success.

[SubGod22]

KSN - Wichita chosen to host Special Olympics golf championship in October

Special Olympics Kansas is a growing and thriving organization. Special Olympics North America thinks so much of Kansas that the association chose Wichita to host one of its major sporting events.

City leaders and the COO of Kansas Special Olympics from Topeka were at Crestview Country Club Thursday morning to make the formal announcement.

Vice Mayor Maggie Ballard shared the news that Crestview Country Club will host the 2024 Special Olympics North America Golf Championship on Oct. 28-30. Up to 200-250 players from across the United States and Canada and their partners are expected to compete in the championship.

Wichita is doing very well in getting some of these national level events here.

[SubGod22]

Anyone familiar with The Poet? Apparently it was a case WPD was working on during the late 70's and early 80's while BTK was causing trouble. I'd never heard of it until I saw an Eagle headline about a Lifetime movie that is apparently coming out based on it.

Eagle - New Lifetime movie features 'The Poet,' who terrified Wichita during the same time as BTK

A new movie on Lifetime focuses on Ruth Finley, the Wichita woman who was the victim and perpetrator of a crime hoax more than 50 years ago.

The TV movie, “The Killer Inside: The Ruth Finley Story,” stars Teri Hatcher as Finley and premieres at 7 p.m. Central on Saturday, June 29.

The movie shows Hatcher and Tahmoh Penikett, who plays Finley’s husband, Ed, living a “tranquil life in Wichita, Kansas which is suddenly turned upside down when Ed suffers a heart attack,” according to a synopsis on A+E Networks website.

The purported harassment by the Poet started in 1978, taking place during the same time Dennis Rader terrorized Wichita as the BTK serial killer. Finley eventually admitted the hoax to investigators — including stabbing herself with an ice pick in the parking lot of Towne East Square.

No criminal charges were filed against her after the Sedgwick County district attorney said a psychiatric examination showed her actions as the Poet were not malicious.

I had to pull up The True Crime Database to read up on it. Interesting story to be sure, but I'd never heard of it. Granted, it mostly took place before I was born and my parents may have still been stationed in Texas when it began.

[WstateU]

Anyone familiar with The Poet? Apparently it was a case WPD was working on during the late 70's and early 80's while BTK was causing trouble. I'd never heard of it until I saw an Eagle headline about a Lifetime movie that is apparently coming out based on it.

Eagle - New Lifetime movie features 'The Poet,' who terrified Wichita during the same time as BTK



I had to pull up The True Crime Database to read up on it. Interesting story to be sure, but I'd never heard of it. Granted, it mostly took place before I was born and my parents may have still been stationed in Texas when it began.

I remember it well... those were some scary times.