The quarterly Downtown Meet and Greet event was hosted by Cohn’s Cafe, 110 S. Main, on October 6.

A special welcome was given to Drew Simpson, Director of Kansas Main Street, a part of the Kansas Department of Commerce.

“Main Street is a self-help, technical assistance program that targets revitalization and preservation of downtown districts through the development of a comprehensive strategy.” -according to the website: http://www.KansasCommerce.gov/Main-Street

“You are a designated Main Street…you will see more traffic,” Simpson told the group of mostly business owners.

“Business owners, residents and property owners are…impacted.”

When a downtown is healthy, the benefits ripple outward, strengthening businesses, property, public revenues, community pride, quality of place, and future opportunity, according to a fact sheet provided by Kansas Main Street.

He outlined the long process to move forward on the Main Street Program, and commended the Chamber of Commerce CEO Lindsay Madison for “running the show; we are to provide the guardrails,” he said. “She is the face of Main Street in Fort Scott.”

There are a few grants available for businesses: ROOMS and HEAL. One can contact Madison at the Chamber office for more details.

The next Kansas Main Street Training is November 17-18 in Independence.

Other comments from attendees:

• Kathy Dancer, owner of Cohn’s Cafe, 110 South Main Mercantile, Green Lantern Speakeasy and Bourbon County Handcrafted Spirits, all located at the former Scottish Rite Temple, gave a brief overview of all her businesses and provided a sampling of her quiches she makes daily in the cafe.

She also announced that the Old Fort Genealogical Society of Southeastern Kansas will be renting the southernmost storefront at 114 S. Main soon.

• Jill Jaworski, Superintendent of Fort Scott National Historic Site, announced that the site is now open seven days a week, and some parts of the campus is undergoing remodeling. The Friends of FSNHS received a $10,000 grant to help with the 50th Anniversary celebration in 2028. The site is part of the Murder and Mayhem Tour for Halloween, and the annual candlelight tour is Dec. 4-5.
• Mary Wyatt, business development with the City of Fort Scott, noted that many new businesses have opened, some businesses have expanded, and a few new businesses are on the horizon for the city. There will be a tax sale soon, she said.

Mid-Continental Restoration is currently working on Memorial Hall.

• Rachel Carpenter, City of Fort Scott Human Resources person, introduced the new tourism contact Natalia Varzea. Varzea said she would “love to meet with businesses” in the community.

Kathy Dancer owns the former Scottish Rite Temple on the 100 block of South Main in downtown Fort Scott.

New Life For The Former Scottish Rite Temple

She purchased the decade-long vacated 12,000-square-foot building in January 2022 at a Bourbon County Tax Sale.

Since then, they have started four businesses after investing a lot of money in the infrastructure, said Kathy Dancer. They are Cohn’s Cafe, 110 South Main Mercantile, Green Lantern Speakeasy and Bourbon County Handcrafted Spirits.

In an interview about those businesses, Kathy said the Dancer’s drainage issue that has caused flooding in the building has been slow to be resolved.

The City of Fort Scott directed the Dancers to do some repair work, and then the city would fill in the ditch at the base of the building in the alley on the west side of the building, she said.

“The trench is still there,” she said. “When it rains, it goes into the basement and the main floor.”

According to Dancer’s records, they hired someone to start digging out along the building’s foundation in the alley at the end of June.

“On July 13th we had an excavator come in so that we could get deeper to do additional repair work on the foundation. The city blocked off the alley on July 14th. We are approaching the three month mark on the alley being in disarray.”

“Their contractor has been in contact with the person who is going to install a curb for the city,” said Fort Scott City Manager Brad Matkin.

“This concrete contractor is working on another job and will get to that area as soon as they are done. We have tried to work with the Dancers on this for the past few years, but our engineers said there were things they had to do before the city would do any work.”

Kathy Dancer said she shared a video  with the city commission showing the water flow from the city parking lot, northwest of their building. And also the water flow from the portion of the alley that is already concreted, in back of the apartment building north of 110 N. Main.

The apartment building, the Dancer property, and the former Moody Building on the 100 South Main block are the only buildings that have basements on that block, she said.

The ditch is the lowest place in the alley.

The apartment’s alley is concreted; their alley portion is not, she said.

“We had a contractor go in and seal it in (at the base of the building in the alley),” she said. “He had to go back in after the rains and did more.

“To be honest, the city is not responsible for the curb we are installing, but I agreed to do it,” Matkin said. “The water is not coming from the alley; it is coming from the building owner’s guttering and roof. Hopefully, that is taken care of as well.”

“We did a lot of gutter work already,” Mrs. Dancer said. “There is another spot that opened up.”

“When we had solar installed, some of the roof gravel moved into the guttering,” she said. “We can’t get in to fix the guttering problem because the alley is not accessible.”

Dancer said alley maintenance is “100 percent, the city’s job.”

She said at the moment, all four of the businesses remain open for business.

Moody Building

While taking photos of the alley, Al Niece, who is trying to purchase the Moody Building on Main Street, stopped by to look at the building.

He said the basement at that building also gets flooded.

Niece was looking at the property before the city meeting this evening, where the Moody Building will be discussed, he said.

Niece was frustrated at the slow process to acquire the building

“We cannot do anything extensively to the alley until the poles holding up the west side of the Moody Building are removed,” said Matkin.

“Our city attorney is working on the deed with the owner of the building, and we are really close to getting this done,” Matkin said. We have also worked with the IRS to remove the lien that is placed on the building so Mr. Niece will not have to worry about any of this.”

“Mr. Niece has permission to do whatever he wants with the building due to the city getting a letter from the owners for him to do so, Matkin said. “I for one, appreciate Al taking on this project and am working with him to get this building going in the right direction.”