Taken from the City of Fort Scott’s Facebook page.
Public Service Announcement: If there are cones or barricades blocking a work site please go around the block or go a different direction. Please do not remove the cones and drive through the worksite. All you are doing is tearing up the work and most of the time it has to be redone by City of Fort Scott Public Works crews. We have a citizen on video doing just this and will be looking for the person responsible.
I am personally trying to do the best I can to communicate to citizens daily about road closures, water outages, detours, or anything else that goes on; either on Facebook, the radio, or other media outlets, but it takes help from the citizens also. Please communicate to your neighbors.
We have a lot of projects going on right now in Fort Scott and maybe you are not used to this, but it is called progress. This progress is what the citizens of Fort Scott deserve. Remember, we pay a special 1/2 cent sales tax for street repairs, so every time you see someone tearing up work that was done by the city, and it has to be done again. It is taxpayers’ money being wasted.
I will continue to update citizens on things you need to know, and our staff/crews will do our best to eliminate any inconveniences that are caused by progress. Please help us by following the law.
The citizens of Fort Scott deserve better streets and infrastructure, but it will take time to get you what you deserve. It did not crumble overnight, and it will not be fixed overnight. Progress will continue and improvements will be made! We are not perfect so there will be mistakes along the way, but I can ensure you we will work hard to get things done.
Also, if you see our dang sign, bring it back!!!
if you have any questions please write me an email. [email protected].
Christopher Catalano began his agricultural drone business, SEK Agra Drones, in the Spring of 2024.
Submitted photo. of Christopher Catalano with his drone.
“SEKAD came about being asked if my drone can perform stand counts and can I pilot a DJI T40 spraying drone by a local Bourbon County grower,” he said. “This question sent me down a rabbit hole realizing with all the new drone agricultural technology, there are specific application scenarios that can save growers time and resources.”
The services SEKAD provides are:
Aerial Seeding – SEKAD can spread seed and granular commodities via a DJI T40 Drone for both blanket and spot-specific applications.
Goal: Aerial spreading cover crop seeds over an existing crop at the end of the season has proven to be very beneficial for growers.
Crop Health Analysis – NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) & NDRE (Normalize Difference Red Edge) images are generated by SEK Agra Drone’s M3M Drone which uses the reflection of light in the near-infrared (NIR) and red bands of the electromagnetic spectrum to create a color-coded image of vegetation cover especially for crop nitrogen status. Vegetation indices identify areas of a field that are underperforming allowing immediate action applying pesticides, fertilizers, etc. with accurate informed decision making backed by data.
A drone view map. Submitted photo.
Goal: Measuring the amount of chlorophyll in plant leaves, NDVI/NDRE is often used to assess nitrogen stress independent of the amount of soil nitrogen penetrating the lower canopy of plants. Often used to create variable rate nutrient application maps pre and post-application.
Prescription (Treatment Maps) – Correlating with crop health analysis, data collected via drone of a crop is stitched together creating a detailed aerial GPS map. Prescription maps are delivered as a .shp (shape file), PDF to upload onto your equipment’s computers and tablets, laptops, etc. for accurate boots-on-the-ground analysis.
Stand Counts – Plant population count and emergence percentage across a field help make advanced decisions for replanting or additional inputs for augmented growth. Row crops for stand counts: Canola | Corn | Cotton | Soybean | Trees | Vegetables.
Goal: With the heavy Spring rains Bourbon County received this year, many fields already planted with corn were in V2-V5. Stand counts proved beneficial in determining re-capitalization of replanting washed-out portions of local grower’s fields.
Weed Identification – Identification of green on brown weeds and other unwanted growth in a field with GPS location map generation. Weed ID data can be used for spot spraying applicators with the option of providing treatment to hard-to-reach locations.
Goal: Treatment on hillsides, waterways, rough terrain, and smaller plots, resulting in chemical savings, and wear and tear on a ground rig.
Submitted photo of a drone over a field.
He services Fort Scott | Radius encompassing Bourbon County-Kansas City Metro-Wichita-Joplin-Northwest Arkansas and everywhere in between.
His unofficial employee is his son high school senior, Gavin.
“He works for a local Bourbon County Farm and takes to the sticks flying agricultural drones with a second-natured expertise. Gavin brings youthful enthusiasm with an understanding of row crop health and ailments.”
“The agricultural drone industry is consistently evolving year over year bringing new innovations to ‘Smart Farming.’ SEKAD’s goal is to always provide added value to a grower or producer avoiding being a solution looking for a problem. The more connected we become with our local growers, the more vetting of innovative technologies can be applied utilizing a drone. We have a partnership with another business to utilize spraying of fungicides, herbicides, and pesticides via drone when requested.”
KCC to discuss future Evergy transmission
projects at virtual public workshop August 1
TOPEKA – The Kansas Corporation Commission (KCC) will hold a virtual meeting Thursday morning, August 1, beginning at 8 a.m. to discuss Evergy’s plans for future transmission projects. Members of the public are invited to watch the meeting, which will be livestreamed to the KCC’s YouTube Channel and recorded for later viewing.
Evergy representatives will present details of the planned projects, take questions, and hear comments from Commissioners, Commission Staff and the Citizens Utility Ratepayer Board (CURB).
The costs of transmission projects are passed on to ratepayers in the form of a transmission delivery charge (TDC), which appears on monthly electric bills. The workshop gives the public visibility to the transmission planning process, which is designed to provide the infrastructure necessary to ensure reliability while still maintaining affordability for ratepayers.
House Bill 2225 passed by the 2024 Kansas Legislature requires a public meeting to review the utility’s annual transmission compliance filings to the Commission.
Evergy’s compliance filings can be found on the Commission’s website using the following links: Docket Nos.: 24-EKME-253-CPL and 24-EKCE-254-CPL.
Hosted by Chamber Member Jim Harris Location: Empress Event Center 7 N. Main St. Parking & entrances in both front and back of building.
More about Jim: Jim was elected as District 2 Bourbon County Commissioner in 2020 and is currently running for re-election. He has twenty-two years of public leadership, having served seven years for the City of Fort Scott as codes director, planning and zoning administrator, and in oversight of special projects. Jim then served eleven years as the Bourbon County Public Works Director, and the last four years as Commissioner and is currently Chair of the Commission. Jim looks forward to hosting fellow Chamber members and guests this Thursday!
Contact the Chamber of Commerce for more information: (620) 223-3566, [email protected]
Thank you to our Chamber Champion members
shown below… Welcome to Freeman Health System as a new Platinum Chamber Champion member!
Fort Scott Walmart will be going through a store transformation for over three months, starting soon.
People may have noticed containers delivered to the parking lot’s north part, in front of the garden center.
Containers are beginning to arrive for the transformation of Fort Scott Walmart, which is set to start soon.
About 40 containers will be parked there in the next few weeks and fences around them will go up. These will be used for the store transformation.
Heather, the store manager, said it will be a “total store transformation….to a store of the future.”
“The store will be brighter, more spacious, easier to navigate…. (and) more energy efficient technology, reducing the environmental impact and providing a safer environment,” she said at a recent Fort Scott Chamber of Commerce Coffee, hosted by Walmart, where she made the store transformation announcement.
“We don’t anticipate being closed at all, however, hiccups do happen,” she said in an interview with fortscott.biz.
The expected completion is in November 2024, approximately 14 weeks, she said.
“We will move everything (in the store), but it will be worth it in the end,” she said.
The store of the future will continue to have both associates-manned registers and self-check-out registers, she said.
“There have been mixed reactions on the self-check,” she said. “Some people love it because you can be in and out quickly.”
“Some feel it takes away jobs,” she said. “But since I came in 2018 when there were 170 associates…there are now over 200.”
Storage containers line up in Fort Scott Walmart’s parking lot in this July 26, 2024 photo.
Former Fort Scott City Commissioner Josh Jones and Fort Scott Water Distribution Supervisor Bill Lemke discuss the splash pad project in this April 19, 2023 photo at the site on North National Ave.
Joshua Jones Candidate for Kansas House of Representative District 4
As election time approaches, I want to emphasize the need for candidates to remain active even after the election is over.
Too often, elected officials only engage with the community during election periods. As an eighth-generation resident of Bourbon County, I have a deep connection to this area and believe that community service and consistent involvement are key to our success.
Over the past few years, I have had the pleasure of working on projects such as refurbishing the high school tennis courts, helping acquire and donate a historic property to the Gordon Parks Museum, organizing events to raise awareness for Memorial Hall, and assisting in the development of a community splash pad.
.Josh Jones helped the Gordon Parks Museum receive the AME Church property in June 2023. Photo Courtesy of and Copyright by The Gordon Parks Foundation (left to right) Josh Jones, Kirk Sharp, Gordon Parks Museum and Sarah Smith, Fort Scott Community College Foundation.
As your representative, I understand that we are all in this together and recognize the dedication required to be a positive and active elected official year-round.
John Crain and Josh Jones paint the bathroom at Third Street Park in this October 2022 photo. Submitted photo.Josh Jones was part of a committee that helped bring the splash pad to Fort Scott. This is opening day in 2023 from the Fort Scott Splash Pad Facebook page.
My Promises to You
**Give Back My Salary**
My belief is simple: if the people I serve benefit, then I benefit. We are all in this together. I am giving back my salary because your tax dollars should work for you.
**Year-Round Accessibility and Transparency**
How often do you only hear from politicians during the election? During my time as Mayor/City Commissioner, I was the first to hold public forums to get citizens’ input.
This ad paid for by Joshua Jones Candidate/Treasurer
The Board of Bourbon County Commissioners met in open session with all three Commissioners and Deputy County Clerk Amber Page present.
Vance Eden, Michael Hoyt, Leroy Kruger, Jason Silvers, Clint Walker, Bonnie Smith, Bo Casper, Kyle Parks, Mike Wunderly, Deb Martin, Jean Tucker, and Christina Kruger were present for some or all of the meeting.
Jim opened the meeting with the flag salute.
Jim said he wanted to have the approval of June financials removed from the consent agenda as he had not had an opportunity to review them. Clifton made a motion to approve the minutes from 7-15-2024. Brandon seconded the motion and all approved. Patty Love, Treasurer, said that the financials need to be approved tonight as the quarterly report needs to be published to avoid audit violations. Jim asked why they received the financials later than usual and Patty explained that Jennifer has been out sick with COVID and that is why there was a delay. Patty said she isn’t asking for them to approve and sign something without reading it and asked the Commissioners to take some time at the end of the meeting to review the financials before approving them. Jim made a motion to approve the June financials. Brandon seconded the motion and all approved.
Mary Pemberton said there has been a lot of confusion about zoning and what it is, what it can’t do, how to implement it, and whether it’s a good of bad thing for the county. Mary stated that zoning does not apply to land used for agricultural purposes including the erection and maintenance of buildings on that land that is used for agricultural purposes and sited KSA 19-2921. Mary briefly outlined zoning that Labette County recently implemented which was zoning in all unincorporated areas of their county that they split into four zoning districts. Mary stated there were A1 and A2 that would cover areas outside of city limits that would be considered suburbs, V1 which is for little towns in the county and the fourth is for the large industrial park outside of Parsons. Labette County only places 11 restrictions of specific land uses and she outlined them and explained they require a conditional use permit which means that certain guidelines must be followed. Mary stated by state statute any use in existence at the time zoning is passed is grandfathered in the zoning. Mary said that the Commissioners have instructed the public to bring a petition to put zoning on the ballot, then bring a letter from an attorney, then a setback committee was formed, and last week there was mention of citizens getting a lawsuit or filing an injection. Mary stated the only was zoning can be enacted is by a resolution passed by the Commission who would then form a zoning and planning board and from there zoning policies would be written and multiple public hearings would be held where the public would be allowed to provide input before the final plan is adopted. Mary asked why the Commissioners keep insisting that residents jump through a bunch of hoops that are not really necessary? Jim asked if Mary thought the Commissioners should have a book put together before it is put on the ballot. Mary said in her opinion yes, that there should be some public meetings where zoning is explained so people understand what is you’re talking about doing because zoning can be fairly easy or get pretty detailed. Clifton asked if Linn County was committing a crime then since they require all new homes to have a permit. Jim said that the Commissioners could require building permits for a house or a special use permit for commercial. Brandon suggested putting in the resolution or wording on the ballot that if zoning were to pass that it would take the entire Board of Commissioners to add or take away from the regulations.
Michael Hoyt said he is heading up a petition to increase the number of Commission districts from three to five. Mr. Hoyt said that he received the number of signatures needed from the Clerk’s Office which is 621 and that the state statute requires it to be 5% of the registered voters. Mr. Hoyt questioned the number of voters registered in Bourbon County versus the population at the last census. Clifton said to contact Jennifer since she is the Election Officer and she will work towards figuring out the situation.
Justin Meeks, County Counselor, asked for an amendment to the agenda for an executive session for active ongoing litigation and acquisition of real property. Clifton made a motion amend the agenda to add an executive session. Brandon seconded the motion and all approved. Clifton made a motion to go into a 7-minute executive session under KSA 75-4319(b)(2) for consultation with an attorney for the public body or agency which would be deemed privileged in the attorney-client relationship and KSA 75-4319(b)(6) for the preliminary discussion of the acquisition of real property to include the three Commissioners and Justin Meeks and will return at 5:58. Brandon seconded the motion and all approved. Clifton made a motion to resume normal session with no action on either justification at 5:59. Brandon seconded the motion and all approved.
Brandon said this is his first year for budgets and requested adding another open work session. Jim said they have two scheduled in August and he will be out of town next week. Brandon said he will come in like he always does on Mondays and if any department head would like to meet with him to go over their budget he will do so. Brandon explained he cannot make any decisions but they can help him understand what they need and why they need it. Jim said they will have a work session on August 12 and August 19 and possibly a third in August. Jim said he is glad to see the committee is here tonight getting ready for another meeting. Jim said he liked Mary’s presentation and that she had a lot of good information. Mary thanked the Commissioners for allowing her additional time to speak this evening.
Jim made a motion to adjourn the meeting at 6:02. Clifton seconded the motion and all approved.
Loren Ray Roberts, age 67, a resident of Ft. Scott, Kansas, passed away Saturday, July 27, 2024. He went to his heavenly home to be with his family who went before him. Loren was born August 15, 1956, the son of Dorn C. Roberts and Mary Virginia Edwards Roberts. During Loren’s lifetime, he worked at multiple jobs to provide for his family. He had been employed by National, Harvest, Brand, John Deere and multiple other jobs where he worked as supervisor. His most important job of all was being a father and grandfather. He did everything in his life the way he wanted.
Loren had five children, Harvey Roberts, who is now deceased, Melissa Jewett of Oswego, Kansas, Christy and Michael Montgomery, of Arma, Kansas, Gary Roberts of Pittsburg, Kansas and Misti Spiegelmeyer of Florida and multiple grandchildren, Shelby Montgomery, Shawna, Danielle and Kari Ridley, Michelle and Oden Jewett, Levi and Jackie Roberts. Also surviving are three sisters, Joyce and Danny Henderson, Mindy Roberts and Sherry Neff and a brother Ronnie Roberts. He also had several nieces and nephews of whom he was very proud.
Loren was preceded in death by a son, Harvey, two granddaughters, Sandra and Ashley, his parents, Dorn and Mary Roberts, and a brother, Gary.
His family would like to thank Stacy Messinger for helping Loren remain in his home during his final illness. They would also like to thank Dr. Holly Gault and Gentiva Hospice for their care.
In Loren’s lifetime, all the way to the end, he did everything his way!
Funeral services will be held at 10:30 A.M. Friday, August 2nd at the Cheney Witt Chapel.
Burial will follow in the Oak Grove Cemetery.
Memorials are suggested to the Loren Roberts Memorial Fund and may be left in care of the Cheney Witt Chapel, 201 S. Main, P.O. Box 347, Ft. Scott, KS 66701. Words of remembrance may be submitted to the online guestbook at cheneywitt.com.
City Hall Commission Room – 123 S. Main Street, Fort Scott, KS 66701
July 29, 2024 – 5:00 P.M.
Call to Order
Roll Call
Tim VanHoecke, Matthew Wells, Dyllon Olson, Kathryn Salsbury, Tracy Dancer
III. Pledge of Allegiance
Invocation
Approval of Agenda
New Business
Action Items:
Consideration of Approval for Healthy Bourbon County Action Team (HBCAT) to apply for the Our Town Grant (a 1/1 match grant), a Letter of Cash Commitment of $16,780.00 to be drawn from the Parks Fund, and $29,720.00 of in-kind services from the City, to be used for the proposed project at Nelson Park – Rachel Carpenter/Executive Director of HBCAT.
Consideration of Bids for the Investment of $1,500,000.00 in Certificates of Deposit to drawn from the fund and redeposited with earnings to the same fund – B. Matkin
Consideration to amend Golf Cart Ordinance– T. VanHoecke
“The ballots will be different for each precinct and township as there are committee and township officers on the ballot,” Bourbon County Clerk Jennifer Hawkins said. “The Bourbon County website has been updated to include VoterView which will allow residents to enter their information to see the correct sample ballot.”
She provided a sample ballot for Marion Township for Republicans and Democrats.
The following are features on the candidates from those who responded to the fortscott.biz questionnaire: The primary election is August 6, not August 8
The Healthy Bourbon County Action Team is the recipient of a $40,000 Substance Use Prevention Planning Grant, according to a press release from HBCAT Executive Director Rachel Carpenter.
As a requirement for this grant HBCAT was part of the introductory grant in 2023 to build the capacity of the Local Healthy Equity Action Team (LHEAT) coalition. The LHEAT went through various trainings and exercises to strengthen membership and partners throughout the year. The LHEAT conducted 10 Community Readiness Interviews to develop an action plan on addressing substance abuse among youth specifically tobacco and alcohol misuse.
HBCAT is excited to participate in the planning phase of this grant which will include developing a strategic plan to implement. We will rely on our strong partnerships through the LHEAT coalition to implement policy, system, and environmental changes related to drug prevention.
One of the first steps will be to increase the Kansas Communities That Care (KCTC) participation rate.
Currently, Bourbon County’s participation rate is at 31%, the State of Kansas would like to see the rate increase to 60%. This is important because the survey captures the data from students’ perspective on drug use, mental health, and other key components to health. The survey is anonymous and gives the students the chance to express their needs.
The survey is for 6th, 8th, 10th and 12th grades in the public school system. The school administers the survey yearly with signed consent of the parents.
The State is using the data collected in this survey to allocate funds and resources to areas of need.
Also, as part of this grant, we will be going through a weeklong training on Strategic Prevention Framework Application Skills Training that stems from a Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration (SAMHSA) training. This will help in developing a strategic plan that will be able to apply for additional implementation grants in the coming years.
