Pictured is the Bodyworks and Wellness ribbon cutting on May 27, facilitated by Uniontown Ruritan Club. From left Ruritan Members Mark Warren, Kevin Gleason, Raymond George, Joe George, Mauriel Whisenhunt-the owner, Henry Homan, and Mike Mason, stand in front of the business at 104 Sherman, Uniontown.
Mauriel Whisenhunt helped her grandfather, Clyde Brooker, when he was homebound and had edema.
“I would massage his feet, arms, and back,” she said. “He was the first who said God has given me a gift.”
This prompted her to begin a career in massage therapy.
Whisenhunt’s massage therapy is pain management, she said.
“I do pain management,” she said. “Everybody is different, I work to accommodate what the body may need.”
Whisenhunt said she is grateful for her clients.
She said many in the business don’t make it.
“Longevity in massage is five years,” she said. “It’s hard work.”
“I have so much gratitude for the personal relationships with people, watching client’s kids grow up, working in hospice,” she said. ” I have so much overwhelming gratitude. Every place I have been, it’s God’s timing.”
She is constantly learning, even after 20 years.
Her diploma from White River School of Massage.
“There is so much new coming out about science and massage,” she said.
Her constant challenge is trying to help people get out of pain and helping them with pain management, she said.
Mauriel Whisenhunt stands in front of her continuing education certificates at her business, Bodyworks And Wellness.
Whisenhunt has been a massage therapist for 20 years.
Last year, she moved her business, Bodyworks and Wellness, to Uniontown, where she lives.
“COVID (the pandemic of the last year) prompted me to open shop in Uniontown,” Whisenhunt said. “I think all small businesses had to reshape their business plan.”
“We were told by the (Kansas) governor that we couldn’t work,” she said. “I was quarantined five times, two weeks each time from different places of contact.”
“When you can’t work, you have no income,” she said.
She and her husband, Rick, live in Uniontown and in addition, own a large building there.
“We revamped a small portion of his hobby space,” she said.
The building is located at 104 Sherman, just off Uniontown square. For an appointment call 620-224-7251.
Jayhawk Wind project staging area is located at the intersection of Hwy. 39 and Hwy.3, southwest of Fort Scott.
The Jayhawk Wind power project is progressing in Bourbon County.
The following is an update from Julianna Pianelli, development manager for Apex Clean Energy, based in Charlottesville, VA.
Q: Will you give an update on the progress of the wind power farm in Bourbon County, KS?
A: “Construction is underway; we are currently installing access roads and recently completed the laydown yard (located off Highway 39, west of Highway 3), where our core project staff and job trailers will be located. We are now beginning to excavate the foundations for the wind turbines.”
The laydown yard of the Jayhawk Wind farm project is located at the Hwy. 3 and Hwy. 39 in southwestern Bourbon County.
Q: Who is the contact on the ground here in Bourbon County?
A: “The construction site manager for Apex is Tharon Anderson.”
Q: Are there still jobs available and what is the contact?
A: “IEA, the project’s contractor, would have information about job openings and other construction-related information. Please come to the construction office at the laydown yard located near the Highway 39 and Highway 3 junction for more information.”
Q: When will we start to see them going up?
A: “The turbine components will begin arriving on-site at the end of July, and the erection will begin shortly after that.”
Q: When will it be completed?
A: “ The anticipated completion date is in Q4 (fall) 2021.”
This graphic pinpoints the turbine placement. Submitted graphic.
The open house for the Uniontown Clinic of Girard Medical Center is this Saturday, June 12 from 2-3 p.m. The clinic is open Monday through Thursday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The clinic is located on the main street in Uniontown, south of the Uniontown High School football field.
Refreshments and give-aways will be offered.
The clinic provides the following services: primary care, well-woman exams, sports and pre-school physicals, lab draws-with any physician’s order, and rapid testing for COVID, strep, flu, hemoglobin, blood sugar, urine, pregnancy and occult blood.
Governor Laura Kelly Announces Local Governments to Receive Federal Coronavirus Relief
Editor’s note: Fort Scott received over $1.1 million, Bronson- over $46,000, Fulton-over $23,000, Mapleton-over $12,000,Redfield-over $21,000 and Uniontown-over $40,000. Click on the link to view others.
TOPEKA – Governor Kelly today released the list of local governments that will receive allocations through the Local Fiscal Recovery Fund (LFRF) of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA).
In addition to the 105 Kansas counties and 10 metropolitan cities across the State receiving funding from the U.S. Department of Treasury, 614 Non-Entitlement Units of Government (NEUs) with populations of under 50,000, will receive funds directly from the State of Kansas, as directed by the U.S. Department of Treasury. The complete list of NEUs and federal award allocation amounts can be found here: https://covid.ks.gov/neu.
The American Rescue Plan (ARPA) provides $1.9 trillion in economic stimulus to assist in the long-term recovery from the economic and public health impacts related to the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to funding through LFRF for NEU’s, counties and metropolitan cities, the State of Kansas received direct funding through the State Fiscal Recovery Fund (SFRF).
“The American Rescue Plan Act will provide critical resources to Kansas communities as we continue our recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic,” Governor Kelly said. “We must use these dollars to make the strategic investments that will build a better, more inclusive and resilient economy for future Kansans.”
The US Department of Treasury’s eligibility requirements specify that NEU’s must have operational capacity and provide a “broad range of services that would constitute eligible uses under ARPA.” Given this requirement, townships will not receive direct funding from the state under the LFRF. For more information on federal requirements, visit https://covid.ks.gov/neu.
“Although townships won’t receive direct allocations from the Local Fiscal Recovery Fund, I will make a recommendation to the SPARK committee that interested communities be eligible for resources from the State Fiscal Recovery Fund,” Governor Kelly said.
All NEUs receiving funding must certify with the State that they wish to receive their allocation of funds. Any NEU eligible for funding can affirmatively take a step to decline their award and reallocate to the State Fiscal Recovery Fund. Instructions for certification with the state will be sent to NEUs directly.
The Office of Recovery will provide resources and support to all local governments to ensure alignment with federal guidelines and compliance requirements. The State will encourage and coordinate collaboration across state, county, and city funding to ensure funds are maximized for the benefit of all Kansas populations.
The Strengthening People and Revitalizing Kansas (SPARK) Task Force will oversee the use of SFRF dollars, while LFRF dollars will be allocated by local governments. You can learn more about the State of Kansas’ response to the pandemic through the Office of Recovery at https://covid.ks.gov.
The Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT) expects to begin work on a U.S. 54 resurfacing project the week of June 14. The project starts at Allen-Bourbon county line and continues east through Bourbon County to end at Fort Scott.
Project activity includes a surface recycle and ultra-thin bonded asphalt overlay. KDOT awarded the $2.8 million construction contract to Apac-Central, Fayetteville, Ark. Flaggers and a pilot car will direct one-lane traffic through the work zone; expect delays of 15 minutes or less on days when the project is active.
The road work should be completed by late August, weather permitting. Persons with questions may contact Iola Area Engineer Troy Howard, (620) 901-6557, or Public Affairs Manager Priscilla Petersen, (620) 902-6433. Check KDOT’s updated traveler information website, www.Kandrive.org, for more road condition and construction details. KDOT urges all motorists to be alert and obey the warning signs when approaching and driving through a work zone.
The Bourbon County Sheriff’s Office hosted the 1St Annual Fishing Tournament on May 21 and May 22 with proceeds to benefit the Care to Share, Sharing Bucket in the amount of $1532.00.
We would like to joyously recognize the following sponsors and teams during this year’s event.
First place team with a total fish weight of 24.04 lbs was Nic Leighty, Chase Halsey, Jayce Simmons, and Michael Lockwood.
Second place team with a total fish weight of 18.47 lbs was Jordon Woods, Logan Woods, and Zach Travis.
Third place team with a total fish weight of 15.44 lbs was Jack Fox and Carrissa Jones.
Fourth place winners with a total fish weight of 6.06 lbs was the team of John and Sarah Klassen, Chad Johnson and Michelle Johnson.
Fifth place winners with 5.74 lbs was Alvin Metcalf and Kale Metcalf, John Metcalf and Alvin Metcalf (Sr.).
The largest fish caught was a whopping 6.06 lbs and was brought in by Jack Fox.
The first place team received a cash prize of $240 and the Big catch winner received $105.
We would also like to recognize and thank the Kraft, Cole, Ross and Sipe families; the Bourbon County 4H and Extension Office; Lockwood Automotive; and Ross’s Kennels for their talents, time and donation.
This community is better because of ordinary people who give what they have.
A special shout out and thanks to the men and women of the Sheriff’s Office and a special thanks to Lavetta Simmons with the Care to Share. Your support is always extra extraordinary in all you do, we Care to Share for you!
Submitted by Wm K. Martin, Sheriff Benjamin E. Cole, Undersheriff
Office of theBOURBON COUNTY SHERIFF
293 East 20th Street
Fort Scott, Kansas 66701
[620] 223-1440 (office) or [620] 223-0055 (fax)
SEK Muliti-County Health Department, located at 6th and Lowman Streets, Fort Scott.
SEK Multi-County Health Department lead nurse, Alice Maffett BSN, RN, is retiring after 20 plus years.
“I have worked in public health for over 21 years besides working as a clinical nurse in different settings such as obstetrics and gynecology, ophthalmology, orthopedic and psychiatric medicine,” she said.
Alice Maffett. Submitted photo.
“I have always enjoyed the aspect of public health even when I was in nursing school,” she said. “Public health allowed me the opportunity to work with my community partners and to further good health practices in this county.”
She did this through immunization clinics, teaching health-related subjects in schools, disease investigations, and public speaking to community groups.
“The best part of working in public health was the people in our community I got to help every day,” she said.
” I can honestly say that the most challenging issue that I’ve had to face with my job has been the COVID outbreak,” Maffett said. “At one point I was working seven days a week from early morning until the evening. This virus has just been relentless. I believe it has wearied all of us.”
Maffett’s last day officially with the SEK Multi-County Health Department will be June 26.
“I will start a new chapter in my life from that point and I’m excited to see where God will lead me,” she said.
“Thank you to all the many, many community members and organizations that I have had the privilege of working with during my time in public health. I will miss them all,” Maffett said.
Ralph Carlson introduces the Friday Night Concert musicians, May 2019.
This Friday Night Free Concert at the Heritage Pavilion, First and Main Street, will feature Lita and Mike Miller from the Bronson area.
“Lita does vocals and plays the bass,” said Ralph Carlson, coordinator for the weekly summer event. “Mike is also vocals and guitar. This husband-wife team is one of the favorite groups that we have.”
“They will feature Gospel and hymns,” Carlson said. “This couple, with their approach to the message of Christian music, represent the essence of our hometown and what we stand for. The show starts at 7 pm.”
Bring your own lawn chair, as seating is limited.
In the event of rain or other bad weather, the show will be moved to The Common Grounds Coffee Shop, 12 E. Wall.
Fort Scott Presbyterian Village recently announced the 2021 winners of the annual Art is Ageless® juried competition on the community Facebook page, www.Facebook.com/FortScottPresbyterianVillage.
“We are honored to exhibit artwork by seniors,” said Megan Brillhart, marketing director. “Art is Ageless is unique in featuring only the works of artists age 65 and older. Our artists prove that art, in any form, is an ageless ambition.”
Winners in the Fort Scott Presbyterian Village Art is Ageless juried competition were:
Best of Show professional: John Bartelsmeyer, “Wedding Quilt Pattern”
Best of Show amateur: Helen Nuzum, “Rona Rooster”
People’s Choice amateur: Ruth Bahr, “Awed by Nature”
People’s Choice professional: Paul Milks, “Weedy Sunset”
Judge’s Choice amateur: Barbara Gibson, “Feith”
Judge’s Choice professional: Tony Fornelli, “The Hillbilly”
Christmas amateur: Linda Thompson, “Winter Mittens”
Fiber Arts amateur: Ruth Bahr, “Jellybean Bookmark”
Mixed Media/Crafts amateur: Barbara Gibson, “Feith”
Needlework amateur: Helen Nuzum, “Take a Ride”
Helen Nuzum’s “Take A Ride” quilt. Submitted photo.
Mixed Media/Crafts professional: Tony Fornelli, “In Loving Memory”
Painting amateur: Barbara Stuart, “This & That”
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
Painting professional: Tony Fornelli, “Dragon Slayer”
Photography professional: Paul Milks, “Weedy Sunset”
Quilting amateur: Earline Foster, “Chubby Chicks”
Sculpture/3D: Tony Fornelli, “The Hillbilly”
Local competition winners will join winners from 14 other Presbyterian Manors of Mid-America communities to be judged at the masterpiece level. Winning entries at the masterpiece level are selected for publication in PMMA’s annual Art is Ageless calendar and note cards.
Art is Ageless is a copyrighted program of Presbyterian Manors of Mid-America. For the competition, works must have been completed in the past five years. Started in 1980, Art is Ageless is an extension of Presbyterian Manors of Mid-America’s wellness programs, which focus on mental, physical, social and spiritual health.
Presbyterian Manors of Mid-America’s Art is Ageless program encourages Fort Scott Presbyterian Village residents and other area seniors to express their creativity through its annual competition, as well as art classes, musical and dramatic events, educational opportunities and current events discussions throughout the year.
For more information about Fort Scott Presbyterian Village, 2401 South Horton, Fort Scott, Kan., contact Megan Brillhart at 620-223-5550, or [email protected].
A three-attorney disciplinary panel recommended the Kansas Supreme Court disbar former Shawnee County prosecutor Jacqie Spradling for misconduct in two high-profile Kansas criminal cases overturned on appeal. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)
TOPEKA — A three-attorney panel unanimously recommended the Kansas Supreme Court disbar a Kansas attorney for knowingly making false statements to juries during two high-profile trials and for misleading claims about her prosecutorial misconduct to justices of the state’s highest court.
Jacqie Spradling, who more recently worked as an attorney in Bourbon and Allen counties, landed before the disciplinary panel after the Supreme Court overturned the 2012 double-homicide conviction of Dana Chandler in Shawnee County and the Kansas Court of Appeals overturned a 2017 guilty verdict against Jacob Ewing in a sex-crime case in Jackson County. Spradling was lead prosecutor in both cases.
Chandler is awaiting retrial for first-degree murder, while Ewing accepted a plea deal in May to avoid another trial.
“Based on the deliberative pattern of serious misconduct and the serious injury that followed, the hearing panel unanimously recommends that the respondent be disbarred,” the report submitted to the Supreme Court said. “From all the evidence presented, it appears that the respondent concluded that Chandler and Ewing were guilty of the crimes charged and she adopted a ‘win-at-all-costs’ approach.”
The report obtained Friday by the Kansas Reflector was submitted by panelists John Larson, Darcy Williamson and William Jeter for consideration by the Supreme Court. The panel said the issue wasn’t that Spradling engaged in an isolated incident or made an inconsequential mistake in the heat of trial. The panel said the Iola resident “knowingly and intentionally” engaged in a “deliberative pattern of serious misconduct.”
In addition, the panel determined Spradling’s handling of the two criminal cases “undermines the confidence in the judicial system and caused serious injury to the administration of justice.”
Members of the Supreme Court, which hold final authority in disciplinary cases involving attorneys, will issue a decision based on the panel’s 78-page report.
The state disciplinary administrator’s office in Kansas that investigated complaints about Spradling’s behavior as a prosecutor proposed that her license to practice law be indefinitely suspended. Spradling, however, told the disciplinary panel that she shouldn’t be disciplined at all.
Spradling had been dismissive of allegations of wrongdoing until she testified at the disciplinary panel hearing in December. During that under-oath appearance, she conceded to having “failed in these cases” to uphold the ethical duties of a prosecutor. She begged the hearing panel to accept her assertion that her work as an officer of the court was defined by a “protectiveness, a loyalty and a belief in justice.”
“When these cases were overturned, it was very difficult because I had let the system down. I had let the victims down and I had denied the defendants a fair trial,” Spradling said.
As of Friday, Spradling was employed as the Bourbon County attorney in Fort Scott. Allen County attorney Jerry Hathaway said Spradling resigned from her position Friday as assistant county attorney for Allen County.
“With regard to the recommendation of the disciplinary panel, I was disappointed,” Hathaway said.
The Supreme Court laid the foundation for advancement of a disciplinary case against Spradling in 2018 when the justices overturned Chandler’s convictions in the Topeka slayings of Mike Sisco, Chandler’s ex-husband, and his fiancee, Karen Harkness. The Supreme Court said Spradling’s conduct in the Chandler case illustrated how a compulsion for courthouse victories could subvert a prosecutor’s duty to guarantee a person’s fair-trial rights.
Supreme Court Justice Dan Biles summed up Spradling’s tactics in the Chandler trial: “Taken as a whole, this prosecution unfortunately illustrates how a desire to win can eclipse the state’s responsibility to safeguard the fundamental constitutional right to a fair trial owed to any defendant facing criminal prosecution in a Kansas courtroom.”
During the Chandler trial in Shawnee County District Court, Spradling falsely told the jury a protection from abuse order was issued against Chandler prior to the 2002 slaying of Sisco and Harkness. There is evidence Sisco requested a mutual temporary restraining order four years before his death while going through the divorce from Chandler.
When Chandler appealed her case, Spradling told Supreme Court justices in a written brief that she believed the more rigorous protection from abuse order had been put in place by a district court. That’s what she had told the Chandler jury and repeated to state disciplinary investigators despite an inability to produce evidence a judge had ever issued that type of restraining order against Chandler.
Spradling testified to the three-person disciplinary panel that she never possessed documentary proof of the protection from abuse order. She said filing of the disciplinary case led her to conduct a fresh attempt to locate such a document. That search was unsuccessful, she said.
“I was wrong. Dead wrong,” Spradling told the panel. “So, for a person who wants to be right, strives to be right, being wrong is embarrassing, humbling.”
The disciplinary panel responded to her confession in its report: “In addition to the false statement made to the jury and to the Supreme Court, during the respondent’s sworn statement made during the disciplinary investigation, she also made false statements. During the disciplinary hearing, the respondent admitted that her sworn statement included misstatements. The hearing panel concludes that the respondent took an oath to tell the truth when she gave the sworn statement and she failed to do so.”
Spradling’s reputation as an experienced prosecutor of complex crimes in Johnson and Shawnee counties led officials in Jackson County to hire her as a special prosecutor in the Ewing case. It was a case made difficult because the alleged crimes occurred in a small community and turned on the jury’s conclusions of the credibility of female witnesses.
Spradling convinced a jury in Jackson County that Ewing was guilty of rape, aggravated criminal sodomy and battery. The Holton man was sentenced to 27 years in prison.
In 2019, the Court of Appeals concluded Spradling made a half-dozen errors during the Ewing trial and had offered unsubstantiated claims to the Ewing jury during closing arguments. The case was remanded to Jackson County District Court. Rather than go through a retrial, Ewing agreed in May to a plea deal that would trigger a 10-year sentence for sexual assault.
