Category Archives: Fort Scott

Fort Scott City Special Meeting Jan. 27, 5 p.m.

There will be a Special Meeting of the Fort Scott City Commission held at 5:00 p.m. on Thursday, January 27th, 2022. This meeting will be held to consider the execution and delivery of an agreement to release and assign the City’s Opioid claims to the Kansas Attorney General.

This meeting will be held at 123 S. Main Street in the City Commission meeting room and will be broadcast on the City’s you tube channel.

Shop local retailers celebrating Kansas Day, January 29th, 2022


The Fort Scott Area Chamber of Commerce announces participating retailers that will be offering a shopping promotion to celebrate Kansas Day on Saturday, January 29th. Patrons wearing apparel with Kansas or a sunflower will receive 10% off their purchase. Participating stores will have a Kansas Day poster in their place of business.
Kansas Day commemorates The Sunflower State being the 34th state to enter the Union in 1861. The Chamber encourages shoppers to celebrate Kansas Day and thank a local store owner for doing business in our great state.
In addition to this local shopping promotion organized by the Chamber, Kansas Tourism invites Kansans to Give a Toast to the Sunflower State on Kansas Day and post their own tribute to the 34th state to social media using the hashtag #ToTheStarsKS Contact the Chamber for more information at 620-223-3566.

 Chamber Coffee hosted by the Friends of Fort Scott NHS


The Fort Scott Area Chamber of Commerce invites members and guests to a Chamber Coffee this Thursday, January 27th at 8 a.m. hosted by Friends of Fort Scott NHS.

It will be held at First United Methodist Church in the Fellowship Hall, located at 301 S National Ave. Coffee and light refreshments will be served.

Friends of Fort Scott National Historic Site’s mission is to be a friend of the National Historic Site and their primary purpose is to support the National Historic Site in a partnership through activities that may include fundraising, volunteerism, education, advocacy and research. To do that they need to raise funds and they raise funds through their Flag Subscription Program.

They are kicking off their 2022 Flag Subscription Program in January.

For the last three years, they have put a full size flag in front of the homes of subscribers for the 5 flag holidays — Memorial Day, Flag Day, Fourth of July, Labor Day and Veteran’s Day.

Any member business or organization wanting to host Chamber Coffee in 2022 is encouraged to contact the Chamber to save a date by calling 620-223-3566 or emailing [email protected].
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City and County Combine Tourism

Robert Harrington. Submitted photo.

In a continuing effort by Bourbon County and the City of Fort Scott leadership to combine services, the city’s tourism department will come under the Bourbon County Regional Economic Development Inc.

Jackson Tough, the City of Fort Scott’s Tourism Director moved his office into the Bourbon County REDI office at Landmark Bank today.

Jackson Tough. Submitted photo.

“The city commission voted, this month, to move their tourism (department) over to Bourbon County Regional Economic Development Inc.,” Rob Harrington, REDI director said. “Jackson Tough will remain a city employee.”

 

Landmark Bank, 200 S. Main,  Fort Scott. From its Facebook page.

Funding Is From Bed Tax

The city’s tourism department is funded through a Transient Guest Tax, Harrington said. “Any money left from the transient guest tax, after the administrative stuff, payroll, FICA, and any incumbrances…will come to REDI for marketing.”

The transient guest tax, commonly known as the “bed tax,” is imposed by a city or county on transient guests of hotels, motels, and tourist courts, according to 2006-022 | 9/1/2006 | Kansas Attorney General Opinion (washburnlaw.edu) The purpose of the tax is to provide revenue “to promote tourism and conventions.”

“Convention and tourism promotion,” is defined as follows, according to the website:

“‘Convention and tourism promotion’ means: (1) Activities to attract visitors into the community through marketing efforts, including advertising, directed to at least one of the five basic convention and tourism market segments consisting of group tours, pleasure travelers, association meetings and conventions, trade shows and corporate meetings and travel; and (2) support of those activities and organizations which encourage increased lodging facility occupancy.”

The guest tax has been in force in Fort Scott since Jan. 1, 2014 and is 6 percent, according to Transient Guest Tax Rates and Filers (ksrevenue.gov)

 

REDI To Provide Oversight

“I’ll oversee the funds to see they are being used appropriately, for what they are supposed to be,” Harrington said.

“Tourism will be under REDI jurisdiction, we’ll be responsible for tourism marketing,” he said. ”

“We are trying to not duplicate services at the county and city levels,” he said. “Just because it doesn’t affect local taxpayers, it does have an effect on tax funds collected from the transient guest tax, which should be efficiently spent.”
Combined Services

The city and county officials have been working together in economic development, finance management, and human resource services, in recent years, to share resources. Tourism will now be a shared service.

 

 

 

The Washateria Revamps Community Closet Ministry

Carol Oakleaf, left, and Lori Lovelace show the donation can for clothing to the Fort Scott Community Closet which is located in the Fort Scott Washateria in this 2019 photo.
Carol Oakleaf and Lori Lovelace, owners of Fort Scott Washateria, 501 S. National Avenue, started the Fort Scott Community Closet when they opened the laundromat in September 2019.
Recently they have been revamping their clothes-give-away operations to be more accessible to the people of Fort Scott.
“After Saturday, Jan 29th, we will be open to the public from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday,” Lovelace said. “Those interested in finding clothing or household linens and bedding can sign in at the laundromat front desk and will be able to go into the closet and pick out needed items.”
“We will have bags at the front desk to put items in after sign out,” she said. “As always, our items are donated by the people of Fort Scott and are available to all in need.”
“We will be open on Saturday, Jan 29th as we are finishing up the retooling and welcome all who wish to come by,” Lovelace said. “We have a good selection of coats and cold weather items as well as clothing and bedding.”
“Thank you to all of the people who have donated,” Lovelace said.
“We started the Community Closet when we opened the Washateria in September 2019 because there was limited availability for obtaining donated clothing for folks since Beacon( a local helping agency) had ceased taking clothing donations,” she said.  “We thought that a laundromat was a logical place, as we wash the clothes and we have a large outreach within the community.”
Fort Scott Washateria, 501 S. National Avenue. 2019
The clothes and bedding are free to those in need.

Then In March 2020, the  COVID-19 Pandemic hit.

“While the laundromat has remained open as an essential service, we limited access to the closet, taking requests over the phone and gathering clothes for people to pick up at the laundromat,” she said.
“We are ready to move out of the COVID restrictions and the number of calls has increased, making it difficult to keep up,” Lovelace said.  “So, we have redesigned the closet for folks to be able to come to the laundromat, sign in and go to the closet to gather clothing and household linens as needed during the closet open hours.”
She said they have had a large number of items donated and are trying out the self-service idea.
“The kick-off is Saturday, Jan 29th and we will see how it works,” she said.  “Our mission has always been to be a middleman for a flow of items from folks willing to donate to folks in need and we have been learning how the best way to efficiently do that over the past two years.”
Fort Scott Washateria Services
“Fort Scott Washateria continues to provide a clean place for people to do their laundry and we have been doing a lot of laundry in our Wash/Dry/Fold Service,” she said.  “We still have free pick and delivery for the WDF service including hotels and campgrounds in the area and we provide commercial laundry service to local businesses.”
Oakleaf and Lovelace give a tour of the Washateria prior to opening in Sept. 2019.
“We have some new promotions and services set up for this year, stay tuned for more information on those,” Lovelace said.
The laundromat is open seven days a week, Monday through Saturday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. and on Sunday from noon to 8 p.m.
“We also starch and press, steam, and do some limited alterations,” she said.
Rules for the Community Closet
“The rules for the closet are, for folks looking for items, to sign in at the front desk and when they are done looking to come back in for a sack and to sign out,” Lovelace said.  “We ask for respect in going through the items, returning them to their tubs and shelves so the next folks can easily find what they need.”
To Donate
For people interested in donating,  they accept clothing, bedding, and coats.
“We can’t handle shoes or items other than the clothing due to space limitations,” she said.  “You just have to bring your items to the front desk in bags, boxes or loose, we will take care of them from there.  We take donations during all hours the laundromat is open.”
Lori Lovelace can be contacted through the laundromat Facebook page, phone-620-644-9834, [email protected], or [email protected]

FSHS Homecoming Court Announced

Front row: Naomi Kim, Hampton Sayers.
2nd row: Amanda Emmerson, Jenny Heckman, Alaenah Michaud, Alyssa Smith, Ashley Smith Back row: Dryden Cosens, Luke Goldston, Neil Gugnani, Trent Peck, Eli Williams. Submitted photo.

The Fort Scott High School Homecoming King and Queen will be announced Friday night between the Lady Tiger Varsity and Boys Varsity games.

Saturday night is Winter Formal!

The dance will be held at the high school auxiliary gym, from 7:30 until 10:30 p.m. Saturday.

Mitch Barker will be taking pictures.

Submitted by Bert Lewis, Fort Scott High School Student Council Sponsor, Senior & Junior Class Sponsor, Key Club Sponsor, Ed Rising Sponsor,  and Scholars’ Bowl Coach

 

USD 234 COVID Attendance Dashboard Update – 1/21/2022

Taken from the Fort Scott School District’s Facebook page
USD 234 COVID Attendance Dashboard Update – 1/21/2022

 by Ted Hessong
Friday, January 21, 2022

Based on building COVID positive rates, the high school, middle school, and Eugene Ware will need to continue to wear masks on Monday, January 24.  Winfield Scott and the preschool do not need to wear masks starting Monday, January 24.  Also shown below is the student absenteeism % for this week.

Building Student Absenteeism %

1/18/2022

Student Absenteeism %

1/19/2022

Student Absenteeism %

1/20/2022

Student Absenteeism %

1/21/2022

COVID Positive %

1/21/2022

FSHS 20% 25% 22% 23% 3.63%
FSMS 22% 24% 22% 24% 2.25%
Eugene Ware 22% 25% 24% 21% 4.26%
Winfield Scott 15% 19% 21% 20% 1.09%
Preschool 17% 14% 14% 14% 0.0%

Today, January 21,  the district had a total of 4 staff out because they are COVID positive and 3 staff in quarantine.

Chamber Networking Workshop: How to Build Professional Relationships by Tammy Wellbrock


Wednesday, January 26, 2022 @ 9am to Noon the
Fort Scott Area Chamber of Commerce Presents the Chamber Networking Workshop: How to Build Professional Relationships by Tammy Wellbrock.

Join us at Empress Event Center located at 7 N. Main St., Fort Scott, KS on Wednesday, January 26, 2022 at 9 am until 12 pm. to take advantage of this workshop.

From her days of selling advertising for the newspaper industry, increasing alumni memberships at her alma mater, creating customer networks in the telecommunications industry, or teaching for FHSU, Tammy Wellbrock is passionate about connecting, enlightening, and empowering others. Tammy served 8 years as the President/CEO for the Hays Area Chamber of Commerce. Under her direction, the Chamber was a 2013 ACCE Finalist for Chamber of the Year.

In 2019, Tammy launched her professional training and coaching business, Girl Twin Solutions, LLC, which focuses on Women and Leadership. Another aspect of her business includes serving as Interim President/CEO’s for several different positions over the years, including Fort Hays State University Alumni Association, Colby/Thomas County Chamber of Commerce and Pratt Area Chamber of Commerce. She enjoys the challenge of leading organizations through transformational change.

This workshop begins with the philosophy that all people have unique value to offer others as well as a foundation of skills and successes. Being able to present yourself in an authentic, genuine, and engaging manner is the most effective tool for professional networking and building relationships.

The objectives of this workshop are Networking with Purpose and Intentionality, Develop Stronger Communication, and Strategically Build & Maintain a Personal Network.

This workshop is for anyone wanting to increase their social impact and reach.

Contact the Chamber for more information about this event at 620-223-3566

Rygmyr Retires From USB

A press release from Union State Bank

 

Residents and customers are asked to please join Union State Bank as they wish Sheila Rygmyr all the best as she retires from Union State Bank.

Sheila has worked at USB since October of 2003.

She has done nearly everything on the deposit operations side and served most recently as the New Accounts Representative in Fort Scott.

Union State Bank will hold a reception honoring Sheila on Wednesday, January 26, from 12:30 to 2:30 pm at the Fort Scott Union State Bank, 1009 S. Clark location.

Refreshments will be served.

Bourbon County Local News