Moe’s Bread is moving to the old Boiler Room Brewhaus at Wall and National Avenue.
Moe and David McCurry are the owners of Moe’s Bread, 20 W. Wall and have been selling many kinds of breakfast, lunch, and snacks at this site for three years.
Moe’s Bread is moving from this site on Wall Street to around the corner east on National Avenue.
But on April 4 they are opening their business in a new location on National Avenue to be able to offer more.
“Moe’s Bread will be closed March 31st to April 3rd to move to 2 South National,” Moe said on the business Facebook page. “We hope to see you on Monday, April 4th.”
Moe McCurdy with grandson Keeghan Bishop in Moe’s Bread Store on March 29.
Today, Wednesday, March 30 from 10 a.m. until they run out of food, everything in the current storefront will be sold for half off the original price.
2 S. National Avenue is at the corner of Wall and National Avenue, the former Downtowner Hotel, and most recently the Boiler Room Brew Haus.
“The reason we’re moving is … to add a soup and salad bar and we needed more room in the kitchen,” she said in an interview.
A peak in the front windows of the new Moe’s Bread, shows the salad bars.
“We have hot breakfasts in the morning, including biscuits and gravy sausage rolls, breakfast burritos, breakfast sandwiches, croissants, cinnamon rolls, muffins of all flavors and we have muffin top donuts,” Moe said.
For lunch they offer deli sandwiches “and you can call in and have those delivered or you can pick them up any time of the day that we’re open,” she said.
They also offer all kinds of bread: wheat bread, white bread, French bread, Italian bread, sourdough, and fruit bread: pumpkin, banana, apple, cinnamon, chocolate chip, and muffins: blueberry and raspberry.
“We make pies, we make any kind of dessert you’d like,” she said. “Unfortunately, we do not decorate cakes at this moment but we look forward to doing that in the future at our new address.”
Contact info for the store number is 620-768-8009.
“They’re welcome to leave a message,” she said. “We do check our phone every morning.”
Hours of operation currently are 4:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Monday through Friday and Saturday 7:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
“When we move on April 4th we will be open 4:30 a.m. until 3:00 p.m. Monday through Friday 7:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. on Saturday, those are subject to change,” she said.
Amber Ericson holds her granddaughter Journee Ericson in front of some of the pre-owned appliances THRAMS sells in Bronson. At right is Helen Bolling, Amber’s mom, and a business partner.
THRAMS Antiques has ventured into providing pre-owned appliances from a source in the Kansas City area.
While owner, Amber Ericson, was in K.C. purchasing antiques and unique furniture, she ran into an appliance repairman at the marketplace, she said.
Some of the pre-owned appliances offered at THRAMS from their Facebook page.
“He buys from apartment complexes when they redo the apartments,” she said. “That’s what we are buying.”
“He refurbishes them and sells them,” Ericson said. “I go up to K.C. once a month and get more. I’ve already sold 40. If they don’t work you can bring them back.”
Clothes washers including top, front, stackable units, gas stoves and dryers, refrigerators, air conditioners, and deep freezers are sole at the store.
“We thought we would try it,” Ericson said. She started the venture in August 2021.
Ericson opened THRAMS next door to her parent’s business Bronson Locker, a butcher store, at 504 Clay Street in the small town 20 miles west of Fort Scott just off Highway 54.
THRAMS Antiques, 504 Clay Street, Bronson. March 2022.
The storefront next to Bronson Locker was unused space, and owned by the Bollings, Amber’s parents.
“It was a pile-up room,” Helen Bolling, Ericson’s mom and part-owner of the store said. “Amber started picking up a few things and it grew.”
The space is now packed with unique furniture and antiques.
“Antique hall trees and wardrobes are our best sellers,” Bolling said.
“Divans, appliances, wardrobes, hall trees we sell as quickly as we can get them,” Ericson said.
A large divan offered at THRAMS, Bronson, from their Facebook page.
The store is open Mondays from
8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Tuesday-8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Wednesday-8 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Thursday-8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Friday 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Saturday and Sunday call or text for an appointment at 620-363-1159.
Cole Bowman, 37, Fort Scott, and Scott Morris, 47, Parsons, have launched a new computer application called MyShift in the Apple Appstore.
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 Pandemic, businesses have been struggling to fill staff vacancies and operate at their full capacity because of illness, quarantine and other measures taken during the pandemic.
Nine months ago, Bowman began to think of a way to help this situation.
“I came up with the idea on May 24, 2021 while waiting for one of my sales reps at a hotel in Tulsa to go have dinner,” Bowman said. “He was late, so I was looking through the food delivery apps and overheard a hotel worker talking to a customer about how none of the employees they had before the shutdown would come back to work, or had found other jobs, and she must have been the first person on their list that was willing to come back to work for the pay they were offering.”
Bowman said he thought to himself that surely there is an app for that.
“A situation where businesses could look through available workers that they could bring them in to cover a shift, but there wasn’t,” he said.
Bowman enlisted help from Scott Morris.
“I talked to Scott about the idea for the app and he liked it,” he said. “We searched and searched for something that worked like our app and never found anything, so we began our path of figuring out how to build an app in late June. Finally, our app is complete and went live in the Google PlayStore and iOS Appstore this last week,” Bowman said.
New Ways To Work
“Businesses were unable to operate at full capacity after reopening from the pandemic, and people have evolved to find new ways to work without the traditional employment requiring them to commit to a schedule,” Bowman said.
MyShift is starting in Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas, then within the next few weeks expanding to four more states.
Their plan then is to release nationwide by October 1, 2022, Bowman said.
“This is a web/ mobile app-based platform for businesses to connect with workers to fill shifts on-demand with the transaction being as simple as using a ride-share app,” Bowman said.
How It Works
MyShift allows businesses and workers to connect anywhere, anytime, to fill shifts and have the entire payment transaction handled through the app, according to a press release.
Businesses can list open shifts including details about when, where, description of work, and the amount they will pay for the shift.
“Shifters” will then be able to see the open shifts in their area and can select which one they would like to work.
MyShift. Submitted graphic.
After a Shifter has requested the posted shift, the business is able to review the applied Shifter’s ratings in their profiles and click on the one they would like to work their shift. Then the Shifter shows up to the business at the agreed-upon time and works the shift; upon completion of the shift, the business will then rate the Shifter between 1-5 stars and confirm the payment triggering Myshift to deposit the payment in the Shifter’s account.
Myshift is free for everyone to download, and the business will only pay a fee once they agree to accept the Shifter to work a shift they have posted.
There are no fees to the Shifters, and there are no commitments beyond the shifts they choose to work.
For the business, it allows them to find help on-demand to fill shifts hassle-free.
Business owners will now have a pool of vetted professionals ready to fill their shifts, all without the hassle of recruiting and onboarding, according to the press release.
Shifters have the freedom to work as often as they’d like and get paid each time they complete a shift, allowing the flexibility to earn money without the commitment of traditional employment.
The first target markets for MyShift will be Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma & Texas for the initial startup.
Cole Bowman. Submitted photo.
About the Creators
Bowman is a 2003 Fort Scott High School Graduate and 2007, Pittsburg State University Graduate with a Bachelor in Plastics Engineering.
He has 15 years of professional experience in plastics engineering and is currently the regional sales manager for Sepro Group, a robotics and automation manufacturer based in France.
He and his wife, Wendy Bowman, have four kids Luke, Lily, Nora, and Gage. His parents are John and Cindy Bowman, who own the NuGrille Restaurant.
Scott Morris is a 1993 Labette County High School graduate and earned a BBA in accounting for Pittsburg State University in 2002 and an MBA in 2009 from Friends University.
He has 20 years of experience in plastics manufacturing as vice president and chief financial officer of Charloma, Inc.
His wife, Jeanna Morris, and he have four children: Grant, Hallie, Mason, and Brady.
In his community Morris coaches multiple youth sports, he said.
TOPEKA – Beginning April 1, Evergy Kansas Central residential customers will pay an average of $0.36 more per month to have electricity delivered to their homes. That amounts to $4.32 per year, based on an average monthly usage of 900 kWh. Kansas law allows electric utilities regulated by the Kansas Corporation Commission (KCC) to recover costs associated with the transmission of electric power through a separate transmission delivery charge (TDC) on customer bills, without approval from the KCC.
The Commission acknowledged the effective date of the increase at its meeting this morning. Generally the KCC has jurisdiction over Evergy’s retail rates and terms of service. However, a regulated electric utility is statutorily authorized to adjust its Transmission Delivery Charge due to changes in cost under K.S.A. 66-1237(c). As such, the Commission has no discretion and must accept Evergy’s proposed change on a subject to refund basis within 30 business days of the application. In accordance with the statutory requirement, these transmission delivery charges are conclusively presumed prudent as filed. If irregularities are later found, the Commission can order changes, including refunds.
Evergy’s application requested $310 million in TDC revenues, an increase of $20.4 million from the prior TDC. That increases the transmission-related portion of a residential customer’s bill from $0.018810 per kWh to $0.019214 per kWh.
Kylene and Gary Palmer with their family. Submitted photo.
As a family unit, Kylene and Gary Palmer and their daughters, are in the process of turning their farm near Fort Scott into a business model that is a resource for consumers and producers.
Many of the plans on Freedom Farm are “projects in motion”, said Kylene.
“We haven’t ‘arrived’ yet, she said, but they do have thoughtful plans and projects that they are currently seeking grants to build.
“We want to build a resource and outlet for local farmers that have sustainable practices to sell straight to consumers,” she said.” We are working on formulating the structure for a co-op that is both beneficial to the consumer and producer.”
“We are constructing a central hub at our farm to host farm tours, educational programs, a small market for local farmers and a certified kitchen as a resource for farmers, among other things,” Palmer said.
“We are super excited about the grant we received from the Healthy Bourbon County Action Team,” she said. “We plan to use those funds to build a freezer/cooler in order to have space to ramp up production of our meat and eggs.”
They have dreams of a small, by appointment only, on-farm restaurant.
“The idea there is less about a restaurant and more about connecting consumers to local farmers,” she said. “We would love to have guest chefs from our local community and surrounding areas to keep things new and exciting and really make it a community offering.”
Agricultural bus tours are on the horizon for Freedom Farms.
“We have been doing much building and property maintenance to work towards that goal of hosting agriculture bus tours as one of the stops here in Bourbon County,” she said. “We are signed up for the Big Kansas Road trip in May for anyone wanting to stop by and visit or ask questions.”
“One of the many ways the certified kitchen would be put into use would be to offer on-farm lunch to the bus tour participants,” she said. “We would love to work together with local farms to achieve that goal.”
Currently, Freedom Farm produces and sells eggs, pastured poultry, lamb, and a minimal amount of goat.
Chickens at Freedom Farms. Submitted photos.
“It is a family affair, ” she said. “I do most of the day-to-day chores along with help from our children. My eldest daughter has started her own lamb herd and another daughter is in the beginning stages of growing her goat herd. Gary oversees the planning and marketing and is involved every day after work hours. Everyone is involved at many different levels and we hope to employ others as we grow.”
The exterior photo of the Scottish Rite building from 1926 shows storefronts on the ground floor. Submitted photo.
Tracy and Kathy Dancer, Fort Scott, have purchased the
Scottish Rite Temple at 110 South Main.
Kathy Dancer, taken from Facebook.Tracy Dancer, taken from Linkedin.
The couple is investing in the historic downtown building to make it an asset to the community once again, she said.
“We see this as an opportunity to invest in Fort Scott and repurpose a historic building,” Kathy said. “The building has been dormant since 2014 and there has been no maintenance or activity in the building since it was sold by the Scottish Rite.”
They purchased the building from the Bourbon County Commission property tax auction that was conducted in January.
“Currently, we plan on providing micro-retail spaces for small retail businesses,” she said. “Micro-retail spaces are a great opportunity for local entrepreneurs to have a retail space without committing to a large store or the overhead associated with a stand-alone storefront.”
“The building will also support pop-up shops and small seasonal stores,” Kathy said. “We have had many community members also ask us to consider a cafe or pie pantry so we are considering incorporating those into the space as well. Ideally, we will be able to use the theater for events and as a rentable venue in the future.”
Currently, they are not seeking grants to help with the project.
“If grant funding becomes available that is a good fit for the space and the community, we would consider applying but at this time we have not applied for anything and our plan does not rely on grant money.”
“Right now our initial plans are to restore utilities and water service
so we can better assess the condition of the building and mechanical systems,” she said. “Once electricity and water are in place, we can begin to better evaluate the interior and formalize plans to repurpose the ground floor space.”
“The building is part of the historic downtown district so we will be applying to the State Historic Preservation Office for their approval of restoration and renovation plans before we can begin work,” she said.
The theater is on the second floor of the Scottish Rite Temple. Submitted photo.
History of the Building
“The building was constructed by the Scottish Rite Valley of Fort Scott and was completed in 1926,” she said. “The building hosted meetings for the fraternal organization as well as community events. There was a dining hall on the ground floor and a large theater on the second floor. The building still has many original features in the theater and lobby area as well as the original air chest pipe organ.”
The Scottish Rite theater lobby with original pillars. Submitted photo.
“If anyone would like to follow our progress and plans, we will be posting updates on our social media on Facebook and Instagram at @110SouthMainFortScott,” she said
Lassoed Memories-Erica George Photography is located at 116 S. Main. Submitted photo.
Erika George, 26, owner of Lassoed Memories – Erika George Photography has opened a new studio in downtown Fort Scott.
Erica George. Submitted photo.
She started her business in 2016 and provides portraits, family photos, headshots, children, newborns, boudoir, Western lifestyle, and weddings photo sessions.
She chose the new location for her business, at 116 S. Main because of the ambiance.
Lassoed Memories-Erica George Photography is located at 116 S. Main Submitted photo.
“It is the old Common Ground Coffee Company and the old Hound Nutrition location,” she said. “I loved all of the different walls and aspects of the building. There is lots of room for different types of sessions within the area.”
George will be hosting a grand opening at the studio on March 12 from 2-4:30 p.m.
As a part of her grand opening, she will be offering $30 mini-sessions, local vendor shopping booths, and giveaways, she said.
“I love to connect with other people and capture memories that they can hold onto forever,” she said. “I especially love kid’s sessions and to interact with all of the different ages! I meet all different types of people and get to interact with all ages through many steps of life and love every minute of it!”
To contact George, phone: 620-381-4783 her Facebook page: Erika George Photography or by email: [email protected]
KCC approves settlement agreement allowing Kansas Gas Service to recover last winter’s gas costs from third-party marketers and certain large transportation customers
TOPEKA – The Kansas Corporation Commission (KCC) has approved a settlement agreement outlining how Kansas Gas Service (KGS) will recover costs incurred to meet the demand of the company’s transportation customers during last February’s winter storm. Unlike sales customers, who contract directly with KGS for gas, transportation customers purchase gas from gas producers or through a gas marketer. The purchased gas is then provided to KGS and delivered through KGS pipelines to transportation customers. Examples of transportation customers include some municipal utilities, businesses, schools, and churches.
What is normally a straightforward transaction was complicated by the high demand and limited supplies during the winter storm. Some gas marketers did not provide adequate gas to KGS in order to ensure uninterrupted service to transportation customers threatening the integrity of KGS’s entire system. Under an emergency order from the KCC designed to protect the health and safety of Kansans, KGS was obligated to make up the difference to ensure gas was available to all customers, including transportation customers.
Under the settlement agreement, KGS will recover approximately $52 million of the $58 million of calculated supply shortfalls in the negotiated gas cost penalty payments from marketers and transportation customers. Due to the extraordinary costs from the winter storm, KGS also requested a waiver from a provision in its tariff that would have allowed a multiplier penalty to be applied to the amount owed. The Commission granted the waiver. In the absence of the waiver, penalties could have been as much as $888 million, potentially sending many entities into bankruptcy and resulting in great harm to the State’s economy.
Had KGS been unable to recover costs from marketers and transportation customers, those costs would have fallen to residential and small commercial customers. The settlement also avoids costly litigation and further delays.
Today’s order makes clear that the Commission’s decision to waive penalties is not to be viewed as precedential and not to assume penalties will be waived again if a similar situation occurs in the future. In addition, the order states that any proceeds received by KGS from ongoing federal or state investigations into market manipulation, price gouging or civil suits will be passed on to customers.
There is a shortage of workers and also quality housing in the county.
The Bourbon County Regional Economic Development Inc. (REDI) organization is working to address that problem.
The Landmark National Bank houses the office of Bourbon County Regional Economic Development Inc. It is located at 200 S. Main, Fort Scott.
“We are conducting a labor and housing study that will be used to help create programs that will allow REDI to help our current employers and the communities within Bourbon County to attract people,” Robert Harrington, director of REDI said.
“We know that there is a shortage of workers and quality housing within our county,” he said. “We are hopeful that after these reports are published we will get a lot of information that we can use to help find solutions for both issues.”
Looking for Retailers That are Needed
REDI is also facilitating a retail survey at the same time.
“We will use (this study) to help give us an idea of what new retailers the citizens of Bourbon County would like to see and the information we would need to attract such retailers,” he said.
REDI recently hired Goldstone Consulting, Moberly, Missouri, and O’Brian and Associates, Joplin, Missouri, who will be conducting the interviews and putting together the studies after they accumulate all of the information, he said.
“They will also be giving the REDI Board a strategic plan based on the data we receive,” he said REDI is paying for the study
“The consultants that we hired will be conducting interviews with several of our business owners in the upcoming months as well as surveys being sent out to Chamber members and citizens across the county,” Harrington said.
“We are also hopeful that we will be able to send these same surveys out to students in the two high schools and the community college so that we can get a perspective of our younger generation on their needs and wants as well as hopefully entice them to stay and live and work here at home,” he said.
“The studies are being paid for by Bourbon County REDI and the results will be given to my board of directors by August of this year,” he said.
