At today’s Chamber Coffee, attendees found themselves surrounded with cut flower displays, contest-winning food and photographs, as well as colorful quilts crafted by area fair participants. The meeting, which was held in the Myers Building at the Bourbon County Fairgrounds, centered around announcements of several upcoming events in the area.
Lindsey Madison, Executive Director of the Chamber of Commerce, announced the “Arts off the Junction” Art Crawl, which will be held Friday, July 16th from 5 PM until 8 PM. Madison explained that the Crawl will showcase local artist’s work, in addition to the talent of local Fort Scott entertainers. According to Madison, this first Art Crawl will be located mainly on the block containing City Hall and the Liberty Theatre. Booths will be set up along this block of Main Street to house merchandise, from which the public will be able to purchase locally created items. Madison said as of today, there was one booth opening left, and that interested parties should contact the Fort Scott Chamber of Commerce. Madison also mentioned that those planning to display artwork or entertain attendees should register with the Chamber by 5 PM on Thursday, July 25th.
Madison encouraged area artists to participate, but emphasized that artwork does need to be authentic, original artwork. “It does need to be true art–not a craft,” Madison said. In addition, Madison said that for those selling artwork, the Chamber has a sales tax form to be filled out and sent to the State of Kansas.
Scheduled entertainment includes performances by local musician Ralph Carlson, and musical entertainment from the Cherry Jammers from 7-8 PM in the Heritage Park Pavilion.
In other news:
- David Shepherd of Shepherd Team Auto Plaza announced the company’s 61st year as a Bourbon County car dealer. Shepherd said that he still had discounted, hail-damaged vehicles available at savings of $50-$75-$100 per month on payments.
- Don Miller of the Historical Preservation Association (HPA) announced the need for a volunteer to help with the Homes for the Holidays Tour. Miller said the HPA needs to add two more historic homes to its tour this year to make the event possible, and the association also needs a volunteer to co-chair the event. Miller mentioned that the Homes for the Holidays Tour had been going on for 33 years, but that “we are in danger of not having one this year.” According to Miller, the tour brings hundreds of people to our city every year during the tour, which helps stimulate economic growth and revenue of city businesses. Lindsey Madison added that 1-2 bus tours have already scheduled their trip to attend the tour in December.
- Jerry Dorsey of Ward Kraft announced that the company has 2-3 open positions in production for press and machinery operators. Dorsey added that the company also has 2 open positions for customer service representatives. “It looks like we’ve got some pretty solid opportunities for WK holdings [to offer job openings],” Dorsey said.
- City Manager Dave Martin announced that an award, Newest Pool Built within Historical Reference, had been given just this past week to the Fort Scott Aquatic Center. Martin said that the pool had generated some extra revenue, but that the extra money had to be used on pool-related projects. In addition, Martin said that the city had recently seen several new people move to town, and that the city wanted to keep people moving to the area in order to get the Bourbon County valuation “turned around.”
- Allen Warren announced that the fair had experienced growth in the goat projects being presented at the fair, and that the George family had donated a 40 ft addition to the goat and dairy barn on the fairgrounds. “In this day and age, who thought we would have added on 40 ft and filled it up,” Warren said.
Warren also reminded attendees about Thursday evening’s entertainment at the Danny and Willa Ellis Fine Arts Center, the Friday evening Garden Tractor Pull and the 4-H Livestock Sale Friday night at 7:00 PM. “Some of them vet pretty creative things,” Warren said of the garden tractor pullers, including dropping a 350 car engine into a garden tractor. Warren also encouraged the public to attend the Livestock Sale and support the efforts of the 4-Hers. “This is the climax of the year for these kids,” Warren said, highlighting the hard work the 4-Hers have done in raising and training their animals.
