Category Archives: Fort Scott

Fort Scott, Government, Schools

USD234 Press Release

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NEWS RELEASE

 

Monday, February 8, 2021

 

Members of the USD 234 Board of Education met at the Fort Scott Middle School Commons on Monday, February 8, 2021, for their regular monthly meeting.

President David Stewart opened the meeting.  The board approved the official agenda.  The board also approved the consent agenda as follows:

 

A.    Minutes

B.    Bills and Claims

C.    Payroll – January 20, 2021 – $1,406,590.06

D.    Financial Report

E.     Activity Fund accounts

F.     Point of information – 2021 School Board Election

 

Board members recognized Jessica Phillips, Fort Scott Middle School Kitchen Manager, for achieving the Kansas Certificate in Child Nutrition Management.

There were no comments in the public forum section.

Brenda Hill, Fort Scott NEA President, gave a report.  In addition, Mrs. Hill presented $100 UBenefit Grants to the following teachers:  Mercedes Judy, Alexandra VanSickle, Kelly Toll, Michelle Defebaugh, and Kristin Duffey.

Board members heard a report from Dalaina Smith, Director of Academics.

In addition, Superintendent Ted Hessong and Gina Shelton, Business Manager/Board Clerk presented reports.

Board members approved a Math Resource adoption and also approved disposal of school property with Midwest Equipment Online Auction.

Board members shared comments and then went into executive session to discuss personnel matters for nonelected personnel and returned to open meeting

The board approved the following employment matters:

 

A.    Resignation of Karen Gordon, Winfield Scott technology teacher, effective at the end of the 2020-21 school year

B.    Resignation of Kerry Van Etten, central office HVAC maintenance, effective May 1, 2021

C.    Resignation of Brian Allen, high school teacher aide, effective February 5, 2021

D.    Resignation of Jill McDonald, Eugene Ware cook, effective January 25, 2021

E.     Retirement letter from Kyle Parks, high school vocational agriculture teacher

F.     Leave of absence for Katie McGee, Winfield Scott kindergarten teacher

G.    Employment of administrators for the 2021-22 school year

Fort Scott High School Athletic/Activities Director – Jeff DeLaTorre

Fort Scott Middle School Principal – David Brown

Fort Scott Middle School Assistant Principal – Matt Harris

Eugene Ware School Principal – Stephanie Witt

Eugene Ware School Assistant Principal – Brandon Boyd

Winfield Scott School Principal – Joy McGhee

Winfield Scott School Assistant Principal – Martin Altieri

Fort Scott Preschool Center Principal – Andrea Scott

District Psychologist/Special Education Coordinator – Rick Scholes

H.    Employment of district directors for the 2021-22 school year

Transportation Director – Joe Allen

Food Service Director – Robin Button

Facilities Director – Daniel Koppa

Technology Director – Stephen Mitchell

Academic Director – Dalaina Smith

I.      Non-renewal of Amber Toth, Fort Scott High School Principal, for the 2021-22 school year

J.      Resignation of Robyn Kelso, high school assistant principal, effective June 4, 2021

K.    Employment of Gina Shelton, Business Manager/Board Clerk, for the 2021-22 school year

L.     Addition of a preschool paraprofessional position for the remainder of the 2020-21 school year

M.   Employment of Jeffrey Dillow as central office HVAC maintenance for the remainder of the 2020-21 school year

N.    Resignation of Bronson Moylan, middle school assistant football coach, effective at the end of the 2020-21 school year

O.    Employment of Whitney Beth as middle school head volleyball coach for the 2021-22 school year

P.     Leave of absence request from Danielle Norris, Eugene Ware fourth grade teacher

Q.    Transfer of Bethany Higgins, Eugene Ware fourth grade teacher, to Eugene Ware technology teacher for the 2021-22 school year

R.    Transfer of Amy Lybarger, Eugene Ware fourth grade teacher, to Eugene Ware third grade teacher for the 2021-22 school year

S.     Employment of Ronda Bailey as a middle school piano accompanist for the remainder of the 2020-21 school year

T.     Employment of Peyton Guiles as a Eugene Ware special education teacher for the 2021-22 school year

 

The board adjourned.

Fort Scott

Program Provides Help With Winter Heating Costs

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Kansas Gas Service Offers Energy Assistance through Share The Warmth

Program Provides Help With Winter Heating Costs
OVERLAND PARK, Kan. – Feb. 9, 2021 – As colder temperatures have set in, Kansas Gas Service is reminding customers about the Share The Warmth program, which may provide those in financial need with assistance on their heating bill.

Share The Warmth is a partnership between The Salvation Army and Kansas Gas Service that provides energy assistance to senior citizens, individuals with disabilities and those whose immediate financial resources simply cannot cover their home-heating expenses.

The program is funded by the generous contributions of Kansas Gas Service customers and the ONE Gas Foundation.

“We know there are people who have never had to seek assistance before, but now are experiencing hardships due to the pandemic and loss of income,” said Abbey Frye, Kansas Gas Service Director of Customer Service. “For qualified applicants, Share The Warmth may be able to bring some welcomed relief.”

Share The Warmth is available to residents in the communities served by Kansas Gas Service, and applicants do not have to be customers.

If you need help with your winter heating bill, visit KansasGasService.com or contact The Salvation Army at 1-816-756-5392, ext. 2.
If you want to contribute, giving is easy: Kansas Gas Service customers may contribute online at KansasGasService.com by clicking the Share The Warmth button next to the Make Payment button, or by adding an extra amount to your natural gas bill payment and checking the Share The Warmth box on your payment slip.

About Kansas Gas Service
Kansas Gas Service delivers safe, clean and reliable natural gas to more than 639,000 customers in 360 communities
in Kansas. We are the largest natural gas distributor in the state, in terms of customers.

We are a division of ONE Gas, Inc. (NYSE: OGS), a stand-alone, 100 percent regulated, publicly traded natural gas utility that trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “OGS.” ONE Gas is included in the S&P MidCap 400 Index, and is one of the largest natural gas utilities in the United States.

For more information, visit the websites at www.kansasgasservice.com or www.onegas.com.
For the latest news about Kansas Gas Service, follow us on Twitter @KansasGas or Like Us on Facebook at
Facebook.com/KansasGasService.
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Fort Scott, Government

FS City Offices Closed Feb. 15

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The City of Fort Scott City Administrative Offices will be closed on Monday, February 15th, 2021 in observance of the President’s Day holiday. The offices will reopen on Tuesday, February 16th, 2021.

The City’s tree and brush dump site located on North Hill will also be closed on Saturday, February 13th, 2021 for the President’s Day holiday. It will be open again on Tuesday, February 16th, 2021 from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.

Business, Fort Scott, Fort Scott Chamber of Commerce

Visitor Guides Ad Sales Offered

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Advertising Sales
Begin for the Fort Scott Area
2021 Community & Visitor Guide,
Chamber Membership Directory
Don’t miss this opportunity
to showcase your business
or organization!
Click here to view the most recent guide for your reference.
Click here for a printable
copy of the letter shown below.
Click here for the advertising rate card.
________
This guide is being published in
partnership of the Chamber and
Convention & Visitors Bureau.
Distribution will include:
Every Chamber member.
Relocation & informational inquiries.
Mailing to visitor requests.
Mailing to Group & Convention planners.
Festival & trade show booths.
Realtors.
Employers for employee recruitment.
Area hotels.
Select retail & business locations in the area.
Linked digitally on fortscott.com, and you
may link to your website & email signature as well!
DIGITAL
The digital edition will be linked to the homepage of our website
year-round & emailed out 4x a year to members!
That is exposure for your business or organization 24/7, 365 days/year!
Click HERE to
check out the most recent
Community Guide & Membership Directory!
Contact Tammie Easson
w/Chamber member Metro Media
to secure your ad placement today!
Click here to email.
Or, call 417-629-7935.
Let Tammie know if you will be submitting
your own ad, or if you
need us to do the artwork for you (included in rate).
Fort Scott

Alene Jolly Retires After 40 Years at Tri-Valley

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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.”

 

Fort Scott, Government

FS City Commission Special Meeting Feb. 11

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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.

Fort Scott, Schools, Sports

Tiger Swimmers Compete

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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.

Submitted by Coach Angie Kemmerer

Bourbon County, Fort Scott

Interest In The Mayhew Cemetery Has Revived

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Submitted photo.
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:
To donate to the memorial:
Business, Fort Scott, Housing

Union Loft Tours Feb. 5

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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.