At this morning’s Chamber Coffee, Chamber members and visitors heard about upcoming events in Fort Scott and the surrounding area. Fort Scott’s 5th Annual Riverfront Festival will be held Saturday, June 29th. According to Dean Mann of Citizens Bank, events at the festival will include a variety of family-oriented entertainment, including a bounce house, hot dog eating contest and more. Mann said, “It’s really geared for the family and it supports the efforts down by the river,” and that “We’ll see in a couple years that area will be transformed.” Cheney-Witt is sponsoring the hot dog eating contest, and Jerry Witt quipped, “Last year we had someone about 10 seconds from winning, and let’s just say ‘he lost it’.”

In other news:

• Slow Food SEK will be hosting a Chocolate and Coffee tasting event at Life+Style in downtown Fort Scott Sunday, June 23rd at 4:00PM. The cost per person to attend is $8. The Slow Food movement began in Italy and has spread worldwide, according to the Slow Food USA website. The event will feature chocolate produced in Springfield, MO and coffee roasted in Wichita, KS.
• Norm Conard of the Lowell-Milken Center announced that the Center has new exhibits on display and encouraged the public to come view them.
• J.D. Ettore, Athletics Director at FSCC, announced that Greyhound sports were returning to KOMB FM. Ettore said, “We look forward to out partnership with KOMB,” and announced that the Greyhound football team would be playing their first game against Highland at Frary Field in less than 70 days.
• Brian Holt of Union State Bank announced that the Uniontown Independence Day Bash would be held Saturday, July 3rd at 7:00 PM. The Bash will include fireworks and food will be available for purchase.
• Main Street Gallery and Gifts has now moved into what owner Josh McClelland calls its “final resting place” in the former Village Shops building in downtown Fort Scott. The McClelland family is making headway on repairs to the building. McClelland said, “Something needed to be done,” and that he had been devoted to preserving the downtown for the past 12 years. McClelland said, “I’ve been devoted to Fort Scott for 23 years, and I hate to see another empty building.” Main Street Gallery and Gifts houses a number of different smaller business, including Sweet Repeats, Gene’s Upholstery, and The Frame Up, and also sells decorative items and Spice of Life Natural Foods. The shop is also home to the wares of many local crafters, which are displayed in the lower part of the building, which McClelland called the “artique.”