Magician and juggler Brian Wendling is a Fort Scott favorite, and he drew the largest crowd of any library-sponsored event in the history of Fort Scott Public Library in the summer of 2019. He will perform on June 28 at 10 a.m. in the main auditorium at Memorial Hall.
Brian brings lots of energy and exciting tricks to his performances with the help of young volunteers from his audience. Learn more about Brian’s work at his website: https://www.brianwendling.com
When I taught high school speech, students wrote a eulogy about someone/thing no longer in their life. Many were funny anecdotes about losing their baby teeth or learning that Santa Claus is not real. But some were tragic, and not a few tears flowed as students told about their fathers’ incarceration or disappearance or abuse.
This past weekend we celebrated fathers. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 18.4 million children, one in four, live without a biological, step, or adoptive father in the home. My father died when I was eight-months old, so all I knew of him were the wonderful things my mother shared. I always wondered what it would be like to be someone’s little princess or to attend the father/daughter breakfast or to have my noggin thumped when I sassed.
Recently, when I asked on Facebook for examples of people who had overcome rejection, a dear friend contacted me to share of her dad’s inability to love. Only when she was an adult and learned that her father’s father had never modeled love did she start to understand and forgive.
We all know fathers who are present in their children’s lives, those who never miss a Little League practice or a soccer game or a Sunday football game, but how many fail to impart spiritual knowledge into their kids, read the Bible to them, take them to church, and most importantly, pray unceasingly for them? They are not intentional in modeling a faith-filled experience to their impressionable youngsters. Let’s face it, fatherhood is demanding business, and merely knowing God does not make a good father.
In the Old Testament, two of the most tragic stories deal with godly men who were terrible fathers. Eli, the high priest who was hand-picked by Samuel’s mother to raise her son into manhood, fathered rebellious sons who, instead of following in Eli’s footsteps, dishonored God. Samuel grew into a great prophet for Israel while Eli’s sons died in a battle because of their sins.
Even King David, one of the bravest leaders in Israel’s history, lacked parenting skills. His eldest son, Amnon, raped his half-sister and was later killed by his brother Absalom who set out to sabotage David’s kingdom. Both Eli and David knew of their sons’ shenanigans but failed to train or discipline them.
No father—except for God—is sinless. I hope you have a father who tries to do right, who loves you unconditionally, who sacrifices for you and who loves Jesus. I hope you have forgiven him for not being perfect. (“Let ye without sin pass the first stone.”)
The great early American spokesman, Patrick Henry, wrote in his will, “I have disposed of all my property to my family. There is one thing more I wish I could give them, and that is Christ. If they have Him and if I had not given them one dollar, they would be rich. And if they have not Him, and I had given them the whole world, they would be poor.”
Dads, it’s never too late. Be intentional in giving your children the Riches they deserve.
KCC approves agreement allowing Evergy to recover 2021 winter storm costs from Central customers and credit Metro customers for sales
TOPEKA – The Kansas Corporation Commission (KCC) has approved a non-unanimous settlement agreement allowing Evergy to recover extraordinary costs incurred during the February 2021 winter storm from Kansas Central customers (formerly Westar) and credit Kansas Metro customers (formerly KCP&L) for the sale of excess power back to the Southwest Power Pool during that same time. The Central and Metro divisions are owned by the same parent company, Energy, Inc., but operate separately.
Under the settlement agreement approved today, the average Evergy Central residential customer’s monthly bill is expected to increase by $2.82 for two years beginning in April 2023. The average Evergy Metro residential customer will see a $6.60 monthly credit for one year.
KCC Staff, the Citizens Utility Ratepayer Board (CURB), Evergy and the Kansas Electric Power Cooperative supported the settlement. Kansas Industrial Consumers, the Natural Gas Transportation Customer Coalition, and Coffeyville Resources Refining & Marketing, LLC opposed it, claiming it unjustly shifts costs from residential customers to industrial customers and fails to reward conservation efforts. The Commission rejected those arguments, finding that within each customer class, some customers made efforts to conserve, while other customers did not. Thus, there is no evidence to suggest reallocation on a class-wide basis would only reward customers who curtailed their energy usage.
“The Commission reiterates the unique nature of Winter Storm Uri and the extraordinary costs it produced. As the Opponents of the Non-Unanimous Settlement acknowledge, Winter Storm Uri caused unprecedented financial harm throughout Kansas. Likewise, the evidence demonstrates that some customers in all rate classes conserved electricity and assisted in avoiding a system-wide failure, like Texas experienced.”
“The evidence before the Commission suggests that, under the circumstances, the Non-Unanimous Settlement represents the lowest interest rate and the lowest customer impact of all Kansas utilities for Winter Storm Uri related costs.”
The order also states that any proceeds received by Evergy from ongoing federal or state investigations into market manipulation, price gouging or civil suits will be passed on to customers subject to winter storm recovery charges.
Craig Wynn Hart, 72, died on June 21, 2022, at the Girard Medical Center. He was born January 25, 1950, in Wichita, Kansas, the son of Wilbur Wynn and Helen Maxine (McGrew) Hart. He was a resident of Fort Scott Medicalodge.
Craig graduated from Uniontown High School in 1968, FSCC in 1970, and PSU in 1975 with a history emphasis. He was a long-time member of the Uniontown United Methodist Church and was currently a member of the Fort Scott First United Methodist Church. He enjoyed his Sunday School class, working with Feeding Families, and fellowship with his church family. He was a long-time member of the Fort Scott chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution where he held many different offices. He was a genealogist. He authored two books, several magazine articles, and consulted and helped many other genealogists in research.
Craig was preceded in death by his parents.
He is survived by his sister, Gayla Croan and brother, Kirk Hart and wife Jeanie. He is survived by nieces Samantha (Hart) McGinnis and husband Dan, Morgan (Croan) Felt and husband Carson, and Blair Croan; great nieces and nephews Ethan McGinnis, Connor McGinnis, Perry McGinnis, Ryker Felt, Beckett Felt, Hayden Blair, and Paxton Blair.
Private family graveside services will be held later in the summer.
The family suggests memorials to the Fort Scott First United Methodist Church and may be left in the care of the Konantz-Cheney Funeral Home, 15 W. Wall Street, P.O. Box 309, Fort Scott, Kansas, 66701. Condolences may be submitted to the online guestbook at konantz-cheney.com.
The Fort Scott Area Chamber of Commerce announces that the weekly Chamber Coffee will be hosted by VFW Post 1165 on Thursday, June 23rd at 8:00 a.m. at 1745 S. National Ave. Coffee, juice, and light refreshments will be served.
VFW is the largest and oldest war Veteran’s service organization, and they have a long and proven history of providing vital assistance and support to America’s service men and women worldwide.
Chamber members and guests are invited to Chamber Coffee events each Thursday at 8 a.m. to network, make announcements, hear about happenings in the community as well as learn about the host business or organization.
The June meeting of Starlite FCE was held at the Yeager Building on the Bourbon County Fair Grounds. President Glenda Miller called the meeting to order. Joyce Allen led the club in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance and the Club Collect. Ten members were in attendance and reported twenty-nine hours of volunteer work and that they had recycled forty pounds of cardboard.
Deb Lust announced that they will be putting out the flags on July 4th and those interested in helping should be at East National at 7 am to put them up, and 4pm to take them down. It was also announced that Doris Ericson has been selected as the State Heart of FCE winner, congratulations Doris. A thank you letter from Jackie Warren was read and a letter form Megan Brillhart was also read.
Doris Ericson gave the treasurer’s report. Glenda Miller presented receipts for items for the library. Letha Johnson moved we pay Glenda for the items bought, Betty Johnson seconded the motion, motion carried. June birthdays are Betty Johnson, Doris Ericson, Del Parks and Jackie Warren has a birthday in July.
Glenda Miller announced that Starlite had received our 65-year Gold Star at the area recognition day and that Starlite had won first place in the education category with “Where is the top of the World” lesson, and second in the Community Service category with our Honoring Veteran’s project.
New Business consisted of discussing our service project with the library. A sign-up sheet was passed to bring items needed for their upcoming events. It is also announced that they would enjoy having volunteers to come in and read to the children. Joyce Allen and Glenda Miller had helped with a previous party and Joyce had also volunteered to read stories. Sign-up sheets to help at the fair were also passed around. Starlite is responsible for helping check-in and for keeping record of the judging for Prepared Foods, Preserved Foods, Photography and Fine Arts and Farm and Garden produce. Karen Peery will be setting of a presentation at the fair on Last Wishes.
Terri Williams reminded everyone that the King Arthur Flour contest entries forms needed to be sent to Jackie Warren by July 1st and that on July 2nd the flour for the contest will be handed out at the Yeager building from 9:00 – 11:00 am. The Fair entry for open class will be accepted on July 18 from 2:00 – 6:00 pm in the Meyers building.
Deb Lust moved that the meeting be adjourned, Joyce Allen seconded the motion, meeting adjourned…Deb Woods presented the program “Make a Med DASH to a Healthy Heart” after the meeting while the members enjoyed refreshments of fruit pizza, biscotti, nuts, mints and water provided by Joyce Allen and Terri Williams.
Spyder, Inc, local software company, led by CEO, Nedra Barr and Chief Technology Officer Mike Upright was recently recognized by Data Magazine, UK, as one of the “Best Cloud Data Services Startups and Companies” in Kansas. “We are thrilled to be recognized by experts monitoring our space. These experts collect data on companies then rank them by categories, states, etc” said CEO Nedra Barr. “For Spyder to be recognized is amazing and showcases the hard work and efforts we have been putting in over the past 15 months.
The Spyder solution uses IBM Watson and Microsoft Azure to serve the insurance and financial services industries.
Spyder has big plans to assist the Fort Scott/Bourbon County community. Providing good paying jobs with great benefits is something desperately needed in the local community. Spyder’s minimum annual salary is higher than Fort Scott’s median wage. “Good paying jobs with benefits goes along way to help restore this wonderful community back to the glory days of the Western Insurance Companies, where good jobs were plentiful. These efforts will assist community efforts to attract a hospital group which is so important to our local community,” Barr said. “We believe the town is on the upswing. The downtown buildings are looking great, small businesses are plentiful, and the pride in this community is amazing. We think this community is ripe for a company like Spyder. It is truly exciting to be a part of such an important effort for this community.”
In July, Spyder will be raising their funding round to launch into growth mode.
“We have built and tested our basic infrastructure storage product and now ready to begin enhancing and adding larger product features and modules into the product,” she said. “In addition, we will be ready to launch our sales team into enterprise opportunities within large insurance and financial services firms in the next few months” said Upright. “Spyder’s products drive efficiencies within these large organizations saving them time and money. It is important for Spyder to raise this round of funding locally. We want to protect Spyder from being funded then pulled out of Fort Scott as our headquarters. We are building Spyder for our community to benefit from, so protecting the Fort Scott location is important to us.”
Spyder will host a luncheon in late July for interested potential investors to learn more about how Spyder will help the local community and their markets. Interested parties may reach out to Nedra Barr or Mike Upright to be added to the invite list. [email protected], [email protected]
The Fort Scott High School Alumni Association will honor two Fort Scottians during the all-class reunion parade. Fred Campbell and Don Miller were selected to be honored.
The parade starts at 5 p.m. on June 24 from the location of 4th and Judson Street to travel the typical parade route EXCEPT in light of past memories – it will be going backwards and will finish up at the high school. Classes will be displaying their class spirit as they travel south on Main Street.
The Alumni Association encourages citizens to line the parade route to welcome the alumni home.
Craig Campbell, Class of 1977, is the Parade Chairman.
Kansas Corporation Commission schedules public hearing and
comment period on Evergy’s energy efficiency program proposal
TOPEKA – The Kansas Corporation Commission invites Evergy customers to attend a virtual public hearing to learn more about the company’s proposed energy efficiency programs and share their feedback with Commissioners.
Evergy has filed an application with the KCC requesting approval of a portfolio of nine energy efficiency and demand-side management programs for residential and business customers (Docket No. 22-EKME-254-TAR). If approved, the programs would be in effect from 2023 through 2026.
The public hearing will take place online, via Zoom, on Monday, June 27, 2022, from 6 to 8 p.m. CT. To make a public comment at the hearing, attendees should register on the KCC website (https://kcc.ks.gov/your-opinion-matters) by noon June 27. For those who don’t plan to speak, no registration is necessary. The hearing will be broadcast live on the Commission’s YouTube channel and recorded for later viewing.
In addition to the hearing, the Commission will accept written comments about the programs through 5 p.m., July 8, 2022 on its website, by mail or by calling the KCC at 785-271-3140 or 800-662-0027.
Members of the USD 234 Board of Education met at 5:30 p.m. on June 21, 2022, for a special board meeting.
President James Wood opened the meeting and budget hearing. There were no comments, and the budget hearing was closed. Board members approved republishing the budget.
The board went into executive session to discuss personnel matters for nonelected personnel and returned to open meeting. Board members approved the following employment items:
A. Resignation of James Harrison, high school paraprofessional, effective at the end of the 2021-22 school year
B. Employment of Michael Freeze as a high school paraprofessional for the 2022-23 school year
C. Employment of Lacey Miles as a 6.5-hour Eugene Ware cook for the 2022-23 school year
D. Employment of Janet Fairbanks as a middle school teacher for the 2022-23 school year
