Tri-Valley Developmental Services is located at 4305 Campbell Drive in Fort Scott’s Industrial Park.
Alene Jolly is retiring from Tri-Valley Developmental Services after 40 years. Her last day is Friday, Feb. 12.
Alene Jolly. Submitted photo.
Through those years Jolly has done transportation of clients, worked at the service center, was a case manager, worked at residential services, and most currently, the program director in Fort Scott.
She has tried to provide individuals that receive services involvement in the community, “to add value to their lives and provide services, too.”
Tri-Valley empowers people with disabilities to realize their potential as full citizens in the community, by supporting them in working and living in the place they call home, according to the company’s website.
Currently, Tri-Valley in Fort Scott has close to 40 employees and 30 individuals they provide services to.
For Jolly, the best part of the job was seeing the individuals that she worked with having joy when they accomplished a task.
“It puts warm fuzzies in your heart,” she said.
Tri-Valley opened in 1975 and Jolly has been with the company since 1980. Through the years she has seen people’s attitudes change towards developmentally disabled in the community, she said.
“There is more acceptance, especially of the individuals having jobs in the community,” Jolly said.
Mary Davis, a former co-worker of 25 years, said of Jolly, “She is a very capable, intelligent, dedicated person. She can do about anything that needs doing.”
Jolly thinks it is time to start a new chapter in her life.
“I’m going to do a little this, a little that,” she said. “Travel, crafts, gardening…things I have put on the back burner.”
The City Commission will meet for a special meeting at 3:00 p.m. on Thursday, February 11th, 2021 at City Hall in the City Commission meeting room at 123 South Main Street, Fort Scott, Kansas. The City Commission will meet to consider approval of waterline material bids and consideration of Change Order #1 for the Sanitary Sewer Cleaning and Video Inspection Services.
This meeting will be broadcast on the City’s You tube channel. This meeting is open to the public.
The Street Advisory Board will meet on Thursday, February 11th, 2021 at 4:00 p.m. at the City Commission Meeting Room at 123 S. Main Street. 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.
The Fort Scott High School Swim Team, Feb. 4, 2021
Last week the Fort Scott High School Boys Swim Team competed at Coffeyville on Tuesday.
Oliver Witt took 1st in both the 500 Free and the 50 Free. He swam a state consideration time in the 50.
Bobby Kemmerer took 1st in both the 100 Free and the 100 Back, swimming a state consideration time in the 100 Free.
Sam Mix took 2nd in both the 50 Free and the 100 Breast.
The boys also were able to swim in the 400 Free Relay placing 1st as an exhibition team.
On Thursday, the Tiger Swimmers traveled to Hutchinson to compete in the Buhler High School meet.
Oliver took 1st in the 200 Free and 4th in the 100 Butterfly.
Sam took 3rd in the 50 Free and Bobby took 2nd in the 100 Free and 4th in the Breast.
Next week the boys will be preparing for their last regular-season competition, the League Meet in Osawatomie. This will be the last opportunity for earning State Qualifying times. The 5A-1A State Swim Meet will be on Saturday, February 21st in Shawnee Mission.
Shirley Hurd is a lifelong resident of Fort Scott and a researcher at Old Fort Genealogy Society (OFGS).
In 1995 she started to research the Mayhew Cemetery, she said in a press release. “This cemetery was set out in a deed in 1885, when the owner, Henry Mayhew sold all but a 100 x 100-foot section where his son-in-law was buried.”
The cemetery is predominantly an African-American burial site .
At the time she began her research, she and two others made a visit to Chet Ober (the property owner) of the site and asked if he could show them where the Mayhew Cemetery was.
“The location (Ober) took us to is where the Mayhew No. 2 cemetery is located,” she said. “Mr. Ober told us that he asked Bourbon County several times to fix up the cemetery. He stated that the county dozed the tombstone, sometime after 1961, into the river, and told him to use the ground as farmland.”
Others Have Sought Info About the Cemetery
Prior to Hurd, in 1973 OFGS Member Gerald Wood met with Ober.
“He stated that he tried diligently to get someone to help preserve the cemetery, but when they were unable to do so, they had it bulldozed since they needed the land,” she said.
In 2006 Hurd was asked for information about the Mayhew Cemetery by Sandra Dudley who was writing a story about the cemetery.
Hurd told Dudley all that she knew about the cemetery and Dudley attempted to view the site.
Dudley found a sign that stated “Do Not Enter – Hazardous Waste – Keep Out” and a Fort Scott City employee told her she was not allowed on the property, that it was private property, according to Hurd.
Dudley published a booklet in 2007 named “The Buried Roots of African-American Ancestry in Fort Scott, Kansas” which includes information on the Mayhew Cemetery.
Hurd Started Researching Again in 2019, After a Hiatus
Last year, she had another join in the research.
“In 2020, Ann Rawlins joined the research of the Mayhew Cemetery and we soon located Mayhew Cemetery No. 2 from aerial maps,” she said. “We believe that Mayhew No.1 could no longer hold any more burials in the 100 x 100-foot lot and burials were started north of the original site, and then to the east just south of the (Marmaton) river bank.”
The updated list of names is now about 175 buried in the two sites of the Mayhew Cemetery, she said.
“There is a Civil War Soldier buried in Mayhew, along with some that were freed as slaves and retained their slave owners’ names,” Hurd said. “There is an entire family that died in 1911 – 13 of whooping cough and other complications due to disease at that time. There are newborns, children, families, neighbors, and a couple (of people) that even lived to be 100 years old. There are so many stories of these families that need to be told.”
“Restoration of the cemetery is not possible,” Hurd said, “but there is a plan to have a memorial stone with all the names of the deceased on it placed in Fort Scott.”
A tombstone that had been located at Mayhew Cemetery. Submitted photos.
The memorial stone will be financed through personal and business donations.
“If you would like more information on the Mayhew Cemetery, please stop by OFGS Library or give me a call,” Hurd said.
OFGS’s phone number is 620-223-3300 or her email address is [email protected]. The office is located on National Avenue, in the basement of Memorial Hall.
Ann Rawlins is a librarian at Old Fort Genealogical Society and recently assisted Hurd on the project.
The site for Mayhew Cemetery No. 2 was unknown until Rawlins’ twin brother, Dr. Wayne R. Tucker, used lidar photography of the area. He found that there were two separate locations that were divided by a low channel.
“Once this was discovered…and we had located and recorded GPS coordinates of several surface items,” Rawlins said, “we have been authorized…to dig, but are still working on surface finds.”
“There are many buried in Mayhew who would never have been posted in the local newspapers or death records, so the total number of burials may never be known,” Rawlins said.
“Robert J. Hoard, Ph.D., State Archeologist of Kansas Historical Society is investigating the sites,” Rawlins said, “and has now classified them as historic and archeological cemeteries.”
Currently, a moratorium is in effect that Fort Scott city crews can only brush hog the area to maintain it, and no further damage to the site can be done.
The document is signed by former Fort Scott City Manager Dave Martin and authorized by the Fort Scott City Commissioners, Rawlins said.
For an upcoming information event on the Mayhew Cemetery:
The City of Fort Scott announces another significant downtown rehabilitation has been completed. Fort Scott received back-to-back multi-million-dollar investments from Flint Hills Holdings which speaks to the character of our community and those who have represented us.
Elected officials, business owners, and community enthusiasts who supported the renovation are invited to tour the Union Lofts.
Tours will be on Friday, February 5th offered from 12pm to 2pm.
Allyson Turvey. Submitted photo. She was selected by the new city manager to become the Fort Scott Land Bank Manager.
At a Feb. 1 meeting, the newly formed Fort Scott Land Bank voted on the acquisition of 10 N. National Ave.
“This first acquisition marks a historic step for the Fort Scott Land Bank,” City Manager Jeremy Frazier said. ” It is important to note that this could not have been possible without the visionary leadership of the city commission and the hard work of many key employees such as Community Development Manager Allison Turvey and many others.”
Frazier’s first official day on the job as city manager was Feb. 1.
Jeremy Frazier. Submitted photo.
“The city would also like to express its appreciation to the principal owners of J&S Properties and Earth Always for allowing the Fort Scott Land Bank to acquire this property,” he said. ” When asked why the acquisition was allowed to proceed, the owner noted that first, he felt that this would be the best way to preserve the historic building on behalf of the community of Fort Scott, its residents, and the downtown business community. Second, he expressed that he had great faith and optimism in the current city commission and myself to make the best use of this acquisition in a way that would benefit and improve the community.”
The owner donated the property.
“His generosity has breathed life into the Fort Scott Land Bank which was once only a plan and now is reality,” Frazier said. Thank you J&S Properties and Earth Always. We have high hopes for this building and its location in the future.”
The Fort Scott Land Bank is an independent instrument of the city with the responsibility to efficiently buy, hold, manage, and transform surplus city properties and other underutilized or distressed properties to turn these properties into productive use, according to Allyson Turvey, the newly appointed manager.
The Land Bank Board is comprised of Joshua Jones, Mayor of Fort Scott; Kevin Allen, City Commissioner, Pete Allen, City Commissioner; Randy Nichols, City Commissioner; Lindsey Watts, City Commissioner; Jim Harris, Bourbon County Commissioner;
Gregg Motley, Bourbon County Economic Development Board, Inc. Director; Turvey, LandBank Manager, and Susan Bancroft, LandBank Treasurer
“At our next meeting (Feb. 9)I will be giving a presentation on the processes and objectives of the Land Bank,” Turvey said. “We will also be discussing priorities for acquisition of property.”
Turvey provided the following on the Fort Scott Land Bank:
The Fort Scott Land Bank focuses on the conversion of vacant, abandoned, tax-delinquent, or otherwise underused properties into productive use.
Vacant, abandoned, tax-delinquent, or otherwise underused properties are often grouped together as “problem properties” because they destabilize neighborhoods, create fire and safety hazards, drive down property values, and drain local tax dollars.
The Fort Scott Land Bank was created to strategically
acquire problem properties, eliminate the liabilities, and transfer the properties to new, responsible owners in a transparent manner that results in outcomes consistent with community-based plans.
These opportunities are a collection of parcels owned by the Fort Scott Land Bank.
Every transfer of property from the Fort Scott Land Bank will be accompanied by a development agreement, outlining the final use of the property as well as accompanying timelines. The purchase price
for Land Bank properties will be negotiated based on the cost to acquire the property as well as the details in the development agreement. The Fort Scott Land Bank Board of Trustees will approve the final agreement and purchase offer.
Students from Saint Martin’s Academy are from left to right, Jack Duffy from Nebraska, Kenny Ritson from New Jersey, Deneys Lategan from South Africa. Submitted photo.
Saint Martin’s Academy joins a growing list of community organizations and churches that are contributing to the success of Feeding Families in His Name.
Feeding Families in His Name started Ten years ago on May 11, 2011, at the First United Methodist Church serving a free weekly meal to the community in the Fellowship Hall to about forty people.
The meal currently serves an average of three hundred meals a week. Only to-go meals have been served since the first of March 2020 because of Covid-19 restrictions.
Each year the number of people who volunteer for the project has grown until now it encompasses more of the community.
The Bourbon County Network which includes United Methodist Churches of Fulton, Hammond, Uniontown, Redfield, Hiatville, West Liberty and St. John’s congregations have all supported Feeding Families.
Community Christian Church cooks and serves the Wednesday every other month; a small group of the Nazarene Church cooks and serves every third Wednesday; a group from First Presbyterian Church cooks and serves every fourth Wednesday; and Pioneer Kiwanis cooks and serves the fifth Wednesday of the month. Many volunteers bake desserts for the meal every week.
Feeding Families in His Name is supported by private donations from churches and individuals, commodities from USDA through the Kansas Department of Children and Families, and a grant from the Fort Scott Community Foundation.
Submitted by Jean Tucker, Coordinator of Feeding Families in His Name.
Chamber Announces Love Local & Chocolate Crawl Shopping Event
The Fort Scott Area Chamber of Commerce announces a Love Local & Chocolate Crawl shopping event will take place on Saturday, February 13th. Most stores in the Downtown Historic District and several additional locations will be participating in the fun.
Customers are invited to shop local retailers while sampling a variety of chocolate treats along the way, and many will also be offering drawings and promotions. Locations included in the event will have a Chocolate Crawl poster and red and white balloons displayed at their entrance.
The Chamber encourages the community to shop local, love local and join the Chocolate Crawl on February 13th to celebrate Valentine’s Day. A list of retailers will be posted on the Fort Scott Chamber website fortscott.com.
Contact the Chamber for more information at 620-223-3566.
