“Fort Scott Public Library will hold its 3rd Annual Family Holiday Party Monday, December 18, at 4 p.m. Activities for teens will be held upstairs, while games and crafts for children will be downstairs after group stories. Children and teens of all ages are welcome, but second grade and below must be accompanied by an adult at all times. The party will run from 4 – 5:30 p.m. Enjoy holiday stories, songs, activities, snacks, crafts, and prizes, free.
Volunteers are needed to help supervise the activities. Please contact youth librarian Valetta Cannon at [email protected] if you would like to help. Happy holidays from Fort Scott Public Library!“
A Price Chopper grocery store will open the doors to its newest store, located in Fort Scott, at 2322 S. Main Street on Wednesday, December 13 at 9 a.m.
Price Chopper will be open 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily.
The 40,000-square foot Price Chopper is owned by the Queen family who also have five additional stores in Kansas. The new Fort Scott location joins the Price Chopper family of 51 stores in and around the Kansas City metro.
The newly-redeveloped store is a welcome addition to the shopping center that formerly housed Woods supermarket and will feature a drive-through Dunkin’ Donuts as well as other amenities.
“As neighborhood grocers, we are passionate about serving the community around us,” said Barry Queen, owner of Price Chopper. “We are proud to present Fort Scott with a new store that will offer an exceptional shopping experience, as well as, serve as a strong partner for the local community.”
With the Price Chopper brand comes several new food options. Price Chopper offers hot meals each night of the week.
“Chopper Chicken Tuesdays” offer a hot dinner special from the deli that comes with chicken, sides, and rolls. The meat department offers KC Pride meats and Choice Certified Angus Beef cut by in-store butchers.
Additional amenities include:
Charter Reserve Premium deli meats and cheeses, sliced to order
Chopper Chicken: Fresh, never frozen, fried and rotisserie chicken
Custom-made to order cakes, perfect for birthdays, weddings, and other special occasions
Fresh popcorn-popped in store with your favorite flavors and fun additions
Big Jim’s Smokehouse-fresh smoked meat, ready-to-eat
Full service floral
Comfortable seating area with access to wifi
Outdoor seating
Price Chopper also offers its customers the Chopper Shopper REWARDS program. By using the Chopper Shopper REWARDS Card, customers earn points towards for discounts on future food purchases and other promotional offers.
“Everything we do at Price Chopper is designed to create a better experience for our customers,” added Barry Queen “We’re excited to extend our service to Fort Scott and look forward to partnering with the community.”
In a combination of full and part-time position, Price Chopper adds a total of 125 jobs to the Fort Scott economy. People interested in Price Chopper employment opportunities should visit the Queen’s Food Stores section on the Careers Page at www.mypricechopper.com.
About Price Chopper Price Chopper’s 51 Kansas City stores are locally owned by the Ball, Cosentino, McKeever, and Queen families, all of whom live in Kansas City and oversee store operations on a daily basis. For 38 years, the owners and employees of Price Chopper have been committed to providing the highest quality products and top-of-the-line customer service to the thousands of customers they serve every day. For more information, please visit www.mypricechopper.com.
On Wednesday, December 6, as part of the Mercy Wish Program, Nora Jean O’Dell was whisked away for a trolley ride through Fort Scott.
The evening began with hot cocoa and treats followed by a fabulous ride through the streets of the city.
The festivities included a tour of downtown Fort Scott’s Christmas light displays as well as highly spirited, yet out-of-tune, caroling.
None of this could have taken place without the dedication of Mrs. O’Dell’s nurse, Kerry Wunderly.
Mercy Hospice would like to extend its deepest thanks to the City of Fort Scott’s tourism department and specifically the Tourism Manager, Larry Gazaway, for making the trolley ride possible.
The Bourbon County Courthouse, 210 S. National Avenue.
The Bourbon County Commission meets at 9 a.m. on Tuesdays at the county courthouse, 210 S. National Ave.
The agenda for December 12, 2017:
9-9:45 a.m.-Jim Harris
9 a.m.-City State Bank – John Hill-Financing paperwork for the Mack Dump Truck
9:45-10:15 a.m.- Commissioners consider and take action on any and all question regarding the law enforcement project
10:30-10:45 a.m.-Bobby Reed-Budget
11-11:30 a.m.-Justin Meeks
11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m.-Jail Progress Meeting
1:45-2 p.m.-Clint Anderson
2:30 p.m.-Employee handbook
1st District Commissioner is Lynne Oharah; 2nd District-Jeff Fischer; 3rd District-Nick Ruhl and the County Clerk-Kendell Mason
Justifications for Executive Session:
· Personnel matters of individual non-elected personnel
· Consultation with an attorney for the body or agency which would be deemed privileged in the attorney-client relationship
· Matters relating to employer-employee negotiations whether or not in consultation with the representative(s) of the body or agency
· Confidential data relating to financial affairs or trade secrets of corporations, partnerships, trusts and individual proprietorships
· Preliminary discussions relating to the acquisition of real property
· Matters relating to the security of a public body or agency, public building or facility or the information system of a public body or agency, if the discussion of such matters at an open meeting would jeopardize the security of such public body, agency, building, facility or information system
This Saturday is the Fort Scott Community College band and choir concert starting at 7 pm in the Ellis Fine Arts Center.
There will be a broad variety of music ranging from such quaint sources as classic TV Christmas specials, like “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” and “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” to the more profound and thought-provoking music of classical composers.
Bring your family and friends for an enjoyable and heartwarming hour of fun and beautiful music celebrating the Christmas season!
Fort Scott Community College Students were provided a trip to visit with entrepreneur Warren Buffet in Omaha, Nebraska December 1.
Opportunity of a Lifetime
Submitted by Debra Cummings, Fort Scott Community College Business Instructor
Rick and Shelly Mayhew provided fifteen FSCC students the opportunity of a lifetime, an all-expenses-paid trip to Omaha to meet Warren Buffett.
To learn more about Buffet go online to http://forbes.com/profile/warren-buffet
Rick, an alumnus of FSCC, through his connections with Western Insurance and Warren Buffet, received an invitation to bring students to Omaha, Neb. for a question and answer session with Warren Buffet.
The Mayhews announced in the spring of 2017 their willingness to fund another trip to Omaha. The first trip by FSCC students was in 2006.
Fifteen students made the trip. The Mayhews paid for the lodging, meals, and fuel. FSCC supplied the bus and driver.
Rick Mayhew recognized student’s needs and provided funds to obtain business attire for the session with Buffett.
Other colleges to join the session with Buffett were Columbia, Duke, Harvard, Illinois, London, Michigan, MIT, Notre Dame, NYU/Stern schools of Business. FSCC was the only community college there.
On Nov. 30, the students made the trip to Omaha by bus and met the Mayhews at Warren’s favorite Dairy Queen for lunch.
The FSCC students toured Borsheims Jewelry, drove past the Buffett residence and checked into the Downtown Hilton and Convention Center.
They met with Buffet’s daughter, Susie, and had the opportunity to ask questions about her father and the foundations she runs.
The Mayhews provided dinner and a few of the students took in some ice skating afterward. They also toured Nebraska Furniture Mart.
On Friday, Dec 1, the students attended a two-hour question and answer period with Buffet. Buffet noted the importance of FSCC being there.
Following lunch, there was a group photo with Buffett.
“I could not have asked for a better group of students,” Cummings said.
Students who did the trip were Leslie Damien, Dalton Deshazer, Alex Gilmore, Justin Jackson, Andrew Johnson, Jenna Kakas, Savannah Kratzberg, Kartis Leal, Malorie McCumons, Rebecca Stufflebeam, Franklin Torres, Shaun Tune, Jordan Underwood, Rachel Walker, and Johnna Walls.
“A special thank you to Kartis and Savannah for asking questions for our group,” Cummings said. “Thank you to Charles Howser, our driver, for making the trip with us. And, again, thank you to the Mayhews for making dreams come true.”
Fort Scott Community College also included a link to the Omaha-World Herald Newspaper, dated December 4, 2017, which included a section entitled “Warren Watch” and an article that spoke of Fort Scott:
Fort Scott ties
They’re not from Harvard, Yale or Stanford, but students from Fort Scott Community College in Kansas were in Omaha last week as part of the latest group of business students to meet Buffett, thanks in part to their town’s auto insurance connection with Berkshire.
Rick Mayhew of Fenton, Missouri, a member of the Berkshire fan club known as the Yellow Brk-ers, cited an account in Andy Kilpatrick’s “Of Permanent Value” book of the Buffett-Fort Scott connection. (Fort Scott students also made an Omaha trip in 2006.)
Insurance agent Oscar Rice started Western Insurance Cos. in 1910 in Fort Scott. Ray Duboc was CEO when Buffett invested in the business in the 1950s. Buffett later sold that investment and used the money to invest in Geico, now a big moneymaker for Berkshire.
“Western, in a major way, contributed to the financial success I had,” Buffett once said. “I owe a lot to Ray Duboc, the Western and Fort Scott, Kansas.”
Pictured left to right: Albert Sacbibit, physical therapist; Brenda Bailey, RN; Bob Meredith, physical therapist; Sandy Hayes, administrative assistance; Becky Davied, director; Jo Gauthier, account coordinator ; Alice Helton, RN; LaShawn Noel, social worker and volunteer coordinator; Chris Welch, community relations coordinator; Barbara Endicott, RN; Kathy Stienbarger, RN; Ashley Helton, RN; and Wade Pellett, RN. Not pictured are Hugo Dahlstrom, occupational therapist; Kyli Gates, RN clinical supervisor; and home health aides Cindy Remlinger and Golda Young.
Earning national awards is no easy feat. Add to that, repeatedly making the list and the pursuit is especially rewarding.
Just so happens that Mercy Fort Scott Home Health proudly announces it has been recognized once again on the prestigious list of the nation’s HomeCare Elite™. The list is compiled by OCS HomeCare and Decision Health and names the top 25 percent of home care agencies in the nation. This marks the fifth year Mercy Fort Scott Home Health has received the recognition.
Five domains of performance were analyzed to determine the elite awards – quality of care, quality of improvement and consistency, and experience (HHCAHPS), process measure implementation and financial performance.
The methodology behind the OCS HomeCare Elite™ is derived from publicly available data from Home Health Compare and the CMS Cost Reports to create the HomeCare Elite™ list of agencies.
The quality of care component indexes agency performance in each of the 10 publicly-reported Home Health Compare measures released in July 2017. The process measures implementation index based on agencies’ rates in the 13 process measures included in the July 2017 Home Health Compare release.
“The Mercy Home Health team continually goes over and beyond to exceed expectations, at many times taking on extras that might not always fit in the job role,” said Becky Davied, Mercy Home Health, and Hospice director. “This is a special group of people and I feel privileged to work with them.”
Mercy Home Health, based in Fort Scott, was established in November 1978 and today serves approximately 900 annually in the counties of Linn, Anderson, Allen, Bourbon, Crawford, southern Miami, northern Neosho and northern Cherokee. In July 2012, Mercy Home Health launched hospice services and currently employs nine full-time staff plus multiple volunteers.
For more information about Mercy Home Health services, call 620-223-8090.
Just in time for the holiday season, Mercy Hospital Auxiliary will host a Holiday Bargain Sale on Friday, Dec. 8 from 8 a.m. – 6 p.m. in the main lobby of Mercy Hospital Fort Scott.
The one-day fundraising event is a favorite with the public. Typically the Mercy Auxiliary brings the vendor to the hospital twice a year. The sale will feature over 1,000 items perfect for special occasions or stocking stuffers. These include trendy fashion accessories such as jewelry, scarves, seasonal items, gadgets, gifts and much more.
Many items are name brand, top quality products but priced up to 80 percent below retail.
The Mercy Hospital Auxiliary is a volunteer organization that raises money to benefit the hospital and provides scholarships for students.
Over the past 12 years, Mercy Auxiliary has donated nearly $850,000 to Mercy Hospital for equipment upgrades, program support, supplies and scholarships for nursing students. Proceeds from sales in the Mercy Market Place gift shop and other specialty sales support the Auxiliary. Collectively, auxiliary member’s volunteer the equivalent of almost seven full-time co-workers in hours of service each year to the hospital.
Mercy, named one of the top five large U.S. health systems in 2016 by Truven, an IBM company, serves millions annually. Mercy includes 45 acute care and specialty (heart, children’s, orthopedic and rehab) hospitals, more than 700 physician practices and outpatient facilities, 40,000 co-workers and more than 2,000 Mercy Clinic physicians in Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma. Mercy also has outreach ministries in Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas.
Fitness just got easier, or at least the cost of it.
Now through Feb. 28, 2018, Mercy Health for Life fitness center is waiving the new member joining fee. That means members can access all the best cardiovascular equipment, free weights and strength training equipment at Health for Life, plus the services and amenities for the low monthly rate.
Monthly fitness center membership rates are $30 plus tax for a single, $40 plus tax for a family, or $25 for active duty military. SilverSneakers and Silver&Fit memberships are also available for those who qualify.
And at Health for Life members can upgrade to 24-hour access with the purchase a special access card. The cost is only $10 per card. With the card, members can simply swipe the card at the fitness center entrance to enjoy the freedom of exercising at a convenient time, any day of the week. For security and safety, a sophisticated security and camera system will monitor the facility around the clock.
“We take pride in providing an environment that meets all of our member’s needs,” said Kirk Sharp, fitness center manager. “Whether new to exercise or fitness fanatic, we’ve got something for everyone.”
For starters, the fitness center offers new members one, free baseline-fitness assessment and a customized workout plan.
“It just gets better from there,” Sharp added. “We offer dietician consultation, free towel usage, daily locker usage and shower facilities. Members can also purchase personal training packages with one of our two certified personal trainers.”
With the New Year quickly approaching and resolutions to eat healthily and get fit, here’s a chance to make the first move. And, a membership to Health for Life makes a great Holiday gift.
To learn more, call Mercy Health for Life at 620-223-7073 or visit the fitness center in the lower level of Mercy Hospital.
The Fort Scott High School Select Ensemble Presents “Classic Christmas” at 3 p.m. Sunday, December 17 at FSHS Auditorium.
Please come enjoy an afternoon of classic Christmas music performed by the FSHS Select Ensemble with guest appearance by Dan Duling and the Stone Country Band. The program will feature songs like “Baby It’s Cold Outside,” “Frosty the Snowman,” “We Three Kings,” and many more!
Cookies and coffee to be served following the concert.
Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for students K-12. All proceeds go to the Select Ensemble.
Tickets can be purchased from the FSHS office or from Select Ensemble students.
