The Fort Scott City Commission and the Bourbon County Commission will hold a work session on Wednesday, March 30th, 2022 at the Empress Event Center, 7 North Main Street, Fort Scott, Kansas at 12:00 p.m. Even though a majority of City Commissioners will be present, no City business will be conducted.
Category Archives: Fort Scott
The Fort Scott Airport Advisory Board Meets March 30
The Airport Advisory Board will meet on Wednesday, March 30, 2022 at 12:00 p.m. at the City Commission meeting room at City Hall, 123 S. Main Street, Fort Scott, Kansas. This meeting is open to the public.
This meeting will be made available via the City’s you tube channel at City of Fort Scott.
Chamber Coffee at Fort Scott Public Library March24
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Annual Fish Fry Continues Two More Fridays With All Sit-Down Meals
The Knights of Columbus Fish Fry continues for two more weeks, with no drive-through orders. The sit-down meals will be inside Kennedy Gym at St. Mary’s Catholic Church.
Serving is from 5 to 7 p.m.
The dates for the last two fish fries are March 25 and April 1.
Update on Ascension Via Christi Fort Scott: Staying and Expanding
The closing of Mercy Hospital Fort Scott in 2018, left the community lacking emergency care. The community was apprehensive about the closure because the nearest emergency care facilities are in hospitals in Pittsburg, which is 30 miles south or Iola, which is 47 miles west.
History
In 2018, leaders in Bourbon County approached Ascension Via Christi Hospital leaders in Pittsburg to provide continued access to emergency care in the former Mercy Hospital Emergency Room.
After careful deliberation, Ascension determined they would play a role, President Drew Talbot of Ascension Via Christi Hospital said.
Mercy Hospital kept the ER open after the hospital closed on Dec. 31, 2018, until the Ascension Via Christi Fort Scott Emergency Department could get the approval to operate under the Pittsburg hospital licensure. Then Ascension filled the hole in services and saw its first patient on Feb. 28, 2019.
Services
Since that date, the emergency department has seen more than 16,000 emergency room patients, performed more than 20,000 imaging studies, and processed more than 54,000 lab tests, according to Talbot in an interview.
And they have expanded services.
“We subsequently opened a primary care and prenatal clinic with a local provider and later added a second provider to meet the community need,” Talbot said. “When our hospital in Pittsburg successfully recruited David Robbins, MD, and Justin Ogden, MD, we further expanded the services offered at our Fort Scott clinic to include cardiology and orthopedics.”
“We utilize the same laboratory used by our Ascension Via Christi hospitals throughout Kansas,” Talbot said. “We have on-site diagnostic imaging capabilities, including CT, digital X-ray, ultrasound, and most recently-cardiac echo ultrasound. As part of Ascension Via Christi, these images are read by a Kansas group of 30 board-certified radiologists with advanced training in a variety of areas, providing our Fort Scott ER and Pittsburg hospital with diagnostic capabilities on par with those of a large metro-area hospital.”
They currently have 35 associates serving in Fort Scott, he said.
Future
“We have an agreement with Bourbon County (Commissioners)that will take us to February 2023 and we hope to continue to offer our services in Fort Scott for as long as there is an unmet need,” Talbot said.
“We are proud of the sustainable model of care that we have established,” Talbot said.
“While we understand Bourbon County leaders’ desire to explore the viability of returning to a community hospital model, (see: Noble Health Announces Reopening a Hospital in Fort Scott) our lived experience as the community’s emergency care provider indicates that the volumes are too low to do so without federal or local taxpayer funding,” he said.
“However, as a department of our hospital in Pittsburg, we have demonstrated that we can operate an ER and supporting services in a financially sustainable manner,” he said. “We have an essentially self-supporting model of care and we are proud of our caregivers’ contribution to patients and families and to Fort Scott’s growth and development.”
Via Christi is working on securing a facility to continue to expand its services once the Feb. 2023 agreement is completed.
“We recognize and appreciate the need for patients and families to receive close-to-home care whenever there is sufficient demand to support services,” he said. “That’s what led us to respond to the community’s needs when Mercy closed its doors. Our clinics have received tremendous community support. We are already looking to expand the availability and types of services being offered. With that in mind, we are working on securing a long-term home where we can offer these and potentially other needed services under one roof.”
Precedent
“We accepted the community’s invitation to serve because ensuring Kansans’ access to care is in keeping with our mission as a non-profit Catholic healthcare system,” Talbot said. “It also has historical precedent, given that Ascension Via Christi Hospital in Pittsburg was founded by the Sisters of St. Joseph nearly 120 years ago at the request of Mt. Carmel Coal Mining Co. founder Charles Devlin, who recognized miners’ need for close-to-home care.”
Wellness Assessments Focus Groups 2022
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St. Mary’s Catholic School Kindergarten Roundup April 13
St. Mary’s Catholic School Kindergarten Roundup will be held Wednesday, April 13 by appointment from 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM.
To enter kindergarten, a child must be 5 years of age on or before August 31.
If you would like for your child to attend kindergarten at St. Mary’s next year, please contact the school office at 620-223-6060 to schedule an appointment to be screened on April 13.
On the day of the screening, please bring your child’s social security card, birth certificate, immunization record/physical form, and if Catholic their baptism certificate.
A Kansas Certification of Immunization and/or a Kansas Child Health assessment must be filled out and submitted to the school before admission in the fall of 2022.
Parents may accompany their child into the building and wait inside until the screening is completed. At that point, a staff member will bring the child back out and discuss the results of the screening.
St. Mary’s Catholic School is fully accredited by the state of Kansas and welcomes students of all faiths.
Home Show Vendors Needed For 2022
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Be a part of a great team! They’re Hiring!
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THEATRE EDUCATION IN THE SPOTLIGHT IN MARCH
Submitted by Angie Bin, Fort Scott High School Theatre and Speech Teacher
Students at Fort Scott High School Lead Community Advocacy Efforts
[Fort Scott, KS, March 21, 2022]—Students at Fort Scott High School are joining the national grassroots effort called Theatre in Our Schools Month (TIOS) to advocate for the benefits of theatre education in schools.
Members of International Thespian Society (ITS) Troupe 7365 are drawing attention to the need for increased access to quality theatre programs for all students, especially as schools reimagine programs in the ever-shifting landscape influenced by COVID-19 protocols.
To get the word out, the troupe is participating in many events.
Students are hosting the annual FSHS Talent Show and Miss(ter) FSHS Pageant at 7 p.m. on March 25 at the FS Auditorium. Tickets for reserved seats are $6 and available at fortscotthighschool.ludus.com or at the door.
The Thespian troupe is especially raising money to send students to the International Thespian Festival in June.
The troupe is also sharing information about the importance of Theatre in Our Schools and students’ personal stories via Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and Tiktok.
Thespians Shirt Thursday awards students to who wear theatre-related shirts to school with prizes.
The ITS is the theatre honor society for middle and high school students. These student thespians plan and implement TIOS activities in their schools, in their communities, and with elected officials. The presentations and activities explain how theatre education positively shapes students’ lives by instilling necessary life skills.
TIOS Month is an opportunity for students, parents, communities, school boards, and elected officials to come together to make theatre education more available to all students.
One of the key messages is that theatre skills help students develop vital 21st-century skills like communication, collaboration, creativity, and critical thinking, as well as social/emotional skills critical to students’ growth as young adults.
For example, according to The College Board, in 2015, students who took four years of arts classes in high school scored an average of 92 points higher on their SATs than students who only took one half year or less.
But, according to the U.S. Department of Education, only 28 percent of high schools in high poverty areas offer theatre instruction.
According to a 2018 poll, 72 percent of Americans believe the arts unify our communities regardless of age, race, and ethnicity, and more than 90 percent believe students should receive an education in the arts in elementary, middle, and high school. The poll, “Americans Speak Out About the Arts in 2018,” was conducted by Americans for the Arts.
To see ITS Troupe 7365 in action, come to the Spring Improv Comedy Show on Apr. 30 at 7 p.m. in the FSHS Auditorium.
Children can also participate in Tiger Drama Camp – The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales on May 16-28. Registration forms are available at Buck Run.
Theatre in Our Schools is jointly sponsored by the American Alliance for Theatre & Education (AATE) and the Educational Theatre Association (EdTA). For more information about TIOS, visit schooltheatre.org/tios and follow #TheatreInOurSchools on social media.
Lake Advisory Board Meets March 26
The Lake Fort Scott Advisory Board will meet on Saturday, March 26th, 2022 at 9:00 a.m. at the City Hall Commission meeting room at 123 S. Main Street, Fort Scott, Kansas. This meeting is open to the public.
The meeting will be available on the City’s YouTube channel.
Free Trees Offered to FS Residents From Kiwanis
A local organization is helping to add more of a tree canopy to the community.
The Fort Scott Kiwanis Club is offering free trees to residents of the city.
“This is made possible through a grant from the Fort Scott Area Community Foundation,” Phil Gorman, treasurer of Kiwanis, said. “Sixty trees will be purchased and planted by the club in cooperation with Fort Scott Community College, Fort Scott High School, and the City of Fort Scott.”
“FSCC, and the high school, we are going to use some of their organizations for labor to help us get the trees in the ground,” Gorman said.
“The city helped us with the grant and they will help dig the holes and also help with logistics of where the trees will be planted,” he said.
Two large-growing tree varieties are being offered, Swamp White Oak and Shumard Oak.
To be considered for trees contact the City of Fort Scott at 620.223-0550, by April 4. Trees will be planted sometime in April.
For safety, the group won’t plant trees in the way of high lines or on street corners, Gorman said.
The Kiwanis tree planting program has been done for many years, Gorman said.
“Some street trees all around the city were planted by Kiwanis years ago,” he said. “I’d say in the thousands.”
The group is rejuvenating the program and hopes to make it an annual event.
About Kiwanis
Kiwanis is a global organization of volunteers dedicated to improving the world, one child and one community, at a time.
They meet each Tuesday at noon at the Presbyterian Church, 308 S. Crawford.
“There are currently 35 members,” Gorman said. “We are always open to new members.”
What’s Happening In Fort Scott Newsletter
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