75¢ (tax included; 54¢ delivered at home) 28 Pages, 3 Sections Wednesday, August 29, 2007 129th Year, Number 35

Bond issueresearchedfor airport

Airportreceivesgrant

Wind officialsoffer councila new proposal

Fair Finale sectioninside today’s paper

Flames destroy 640 acres and building

Senator talks about troops Wateruse staysdown

FunDayfun for all

The City of Oberlin has re-ceived an $80,000 grant to helpbuy land for airport develop-ment from the Airport Improve-ment Program through the Fed-eral Aviation Administration.

Congressman Jerry Moran’soffice sent out a notice on Fridaytelling about the grant.

For about a year county offi-cials, city officials and membersof the county Economic Devel-opment Corp. have worked onplans for a longer runway, up to7,000 feet, to accommodatebusiness jets. The release statesthat this money will help assistin the runway expansion and re-solve safety issues.

“A 7,000-foot runway willgreatly benefit business andtourism and expand opportuni-ties throughout northwest Kan-sas,” said Connie Grafel, mar-keting director.

City Administrator GaryShike said this is the first timethe city has applied for this kindof grant. The money, he said,will be used to buy land for air-port expansion.

“This grant is definitely thefirst big step in the right direc-tion,” said Mr. Shike. “This is agood signal and we are happy tohave the Department ofTransportation’s support.”

By KIMBERLY DAVISkldavis@nwkansas.com

The Decatur County commis-sioners asked the county attorneylast Tuesday to research what kindof bonds the county could issue tohelp with the city’s runway exten-sion project.

Connie Grafel, marketing direc-tor for the Economic DevelopmentCorp., and Greg Lohoefener, presi-dent of the agency, asked commis-sioners to draft a letter of commit-ment saying that the county will helpin any way it can with the project.

Mr. Lohoefener said they have afollow-up meeting with thegovernor’s office set tentatively forFriday, Sept. 7, in Oberlin. He saidthe group working on the projecthopes the Federal Aviation Admin-istration will pay for a runway up to5,200 to 5,500 feet and that the Kan-sas Department of Transportationwill pay for the rest up to 7,000 feet.

Even with the help from the twoagencies, which isn’t set in stone yet,he said, some local matching moneywill be needed. For the federal grant,he said, the match is 5 percent andfor the state it is 10 percent. Mr.Lohoefener said he thought the lo-cal share would be around $400,000to $600,000, but that’s just an esti-mate.

The city is up against the amountof its debt limit, he said.

There should be enough profit onfuel sales to do revenue bonds withthe number of flights projected tocome in and out, said Mr.Lohoefener, but if the city can’t dothose, will the county possibly beable to.

Ms. Grafel said there are somequestions to be answered, includingwhether there can there be a city/county airport.

Whatever the amount is, saidCommissioner Doyle Brown, if thecounty does a bond issue, what arethe possibilities of someone want-

ing to buy the bonds. Mr.(See COUNTY on Page 5A)

(See CITY on Page 5A)

By KIMBERLY DAVISkldavis@nwkansas.com

The Oberlin City Council re-ceived a new proposal from Sun-flower Wind LLC on Thursdaywhich would basically allow thefirm to have the first chance to matchany power proposal given to the city.

Oberlin would be able to keep itsexisting power contracts but pay aslightly higher rate for wind powerthe firm hopes to produce in DecaturCounty.

Earlier in the month, Dan Rasureof Goodland, managing partner forthe firm, had given the council a con-tract which required the city to can-cel its existing power agreementswith Sunflower Electric PowerCorp. and the federal Western AreaPower Administration.

He gave the city three weeks tomake a decision, but council mem-bers said they wanted to have anoutside consultant look at the con-tracts.

Since then, said Mr. Rasure, Sun-flower Wind had its lawyers draft anew proposal for first right of refusalto sell the city power. Basically, hesaid, the agreement allows the com-pany an option to match any newpower proposal term for term.

The company took out all of theeconomic development incentives,which would have provided powercheaper to companies willing to usemore, he said.

City Administrator Gary Shikesaid he asked Kansas MunicipalEnergy Agency to go over what the

Inside today’s edition of The OberlinHerald is the Fair Finalé secton, withresults from the 2007 Decatur CountyFair.

The edition includes pictures of grandchampion and reserve grand champi-ons in the livestock categories and all ofthe results for 4-H and open class com-petition.

By CYNTHIA HAYNESU.S. Sen. Pat Roberts believes

that the U.S. can’t just pull out ofIraq or we’ll be sending troopsback into the area again to fight abigger, tougher war.

The senator visited with 50 to60 constituents in Oberlin duringa tour through northwest Kansaslast Tuesday answering questionsand touching on issues rangingfrom the war to rural health care,genetic modification of plants, thefarm bill and water quality stan-dards.

Joel Shaw, a farmer who livesin Center Township, asked whygovernment offices are closingaround the country when at thesame time the U.S. is sending“suitcases of money” to theMiddle East.

Sen. Roberts said that the U.S.is making progress in the war, butthere is still a lot to do to stabilize

the Iraqi government and ensure abetter life for the people there.

He said he hopes the U.S. can helpto get the Kurds, Shiites and Sunnisto quit killing each other.

They can still hate each other, hesaid; they just have to quit killing.But if the U.S. pulls out now, the areawill become so de stabilized therecould be an area-wide war becauseIran would try to make Iraq its sat-ellite and its moderate Islamicneighbors won’t allow that.

“We haven’t had another 911,thank God,” Mr. Roberts said. “Wewere attacked six times before wewent into Iraq, killing Americans. Itwas the USS Cole before we con-nected the dots (to fix the blame onal-Qaida).

“We need to lower the politicalrhetoric if we can and take a hardlook at the situation.”

If we leave the area now, headded, we’ll just have to come back

later to solve bigger problems.Mr. Roberts, who served as

head of the Senate IntelligenceCommittee for four years, said he,along with everyone else in thegovernment, believed before thewar that Iraq had weapons of massdestruction before the war started.

“I think Saddam Husseinthought he had the weapons ofmass destruction,” Mr. Robertssaid. “Nobody would tell him oth-erwise … or they’d come out feetfirst.”

Randy McHugh, who just re-turned from a National Guard tourin Iraq, was introduced and ap-plauded and the senator thankedhim and all those serving in themilitary.

Banker Bob Gaskill askedabout a bill to extend the FarmCredit Bank. Sen. Roberts said abill in the House was dead and

Cooler temperatures last weekand rain showers kept water use un-der the 700,000-gallon trigger pointfor a water emergency.

With the city on water restric-tions, people can only use water out-doors on alternate days dependingon their addressed.

Last week, the city pumped:• 624,000 gallons on Monday,

Aug. 20.• 586,000 gallons on Tuesday,

Aug. 21.• 624,300 gallons last Wednes-

day.• 495,500 gallons on Thursday.• 341,700 gallons on Friday.• 410,700 gallons on Saturday.• 405,600 gallons on Sunday.

(See FIRE on Page 5A)

By KIMBERLY DAVISkldavis@nwkansas.com

A pasture and field fire Mondayafternoon ripped through 640 acresnorthwest of town, driven by a windthat kept changing direction fromthe north to the south.

Patti Skubal, Decatur Countyemergency preparedness director,

said she believed all of the land be-longed to Willa Urban’s family, al-though the fire did jump a road andmight have burned some of aneighbor’s land. Fire Chief BillCathcart was still at the scene Mon-day evening and couldn’t bereached.

Mrs. Skubal said the fire had de-

stroyed a vacant house on the Urbanproperty.

Giant smoke clouds could be seenfrom Oberlin most of the afternoonas the volunteer firefighters workedat getting the flames knocked down.

Mrs. Skubal said several fire de-partments helped work the fire, in-cluding volunteers from Oberlin,

Jennings, Norcatur, Hoxie and fromBeaver Valley and Red WillowCounty in Nebraska.

Chief Cathcart was the incidentcommander for the emergency, shesaid, and she helped with gettingresources in. She said everyone shecalled was willing to help with the

(See SENATOR on Page 5A)

WITH A HOSE INHAND, Matt Farr (above)and his teammate tried topush the barrel with the wa-ter to other side of the wireduring Jennings Firemen’sFunDay Saturday. AlysonVahling, 4, (right) pedaled atractor to win a medal in thekids tractor pull, whileHelen Muirhead (below)looked at a saddle outsidethe museum.

— Herald staff photos by Kimberly Davis