As part of the ongoing Riverfront Park project on North National Avenue in Fort Scott, a 30-foot by 50-foot pavilion will be available for public use next spring.
Schenkel Contracting, Fort Scott, will construct the building which will arrive in late October from Lester Building Systems of Minnesota.
“It will be a wooden frame, with commercial scissor trusses, with a steel roof and gable ends,” Schenkel said. “It’s an open concept. It will have electricity and lights.”
The pavilion will be located east of the parking area just inside Riverfront Park in the Belltown Trail area, north of the Marmaton River.
Members of the Fort Scott Bourbon County Riverfront Authority met Tuesday evening at their regular monthly meeting to discuss this and other items upcoming in the park.
The board envisions this pavilion use for family gatherings or public concerts/meetings, according to Jerry Witt, chairman of the authority board.
The authority board has overseen the $2.2 million project, paid for with no taxpayer money, according to Jeff Sweetser, secretary/treasurer of the group, since 2007.
Reimbursements from Kansas Wildlife, Parks and Tourism were received in the amount of $20,114.02 for expenses on the pavilion and the overlook walkway. The City of Fort Scott provided in-kind labor for the park, which is an 80/20 cost split grant from KWPT.
The overlook will be a wooden, pentagon-shaped walkway which will be at the intersection of the Marmaton River and Mill Creek in the park. Westar Energy is supplying recycled electric power poles for the overlook construction.
The authority board approved the overlook design from Brian Leaders Design, and discussed adding seating to the overlook walkway.
In other business, the authority board:
Discussed where information kiosks will be located.
Was updated on the Mercy Hospice Memorial area, to be located in a wooded section of the park near the river. It will be circular with benches.
Learned that the Long Shoals Bridge bid-letting will start in December. The historic Parker Truss Bridge located in northeast Bourbon County will be relocated and restored over the Marmaton River in Riverfront Park.
Mercy Clinic staff in Fort Scott welcomed Amanda Stice on August 5, 2017 as a new nurse practitioner.
As a registered nurse, Stice decided to take on a bigger role in patient care and went on to become a family nurse practitioner.
Specializing in family medicine, she is board certified by the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners and earned her master’s degree from the University of Missouri-Kansas City, according to a press release from Mercy.
She offers routine health care, management of chronic diseases, wellness exams, well woman exams, sports and school physicals, vaccinations and immunizations, treatment of minor illness and injuries and more.
Experiences in her practice have created many rewarding moments, Stice said.
“These experiences are what keep me passionate about my career and role in my patient’s health,” she said.
Previously, she worked for nearly six years at University of Kansas Hospital as a registered nurse in acute care units.
After earning her master’s degree, she worked in urgent care in Independence, transitioning into primary care at the same location.
She and her husband live in Fort Scott with their two children.
Stice will see patients at Mercy Clinic Suite A, located in the hospital.
Local Fort Scott High School student Zoe Self was the recipient of an award that gifted her with $7,500 in unrestricted funds Friday.
Prior to the announcement, students and staff gathered in the school’s media room, where Lowell Milken told the audience that the Lowell Milken Center for Unsung Heroes “considers ourselves incubators of history.”
The Lowell Milken Center for Unsung Heroes Discovery Award is an international competition that awards creative projects highlighting role models whose positive impact on history remains largely unnoticed.
Self created a performance which depicted the story of Lilla Day Monroe.
Monroe was a Topeka-based suffragette who advocated for women’s rights. She established and edited The Club Woman and The Kansas Woman’s Journal. In addition, she served as the president of the Kansas State Suffragette Association.
“Lilla Day Monroe was the first female lawyer in Kansas,” Self told the audience. “She helped pass the Nineteenth Amendment…she was determined to effect change by working through the court system. She was an incredible woman.”
“This unsung hero project changed my life,” she said.
In the Discovery Award process, students in fourth through twelfth grades are invited to use their creative talents to develop projects that feature people from history who demonstrate that one person can make a positive change in the world. Projects can take the form of documentary/multimedia, performance or website. Projects must show potential for the ability to inspire people to take sustainable actions that carry out the legacies of their subjects, according to an LMC press release.
Domino’s Pizza opens in Fort Scott Monday, September 18 at 1709 S. National.
The franchise is owned by Emily and Dan Elwell, Jasper, Mo.
The Elwell’s looked at different markets when deciding where to expand their business and through happenstance discovered the abandoned building on National Avenue.
They just happened to pull off Hwy. 69 at the strip mall site, she said, saw the for sale sign and a drive-through window and went directly to the real estate agent next door to the property to inquire.
“It’s been eerie how it worked out,” Emily Elwell said. “We are supposed to be in Fort Scott.”
They currently have 17 employees, all local.
Hours for the pizza eatery are 10:30 a.m. to midnight, Sunday through Thursday; 10:30 a.m.to 1 a.m. Friday and Saturday.
Art, dinner, and a movie is the way The Lowell Milken Center for Unsung Heroes celebrated their tenth anniversary Thursday evening.
“We are at the top of the second inning of what we want to accomplish,” Founder Lowell Milken told the audience about the future of the center.
At the exhibition gallery, at Wall and Main Streets, the founder and staff showcased six ArtEffect Project winners and four new Unsung Hero Exhibits.
Later, dinner in the courtyard of the Liberty Theater happened to be on a perfect Kansas weather evening, with temperatures in the 70s.
Local author and retired Fort Scott teacher, Cathy Werling, was showcased with her new children’s book “Why Did Grandpa Cry?”
Since her retirement a few years back, Werling has been employed by the center.
One thing led to another and Werling was asked to write a children’s book about some of the unsung heroes.
“I saw this as an opportunity to move this (story) down to their level of understanding,” Werling said.
“Why Did Grandpa Cry?” is about Unsung Heroes Ken Reinhardt and Ann Williams, who were a part of the American story of desegregation in the late 1950s.
It is first in a series of 12 children’s books that Werling has been asked to write about unsung heroes.
Books can be purchased through the center and other online sources.
“If purchased through the center, it’s matched by the Lowell Milken Family,” she said. Those funds help the local center.
A documentary film “Teach Us All” by Sonia Lowman followed the dinner.
Lowman is director of Communications for the Lowell Milken Family Foundation in Santa Monica, Calif.
She came to Milken with an idea about racial inequality, Milken said.
The film was created to “inspire and activate young people to understand the legacy of The Little Rock Nine and why they need to act on that legacy,” Lowman said.
The film also focuses on the need to support teachers and schools, she said.
The film will debut on Netflix on September 25, which marks the 60th anniversary of The Little Rock Nine desegregation battle.
If all goes as anticipated, the recently moved John Deere Tech Program at Fort Scott Community College should have all parts of the facility completed in December.
The facility is located at 2223 S. Horton, formerly the Kansas National Guard Armory.
“They are building a bigger shop for big machinery,” Kent Aikin, one of the program’s two instructors, said Wednesday. A second instructor is Dale Griffiths, hired around one month ago.
The building being constructed is just to the east of the current tech program facility. The general contractor for the project is Tri-State Building, Pittsburg.
The current building is used for instruction on smaller machines and classrooms, Aikin said. The instructor’s offices are housed in this building as well.
“John Deere sends us three to six machines every year, for training purposes,” Aikin said.
Renovation of the current building started a month ago with the addition of new air lines and electrical lines.
Even though all is not completed in the facility, classes began in August with 13 first-year students and 10 second-year students.
Students who fulfill all requirements for the program have options of electrical, hydraulic or service advisor certification.
The program’s students must be sponsored by a John Deere dealership, and go through an interview process, Aikin said.
Aikin and Griffiths help the students through the whole process.
“We help locate a dealership to sponsor them,” Aikin said.
“There is a high demand for these jobs,” Aikin said. “The job prospects are good. I’d say over 90 percent have a job waiting for them.”
The move from Frontenac to the repurposed facility on the FSCC campus was precipitated by the selling of the building they were leasing, FSCC Director of Public Relations Heather Browne said.
Students have more accessibility for living in the dorms now, Browne said.
They also have easier accessibility for completing their general education classes, Griffiths said.
An open house for any interested students will be from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday, November 2 and 8 a.m. to noon, Friday, November 3.
Following completion of the new part of the facility in December, a grand opening for the public will be in February, Aikin said.
scheduled for October 12-14, at Fort Scott Community College, there will be a “Parks Poetry Out Loud” contest this year. Participants will pick one of seven selected poems written by Gordon Parks and will present it in front of an audience at noon on Friday, October 13 in the Gordon Parks Museum in the Ellis Fine Arts Center on campus.
“I have wanted to do this for years,” said Jill Warford, Gordon Parks Museum Director. “We hope a lot of people take part in the poetry contest, it will be a lot of fun.”
There is no fee to enter and participants will be judged on how they present the poem through voice, diction, and interpretation. Cash prizes will be awarded: first place will win $100; second, $75 and third, $50.
“You don’t have to register to enter,” Warford said. “Just show up.”
It is open to anyone and both students and adults alike, are encouraged to take part, she said. The seven poems are available on the Gordon Parks Museum website: gordonparkscenter.org .
Select poems from the website, then print them out for use, she said.
For more information email [email protected] or by phone call (620) 223-2700, ext. 5850
Poems to choose from are:
MOMMA
by Gordon Parks
Now and then she said things that made my ears frown.
More than likely they were just too young to understand.
“Brush those teeth, and wash your feet before you go to bed.
And stop snoring so loud. You keep everybody awake.”
Pig feet, turnip greens and chitlins put hair on the chest.
My stomach craved apple butter and crackling bread.
It had a mind of its own. It wasn’t looking for hair.
Sunday school was particularly necessary, but not enough.
Reverend Frockcoat’s bland sermons had to sanctify the day.
Some other things stood in my way
Talking too much when I should have listened,
Crying when laughing was better,
Shooting marbles when the cattle needed feed.
Momma’s most relentless warning stuck like claws.
“Son, don’t ever come home blaming your skin’s blackness
For tumbling you downward.
If a white boy can do something worth doing,
Remember you can do it too. When the time comes
Just get out there and do it or forget to come home.”
Much later, long after she was gone,
And swimming in her advice, I’ve tried to keep going,
Going and going.
Down through the years, her warnings helped push clouds away
While sopping tears from stars that insisted on falling.
Yes, it was Momma who spread the checkered tablecloth.
But it was my good fortune to sit down and eat.
Her love filled the space between heaven and hell.
She was a mother beyond all other mothers.
I owe her everything
My breath in the half light of autumn,
For spreading patience when doubt surfaced,
For smiling at the unrest that over took my anxious feet,
For guidance that walked me away from my mistakes,
And for hands that pulled me out of the storms.
Yes, I owe her for these things and many, many more.
So no goodbyes, Momma. The love petals
Falling like rain upon your grave
Are mine all mine.
COME SING WITH ME
By Gordon Parks
Despite the turmoil, anguish and despair
Disrupting the planet we inherited,
There is something good I choose to sing about.
That something lies within us, patiently waiting
Beneath us, above us and around us.
Its peaceful message yearns to fill
Our places of murderous anger and hatred,
To flourish forever.
Hope is the song I have chosen to sing
A deathless song, flowing steadily beside my faith.
Whenever the fist of doubt knocks at my door,
It is powerfully turned away by my hopeful singing.
When things go from bad to worse I still sing my song.
Why not?
It helps me endure the bloodthirsty days.
Once earth’s fire had devoured my hopes.
As my twisted soul slid toward Hell,
Fate came racing from another direction.
Pinned to it was a belt of sun with new instructions.
These, it said, are for you! Suddenly fear was gone.
I made peace with the mean roads I’d walked.
My jackals could now lie down in truce.
From that day on, I began singing the song called Hope.
I still sing it loud
Above the waves, fire, darkness and mud.
From The Huge Silence
by Gordon Parks
The prairie is still in me,
in my talk and manners.
I still sniff the air for rain or snow,
know the loneliness of night,
and distrust the wind
when things get too quiet.
Having been away so long
and changed my face so often,
I sometimes suspect that this place
no longer recognizes me
despite these cowboy boots,
this western hat and
my father’s mustache that I wear.
To this place I must seem
like wood from a different forest,
and as secretive as black loam.
This earth breathes uneasily under my boots.
Their odor of city asphalt
doesn’t mix well with the clean smell
of wild alfalfa and purple lovegrass.
It puzzles me that I live so far away
from our old clapboard house
where, in oak tree shade,
I used to sit and dream
of what I wanted to become.
I always return here weary,
but to draw strength from
This huge silence that surrounds me,
knowing now that all I thought
was dead here is still alive,
that there is warmth here
even when the wind blows hard and cold.
The First Bud
by Gordon Parks
Through winter locked and hungered days,
And during trials of doubtful years,
I walked mistaken roads searching for you.
So when as you say during pillowtalk,
You do not know me,
remember that I am you.
We have been one for thousands of years.
Our love is older than the sky.
That love tremored every windflow
While waiting to be summoned
By a cry, a moan from my heart
That was ablaze with loneliness.
Then, with the silence of a cloud,
It emerged through shadowless mist
and, with pity,
Ripped my outraged soul apart,
Then strung it together with stars
That light your peaceful shade.
Now those nights
That were once without splendor
Dance in on wings that sing.
And the sound of rain
Falling on the roof is joyous.
A Bottle’s Worth of Tomorrow
by Gordon Parks
Time slipped out of my house last night
As I was bringing in the cat.
Angry, worried, frowning,
I went in search of it
Where it lay wrinkled and disgruntled
Behind a stubborn door among thorns.
I knocked and knocked;
The door refused to open.
Time, it finally said, is tired,
And in need of a long rest.
The hours it spent on you
Were far too exhausting
And moved much too slowly.
Remember your running from sky to sky,
With fog falling on you like fire?
The suit my soul wears
Was growing threadbare.
I had eaten salt for supper
And been killed so many times.
I was about to die some more
when the stranger appeared,
Asked me to wait,
handed me a scrap to paper
Then left as quietly as he had come.
He had scribbled his name: Tomorrow.
Wait? Where? For how long?
Distraught, I went toward home,
Worried and frowning even more.
Who was this fellow Tomorrow anyway,
And where was he last night
When time ran out on me?
Later I slept among bad memories.
Having lived in the forest under my scalp,
They knew me well; but I no longer knew them.
I had drowned the worst in waves of skepticism.
But when I awoke to let the cat out
They were stirring inside me, moving as I moved.
I opened the door
and there stood tomorrow,
Grinning, with a sack full of sun, stars
And a little bottle filled with a little more time.
He dropped the sack and then hurried off.
Content, at least for the moment,
I gave a thankful sigh for those signs
That had quietly walked out with my cat.
But after a close look at that little bottle,
It all became clear. No time was left
To wait for myself.
I snatched a bunch of thoughts from the air,
Then I too was off in a hurry.
Homecoming
by Gordon Parks
This small town into which I was born,
has, for me, grown into the largest,
and most important city in the universe.
Fort Scott is not as tall, or heralded
as New York, Paris, or London
or other places my feet have roamed,
but it is home.
Surely I remember the harsh days,
the sordid bigotry and segregated schools
and indeed the graveyard for Black people,
(where my beloved mother and father
still rest beneath Kansas earth).
But recently, the bitterness,
that hung around for so many years seems
to have asked for silence, for escape
from the weariness of those ugly days past.
Thankfully hatred is suddenly remaining quiet,
Keeping its mouth shut! And I’m thankful
For the contentment we lost along the way.
My hope now is that each of us can find
What GOD put us here to find
LOVE!
Let us have no more truck with the devil!
No Apologies
by Gordon Parks
Fate holds no reason to frown at what Providence granted me.
My thanks remain uncountable.
After long talks with my
past I now realize that life held a divine purpose,
For shoving me into places that were as changeable as the wind.
In between the floundering of then and now, the eyes of fate were following me
watching, always watching with
narrowing glances.
Now, having given deep thought to life’s offerings,
I realize everything that happened should have happened.
So my heart lifts praise to a smiling autumn
To those fallen years that no longer exist.
With this, and with no respite, I give thanks
To each dawn,
To each night,
To all the falling and climbing that patiently carried me through unpredictable wanderings.
Crowned in the confusion that hammered my journey,
A full-service aircraft repair station will soon be available at Fort Scott Municipal Airport, 1869 Indian Road, southwest of the city.
Spectra Jet, Inc., Springfield, Ohio, will start a maintenance facility at the airport in the next two months, according to Kenny Howard, the airport manager.
“They will start with four to five employees,” Howard said. “They hope to be up to 10 employees in a certain amount of time.”
The company will lease part of a hangar at the airport for their business until they can build one of their own, Howard said.
Currently, there are eight hangars at the airport, two privately owned and six owned by the City of Fort Scott.
The desired outcome of this new business is to bring more airplanes to the airport, Howard said.
Currently, there are 45 airplanes in a week, he said.
“Some come to town to look at the community,” Howard said. “Some have family here.”
In addition, Fort Scott Airport is a good refueling stop for those traveling cross-county, he said.
Construction work is being done out of public sight at the new Price Chopper Grocery Store at 2322 S. Main.
The store, the former Woods Super Market, is slated to open before the holidays, said Barry Queen, owner/ operator of the Price Chopper Fort Scott grocery store.
“The goal is to open November 10, 2017,” Queen said. “There’s a lot of work going on. Don’t know whether we’ll make that goal or not.”
“We are excited to get there, but there is a big challenge ahead. There is a lot that has to happen. We’d love to get open before the holidays.”
A big plus for the community is the store will be hiring 100-120 employees Queen said, with the number depending on the volume of customers the store will have.
“We’ll be setting up a trailer for interviews in the next few weeks,” he said.
Some features of the new store will be a major focus on fresh food, he said.
Produce , a salad bar, food service, a grill, a smoke house, a full service floral department, catering and online shopping, to name a few.
A drive-through Dunkin Donuts will be located on the southeast corner of the facility.
An overlay for the parking lot and adding more light poles will be coming.
The new owner, operator is no stranger to Bourbon County.
“My dad, Jim Queen, was born in Hammond,” he said. “My mom is from the Linn County/Bourbon County area. I have a lot of relations around here.”
Queen has had a vacation home at Lake Fort Scott for 16 years, which will become his part-time home he said. He lives in Paola.
Associated Wholesale Grocers own the real estate the store is on, Queen said.
Crossland Construction, Columbus, is the general contractor and is doing the demolition work; CDL, Pittsburg is doing the electric work and AAA, Kansas City is the framer for the project, said Brad Vinardi, superintendent with Crossland.
Homelessness in Fort Scott is being addressed, at least for one person at a time, by a local business.
Western Senior Living apartments at 8 East First Street, opened in January 2017 and has 35 apartments for lease, with one designated for a homeless/ transitional individual in the community.
When renovated and re-purposed, the old Western Insurance Building became apartments that were designated for individuals who have income at 60 percent or 50 percent or 40 percent of median income level, said Diane Kelsey, regional manager for Flint Hills Management.
“In addition, there is one homeless unit,” Kelsey said. “You have to be designated homeless by an agency. At that point, rent is 30 percent of their income, or $100, whichever is greater.”
There is currently an individual living in the homeless designated unit.
“They sign a year lease when they move in,” she said. “Then at the end of the year, we re-evaluate their circumstances. The maximum they can stay is two years. This is to give them a more stable place to stay.”
The individual has to meet the same criteria as other residents: pass a background check and have credit, she said.
Kelsey said she has apartments available for lease currently that are not designated for the homeless. Prices range from $370 to $550 a month for a one bedroom apartment and $610 to $710 for a two bedroom.
Kelsey said 80 percent of the apartments have requirements of income.
“Twenty percent are market rate,” she said. “Which means no
income requirements.”
For more information call 620-223-1718 Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Physical Therapist Meredith Tucker opened No Limits Rehabilitation Clinic at 18 N. Main in downtown Fort Scott in June, 2017.
Her specialty is pediatric physical therapy.
“For 12 years I’ve been doing mostly pediatrics,” Tucker said.
For insurance to provide coverage for her services, a doctor must provide a script to her, she said.
Her clinic exists not just to serve the patient, but the caregivers as well, so they can provide the best care for their loved ones at home, according to her website.
Tucker was ready for a new challenge following 9.5 years of working for Mercy Hospital.
During those years she did pediatric physical therapy and physical therapy for inpatients at the hospital.
“They closed the acute inpatient rehab unit,” Tucker said. “They still offer outpatient service and acute bed services.”
“I was ready for a new change and challenge. It’s been a good change,” she said.
Meredith Sewell Tucker is a Fort Scott High School graduate, then graduated from Kansas University with a children’s with disability and autism degree, then a masters degree in physical therapy.
She is married to Brad Tucker.
The physical therapy clinic phone number is (913) 406.8040.
A mother-daughter business opened recently in downtown Fort Scott.
Vette’s Rerun Clothing, 15 N. Main, opened July 24, 2017.
Tracy Isaac, the mother, has another job, while her daughter, Dakota works in the shop.
Dakota Isaac enjoys being able to spend time with her children while at the resale clothing business she is helping her mom to establish.
Tracy Isaac assumed ownership of the north Main shop in July from Connie Harper, but had previously owned a used clothing shop further south on Main Street, then moved to 605 National.
“I offer cheap clothing,” Tracy said. “And I’ve got lots of clothing, from sizes infants to 5 extra-large women. I’ve got prom dresses and wedding dresses.”
Many people can’t afford new clothes, Tracy said, and she sees that as her niche in the community.
They have lowered the prices of the clothing since assuming ownership, Dakota said.
“Currently, we are switching from summer to winter stuff,” Dakota said.
Sometimes the shop is closed because Dakota has to take her two-year-old son, Jacob, to a hospital in Kansas City.
“My grandson has spina bifida and has to go the Children’s Mercy,” for appointments, Tracy said.
The shop is open not open on Sundays and Tuesdays, but is open from 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, with Saturday hours of 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. For more information contact Dakota at (620) 215-6958.