2021 Legislative Session
Coming Soon!
Coming Soon!
2020 Legislative Session
HIGHLIGHTING THE SIXTH PRINCIPAL MERIDIAN
300 SW 10th, Room 223-E
Topeka, KS 66612
For more information, contact:
Randi Walters
(785) 296-7389
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
January 29, 2020
TOPEKA—As part of the Kansas Day Celebrations, State Senator Elaine Bowers would like to bring attention to a District 36 highlight: The Initial Point of the Sixth Principle Meridian, which is located in Senate District 36 near Mahaska, KS. The Sixth Principle Meridian is a north/south line used to survey Kansas and Nebraska, along with parts of Colorado, South Dakota, and Wyoming. The meridian, established in 1855, travels from the northern border of Nebraska down to the southern border of Kansas.
According to the Center for Land Use Interpretation, “Surveyors started where the 40th degree of latitude met the Missouri River, and headed west to establish the baseline.” The surveyors were instructed by the Commissioner of the General Land Office to stop after 108 miles. As the Kansas Society of Land Surveyors reports, “A surveyor can survey a line for nine miles before having to resort to using spherical geometry and trigonometry to correct for the earth's curvature. After nine miles, the surveyors could stop and make corrections from astronomical observations, then continue on. The number 108 is divisible by nine, thence the number was chosen.”
The small red sandstone, preserved underground and sealed by a manhole cover, controls the systems of sections, townships, and ranges of the public land surveys for the previously mentioned regions. To commemorate the importance of this stone to the state, the region, and to the nation, The Professional Surveyors of the 6th P.M. dedicated a memorial on June 11, 1987. As the memorial’s informational sign states, “The memorial is made of Colorado red granite with Wyoming and Nebraska rubble stone. Each side of the cap contains a state name, date of statehood, and the logo of each state’s professional surveying association.”
Senator Bowers believes that this is an important part of history for not just District 36, but Kansas as a whole. “The Initial Point played a pivotal role in helping chart the territory for homesteaders to later come to Kansas and plant their roots; and I’m so glad that District 36 is the home of this Kansas treasure.”
Senator Bowers would also like to thank licensed professional surveyors Steven Brosermer and Ken Johnson for their help in sharing information about the Initial Point of the Sixth Principle Meridian and for their work and involvement in bringing awareness to this important piece of Kansas history.
JOINT LEGISLATION INTRODUCED TO RENAME HIGHWAY IN HONOR OF FALLEN VIETNAM SOLDIERS
300 SW 10th, Room 223-E
Topeka, KS 66612
For more information, contact:
Randi Walters
785-296-7389
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
January 22, 2020
TOPEKA—State Senator Elaine Bowers and Representative Bill Pannbacker each introduced legislation today that would rename a five-mile portion of US Highway 77 from the western limit of the City of Blue Rapids to the eastern limit of the City of Waterville. This legislation would rename this highway section the “Corporal Allen Oatney and SP4 Gene Myers Memorial Highway”. This bill is in honor of Corporal Allen E. Oatney and Specialist Forth Class Gene A. Myers, Waterville residents, who both were killed by hostile fire while serving their country during the Vietnam War.
Corporal Oatney was born on October 4th, 1949. He graduated from Valley Heights High School in 1969 and was drafted into the U.S. Army shortly thereafter. Following training, he returned to Waterville to marry his high school sweetheart, Maxine Anderson, on February 21st, 1970. Oatney was assigned to D Company, 5th Battalion, 12th Infantry, 199th Light Infantry Brigade in Cambodia when he was killed by enemy forces on June 22nd, 1970. Following his death, Corporal Oatney’s son, Tobby, was born.
SP4 Myers was born on May 21st, 1948. He graduated from Waterville High School in 1966. Before being drafted in 1968, Myers worked at a local lumber company in St. Marys, KS. He was assigned to C Company, 2ndBattalion, 16th Regiment, 1st Infantry Division. Myers unit performed various operations while in Vietnam. It was during one of these missions that he was killed on June 9th, 1969. In his last letter home to his parents, with only 88 days left in his tour of duty, he remarked, “Keep the home fires burning, …I am coming home.”
Senator Bowers and Representative Pannbacker are optimistic that their fellow legislators share their passion and support for honoring those who have sacrificed it all for their state and for their country and anticipate that this bill will become law during this legislative session.
SENATOR BOWERS ANNOUNCES 2020 SESSION STAFF MEMBERS
300 SW 10th, Room 223-E
Topeka, KS 66612
For more information, contact:
Randi Walters
785-296-7389
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
January 14th, 2020
TOPEKA—State Senator Elaine Bowers is happy to announce that the members of staff who will assist her in the 2020 Legislative Session will be Legislative Office/Committee Assistant Randi Walters, of Topeka; and intern Jeffrey Metzler, of Minneapolis.
This will be Walters’ fourth year serving as Senator Bowers’ office assistant. Prior to working for Senator Bowers, Randi was employed for 30 years at Southwestern Bell before working at the Capitol where she has assisted several legislators for over 15 years.
Jeffrey Metzler is currently a fourth-year undergraduate student at Southwest Baptist University (Bolivar, MO). He was raised on a farm outside of Minneapolis, Kansas, and graduated from Minneapolis High School in 2016. Jeffrey served as a page for Senator Bowers in 2012 while she was a State Representative and again in 2013 during her first year in the Senate.
For the 2020 Legislative Session, Senator Bowers will serve as Chair of the Ethics, Elections and Local Government Committee, as well as a member of the Legislative Post Audit committee, Capitol Preservation Committee, Transportation Committee, Utilities Committee, Judiciary Committee, and Interstate Cooperation Committee.
Senator Bowers was first elected to the Senate in 2012, representing Senate District 36. The district includes Cloud, Jewell, Lincoln, Mitchell, Osborne, Ottawa, Republic, Rooks, Russell, Smith, and Washington counties, as well as parts of Phillips and Marshall Counties. Prior to serving in the Senate, Senator Bowers served in the Kansas House of Representatives from 2007 through 2012, representing House District 107. Today she represents over 71,000 people in north-central, western, and eastern Kansas along the border of Nebraska. The 36th District is the second largest in the state; 13 counties, over 10,500 square miles with Concordia and Cloud County as the largest city and county.
