At this morning’s meeting, Bourbon County Commissioners listened as two more entities brought requests for funding. The county will start work on the budget the first of July, and many organizations have brought forward financial requests in the past month. Jim Cunningham, Executive Director of Tri-Valley Developmental Services, presented a portfolio including Tri-Valley’s work in past years, as well as upcoming needs.

Cunningham requested a total of $65,000 from the county for the upcoming year, citing cuts in state funding that have caused reductions in staff in past years. Cunningham said that the organization is holding the budget steady, but expenses keep rising. “We’ve pretty well cut our budget to the bone,” Cunningham said. Tri-Valley currently employs 140 people area wide and serves four counties–Bourbon, Neosho, Allen and Crawford. Cunningham said that funding cuts had caused a loss of 22 employees over the past 6 years, and that these lost jobs also brought about lost tax dollars to the county. Cunningham also highlighted a few changes since KanCare took effect. According to Cunningham, 22,000 people were disenrolled since January 1st of this year.

Cunningham reported that there are currently 53 staff members working in Bourbon County, and that there are 61 Bourbon County residents being served by the organization. Tri Valley offers vocational rehabilitation, transportation and many other services, and that there are currently 28 people on their waiting list.

A county department also presented a request for a slight increase in funding. Judy Wallis of the Bourbon County Appraiser’s Office presented her office budget from the past year, and the areas she saw room to cut funding this coming year. Wallis explained that “Everything else but the personnel is going to be down $1,500,” and that she works many hours of overtime at her salaried position, which pays less than the same position in other counties of similar size and composition as Bourbon County. Wallis requested that a 3% increase in salary per year be built into the budget in order to keep the salary comparable with others in the area.

This Friday the 28th at Papa Don’s restaurant in downtown Fort Scott from 11:30AM to 1:00PM, the Chamber of Commerce will be hosting the first Fort Scott Area Employer Exchange. The gathering will offer information and discussion regarding “workforce needs, HR issues, employees migrating from employer to employer, state grant/incentive opportunities, job fairs, enticing FS alumni to move back to the area, how to utilize KANSASWORKS and other resources for recruitment and other desired topics,” according to the Chamber.

Costs to attend are set at the following prices:

Chamber members: Free without lunch, $10 with lunch

Non-members: $10 without lunch, $20 with lunch

For those planning to attend, please RSVP at http://fschamber.eventbrite.com or contact Lindsey Madison at [email protected] or by calling 223-3566.

Late this morning, two semis collided at the intersection of Main and 23rd street in Fort Scott. City Manager Dave Martin called Bourbon County Emergency Manager Terri Coop to the scene of the accident to assist with the cleanup of a diesel fuel leak from one of the semis.

The exact cause of the accident has not yet been determined. “KHP is doing a full investigation,” Coop said. As for the fuel spill, Coop said that the state had been contacted, and that fuel spills are so common in motor vehicle accidents that there is a completely set routine for dealing with them.

According to reports, at least one person was hospitalized after the accident.

Though the Aquatic Center has certainly been a benefit to residents of Fort Scott with regard to recreation and entertainment, the center has also brought economic benefits to the area. According to Economic Development Business Recruitment and Retention Manager Macy Cullison, the pool has brought a good many visitors to the community. Cullison said, “I think it’s been really good for the area” and that quite a few people came from out of town last year to use the Aquatic Center facilities. Cullison said that the investment in the new pool paid off, and that the pool season last year was “the best in the last 10 years.”

The pool has seen, according to Cullison, an increase in traffic. She said that in just the first week of pool season last year, the pool saw a daily admission of 245. Attendance remained high, with the average throughout the season hovering around 100-150 visitors per day.

To put the finishing touches on the area around the exterior of the pool area this spring, Rodgers and Sons Concrete has repaired the historic concrete and brick seating built by the WPA in the 1930’s.

As the County prepares to put courthouse roof repairs out to bid, commissioners have made a change to the way bids will be conducted.  Commissioner Barbara Albright said, “I just think we need to be consistent.” Commissioners considered getting rid of the 5% bid allowance for Bourbon County contractors. “We’ve got to settle it before we put anything else out for bid, I think,” said Commission Chairman Allen Warren. Albright pointed out that local contractors already have the opportunity to benefit because they have fewer transportation costs involved in taking on a job in Bourbon County, and that complaints have been sent to the commission regarding the 5% allowance.

Warren moved to eliminate the 5% bid allowance for local contractors. Albright seconded, pointing out that commissioners would still be accepting bids based on price and quality of work, which would still give local contractors the opportunity to compete well with outside contractors.

The Board of Directors for SEK Mental Health also attended the meeting in order to present a request for $77,250 in mill levy support for 2014, a 3% increase from the amount requested in 2013. Robert Chase, Executive Director, explained the mission of SEK Mental Health to the commissioners. Chase said “Our goal is to treat people in the community where their family and support system is.”

Karen Owen, CSS Director, highlighted the number of individuals that the organization is able to treat in the community instead of sending them away from the community they call home. According to Owen, about 50% of the cases SEK Mental Health sees are treated locally instead of being transported to other facilities. SEK Mental Health currently employs 16 full time employees and 10 part-time employees, but Chase explained that some of those employees’ time is being used as employees adjust to changes made by KANCARE. Alan Hauser, CFO of SEK Mental Health, highlighted the positive in KANCARE. Hauser said, “It hasn’t caused us not to offer services.”

According to the board, the organization has lost $90,000 in funding in the past 4 years. Hauser presented a graph showing data on the number of clients the organization has served in past years. Hauser explained that while number of clients served has gone down in the past year, the number of hours the organization has spent with patients has actually grown.

Reverend Marty DeWitt, Case Manager, explained how the services SEK Mental Health offers are essential to the county. He explained that when a person approaches him with a need for professional assistance, he is able to refer them to SEK Mental Health professionals.

In other business:

• Commissioners signed off on firework sales permits for 4 firework stands, including Jakes (2 stands), one in Mapleton and one other within the county.
• David Neville, County Custodial Supervisor, explained that the SEK Health building had water damage from poorly installed siding that was put on in years past. Insurance will not pay for damage to windows or decking on the roof of the Health building.  The affected 4 windows are located on the north side of the building.

Workers from R II Concrete Construction, LLC have been hard at work pouring and molding concrete curbs around the new Medal of Honor memorial on Skubitz Plaza in downtown Fort Scott.

According to Mitch Welch, the company is installing concrete curbs in preparation for a brick sidewalk. Welch said that the city will put down sand, then lay bricks to complete the sidewalk around the memorial.

The new sidewalk will match the concrete and brick sidewalk that leads to the old block house on the plaza.

At this morning’s Chamber Coffee, Chamber members and visitors heard about upcoming events in Fort Scott and the surrounding area. Fort Scott’s 5th Annual Riverfront Festival will be held Saturday, June 29th. According to Dean Mann of Citizens Bank, events at the festival will include a variety of family-oriented entertainment, including a bounce house, hot dog eating contest and more. Mann said, “It’s really geared for the family and it supports the efforts down by the river,” and that “We’ll see in a couple years that area will be transformed.” Cheney-Witt is sponsoring the hot dog eating contest, and Jerry Witt quipped, “Last year we had someone about 10 seconds from winning, and let’s just say ‘he lost it’.”

In other news:

• Slow Food SEK will be hosting a Chocolate and Coffee tasting event at Life+Style in downtown Fort Scott Sunday, June 23rd at 4:00PM. The cost per person to attend is $8. The Slow Food movement began in Italy and has spread worldwide, according to the Slow Food USA website. The event will feature chocolate produced in Springfield, MO and coffee roasted in Wichita, KS.
• Norm Conard of the Lowell-Milken Center announced that the Center has new exhibits on display and encouraged the public to come view them.
• J.D. Ettore, Athletics Director at FSCC, announced that Greyhound sports were returning to KOMB FM. Ettore said, “We look forward to out partnership with KOMB,” and announced that the Greyhound football team would be playing their first game against Highland at Frary Field in less than 70 days.
• Brian Holt of Union State Bank announced that the Uniontown Independence Day Bash would be held Saturday, July 3rd at 7:00 PM. The Bash will include fireworks and food will be available for purchase.
• Main Street Gallery and Gifts has now moved into what owner Josh McClelland calls its “final resting place” in the former Village Shops building in downtown Fort Scott. The McClelland family is making headway on repairs to the building. McClelland said, “Something needed to be done,” and that he had been devoted to preserving the downtown for the past 12 years. McClelland said, “I’ve been devoted to Fort Scott for 23 years, and I hate to see another empty building.” Main Street Gallery and Gifts houses a number of different smaller business, including Sweet Repeats, Gene’s Upholstery, and The Frame Up, and also sells decorative items and Spice of Life Natural Foods. The shop is also home to the wares of many local crafters, which are displayed in the lower part of the building, which McClelland called the “artique.”

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A new business is opening in one of Fort Scott’s unique downtown-area buildings. The former service station at 501 S National is being cleaned up and repaired in order to house the business operations of Midwest Interlock.

Alison Hamilton originally arrived at her business idea when Hamilton’s father suggested she research the ignition interlock business. Hamilton said, “It was just networking, really.” While doing so, Hamilton met Steve Robson, who had established interlock businesses in the area. The two reached a business agreement in which Hamilton would run the business in Southeast Kansas. Midwest Interlock has been in business in other locations in SEK since September 2012, but decided to open a storefront in the area of their hometown. Midwest Interlock is already involved in the community—the company sponsors a softball team.

Hamilton says that the store, when it is opened in July, will offer ignition interlock installation, window tinting, custom painting, remote start installation and car detailing. The building will also serve as a location for Hamilton’s father’s bail bonding business.

So far, Hamilton, family and friends have been working on cleaning out the building, which was purchased on April 1^st of this year. Hamilton said, “We still have a lot of work to do on the building.”

They have already added two brand new bay doors from State Line Garage Doors, installed a new window to replace the shattered glass plate that was formerly on the front of the building, repainted the exterior, fixed the lights that run along the eaves of the building in front of the bays and put up new signage produced by Trainwreck Tees and NV Photo. In addition, Midwest Interlock plans to add a new roof sometime next week.

Be sure to visit Midwest Interlock in July and check out their car detailing and automotive services!

Residents passing through town on National Avenue may have noticed Rodgers and Sons Concrete hard at work on a new sidewalk in the residential area between 13th St and 15th St.

According to City Financial Director John Garrison, the project was one that had been planned last year as part of the city’s upkeep of infrastructure.

Garrison said that “Rodgers and Sons is the local contractor and it [the project] was funded out of a bond issue.” Garrison said, “We have a 5-year plan—5 million dollars a year—to fix side walks and side streets.” He mentioned that it was a part of the 2012 plan budgeted to take care of these issues.

Workers from Rodgers and Sons Concrete mentioned that they would be putting in a new sidewalk on the opposite side of the street as well, and that the new sidewalks will help keep pedestrians walking through the area safe from road traffic.

Many local residents and visitors from around the world come to see living history reenactments at the Fort Scott National Historic Site. However, the Fort is not the only place where history is alive and breathing in Fort Scott. At the Lowell Milken Center at 4 S Main St, the dedicated staff and volunteers work to resurrect the stories and extraordinary acts of unsung heroes around the world. The staff and volunteers work with students to create projects for the National History Day competition, through which students may advance from regional competition to state, and from there, to the national competition.

According to Executive Director Norm Conard, the center assists students according to their requests, of which the center receives many. Sometimes the center will suggest a mode (display board, website or performance), a topic or even help students develop a topic they have already begun to pursue. The center works not only with students and teachers, but Conard mentions that it is “tremendous the number of parents we work with here at the center.” When asked how students come up with topics for their projects, Conard said many visitors to the center will suggest a person to be researched, and that once a U.S. Senator stopped by to do just that. In other instances, interested parties will email the center the name of a person they consider to be an unsung hero. The center also employs two part-time employees in Topeka, KS who research possible topics to suggest to students.

One interesting recent local discovery was a relative of a Fort Scott community member. The name brought to the center’s attention was Adam Shoemaker. Shoemaker was a minister and early abolitionist in a small town in Indiana, who according to Conard, taught a Sunday school class at a small church. Attending that class was a gangly youth named Abraham Lincoln, future president of the United States. No doubt Shoemaker had a great influence on Lincoln, who would fight and eventually give up his life while working to provide freedom and equality for African-Americans and peace for his nation.

The center works not only with local students and teachers to develop projects, but also assists students located all across the globe through web applications such as Skype, Facebook and Twitter. In addition, the center has recently expanded to provide a location in Kedzierzyn-Kozle, Poland. According to Conard, Coodinator Marzanna Pogorzelska is located within 300 miles of 20 different countries in central Europe, which greatly expands the outreach of the center and its mission,  which is, according to the Lowell Milken Center website, “to teach respect and understanding among all people, by developing history projects about unsung heroes whose actions promote these values, regardless of race, religion and creed.”

Aside from the center’s expansion overseas, it also has expanded its physical location in Fort Scott in order to present more exhibits to the public. According to Conard, the center has seen almost 20,000 visitors walk through its doors in the first 6 years of its existence, and that the expansion will “increase tourism and visibility in the community” for the center.

Drop by to see the exhibits and see the new expansion to the center from  8AM-5PM Monday-Friday, or Saturday 10AM-3PM. Donations to the Lowell Milken Center may be made on their web page in the upper right-hand corner.

Most Kansas residents are aware of the drought and subsequent water restrictions that occurred in the past year. Members of the Bourbon County Conservation District, who are well acquainted with the intricacies of Bourbon County’s water supply, stopped by today’s Bourbon County Commissioners’ meeting in order to provide information on water conservation and to request funding for the upcoming year. Conservation District member Dean Bailey introduced those on the panel, including Mandy Shoemaker, Kathy Valentine, Ronnie Brown and Wayne Thorpe. Brown announced that the orgnanization’s budget remains balanced. “I guess the highlight is that we don’t want more money–we have a level budget,” Brown said. According to members of the Conservation District, the organization was able to bring in $1.672 million in the past year–a very good return on the county’s investment of ~$42,000.

Both Commissioner Barbara Albright and Commissioner Harold Coleman thanked the members of the Conservation District. Coleman said, “I think you’re a valuable program.”

Brown proceeded to explain some of the prominent conservation issues in the state of Kansas at present. Brown noted how fortunate Fort Scott is to have Cedar Creek Lake as a water resource in times of drought. Brown said, “Cedar Creek Lake is one of the best assets we’ve ever had,” and that Fort Scott had only 2 years’ worth of water in a drought before Cedar Creek Lake was built. Brown also mentioned that the county had released water from Cedar Creek Lake “most of the summer last summer” to alleviate drought conditions, and that the lake still had not run dry. However, Brown did highlight the issue of sediment build-up occurring in many bodies of water in the United States. Brown said, “The biggest problem we have in Eastern Kansas is the sediment coming into the lakes.” He said the cost of cleaning sediment from the bottom of a lake can cost as much as $4 million, and that it is a difficult process because of the toxic nature of the material, which often absorbs chemical runoff.

Commissioner Coleman also asked Brown if the control of the Arkansas River had anything to do with the low level of the aquifer in Western Kansas. Brown replied that it had affected water levels in Western Kansas and that there are ongoing lawsuits regarding water rights to that river. In the meanwhile, Brown mentioned that in some areas of Southwest Central Kansas it has gotten too expensive to pump water from the aquifer, and that a plan is being considered to put in a pipeline to carry water from the Missouri River to the area. Brown said that it would take a 12 ft. [diameter] pipe to carry the water.

In addition to explaining current issues in conservation, Brown informed commissioners that there now exist conservation compliance regulations attached to farm insurance, which encourages farmers to practice conservation and follow guidelines.

In other business:

• The Kansas County Association Multi-Line Pool (KCAMP) has sent a new scope of work proposal approved by their adjuster. The new document still only approves the installation of 1/2 inch of insulation on the courthouse roof, which is less insulation than what is currently on the courthouse roof.
• Bourbon County Public Works employees have addressed problems at the river bridge north of Fulton. According to Marty Pearson, Public Works Director, “Two men went up and cleaned it out. We opened it up and got the water off the bridge.”
• County Attorney Terri Johnson and commissioners revisited Bourbon County’s tuition reimbursement policy for county employees. According to the policy, reimbursement is based upon the final grade the employee earns while taking classes. Johnson said that according to policy, the reimbursement should be paid out of the Bourbon County General Fund, and that all courses must be pre-approved by an adviser and the commission. “It’s hard to work full time and go back go school,” said Johnson, explaining why this issue did not often appear. Johnson said that in the past, one employee actually got a 4 year degree while working for the county.