Fort Scott Barber Shop at 118 E. Wall is owned and operated by the Montanez family. They were winners of multiple awards including Best Barbershop in the Midwest when they had their business in the Kansas City area.
They moved to Fort Scott in 2021 and started a new barber shop in the historic downtown district, across from the Fort Scott National Historic Site.
A dispute with the City of Fort Scott over the safety of the historic building closed the business almost a year ago, ownerJose Montanez said.
“I am not wanting to fight with the city,” Montanez said in an interview with fortscott.biz when contacted about the business being closed for almost a year. “I just want to open my business.”
It’s been over a month since the city took down the street barriers on Wall Street.
“A lot has been said at the city commission meetings, but when I ask to sit down and talk, nobody wants it,” he said.
The work on the facade of the building has been completed, which the city had some concerns with.
“It took some time to get a reputable business to take on the project,” Montanez said. “We had a structural engineer come in who certified it wasn’t a structural wall, just the facade of the building needed to be fixed.”
“So we proceeded to replace the bricks on the facade, and the city inspector came in to give final approval. For some reason, he was stripped of his power to give final approval on this specific project, unlike any other project,” Montanez said.
“Ever since then, we have been going back and forth. For some reason we haven’t been able to open our business back up, even though it’s fixed,” he said.”The street has been reopened, which tells us the city feels safe. If they felt it was a hazard to the community they wouldn’t have opened the street back up.”
“It’s sad for us. We see many businesses closing and we want to stay,” he said. “It’s been a heavy burden.”
“The City brought its own private engineer which could not write a report as requested from the City and ended up quitting after fully inspecting the inside and outside of the property and charged no fees due to his ‘inability’ to write a report,” Montanez said.
“We fixed the facade, at this point they want to do an inspection on the whole building,” Montanez said. “It’s been a month and a half since the barriers were taken down. A dumpster has been placed in front of the building to make it look like they are keeping the public safe.”
The family of three barbers have been working in other studios and salons to make ends meet, he said.
“We want to open up the building, we want to show we are wanting to stay,” he said.
To view the story on the opening of the business:
NOTICE OF AND AGENDA FOR REGULAR
MEETING OF FORT SCOTT CITY COMMISSION
City Hall Commission Room – 123 S. Main Street, Fort Scott, KS 66701
December 3, 2024 – 6:00 P.M.
Tim VanHoecke, Matthew Wells, Dyllon Olson, Kathryn Salsbury, Tracy Dancer
III. Pledge of Allegiance
VII. Public Comment
VIII. Appearances
Action Items:
XII. Adjourn
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The renovations were done by employees at the center, Lucas Kelley the Recreation Director, Dustin Fly the Maintenance Supervisor, and Katie Chipman the Office Manager.
Mackenzie Kaemmer, 26, is the new Youth Services Supervisor at Fort Scott Public Library.
“The beginning of my journey here at the Fort Scott Public Library has now begun, I could not be more grateful for this opportunity,” she said. “A big part of my position will be planning, scheduling, and coordinating regular and special programs for preschool, elementary children, and teens. There are many exciting programs underway; once active, such programs and services will be posted on the library website, and Facebook page, and displayed in the library. We are currently taking part in a program, Grow your Heart with Reading, in which everybody can try to win a festive Grinch tree or a giant snuggly Grinch by reading a book or donating items to our local pantry. Every contribution will get your name into the drawing on December 20th!”
Her job responsibilities are to acquire new materials and remove or discard unneeded items for youth, catalog library materials, plan regular and special programs for preschool, elementary
children and teens, participate in the statewide summer reading program for youth, outreach to area schools, preschools, and daycare facilities, develop book displays and other art forms in the children’s area, create publicity flyers for youth programs, assist patrons, instruct youth and parents on how to use the internet at the library, assist with the library’s website and social media, spearhead new library technology, maintain program statistics and submit monthly reports to the director.
Kaemmer attended Pittsburg State University and received her Bachelor of Science in Psychology with an Emphasis in Developmental Disabilities.
“Prior to university, I spent a summer as an instructional assistant at Kansas State School for the Blind (KSSB),” she said. “During my time at Pittsburg State University, I was the head graduate assistant for the University Testing Center. Under this, I was also given the opportunity to instruct a college-level General Psychology course.”
She hails from Overland Park, Kansas, and attributes her family—parents Bobby and Suzanne Kaemmer and siblings Kassidi, Cody, and Cooper—with helping her along life’s way.
“Before attending college, I knew I wanted a profession in which the directive was to provide aid for the community; I knew I wanted to help others. Growing up I underwent around ten surgeries, while there were plenty of hardships there was also time to reflect. I wanted to apply my experiences and what they have taught me towards spreading such lessons to others in hopes of enabling a better experience and strengthening an optimistic outlook on the past, present, and future.”
About The Library
The Fort Scott Public Library is open Monday through Friday 9:00 am-6:00 pm and Saturday from 9:00 am-2:00 pm; holidays may differ.
“On November 27th we close at 12:00 pm, and we are closed on November 28th, 29th and 30th. We will reopen as normal on Monday, December 2nd at 9:00 am,” she said.
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The Beacon is an interfaith, not-for-profit network in Bourbon County that has been in existence for 40 years. They assist community residents with food, utilities, and other necessities during times of need.
“We are dedicated to providing an efficient link between churches, civic groups, and other service organizations to those in need,” according to Dave Gillen, the director.
This time of year, the community gears up to give gifts and food to those who need it.
“The Adopt-A-Family program is a project that The Beacon takes great pride in,” said Gillen. “We help local Bourbon County families bring Christmas to their homes. After the application is filled out, we make the families available for the public and organizations to come in and ‘adopt’. They then purchase gifts for the children and The Beacon puts together a rather large holiday meal package for the family. The children’s Christmas gifts are purchased, wrapped, and tagged with the family number and dropped off at Community Christian Church, where we sort into the proper family group.”
Those who want to adopt a family can come to The Beacon, 525 E. Sixth, on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, or Friday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. to pick the family they want to adopt or call 620-223-6869.
There is an increase in the number of local families in need this year.
“This year we have 112 families, which includes 290 children that will be up for ‘adoption.’These families are current Beacon clients or families needing help in Bourbon County. Last year we had 77 families for the Adopt-A-Child program so we had a major increase in local families in need this year.”
“This program could not be possible without the help of individuals, businesses, organizations, and our local fire department,” he said. “It takes many volunteers to transfer and sort food from The Beacon to the Community Christian Church gym.”
“The Beacon also helps supply food items for the Elk’s Christmas Basket that is delivered the Sunday before Christmas,” he said.
“We are very busy this time of year with food and toy donations, sign-up, and just everyday activities,” he said. “We average about 25 to 30 families a day for food distribution and do some financial assistance to help residents of Bourbon County. The Beacon celebrated our 40th year helping Bourbon
“We are dedicated to providing an efficient link between churches, civic groups, and other service organizations to those in need.“
The Fort Scott Area Community Foundation (FSACF) is hosting its second annual Match Day on National Giving Tuesday, December 3. Match Day is an exciting fundraising campaign to support local nonprofit organizations and the work they do in our region. This year, the Community Foundation, through a generous grant from the Patterson Family Foundation, is offering up to $25,000 in matching funds for contributions made to eligible funds.
“Our first Match Day in 2023 was a wonderful success, and with the matching funds grant, we added a total of $89,551 to our participating funds. We are very excited to have the opportunity to participate again this year, and we invite to the community to give together during Match Day 2024,” said FSACF Chairman Becky Tourtillott. “The support of our community donors, combined with the match dollars, allows us to grow the endowments and provide ongoing support for our charitable partners. These local organizations and the services they provide are important to Bourbon County and make a true difference.”
Community contributions support each organization’s endowed fund held at FSACF. The funds are invested to produce present and future income, which organizations can use for operations, programs, or special projects. The $25,000 match pool will be divided among the participating organizations’ endowments in proportion to their share of community contributions, subject to a 20% limit. The full 100% of each donation will be placed in the organization’s endowed fund, and the match amount will be made available to the organization immediately.
Donations for Match Day can be made in three different ways:
Funds participating in Match Day are: Anna Faye and Robert Gordon Steele Memorial Funds, Care to Share Cancer Support Endowed Fund, First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) of Fort Scott Endowment, Fort Scott Area Chamber Foundation, Fort Scott Area Community Foundation General Endowment Fund, Fort Scott Area Public Parks Endowment, Dr. Pratt & Pauline Irby Endowment, John Valentine & Patricia Jean Neff Health Care Fund, Shepherd Family Endowment Fund, and the Shirley Yeager Animal Friends Foundation.
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More information at FortScottGives.Org
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“The event started in 2009 by the Fort Scott Middle School VIPs to raise money to support the middle school,” said Sydney Cullison, Fort Scott High School FFA Advisor.
The event is where local businesses or crafty individuals showcase and sell their products and the students running the event get some money for their cause, it’s a win-win proposition.
The chapter officers are in a class called Ag Leadership and have been planning this event with the help of Cullison.
