Tanner Streeter in front of some of his work. Submitted photo.
Tanner Streeter, 25, is an artist whose specialty is animals.
“I’ve been an artist my whole life, with a primary focus on animals,” he said. “I grew up hunting and fishing, so I’ve always been surrounded by nature. I spent much of my time studying animals I saw in life, in books, or on TV so that I may understand their anatomy well enough to draw them accurately.”
“My parents would take me on trips to zoos to satisfy my fascination with animals, as well as places like Cabela’s or Bass Pro Shops. In those places, the taxidermy on display captivated me at a very young age. I would think of taxidermy as almost magical, since I could not comprehend how it was accomplished.”
“When I was 18 and about to graduate my senior year of high school from Christian Learning Center, I began practicing taxidermy on small animals that I could acquire.”
He was inspired by a taxidermy how-to book that his parents, Bernard and Torrie Streeter, had given him for Christmas.
“Much to my surprise, after making a Facebook post about my endeavors in taxidermy, a mutual online friend, Dale Robertson of Wild Heritage Taxidermy in Young, Arizona, reached out to me and offered me an apprenticeship with him. He had followed me for my artwork that I would post, and I followed his taxidermy work, so that’s how we were connected. Dale is a renowned taxidermist with multiple prestigious awards.”
“I packed everything I owned into my little Chevy Blazer and drove to Arizona, where I lived for a year and a half in a trailer at the Robertson’s home and learned everything a beginner needed to know about taxidermy and then some. I competed at the last Arizona state show (their association is no longer active) in 2019 and won the title Best New Competitor and a 2nd and 3rd place with a coyote and a deer I had brought.”
Streeter learned much in that time.
“When I came back, I got a job at Outdoors Indoors in Pittsburg, KS. I got to do some taxidermy from all over the world…Africa, Greenland, and New Zealand, along with locals. My ultimate goal was to have my own business, and my first year on my own, I got an LLC (limited liability company business structure).”
He has competed at state, national, and the World Taxidermy Show, earning an assortment of first, second, and third-place ribbons.
He’s earned the titles of Best Professional Gamehead of Kansas 2023, Best Professional Small Lifesize Mammal of Kansas 2025, and Best Professional Open Mouth Whitetail of Kansas 2025.
Submitted photo.
“Competing is vital for me since it sharpens my craft and allows me to learn from the best of the best in seminars and from my judges during critiques.”
His business model prioritizes quality over quantity.
“I take a limited number of animals each year… I take extra effort to make each animal as accurate as possible, and I try to capture the unique qualities of each specimen. I’m recreating that particular animal down to the smallest anatomical detail. From muscles and hair patterns to glands and membranes in the corner of the eye. Nothing is too small to overlook.”
“Taxidermy is an art, and I treat it just as another medium. Just like if I choose to draw with a pencil or paint with a brush. I am trying to recreate God’s creation to the best of the ability He gave me.”
He started his business, Tanners Wildlife Artistry LLC, in 2022 and shares a business building with Whitetail Properties Real Estate at 306 E. 23rd, next to Riggs Chiropractic.
“I do roughly 70-80 animals annually. This keeps turnaround times and my workload reasonable.”
One of Streeter’s deer. Submitted photo.
“I am a mammal specialist, so I currently do not do taxidermy work on birds or fish. I have been blessed to work on a wide variety of animals from around the world, including baboons, warthogs, and antelopes from Africa; red stags, fallow deer, and wallabies from New Zealand; and black bears, elk, and deer from both the U.S. and Canada.”
A Philippine porcupine piece that won him a prize recently. Submitted photo.An African baboon piece. Submitted photo.
The Process
With large animals, the animal is skinned, then salted and dried.
“Once I get it, I rehydrate the skin, and then tan it in a chemical bath with a tanning formula. Then the leather must be thinned to put on a foam mannequin. I do a great deal of clay sculpting on the form. I then apply a glue to the form, put the hide on, and put everything into place and sew up any incisions.”
Streeter looks over a foam mannequin of a deer. Submitted photo.
“If an animal has antlers or horns, that part of the skull is cleaned, getting the meat broken down and cleaned off. This is to prevent Chronic Wasting Disease from spreading.”
He charges customers by the time factor plus materials.
“I go the extra mile on every piece,” he said.
Other Artwork Around Fort Scott
The bison mural on National Avenue, facing south. Streeter was one of the artists on this piece of art. From fortscott.com website.
One can view some of Streeter’s artistic work on the wall of Structure Hair Salon on National Avenue.
In 2023, he was part of a group of people creating wall murals in Fort Scott. “The Bison” was created by artists Cally Bailey, Emily Bailey, and Tanner Streeter.
Tanner is married to Johnnie, and they have a three-month-old daughter, Annabella.
Roughly 50 people attended a forum at the Uniontown Community Center Wednesday evening to hear what the zoning advisor committee has been working on and to give feedback. After explaining the role of the committee, members explained the facts and recommendations in their hand out and then opened the floor for comments.
Six people took the opportunity to express their opposition to or concern about what was being proposed. The committee then asked the attendees to indicate whether they were for, against, or undecided on zoning. There was some confusion as to what exactly was being voted on and the process, but in the end roughly 6 people were for zoning, about 2 or 3 were undecided, and the rest who voted were opposed.
There will be two more forums next week. May 20th at 6 pm there will be a meeting at Fulton Community Center. The final meeting will be on May 21st at 6 pm at Memorial Hall in Fort Scott.
A video of the meeting can be found below. The meeting starts approximately 10 minutes into the video.
Ethan Hill, a Christian Learning Center high school student, will present a solo piano recital on Saturday, May 17 at 1 p.m. in the sanctuary of the First United Methodist Church, 301 S. National Avenue. The recital will feature works by Bach, Mozart, Mendelssohn, Schubert, and other composers.
Hill’s piano teacher, Pat Harry, says he is not only a gifted piano student but a gifted academic student as well, and recommended him to be featured on fortscott.biz.
“It is an unusually advanced achievement to present an entire recital of masterworks from memory as a high school student,” she said.
The performance is the culmination of “a lot of years of playing them a lot,” Hill said. He will be using no sheet music during the 40 minutes of his recital performance.
Academically, Hill said he has “always been good at math and sciences, and problem solving.”
Hill has numerous math competition medals (most notably at the Pittsburg State University Math Relays), numerous medals from piano competitions, and two wins at the Sun Powered Student Challenge. He attended Boys State of Kansas, is a member of the National Society of High School Scholars, and was voted jr./sr.
high school president.
His extracurriculars included basketball, soccer, swimming, and track through the years.
In his sophomore year, he began looking at different fields of engineering as a career.
This led to his decision to major in biomedical engineering.
Following his graduation on May 15, Hill will head for the Missouri University of Science and Technology in Rolla, Mo., to major in biomedical engineering and minor in music.
Ethan is the son of Kaleigh and Garrett Hill.
Pat Harry from the Kansas Music Educational Association Hall of Fame website.
Pat Harry Piano Studio’s owner taught vocal music in Fort Scott for 29 years and in public schools for 39 years.
Currently, she is privately teaching piano to 16 students, with the youngest in first grade and the oldest graduating this year.
Twenty-two new standard market apartments will be available this year in Fort Scott, if all goes as planned.
Shane Lamb is president of Rural Asset Management and Rural ReDevelopment Group, De Soto, KS., and decided to take on the former Fort Scott Manor Nursing Home, 736 Heylman Street as a redevelopment project.
Shane Lamb, owner of Rural Asset Management and Rural ReDevelopement Group LLC, from his LinkedIn profile.
He purchased the property in January 2022, which had been closed for approximately three years, intending to create 24 standard market apartments.
In a prior interview, Lamb said they didn’t receive any state or federal grants or funds. They did apply for them but did not receive any.
Work began last year on the project.
“We went drastically over budget and over time,” he said. “All our contractors were slow, winter was slow.”
“We jumped off that project to finish phase 1 of a project in Iola,” Lamb said.
Lamb said the Fort Scott project will be restarting this week.
The former Fort Scott Manor is being developed into 1 bedroom apartments. May 3, 2025 photo.
Phase 1 of the Fort Scott project will take approximately 60 days once started. It will take six months for the whole project to be completed.
The building is approximately 20,000 square feet and has been completely gutted, and all new materials have been used.
The Fort Scott property will not be low-income apartment rentals but instead will be for the standard market, with prices for the large one-bedroom apartments at $675 to 695 per month, Lamb said.
“We focus on rural towns and rural housing,” he said in a prior interview. “Typically, we purchase nursing homes, schools, hospitals…single-use vacant properties we convert to housing.”
Lamb said he always tries to use qualified local contractors and buy materials locally.
“I always try to keep the money local,” he said. “It doesn’t work 100 percent of the time. Sometimes you can’t find local partners to meet those deadlines…because they are so busy. We do have a couple from Fort Scott, Chanute, and Iola.”
Photos submitted by Shane Lamb of the Iola project, which is similar.
Wayne and Stacy Racy are the new owners of Common Ground Coffee Co., as of May 1. They took over ownership from Fort Scott Church of the Nazarene.
Common Ground Coffee Shop, 12 E. Wall.
“Wayne and I have always supported Common Ground, even since they opened on Main Street,” Stacy said. “When we travel, we make it a point to stop at coffee shops, enjoying a good cup of coffee in a relaxing setting. Wayne has served on the coffee shop board (at their church, Fort Scott Church of the Nazarene) for several years. Three years ago, we began volunteering at the coffee shop and started spending numerous hours inside Common Ground, which allowed us to meet new people and reconnect with old friends.”
Photos courtesy of Kenny Felt Photography and Common Ground Coffee Company.
Stacy usually works in the kitchen, while Wayne serves coffee and chats with customers. About a year ago, Timken LLC, Fort Scott, announced it would be closing.
“He had worked at Timken for several years, and when an opportunity arose that would take us out of Fort Scott, we both felt mixed emotions,” she said. “This was my hometown, and we had always imagined that we would retire here.”
Stacy’s parents, longtime farmers in Bourbon County, are now older, and she didn’t feel she could move away and leave them behind.
“We have built our family to love Fort Scott just as much as we do,” she said. “Our youngest daughter, Samantha Burenheide, started volunteering with us three years ago and later became the manager until a permanent replacement was found. Leaving Fort Scott wasn’t an option for us, especially with our parents, and children, Katie and Samantha, and grandchildren living here.”
“I felt early on that the Lord was calling us to become more involved with Common Ground Coffee, and by November, we realized it was time to take the next step and become the owners. Wayne spoke with Pastor Virgil Peck about our intention to buy the coffee shop. Pastor Virgil understood our passion for it, and soon after, our proposal was presented to the Coffee Shop Board and the Church Board, both of which approved it.”
The planning began, and Common Ground transitioned from a non-profit to a for-profit business.
“After hours of paperwork, on May 1st, we officially took ownership. We are excited to serve our community and eager to see what the Lord has in store for Common Grounds. We anticipate some challenges ahead, but we also believe we live in one of the best cities around.”
Stacy will continue running her business at Healing Hands Massage and Salon, and Wayne will remain at Timken until he completes his time there, after which he will join Common Ground Coffee full-time.
“Most Saturday mornings, you can find both of us at the shop, working alongside our team,” she said.
Heidi Dixon will continue as manager, and Suzanne Griffin will continue to cater for Common Ground and keep the case full of her delicious desserts, along with Teri Hamilton and the baristas.
“We will continue to work with our baristas on learning new techniques and consistency on each coffee they make for our customers,” she said.
The Common Ground outside eating space, from its Facebook page.
“Common Ground will still be a place that you can come and use the Wi-Fi to work or study, ” she said. ” We will also still offer free space for Bible studies and small groups to meet. I would eventually love to find someone to start a book club, etc. Just a place to reconnect with friends and build memories. People are welcome to come in and bring games to play with family and friends. Just a place to feel at home. Besides amazing coffee, we offer smoothies, teas, lemonades, and dirty sodas for those who don’t like coffee.”
The small group area at Common Ground, from its Facebook page.
The phone number will continue to be 620-223-2499, and the name will stay the same, Stacy said.
They don’t own the building, the owners are still Jennifer and Adam Laroche. They own the business.
The large group private area at Common Ground, from its Facebook page.
Closer to Completion: Freeman Health System is Providing for the Future of Fort Scott
Fort Scott, KAN. – Freeman Fort Scott Hospital, Inc. is still on track to open in 2025, with officials now looking at a fall timeline for the 10-bed general medical unit and 24-hour emergency department to be fully open and operational.
Because Freeman Health System is renovating the interior of an existing building – the city’s former hospital at 401 Woodland Hills Blvd. – a vast majority of the progress taking place inside isn’t readily visible to Fort Scott and Bourbon County residents.
Regardless, all the work is progressing smoothly. When renovating a building of this size, however, it’s crucial to update everything inside to meet current building and safety codes and standards, meaning it must comply with current regulations for safety, structural integrity, and accessibility, said Renee Denton, Freeman Neosho Hospital’s Chief Operating Officer.
“I think it’s important for us to remember that the previous hospital operations and facility met required codes during that timeframe,” Denton said. “The Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) requires that we open the facility according to current regulatory codes. Until we were able to begin the renovations, we were not able to lay eyes on every element that the state would require. Because of that, there are significant changes that need to occur to make certain that we update to the most current life-safety regulations.
“To be certain we address all elements to bring our leased area up to current code, we are finding that there are some improvements needed that have timelines not within our control,” she said.
The new hospital represents a critical need for the community. Fort Scott had been without a hospital since 2018, forcing local residents to seek medical treatment in communities 30-plus minutes away.
“I am pleased that, in my opinion, Freeman is doing everything that is controllable to bring Fort Scott an emergency room and hospital as soon as possible,” said Don Doherty, Chairman of the Freeman Fort Scott Hospital, Inc. Board of Directors.
Plenty of work has been underway at the former hospital building during the past year, including evaluating infrastructure capabilities needed to support the overall computer system, operability, and building the electronic medical record; evaluating and sorting through discarded equipment to determine what is operable; and identifying all new laboratory, radiology, and pharmacy equipment needed to support the new hospital and emergency department.
“We are 100 percent committed to getting that hospital up and going,” said Freeman President and Chief Executive Officer Matt Fry.
Along with the formation of the hospital’s six-member board of directors, Freeman held a job fair which resulted in the hiring of 39 new employees to operate the new hospital once it’s up and running later this year. The new employees are currently moving through the orientation process, but there’s room for more. Apply today by visiting jointeamfreeman.com.
“Staff already hired will be completing their orientation at various times over the next several weeks,” Denton said. “The plan to support staff who will be finished with orientation before the facility is fully operational is being communicated to those affected employees. Our goal is to be certain we take care of our employees and support them through this process.”
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About Freeman Health System
Locally owned, not-for-profit and nationally recognized, Freeman Health System includes Freeman Hospital West, Freeman Hospital East, Freeman Neosho Hospital and Ozark Center – the area’s largest provider of behavioral health services – as well as two urgent care clinics, dozens of physician clinics and a variety of specialty services. In 2024, Freeman earned dozens of individual awards for medical excellence and patient safety from CareChex®, a quality rating system that helps consumers evaluate healthcare providers and their experiences. U.S. News & World Report named Freeman Health System one of the Best Hospitals for 2022. With more than 320 physicians on staff representing more than 90 specialties, Freeman provides cancer care, heart care, neurology and neurosurgery, orthopaedics, children’s services, women’s services, and many others for all of the Four State Area. Freeman is also involved in numerous community-based activities and sponsored events and celebrations. Additionally, in the Joplin/Pittsburg areas, Freeman is the only Children’s Miracle Network Hospital in a 70-mile radius. For more information, visit freemanhealth.com.
The new public restroom at the Gathering Place Splash Pad is nearing completion.
Thomas Construction of Fort Scott employees poured concrete on April 25 at the new 12-foot by 14-foot public restroom project. The restroom is located northeast of the Pavilion, on North National at Old Fort Boulevard.
The restroom is handicapped accessible and has a changing station, said Luke Thomas with Thomas Construction.
The yet-to-be-finished inside of the restroom, which includes a changing station, on the right.
According to Meredith Tucker, spokesperson for the Fort Scott Splash Pad and Sensory Park Committee, the restroom will be officially opened in mid-May.
The hours the restroom will be open are 7 a.m. to dark, seven days a week, coinciding with the splash pad, which will open in mid-May.
The restroom is a one-stall, family-style, Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant one, Tucker said.
“It has a changing bench built-in to help families with their loved one,” she said.
Elite Construction, Fort Scott, built the structure also installed some shading umbrellas at the adjacent Fort Scott Splash Pad and Sensory Park.
“The splash pad committee hired us to do it,” Derek Houdashelt with Elite Construction said.
“We received another grant from the Timken Company and Walmart Inc.,” Tucker said.
The committee is comprised of Tucker, Bailey Lyons, and Josh Jones.
“The committee has done the bid-letting,” she said.
A Fort Scott Splash Pad and Sensory Park shading device at right, with the new restroom with changing station in the background left.Two shading devices have been installed on the north side of the Fort Scott Splash Pad and Sensory Park.
The Fort Scott Splash Pad and Sensory Park was a grassroots project that opened in 2023, according to its Facebook page.
Local service clubs provide many behind-the-scenes activities to enhance the quality of life for their communities.
Mark Warren, a past District Governor of Ruritan for the Middle America district and currently a member of the Uniontown Ruritan Club, said he enjoys the projects the Ruritan Club provides for the community.
Mark Warren, at the Girard Medical Clinic of Uniontown building, which the Ruritan Club helped bring to fruition in 2020.
“For me Ruritan is being involved in making money through fundraising projects and giving this money back to the community through financial assistance to the needy, improving the physical appearance of our community, honoring those who serve and have served this country in the military, and providing scholarship assistance to our youth to help accomplish their goals in life.
In the last few years, the club has helped bring the Girard Medical Center of Uniontown to the town, which has a population of around 300, with the collaboration of other entities. They have helped build the new public restrooms in the town’s downtown and provided scholarships to several high school students to further their education.
The public restrooms are just across from Uniontown’s downtown park. This was another project of the Ruritan Club in collaboration with other entities.
Next month, the club is hosting a special informational recruiting event for area residents who may be interested in learning more about Ruritan, Warren said.
Rebecca Lane, the 2025 National Ruritan President, from the home office in Dublin, Virginia, will be in Kansas and Nebraska from May 20 to May 29, visiting clubs in these two states.
2025 National Ruritan President Rebecca Lane. From the organization’s website.
“The potluck style dinner event hosted by area Ruritan Clubs will be May 22 at 7 p.m. at the Uniontown Community Center. Anyone in rural Bourbon County communities who would like to learn more about Ruritan is invited to attend,” Warren said. “Rebecca will be here to answer questions. We have clubs in Bronson, Redfield, and Uniontown. Residents of these communities are invited to join the clubs that night.”
Current Uniontown Ruritan Officers are President Mike Mason, Vice President Rick Allen, Secretary Raymond “Skeet” George, Treasurer Mary Pemberton, 3rd Year Director Henry Homan, 2nd Year Director Randy Rathbun, and 1st Year Director Joe George.
The Uniontown Ruritan meets at the Uniontown Methodist Church on the third Monday of every month at 7 p.m.
To learn more about the Bronson Ruritan, call Terry Johnston at 620-224-7566, and Redfield, call Skeet at 620-224-8051.
JPGs created by Adam Page from Uniontown High SchoolJPGs created by Adam Page from Uniontown High School
Bourbon County Garden Club members oversaw and worked with other volunteers to put in new flowers around the downtown area in April 2024. Submitted photo.Submitted photo.
The Bourbon County Garden Club will hold its annual plant sale on the opening day of the Downtown Farmers’ Market, Saturday, May 3, from 8 a.m. until noon.
They will be located at the north end of the Downtown Pavilion, located at National Avenue and Old Fort Boulevard.
Proceeds from the sale support beautification efforts that the group does throughout the community, including the city pool islands, Heritage Park, and the North Main area, according to a press release.
Herbs. Submitted photo.
“The garden club partners with Tri Valley Developmental Services to sell a wide variety of plants, all of which are geared to our area’s challenging weather. Club members offer plants freshly dug from their own gardens. Tri Valley provides annuals, herbs, and both floral and foliage hanging baskets. Among the variety of annuals for this year are geraniums, calibrachoa, coleus, and begonias, which are in bloom and ideal for Mothers’ Day gifts,” according to the press release.
One of the gardens at the Fort Scott Aquatic Center that is planted and maintained by the Bourbon County Garden Club. Submitted photo.
The group members will share their knowledge of the plants and answer questions during the sale.
Coleus. Submitted photo.
“A feature this year is a children’s free activity area. There will be garden-related coloring sheets and crayons, plus rocks that children can decorate with acrylic paint markers. They may take the rocks with them or leave them around town for other children to find. The garden club will also be selling decorative rocks that Fort Scott Middle School students have painted,” according to the press release.
Sedum planter that will be part of a drawing at the Fort Scott Farmer’s Market. Submitted photo.
There will be drawings for several unique pots that have been planted with drought-resistant sedum.
Drawing prices are $2 per ticket or $5 for three tickets.
The garden club members help decorate downtown Fort Scott for the holidays in 2024. From its Facebook page.
The Bourbon County Garden Club meets on the second Tuesday of the month, March through October. The next meeting will be Tuesday, May 13th, at Heritage Park, First and Main Street, in downtown Fort Scott, at 6 p.m.
“Bourbon County Garden Club is a group of local gardeners that gather to learn, grow, and share in their passion of gardening. We meet to plant and care for gardens spread throughout our city. Hope to see you at our next meeting!” according to its Facebook page
The Fort Scott Public Library is located at the corner of 2nd Street and National Avenue.
The Fort Scott Public Library was honored to be one of the 50 libraries in the United States to receive a prestigious $20,000 grant from the American Library Association and the Association of Small and Rural Libraries for their Libraries Transforming Communities: Accessible Small and Rural Communities Grant.
“Libraries Transforming Communities: Accessible Small and Rural Communities offered more than $14 million in grants to small and rural libraries to increase the accessibility of facilities, services, and programs to better serve people with disabilities.
To be eligible, a library must have a legal area population of 25,000 or less and be located at least five miles from an urbanized area, in keeping with the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) definitions of small and rural libraries.
ALA awarded four rounds of grants to be distributed over the next four years ranging from $10,000 to $20,000.
Participating libraries will first conduct community input-gathering sessions to assure that their work aligns with local needs. Libraries will be required to identify the primary audience they are hoping to reach (e.g., homebound seniors, children with autism, Deaf community members) and facilitate a community conversation with the impacted populations in order to guide the improvement of the library’s services. Grantees would then use the funds to create services or improve their facilities based on the needs identified by their audience.”
“This grant, in the amount we received, was a testament to our commitment to serving our community,” said Library Director Jennifer Gum-Fowler. “Another 250 libraries were granted $10,000 for the same grant.”
“We were informed in late March that we had won, but we were asked to wait until all the other libraries had been notified and accepted the grant. To make a bigger splash, we announced it at the Chamber Coffee last week. We will begin working on the grant in just a few weeks.”
Some new play areas for the children’s section.
“This grant is a game-changer for us. It will create a dedicated quiet space in the library for children with non-neurotypical disabilities, a much-needed addition to our services.”
“We will purchase a Shushbooth to do this in our limited space,” she said.
“A Shushbooth is a soundproof room with a small table, chairs, and an area for the kids to sit on the floor,” she said. “Depending on the child, it will give them a place where they can be both quiet and loud. It makes the library more accessible for the children. When not used for the kids, the rest of the community can use it for Zoom meetings and telehealth.”
“Some of the grant will also help us add therapeutic toys and items that the parents and children can check out and use. The rest of the grant will train staff to work better with these children and parents, ensuring a more inclusive and supportive environment. We will be hosting a community conversation soon about the grant, so stay tuned for that,” she said.
Changes on the horizon
“The library is undergoing a makeover to align with the grant we just received. The children’s area is being moved downstairs to make it more accessible for parents and children. We are also creating a Teen Zone and a Makerspace upstairs for the community. ”
“In addition, the library has received a Tech Grant from Southeast Kansas Library System, which we used to purchase a projector and screen for the events room. This makes the event room a conference room and a programming room for the community. We hope these changes will transform the library into a vibrant hub for the community to use and enjoy.”
Pictured is Jennifer Gun-Fowler, standing, and front row from left are Jennifer Carnes, Machenzie Kaemmer, and Samantha Miller. Not pictured is Pam Johnson.
The employees of the Fort Scott Public Library are
Jennifer Gum-Fowler- Library Director
Mackenzie Kaemmer- Youth Services Specialist
Samantha Miller- Youth Services Assistant
Pam Johnson – Inter Library Loan-Resource Clerk
Jennifer Carnes – Collections-Cataloging Clerk
The library is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. and is closed Sunday.
Contact info: Jennifer Gum-Fowler- 620-223-2882, [email protected], 201 S Nation
The north side of the library is ground level. The City of Fort Scott was working on the stripes for the parking spaces on April 15.
Last week, Christie Thomas posted an image to Facebook taken from the Post Office building of the lines being repainted at the library. The lines weren’t parallel and changed angles when they got off the concrete onto the brick. The photo caused quite a stir on Facebook, with people laughing at the inability of the workers to paint straight lines.
Here are a few observations: As far as I know, those parking lines have been like that for years, owing to how things evolve when redoing curbs and replacing sections of the parking area.
Let’s go back to 2012, before the parking area and curbs were reworked on both sides of the street. It is a little harder to see on the library side of the street, but if you notice the lines for parking in front of the old Episcopal church, they look like what you’d expect.
Now, let’s jump forward to 2022. There have been some major improvements to the curbs on both sides of the streets, and the parking area between the sidewalk and the brick looks like it has been updated from asphalt to concrete.
Once again, the angle is harder to see on the library side of the street, but on the North side, you can see that the lines on the concrete no longer line up with the old lines on the bricks. Is this because the people who painted them can’t match up lines? Well one could make that assumption, but if you look at the angle of the curb, the lines on the new concrete are designed to line up with the curb which is angled in a way to require an easier to navigate 45 degree turn (red lines) to park instead of the previous 60 degree turn (blue lines).
With the changes to the parking spaces, you can still see the white lines from the old parking spaces. Would it have looked nicer and neater if the old lines were somehow removed from the brick? Probably. Should the city have removed the old lines from the bricks? Probably not.
There are thousands of things the city could be working on at any given time, and not everything has the same value and priority. If the old lines didn’t cause any confusion or safety issues for people parking, then it makes perfect sense to leave it as is and move on to other higher-priority work that represents a better investment of taxpayer dollars.
Each day, hundreds of decisions are made about how much time and work should be invested in a particular aspect of a project before it becomes counterproductive in terms of diminishing returns. Those vestigal lines on the bricks are probably a conscious decision in how your tax dollars were spent that day. Yes, they could have spent extra hours removing the unnecessary faded lines, but someone decided to invest somewhere else instead. If you’ve ever parked in one of these spaces without any trouble, it indicates that their decision was sound.
The lines on the brick may look a bit messy as the paint fades over the years, but they are by-products of healthy evolution as the city changes and adapts and all the individuals working for the city do their best to make good decisions and optimal trade-offs on our behalf.
What about the lines on the library side of the street in Christie Thomas’ photos? For a number of historical reasons, many of which are likely lost to time, the lines on the library side evolved slightly differently. Where the North side of the street left the disconnected old lines on the bricks to fade away, the lines in front of the library were different. When the newly installed concrete was painted sometime between 2017 and 2020, the new line sections appear to have been connected to the old lines on the brick. They weren’t completely straight, but they were perfectly functional and probably represented someone’s best decision of how to get the parking spaces back up and usable as quickly as possible. The fact that it has been working just fine for most people for quite a few years now shows that the decision wasn’t unreasonable. Sure, it might have looked better to remove all the old lines somehow and start over. Maybe you personally would even prefer that approach, but the extra time spent on that would have come at the expense of something else that was very likely more important.
So, now fast forward to last week. Imagine you get sent out to apply a new coat of paint to the parking lines in front of the library. The existing lines are clearly not perfect, but they have been working just fine for library patrons for the past 5 or 8 years. What would be the best use of taxpayers’ money? Should you try to redo each parking slot by stripping off all the paint and redoing them? Or should you just paint what is there and has been working for more than half a decade?
I want to submit that repainting what has been working was not an unreasonable decision. The city came back later and, likely due to the tempest on Facebook, removed the lines that were on the older part on the bricks.
The purpose of this post is to point out three things. First, the evolution of the things we easily take for granted in our town and county often doesn’t happen in a nice tidy sequence. Over the years things grow in different ways and what might appear baffling can very easily be the result of a series of optimal decisions about how to prioritize the many competing priorities and invest enough time to achieve the goal while trying not to let a job expand in a way that takes resources away from other more pressing needs.
Second, I want to remind everyone that there are real people behind all the work that gets done every day in our community. Even if they are making completely reasonable or even fully optimal choices, it may not look that way without knowing more of the details and history. Even if they make a decision that turns out to need a change, they are still people with real feelings and are likely making the best decisions with the current information and situation they find themselves in.
I’m talking to myself here as much as anyone. In the past, I’ve found it amusing that when severe weather warnings on Facebook end up getting tagged with “violence.” So when I saw someone had tagged a photograph of parking lines being painted as “harassment,” I commented on the fact with a smiley face. After seeing some of the other things people were saying, I regretted and reverted my comment. I apologize to anyone whose feelings I might have hurt with that.
Finally, I want to say a word to the people who keep our county and city operating by doing everything from fixing fences taken out by drunk drivers to keeping the parking lines visible to keeping the accounts balanced to doing the safety patrols at the lake. Thank you. I’m sure anything someone thinks you could have done differently gets 100 times more attention than it should, and all your work that everyone depends on each day gets 100 times less thanks than you actually deserve.
Mark Shead
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