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Welcome to Positively Kansas.

I'm your host, Sierra Scott.

This is a show where we focus on people, places, and ideas that make our state the best it can be.

Kansas is the second windiest state in the nation, and we're taking advantage of it.

About a quarter of our state's electricity now comes from the wind.

As a wind generation continues to grow, Kansas could become a major energy exporter, creating thousands of jobs and pumping billions of dollars into the state's economy.

You've seen the large industrial wind farms at the countryside, but have you ever seen one like this?

Jim Grawe has this story.

Cruising along highway 77 in Marion County.

It's hard to miss.

Take a closer look and you'll see what's going on here.

The sun is reflecting off the steel blades of Roger Berg's wind turbines.

I have more people that enjoy doing buying things that flash in the sun and more people will visit with me about those sparkle.

They call him sparkly.

Nurnberg, who runs a heating and air company, designed and built these turbines from the ground up with parts he knows well.

The rotor blades are actually air conditioning fans, but instead of creating wind, Nurnberg is using them to catch you and the generators.

Those are air conditioner motors he has modified and reversed.

So now they create electricity rain.

That in effect and snow doesn't affect them.

An ice storm.

The only thing that would affect them.

Lack of wind.

in this county, we don't have a lack of wind.

Nurnberg says his biggest expense is erecting the poles and installing the battery bank that stores all the juice.

I can take my meter it.

And I can see on this wind what kind of volts AC volts and DC volts we're getting.

So you can see it fluctuating that DC volts, that's what's going to go to your battery.

I could run the entire farm if I wanted to, but, right now I'm just going to run to the barn and my greenhouses.

It will heat water.

It will run all the lighting or run my machines in the barn.

My drill, my presses and so forth.

The satisfaction I get is dealing with machines.

I. I happen to love machines.

And I like science.

And he likes thinking that maybe there's a good cause here to tout.

It makes you feel good that you're doing something you're consuming.

I don't have to consume fossil fuel, but for Nurnberg it's not political, and he's not trying to be trendy.

He's just using good old Kansas know how and common sense to put our abundant wind to good use.

I am a libertarian.

I believe in very little government control.

Well, you'd think a conservative person wouldn't be for that.

You think we would stay with fossil fuels.

And that just is not the case.

Just because you're conservative don't mean you can't change.

Nurnberg says he enjoys showing off his wind farm to curious passers by who spot it from the road.

It's located right along highway 77 near the Marion County lake exit.

You can't miss those shimmering blades spinning on a sunny day.

I'm here with Tim Devlin, a very good friend.

And I tell you what, Tim, you have done so much in this community.

He's also with Devlin Rod & Customs, owner of that.

And also, are you the organizer of the starboard Devlin car show or what would you call yourself?

I'm actually the board president of the organization that puts on the show.

Excellent.

And it is an excellent show.

Thank you.

And we're going to talk about that here in just a second.

But you brought in some amazing cars.

We were talking earlier about the fact that cars bring out something in people.

There's an emotional attachment.

They'll talk about the history of the car.

You've got one really interesting.

This is one that isn't normally seen much in many states.

Yeah, this is a 1962 Mercury meteor.

And in the early 60s, Ford and Mercury decided to bring a marquee from Canada down to the U.S. and unfortunately, it just wasn't very successful.

So it had a three year run.

And then that was the end of it.

So we don't see a lot of the meteors.

We see a lot of the Fairlane, which was their kind of in in house competition, and it was just a cheaper brand for them to buy the Fords.

And it was a mercury.

Now you restored this yourself, correct?

My shop, my shop, selling rod and custom built this car.

I'll talk about what it takes to restore.

Maybe some of the things that you did during the restoration process.

Well, you know, this car, actually, we kind of got lucky on this one.

This one that was a six 36,000 mile original car.

When we got it now, it still needed work.

And what we talk about when we build a car is we take it and build a ground up build, which means every nut and bolt, every component on the car gets either refinished, replaced, or something else happens.

so that that takes a lot of time.

We're talking about a year to build a car or longer sometimes.

And so when we start seeing things like rods and backbones, all of that gets replaced.

and so it is a lengthy process.

There's a lot that goes into it.

And, a lot of people that have their hands on this at a shop, like ours.

See I love that, and I think it's so important to restore parts of America.

This is just our history.

And I mean, so much talk about you were saying it's a lengthy process.

So how long would it take to restore a car to this level?

I mean its beautiful.

This car we built in about a year.

we we, when I found the car, it actually came out of Kentucky.

And probably the worst parts about this car were actually what was found underneath the paint from about this level down, mainly in the floors.

There was rust.

you know, it's that's an area where there's a lot of humidity down in Kentucky.

And so this car had some rust and issues like that, but everything was there.

That's a nice thing.

When you start with a project car, a lot of times people think, oh, let me find the cheapest thing I can find.

Well, it's missing parts.

It's harped on all that with this car, everything was there, so we didn't have to go out and search for a lot of parts, which is nice.

That does sound much easier.

Yes.

You've got another gorgeous car here to be able to look at this.

This is a 1957 Ford Fairlane, 500.

This is what Ford had to compete against Chevrolets Bel Airs.

and this car is, you know, from the onset, it's using factory colors, but it has been customized to a certain degree.

It's got different door handles off of a T-Bird.

It's got French headlights and tail lights.

It's got an original 312 wide block which would have come in the car, but it's been modified.

It's been upgraded for more performance.

It's also got a four speed manual transmission that also didn't come in the car.

So, you know, it's got some fun things.

We also like to do things to upgrade these cars to make them safe.

Both of these cars have been upgraded with disc brakes up front.

So when we get out on these streets, we can stop with every other car that's out there.

So we do a lot of things like that besides just making them look nice.

When you take a car like this and you make those changes, does it change the value of the car overall?

You know, it can.

It used to be that the mindset 20-25 years ago, if you took a car and turn it into a hot rod or custom, you devalued the car.

Well, times have changed.

And now we get into where people want more of the hot rods, or they want to take an original car and do those upgrades like we talked about disc brakes, air conditioning, seatbelts to make them safe and more comfortable.

Now, if you were to say, oh, let me take a really rare car and start doing these things to it, then yes, you are going to devalue that car.

But when we start talking about cars like these two, it's really not going to hurt anything.

Now, it may not be worth what we've got in them, but we're not devaluing the cars.

Exactly.

Well, one of the things that I really love about the Starbird-Devlin car show is you see cars that you don't see anywhere else.

How do you track down some of these cars?

Because sometimes they haven't even been seen in the state, in the entire state of Kansas.

That's right, and what we have is our Magnificent Seven program.

And what that is, is the cars that are entered into the Magnificent Seven are the first time they've ever been shown in the Wichita and surrounding areas.

So by virtue of that, we've got cars that haven't been seen by Wichitans.

And then how we get those cars is we've got, individuals throughout the United States and our region that go out to various car shows and events and go out and personally invite these cars to come to our show in January.

And so they work very hard all year round, going to these car shows, inviting cars and getting them to come to Wichita in the middle of January, which isn't always an easy sell.

I would think not.

But I will tell you, I love that car show because I love to go every year just to see what's new and different and unique and something I haven't seen.

Absolutely.

And for people who are watching right now, it's always in the middle of January, so be sure to check it out.

Absolutely.

Always going to be at Century II.

At Century II.

Okay.

Well thank you Tim, I really appreciate your time.

And thank you for bringing such beautiful automobiles.

Going to do our Washington DC swing.

At the Hillsboro Senior Center.

The twice a month concerts are a big draw.

People gather to enjoy the songs they grew up with, performed by a group of passionate and experienced musicians.

And the most experienced by far is Bob Delk.

I just enjoy music.

He doesn't necessarily look it, but even among this group of seasoned citizens, Bob is the grown up in the room.

I don't think about my age.

I just want to do what I want to do.

He's pushing 95 and still tearing it up.

And I'll play with anyone who wants to play together with me.

I'll play with them.

Bob caught the music bug when he was ten.

It ran in the family.

My dad played a fiddle and I played the banjo.

And my mother played.

What they call a dobro now.

And my sister played the piano.

His partner for the past 60 years has been Eugene Just.

He is just a kid of 78.

And most of the time, I was the kid in the group.

Yeah, I always introduced Bob as my grandfather, but really, he wasn't.

But he he always has been older than me.

We found them practicing together at the Methodist Church in Olney.

Eugene is not a part of the group at the senior center, but he and Bob play other gigs together and have been band mates since the days of the Peabody Plainsmen.

We were Grand Ole Opry wannabes.

I played acoustic guitar for a while, but they hardly have it sound to them.

You have to play to a microphone really have many microphones, so that's why I play the banjo.

You could hear that and, you know in a group.

And then later on Electric came out.

I started playing electric and, yeah, I enjoyed it.

Well, this is an album that we made with the Singspirational Quartet.

Bob was playing with us back then, and that was done in, oh in the mid 70s, I would guess.

You can tell the vintage by the Go-Go boots and the White shoes and, and the crew cuts and that type of thing.

They both say gospel music is their favorite, but classic country is a close second.

We enjoy music and we have a lot of fun with it.

In the summer.

And say your on is all that you feel or think, you know?

And, I don't know, I, I don't want to think about my years.

I just want to keep going along.

The Lord listening, live.

I enjoy life, I enjoy meeting people., and I enjoyed music.

Hey, hey.

Good looking?

Yeah.

Okay.

G. “Hey Hey good looking ” G. He becomes a role model and inspiration for me to keep going so that I don't turn into a prune when I turn 75.

Around here if you want to have a fundraiser and you want it to be successful, you want the folks to come out you just ask Bob to be part of the group.

Bob and the boys.

And whether it's Bob in the boys or whether way back it was the Peabody Plainsman or any of the other groups he played with, and then it was a success.

It just adds, brightness to my day.

I can be feeling a little bit down and I start hearing Bob play, and it just lifts my spirits and I can be feeling up and it just raises them higher.

Bob has inspired several of his grandkids and great grandkids to become musicians.

They see that it truly is a talent.

You can enjoy your entire life.

Not to knock sports, but you're not going to be playing football when you're 95.

One place you have to eat.

We're standing right in front of it.

At Pizaacos.

It's it's a pizza taco kind of mash up.

Oh, Ken's pizza.

The Anchor.

Anchor.

Why?

Because it's the best Mexican food you can get around.

Best Mexican food around.

Can't get a better-better deal, better products, better food.

What's the one tourist destination I need to see?

The salt mine or the cosmosphere.

Probably the cosmosphere, because it's different.

There's nothing like it.

The Cosmosphere.

I grew up going there my whole life and people don't know what we have here in Hutchinson, it's awesome.

Well, the cosmosphere is a must.

Of course, every year during the fair.

But just downtown is is a great spot.

What?

One shop do we- Well Amelia I own a shop across the street.

Nicholas Jewelry and Design.

We get visitors from Oklahoma, from Wichita, from Kansas City just to come shop downtown.

That's a hidden gem for sure.

I'm a visual artist from Chile.

I came here in 2005, to the States.

A lot of my work deals with, labor and, and social issues that I have personally struggle with.

My language is making art.

So, looking at the news and looking at, like, cultural development is what really motivated me to point to things, point that problems, a point that, solutions.

So in this case, this here is the Prole is a work about the disappearance of the labor union movement in contemporary society.

So I think it's the only way that we can keep, government and organizations and corporations accountable is by, like, you know, having strong labor unions.

In the in the show here, all the canvases are the same size, that all the drop cloth that you use for painting.

And I have done these stencils based on, labor union symbols.

Its a labor union symbol that that adds the words and then any other way to identify the particular labor union.

And once you remove the letters, just start noticing that, these symbols, start looking more like a soccer team or like a military symbol.

And that help me to remark on this, capacity that we all have that like want to define brotherhood or want to define sisterhood.

Wanted to define this, you know, so in some way, what it used to be labor unions.

You know, for my father generation.

Now, it's the military or the sport teams.

Within the making of the work I try to remark on the fading qualities of the of the labor unions themselves.

You know, I consider myself a cultural worker and just try to make, visual gestures to empower society.

You know, I think, like, we all should try to make society better in whatever capacity we can.

And, and just my language happens to be art.

Our visual art.

Wichita was once home to two of the most spectacular theaters west of the Mississippi.

KPIx recently chronicled the stories of the Miller and the Orpheum in a documentary, “Lost Theaters of Wichita ”.

Efforts to restore the Orpheum continue to move along, as do efforts to restore theaters in smaller towns where many of the local movie houses have fallen on hard times.

Adam Knapp takes us to Kelly County, where volunteers have been working hard to bring two downtown theaters back to life.

One thing about historic movie houses in downtown, they're not making any more of them.

Two cities in Cowley County know that better than anybody.

One of them is already a success story worthy of a marquee.

The other still faces an uphill battle.

The 1200 seat Burford Theater open in downtown Akansas City on September 15th, 1924.

Ark-citizens knew right away they had something special.

During that time, there was an actress by the name of Colleen Moore who had done probably 40 or 50 movies, and opening night was Colleen Moore and the Perfect Flapper, and she sent signed autographs, and everybody was really excited about this wonderful theater that has so many historic and architectural secrets.

But the years went on.

Times change, and the Burford went through a series of owners, and by the 1990s it was facing hard times.

The Burford was in poor condition, and it became an afterthought when more multiplexes started popping up.

B&B theaters opened one right up the road near Strother Field in the mid 2000 and donated the Burford Theater to the Arts Council in Ark City.

After a feasibility study, it was decided there was enough support in the community to restore the Burford, but there was a lot of work to be done.

If you go back to the beginning of it, it was simply trying to get a great deal of work done by volunteers, people who had no particular training, and what we were trying to do.

But the original probably five years, and we worked basically Saturday mornings, and that was simply taking out literally hundreds of tons of plaster and, false ceilings and old flooring and one thing another.

More than a decade later, it's almost a $10 million project.

It was helped by grants, since the Burford is now registered as a historical site, but most of the restoration is because of private donations, and thousands of hours of volunteer work.

Its important to Ark City because it's a very central focal point of downtown.

Plus it's a piece of history.

In 2016, the Burford marked its grand reopening with five straight nights of celebrations.

There were costumes from the Roaring 20s.

There was a speakeasy soiree with bathtub gin.

There was an open house and performances by Music Theater Wichita.

It was a thematic thing and everybody was dressed and we were so lucky because we had our own private ghost that evening.

I don't know what happened, but the lights went up and the lights went down and the lights went up and they went down.

Still waiting for its premiere party is the Marquee Performing Arts Center right up the road in downtown Winfield.

We're getting there.

It's just going to take time.

Opened in 1950, the marquee isn't yet recognized as a historical site, but it belongs to Winfield, as B&B donated the marquee just as Ark city had received the Burford, the marquee sat empty for a couple of years.

It has since restored the retro 1950s look to its lobby, but the theater itself has been gutted.

No seats, no digital projector, just a makeshift movie screen and lots of concrete.

Personally, I'd like to be able to bring my grandkids to a movie.

A first run movie that was done 30, 40 years ago right here.

You know, why not?

More time, more money, and more work needed to preserve one of the hidden jewels of Kansas.

In Cowley County, I'm Adam Knapp for Positively Kansas.

He had decades old negatives finely developed.

But what this Stafford County man found came even as a surprise to him And is just an incredible collection of photographic memorabilia.

85 year old Marion Hearn has spent the last nine years of his life working on a project that may be one of the most complete collections ever restored.

So over this time, when you first started this project, did you ever expect you would be doing it for nine years?

Heavens no!

I might not have started it if I had.

This is believed to be the largest collection of glass plate negatives that focuses on one specific geographic area.

The photos were taken by a man named W.R. Gray, who operated a photography studio in this small Stafford County town.

He worked at Saint John from 1905 until his death in 1947.

Nearly 40 years later, W.Rs daughter Jessie donated her father's life's work to the Stafford County Museum.

We were given all the negatives, about 30,000 of them.

30,843 of them, to be exact.

That's a lot of a lot of stuff.

The project was such a huge undertaking that the museum wasn't even sure where or even how to start.

So the glass plate negatives would sit in a basement storage area for another 21 years.

Well, the glass negatives project started.

We started it in 2007, but we got the negatives from the W.R Gray studio in 1986.

In 2007, the museum contacted the Humanities Council, which told them how to find grants to help cover part of what came out to be a $25,000 cost.

But more importantly, and they sent a consultant that came and showed us exactly what to do, how to clean the negatives and catalog them and preserve them.

Then archival envelopes and boxes.

And so, on October 20th of 2007, we just started doing that.

And just one by one over the last nine years with my volunteers, they've, they got it done.

Marion Hearn was one of those volunteers.

He spent anywhere from 4 to 8 hours a day, every single day, cleaning and restoring these historical plates.

And I had cleaned and, had number of negatives I had cleaned 17,043 negatives that I've cleaned and, that has taken me 1,977 hours.

But then that's, been nine years ago when we started, and it was quite a labor of love.

Some could take as long as a couple of hours to restore.

We brush.

Brush them with a magnetic brush, and then we wash, one side with, cotton ball dipped in distilled water, and then after that dries, why then, we get information that goes on the envelope, and then we put them in acid free envelopes.

Then they are put in acid free boxes.

Some negatives, go a lot faster.

I have done 65 in a day and maybe only 20.

But when we first started, we thought they would just be studio shots of people.

But it was so much more.

You know, there's, pictures of houses and cars and clothes and, just all sorts of different cultural things.

We found pictures of town events, town buildings, and insides of buildings, outsides of buildings.

Mr. Gray, took, mug shots for the sheriff.

He took pictures of crime scenes for the sheriff and the police.

And, then there were also pictures of schools and churches, clubs.

I mean, just anything you can imagine in town.

Well, I think that, it's important because, with such a complete collection of negatives from a photographer in one town, it contains the whole history of the town, more or less.

It's just a complete photographic history of the people and the places and the events of the town.

What makes this collection even more valuable is the fact that these negatives came with matching records.

We do have some identification for the pictures because Mr. Gray left ledgers behind and he numbered all the pictures, 11 ledgers in all.

So we have the date and the name of the person who paid for the picture, which is usually a family member of who it was.

So that's what makes the collection really valuable.

The fact that each picture was listed with the date it was taken helped museum curator Michael Hathaway match them to newspaper articles or other publications where they could be identified.

Never in his wildest dreams, while meticulously restoring these negatives, did Marion think those records would touch his life too.

Each time Marion finished restoring a glass plate, he would give it a new number and a short description of what the picture was.

I identified that as two little boys sitting on a stool.

But, there's a lot more than that.

When I go over to the ledger that Mr. Gray has filled out is said Sylvester Hearne.

That was my father.

Twins Marion and Melvin, four months old.

Certainly surprised when I run across, found my own negatives and didn't know it.

That's so cool!

So when you finally figure out that is you.

What-What was the first thought that went to your head?

Oh, my.

Oh my goodness.

On November 9th of 2016, Marion restored negative number 30,843.

The final glass negative in W.R Grays collection.

How did you feel when the last one was done?

It was, what am I going to do next?

If you know someone in the photos or just want to check them out for yourself, go to the Stafford County Museum or find a link to their website at KPTS.ORG.

Thank you so much for watching.

Positively Kansas.

Hopefully we managed to brighten your day with what's so wonderful about our great state.

Brought to you by Central Security Group, your experts in home automation, security and peace of mind.

View video on your smartphone and control your home's lights, locks, heating, cooling and more.

Security app compatible with Apple Watch and Amazon Echo.

The preceding program was brought to you by tz productions, offering 40 years of media experience.