Business owners and others interested in downtown Fort Scott met on April 4 at City State Bank to discuss upcoming events and projects.

The Fort Scott Chamber of Commerce hosted the Quarterly Downtown Meet and Greet, with President and CEO Lindsay Madison, leading.

Following are the highlights:

The Fort Scott National Historic Site Civil War Encampment is April 15-16: Army re-enactors portray different parts of the war with live music, an author talk, horse and sabre drills to name a few.

Visitor numbers are up this year at The Fort and there is a goal of 30,000 visitors this year to the site.

Upcoming Chamber events in the next few months are the Town Wide Garage Sale on May 5-6, the farmers market starts May 6 with the garden club plant sale.

There will be no downtown clean-up this year.

There will be a new mural to replace the one facing Skubitz Plaza at the north end of Main Street. The current one, the Star Emporium, will be replaced with a historical one: depicting the Kansas 1st Colored Infantry.

A multi-purpose pavilion, which will house the twice weekly farmer’s market, was presented to the city’ design review committee for approval but was tabled until an artists rendition could be presented.

A welcome arch will be put up on Wall Street near the Chamber of Commerce office.

The Christmas Parade will be November 30, with the theme: Candy Land Christmas.

Christmas on the Bricks will be the first weekend in December,  and will include classic Christmas booths/vendors, photo backdrops for families, and later hours for downtown shops. This weekend also includes the candlelight tour at Fort Scott National Historic Site and an art sale at the Artificers. This new event will replace the Christmas in the Park event. Elevate Fort Scott is organizing the new event.

Trolley tours have started back for the season: Fridays from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. A back up driver is needed to give the narrated tour. Contact the Chamber.

A Community Connection Panelist luncheon was April 5  at the Empress Event Center to help distribute government and local entities’ information.

There will be a job fair April 13 at the Ellis Fine Arts Center from 3-6 p.m.

The annual Chamber Dinner and Awards Celebration will be April 20 at the River Room Event Center.

Dare to Dream Women’s Entrepreneurship event is April 5 from 5-7 p.m. at the Healthy Bourbon County Action Team Office. At this office is also the Small Business Development Center.

Grants available to small businesses through the Chamber: E-Community Loan and Grow Kansas.

Riggs Chiropractic is having its ribbon cutting on May 4, at a Chamber After Hours gathering.

Open Mortgage will have its ribbon cutting on May 11 along with a ribbon cutting and open house.

110 S. Main (former Scottish Rite Temple) has doubled its retail space this week. The owners are waiting on Evergy to repair the electric service to the building to open the cafe.

The Kitchen, located in the McDonald Hall building, is nearing completion and will offer retail space, four kitchen pods for rent and an outdoor eating space in back of the building when completed.

Hedgehog INK owner Jan Hedges said a visitor “was impressed with how the businesses are working together.”

The Iron Star owner Barbara Trimbur said one of her large windows was broken during the recent wind storm.