The weekly Chamber Coffee event hosted by SEK Financial Thursday morning gave representatives from businesses in Fort Scott as well as some high school students the opportunity to learn about SEK Financial and what other businesses in the community are doing in upcoming weeks.

“We work with twenty-something different school districts,” representative Jim Sather said of SEK Financial located in the Industrial Park south of Fort Scott, but added they do much more than just working with schools, such as helping others through investments, insurance, IRAs, 401K plans, rollovers and other financial advice.

“We are able to stay plenty busy,” Sather said. “We love what we do.”

They have also held social security seminars, informing community members of Medicare and Medicaid facts. Businesses interested in inviting them to come speak on that or other financial topics can contact them.

“When we give advice, we just try to do the very best that we can here,” Sather said, saying their doors are open to those who would like to chat with one of their representatives.

Other announcements included:

• The new Bleeding Kansas and Civil War exhibits at the Fort Scott National Historic Site are almost ready as final inspections are completed.
• The Gordon Parks Celebration will begin next Thursday and will include videos, speakers, tours and other events such as a concert by a jazz band from Kansas City Friday evening.
• The Halloween Parade will make its way through downtown Fort Scott Saturday Oct. 24, at 11 a.m. Families and businesses are invited to participate.
• On Friday the 30th, the city will host a speaker who works with small businesses and will be discussing topics such as staying relevant to the changing customer and art as a business, giving business owners new ideas to help grow their company.
• Tickets for the Forks and Corks: Taste of Fort Scott event, which will be held Nov. 7, continue to be sold around the city.

Formerly Gene’s Heartland Foods, G & W Foods continued its Grand Opening weeks with a ribbon-cutting ceremony Friday afternoon, despite being delayed briefly when power in the store and the neighborhood went out.

“The store looks fabulous,” Chamber of Commerce executive director Lindsay Madison said. “So thank you already for your investment in the community. We are very excited.”

Chris O’Hara said this is the 24^th G & W Foods branch and the 10^th in Kansas, with others located in Arkansas and Missouri. O’Hara said they are appreciative of the “wide open arms” the community has put forward in welcoming the new store to the area.

O’Hara said most of the employees are the same from when it was Heartlands except for the addition of the new manager, Will Rayburn. Each of the employees introduced themselves as well as noting how long they had been with the store, ranging from a few weeks to 20 years.

“I’m looking forward to a lot of great years here,” Rayburn said.

The store provides United States Department of Agriculture choice beef, a wide variety of organic foods as well as custom meat smoking and cake decorating. Starting next week, store ads will include coupons and fuel gas-savers cards will be available within the next 10 days.

They also have the Partners for Education program which allows customers to give their G & W receipts to their school, who can then return them to the store for one percent of those sales.

“It can be a very good thing for the community,” O’Hara said.

The ribbon-cutting event also included free hot dogs and refreshments for participants. The store continues its training for employees and organization of the store itself.

During the weekly Chamber Coffee, the Fort Scott Family Dental hosts introduced themselves to other business leaders and also gave a vision for their goal in the community.

“It’s a great group of people here at Fort Scott Dental, which makes it worthwhile,” Dr. Tim Crawford said of his team, which has been offering services to Fort Scott for the past four years with Crawford living in the city for the past year.

Crawford said they hope to expand their current building, adding about 800 square feet, in the near future so they can see more patients. They currently offer a variety of services including dental implants, orthodontics, root canals, whitening and extractions.

“There’s very little that you can’t get done in our office,” Crawford said, adding they are always accepting new patients.

Other announcements included:

• G & W Foods will offer free hot dogs and refreshments Friday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. with their ribbon-cutting ceremony at 12:15.
• The third annual Triyakathon will start at 10 a.m. Saturday, with individuals or teams participating in running, kayaking and biking different portions of the trails at Gunn Park.
• The Forks and Corks: Taste of Fort Scott event, to be held Nov. 7, continues to look for live auction items, food vendors who would like to participate and  entries for the salsa contest.
• The Lowell Milken Center’s new building had its final cleaning done Thursday as it officially nears completion. Its doors will not open for a few months still as they now begin placing exhibits.
• The Highlands Apartments will hold an open house Tuesday, 5-8 p.m., welcoming those interested in seeing the apartments.
• Fort Scott’s Halloween Parade will make its way through downtown Oct. 24, with downtown businesses, and even those not located downtown, encouraged to participate.

In their first meeting of the month, the Fort Scott City Commission decided to enter into an agreement with Kansas Fiber Network, allowing the company to lay fiber optic cable through the city to provide internet access for local businesses.

The Kansas-based company with 25 employees and headquartered in Wichita will lay the cable along Indian Road from the west and then north on Horton Street and east on 18^th Street before again running north on Judson Street.

Debbie Edwards, the company’s business development executive, said right now they will not provide their services to residential areas, but instead target customers such as government, education, medical, anchor institutions and similar entities.

The Kansas Fiber Network currently serves more than 400 communities and continues to expand, but without becoming exclusive or impersonal as some other major providers might.

“What I really like…is that we have a really big network but a small-town feel,” Edwards said of the company, which she said is staffed by Kansans.

Fort Scott’s director of information technology Slayden Davis said he has been working with the company over recent months and said he would call their services a “major backbone for our neck of the woods.”

The quorum of commissioners, with Mayor Cindy Bartelsmeyer and commissioner Lucas Cosens absent, approved the agreement unanimously.

The commission also heard a report from Rebecca Brubaker, executive director of the Safehouse Crisis Center in Pittsburg, which provides refuge for battered women who may have suffered from domestic abuse or stalking.

The center serves seven Kansas counties, housing about 40 from Bourbon County each year while serving about 750 in total annually, helping them with immediate needs as well as trying to help them become self-sufficient.

The commission decided to donate $1,000 toward Safehouse’s $1.2 million campaign for a larger facility.

In executive session, the commissioners decided to extend their contract with city manager Dave Martin another five years while also giving him a two percent raise.

Numerous local manufacturing businesses gave tours of their plants to members of the community Friday as part of the Manufacturing Day recognized in Fort Scott on Oct. 2, after a city proclamation earlier this month.

Extrusions, Inc., Labconco, Niece Products, Carlisle Belts and the Water Treatment Plant of Fort Scott opened their doors and their manufacturing areas for guests to see how their products are made and how employees from the Fort Scott community help create items that are used around the world.

Visitors to the businesses, including groups of students from Fort Scott and surrounding areas, learned about the 40,000 belts produce by Carlisle Belts each day, with the business making its billionth belt earlier this year. Labconco makes units used for experiments, forensics and other laboratory procedures, using parts built at Extrusions, Inc., to help make the units shipped around the world. Meanwhile, the water treatment plant processes at least two million gallons of water from the Marmaton River each day as well as storing almost two million gallons of water on site at any given point and testing the quality of the water every two hours. Other participating manufacturers also shared details of the work they do.

Other local businesses had exhibits and demonstrations at the east campus of Fort Scott Community College, including Osage Cabinets and Furniture, Peerless Products, Inc., Ward/Kraft, Inc., and other FSCC groups with John Deere and Harley Davidson.

The city commissioners declared Oct. 2, Manufacturing Day during their most recent meeting in September to honor those manufacturers and give the community a chance to learn about the local manufacturing plants.

With construction beginning off Horton Street near the water treatment plant, Country Place Living residences will be available to the Fort Scott community possibly in approximately the next year with weather permitting.

“Truly, what we have to offer is a home-like residence,” marketing director Marie Jensen said of the residences.

The first one to be built is the Country Place Memory Care residence, which will provide 12 suites with the entire facility built with the goal of taking care of residents with dementia. The suites, activities, food and even flooring will all be structured around the residents to provide them a safe and comfortable place to stay.

A second building, the Country Place Senior Living center, will offer 26 suites for those who can not care for themselves on their own. But at the same time, Jensen said they encourage their members to remain active and consider the center their home.

“Everyone knows that a big part of aging and aging well is still being active,” Jensen said.

The suites in that center are each connected to a central social activity area for the residents. Jensen said some of their residents in other areas still drive their own vehicles and are able to get out and run errands.

With work beginning at the site just last week, Jensen said the memory care center should take five months to complete if the winter months are not too harsh. Work on the senior living center will begin shortly after that.

“We’re excited to be a part of Fort Scott,” Jensen said, saying they have worked closely with the Chamber of Commerce and the city of Fort Scott in preparing to bring Country Place Living to the area.

There are 10 other such residences around the state of Kansas. Jensen said they consider the population demographics and the already available assisted living centers when considering locations for their residences.

The local residence will also provide jobs to about 10 staff members, including a director, head nurse, lead dietician, activities director and other caregivers.

Those interested in learning more about the residences can visit their office at 118 S. Main Street, next to the Common Grounds coffee shop.

Fort Scott, KS

Last Thursday, March 26^th, the Fort Scott Area Chamber of Commerce celebrated 135 years and held their Annual Dinner and Awards Celebration at the Liberty Theater in downtown Fort Scott. There were plenty of activities throughout the evening.

Kicking off with a silent auction and social kept the hundreds of guests busy while dinner was being prepared and served. After dinner, outstanding community members were  presented awards for their leadership and contributions to the community:

1. Agri-Business of the Year: Miller Feed & Oil Inc.
2. Business Person of the Year: Dave Martin
3. Young Professional of the Year: Heather Griffith
4. Business of the Year: Firstsource Solutions USA
5. New Business of the Year: Common Ground Coffee Co.
6. Community Spirit Award: Craig Campbell
7. Not an award – but recognized Outgoing chairman of the board, Barb Albright
8. Mayor’s Award – Beth Nuss
9. Keystone Award – Steve & Elaine Buerge (selected by the Chamber Board of Directors)

This wouldn’t have been possible without generous support of the community sponsors. Please click here to see the full program and sponsors. Following the awards, the evening was concluded with a live auction.

For more information about Fort Scott Area Chamber of Commerce:

231 East Wall Street
Fort Scott, KS 66701
800-245-3678
620-223-3566
FAX 620-223-3574

Kids grow so quickly and in their wake they leave many toys and clothes that are too nice to throw away.  Luv-n-Stuff 4 Kids was started by Karla Peterson in August as a place for you to sale such items.   At this kid friendly store, you will be be greeted by a welcoming and friendly environment as you walk through and explore the “gently loved” items that other parents have consigned.

Being a parent and educator herself, Peterson, wanted to create a store that would serve as a valuable resource to the community and especially to parents, educators, and homeschooling families.

Before heading to a city to buy sports uniforms, curriculum or kids furniture, stop by or give her a call to see if she has what you are looking for.   If you are in need of maternity clothes or trying to set up a comfortable room for your new little treasure swing by Luv-n-Stuff 4 Kids.  The store also has several custom made items such as doll clothes, hats, little purses, hair bows, tutus, and car seat covers.

Prices compare to ebay prices without shipping and the quality that she accepts is top notch.  If you are always looking for a better deal, the store has a weekly code or riddle on their Facebook page, which can save you an extra ten percent off.

So if you have been looking for a place to make a little cash while cleaning out your closets, or you have been looking for some good quality kids items without spending too much, stop by Luv-n-Stuff 4 Kids and enjoy exploring the treasures that are waiting for a new home.

Consignments are by appointments only.  It is worth stopping by to get a feel for what type of items are accepted and to pick up a consignment agreement form, before bringing your stuff by.

205 East Third Street
620-240-3977
[email protected]