A fundraiser to help pay for the funeral costs of Kennedy Bosley-Leihsing is on Feb. 13 from 8 a.m. to noon at the Empress Event Center, 7 N. Main.
It is a free-will donation pancake feed that includes two pancakes with sausage links, butter, and syrup. One can dine-in, or take to-go.
For more information call Lori Brown, at 620-215-3600.
“We’re hopeful that our community does what it normally does and comes together to support a family that’s going through a very difficult time,” said Bill Michaud, owner of Sleep Inn, whose staff is hosting the pancake benefit feed.
About Kennedy
Leihsing, 15, was a sophomore at Fort Scott High School who died unexpectedly on January 25 from COVID-19 in the Ascension Via Christi Emergency Department.
A great aunt, Iris Byrd, started a GoFundMe for the family as there was no insurance to pay for the funeral, according to the GoFundMe page.
“She was raised along with the other grandchildren by her grandparents, both of whom are on disability for various medical conditions. This is yet another reason why help is so desperately needed,” Byrd said on the GoFundMe page.
“Kennedy was so smart and kind, and she loved life and always put others before herself. She was beautiful in all respects,” Byrd said on the fundraising page.
Kennedy’s best friend Elizabeth has a mom, Lori Brown, who works at the Sleep Inn Hotel in Fort Scott. The Sleep Inn team is hosting a pancake feed to benefit the family because the GoFund Me goal to help with funeral expenses has not been met yet.
Elizabeth Brown left, and Kennedy Leihsing October 2021. Submitted photo
Kennedy’s funeral was on February 4.
Sleep Inn. Submitted photo. The employees of the hotel are hosting the fundraiser, which will be located at the Empress Event Center, 7 N. Main.
The City of Fort Scott is like other employers nationwide during the COVID-19 pandemic, they have many positions to fill to be fully staffed.
The financial director position is one.
Last year, Susan Bancroft was hired as the Bourbon County Financial Director and also the Human Resource Director, in addition to her position as the City of Fort Scott Financial Director to combine services between the city and the county.
She has since given her resignation notice to the City of Fort Scott but has remained part-time financial director until a replacement can be found there, she said in an email.
“We are looking at applicants (for this position) and will be interviewing over the next couple of weeks,” Fort Scott’s Human Resource Director Brad Matkin said.
“Under the general supervision of the City Manager, the Director of Finance performs financial reports, payroll, and retirement records; assists in the preparation of the city budget; monitors city revenues and expenditures and maintains all related records; supervises personnel in performing related accounting, utility billing systems, and clerical work”.
Matkin said some recently hired new city employees are Erica Mahder, dispatch; Melanie Enloe, dispatch; Tyler Cook, Woodland Hills Golf Course Groundsman, and Garret Rash, street sweeper.
Currently there are two unfilled vacancies at the city’s wastewater treatment plant, two in the public works department, one to two police officers, one to two firemen and Emergency Medical Services personnel and one to two paramedics, Matkin said.
The Fort Scott Public Water Distribution crew works on a broken water main in northeast Fort Scott on Wednesday in freezing weather. Taken from its Facebook page.
With temperatures hovering in the single digits, the Fort Scott Water Distribution Department had an uncomfortable day yesterday, to say the least.
The department crew of Bill Lemke, supervisor, along with Brady Coffman, Stanley McKeen, Jason McReynolds, and Joseph Reid spent the day repairing a water main break in the middle of the street on North Broadway in the northeast part of town.
Water was spewing upward from the street.
“It was shooting pretty good,” Brad Matkin, spokesman for the City of Fort Scott said. “They had to dig up the road to find the root cause.”
The crew found the 10-inch water main with the hole in it and put a sleeve over the hole, tightened the bolts on the sleeve, then put the gravel back in the hole, Matkin said.
Matkin wasn’t sure of the number of households without water during the repair.
“North Little (Street) and North Broadway (Street) residents were affected,” Matkin said. “All the water is turned back on.”
Matkin said the cause of the water main break was probably the change in temperature or the age of the pipe.
The crew started at the site about 8 a.m. on Feb. 2, following a call to report the water spewing from the street. Matkin wasn’t sure who called in the incident.
They will finish the clean-up today and smooth out the street, he said.
“In the spring, we’ll do a job of patching the site,” Matkin said.
Public Works
Fort Scott Public Works employs about 15 employees, Matkin said.
“The other guys were removing snow and treating ice,” he said. “We did have a tree fall and they had to remove that.”
Fort Scott city crews are working to clear the streets. Taken from the City of Fort Scott’s Facebook page.
From a post on the City of Fort Scott’s Facebook page last evening:
“Please remember to stay back when coming up on snowplows; with blowing snow and at night it is hard for them to see you if you are too close.
“Also, we understand frustrations because of driveways being covered when our plows are cleaning the roadways and will do our best to limit this but with several inches of snow, this is very hard to control. We want our roadways as safe as possible for our public safety personnel and for our citizens. This is our number one priority. Thank you in advance for understanding and your patience.”
The Big Sugar Lumber staff, front from left: Tim Culbertson-contractor sales, Jim Fewins-general manager, Janice Fewins-accounting. Back row from left: Jeff Dollarhyde-yard man and driver, Kristin Bishop-floor manager, Tyler Travis-logistics manager and Stihl products, Cade Goodridge-yard man, and Daniel Harney, assistant manager.
Big Sugar Lumber had a change of ownership on Dec. 31, 2021.
With the retirement of Matt Noll as a business partner, Jim Fewins is now the sole owner of the local lumber materials store in Fort Scott.
“He had been a business partner for several years and wanted to retire,” Fewins said. “We appreciate Matt’s working here over the years and wish him well in his retirement.”
The lumber yard is a member of the international building materials dealer Do It Best cooperative, he said.
“We are proud to be your local lumberyard,” Fewins said.
Among the store’s offerings are lumber, hardware, paint, windows, and roofing supplies.
They have a delivery service available for their products and are also a United Parcel Service drop-off point in Fort Scott.
The store personnel are working to expand the inventory: “more lumber, commodity products (plywood and OSB’s) and more niche items,” Fewins said. And they are re-merchandising the items on the shelves to be more accessible.
Jim Fewins, the owner of Big Sugar Lumber, stands in front of a newly re-merchandized shelf in the store.
There is a new hospitality area in the store, where one can sit in a chair and have a cup of coffee at a table. This is located to the left of the sales desk, near the rear of the store.
“We’ll have contractor meetings in this area,” he said. “A place to have a cup of coffee and sit down.”
Daniel Harney, the assistant manager, said they are working to increase inventory and maintain it to have what people need.
“Customer service is a high priority, that sets up apart,” he said. “And we are a local lumber yard.”
“Every small town needs a really good lumbar yard,” Kristin Bishop, the floor manager said. “We want to provide that for Bourbon County. We are proud to be your local lumber yard.”
Fewins said new staff will be “working on making sure we have all our bases covered correctly.”
Big Sugar Lumber has a quick turnaround on items not in the store.
Do It Best Warehouse has 87,000 items, which can be ordered through the Big Sugar Lumber Merchandise Catalogue on a Monday and be in the Fort Scott store by Wednesday, Fewins said.
“And there is no charge to the consumer,” he said.
History of the Big Sugar Lumber Store
Original business partners Ed Graham, Sid Colwell, Jim Fewins, and Matt Noll started Big Sugar Lumber in March 1983 in Mound City.
“We came to Fort Scott in 1984,” Fewins said. “We owned both stores and had a third one in Garnett in 1988. It closed in the early 2000s.”
The facility is located at 1005 S. Clark, near the junction of 12th Street and Hwy. 69. The store phone number is 620-223-5279.
A sign on the door of a Bourbon County clinic states a mask must be worn.
The Biden Administration announced on Jan. 19 that N95 masks will be available to the public from the government’s Strategic National Stockpile, which has more than 750 million of the protective masks on hand, according to Free N95 masks: Biden administration plans to give away 400M masks | AP News. The masks will be available for pickup at pharmacies and community health centers across the country.
Currently, Walmart Fort Scott has the N95 masks for distribution, according to a call to their pharmacy on Feb. 1.
Walmart Fort Scott, 2500 S. Main.
A spokeswoman for Fort Scott Walgreens Pharmacy on Jan. 31 said their location will not be allocated these free masks.
Community Health Center of Southeast Kansas Fort Scott clinic will have them available on Feb. 4.
“We received five pallets of masks Friday,” Krista Postai, CEO of Community Health Center of Southeast Kansas, said. “There is a limit of three per person per the guidance we received.”
Community Health Center of Southeast Kansas, 401 Woodland Hills Blvd.
“We received a shipment of 20,000 Honeywell adult masks Friday evening,” Robert Poole, CHC Communication and Marketing Director, Pittsburg, Kansas, said. “We are in the process of getting those redistributed to our clinics. They should be available to pick up in all of our clinics by (this) Friday.
Artist rendition of the new entrance area at Bourbon County Community Health.Officials and community members gathered in the McAuley Center at the former Mercy Hospital building on Jan. 31, 2022, to hear Noble Health’s announcement to reopen a hospital.
Fort Scott will get a new hospital.
The Fort Scott City Commission and the Bourbon County Commission signed a contract in July 2021 to facilitate Noble Health Corp’s feasibility study of reopening the former Mercy Hospital building as an acute care hospital.
Today, the decision was announced by Noble Health Corp. to move forward with the project.
Bourbon County, the City of Fort Scott, and other government officials and members of the community gathered in the McAuley Center at the former Mercy Hospital this morning to hear the announcement.
Rob Harrington, Bourbon County Rural Economic Development; Drew Solomon, Noble Health Corp.; Clifton Beth, Bourbon County Commissioner; Fort Scott Mayor Kevin Allen; Merrill Atwater, Noble Health; Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt; U.S. Senator Jerry Moran; and U.S. House of Representative Jake LaTurner all spoke at the event.
The facility will reopen as Noble Health Bourbon County Community Hospital.
Harrington said that approximately 100 jobs will be available in the new hospital and that a Request for Quote will go out in a couple of weeks for the first phase of the construction process.
The whole process could take a year to complete, he said.
The building is located at 401 Woodland Hills Blvd. on Fort Scott’s south side, just west of Hwy.69.
Mercy Hospital closed its doors in December 2018, following declining patient numbers and shrinking reimbursement for services.
The building currently houses the Community Health Center of Southeast Kansas clinic and the Ascension Via Christi Emergency Department. Fort Scott Community College has used the patient rooms on the west side of the facility for student housing for the last few years. On the ground level is I Am Rehab Physical Therapy and Fitness and a hair salon, Diamonds in the Marketplace.
“Ascension Via Christi will be staying for a longer period and is currently working out the details of a long-term lease with Noble,” Harrington said in a later email. “CHC’s lease will be expiring at their current location (December 2022), however, they will be continuing services at their new location at the old Price Chopper building after build-out. Also, CHC has been told that they have as long as they need to stay at their current location if the build-out takes longer than expected.”
Background of the Project
Noble Health Corp., Kansas City, announced on June 25, 2021, the contract for the study.
The city contributed $200,000, the county contributed $800,000 towards the feasibility study, according to the contract. The local government entities used American Rescue Plan money from the federal government for the project, according to Bourbon County Commissioner Clifton Beth.
The feasibility study investigated the condition of title to the development property, the physical condition of the property, the zoning, the economic feasibility, and all matters relevant to the acquisition, usage, operation, valuation, and marketability of the property and the project, as the developer deemed appropriate
The county government agreed to contribute at least $2,000,000 to finance certain costs and expenses related to and associated with the project, according to the contract.
Boy Sout Race Kit. Taken from BSA 114’s Facebook page.
Fort Scott Cub Pack 114 is having its annual Pinewood Derby on Saturday, Feb. 12 from 6-9 p.m. at Memorial Hall, Third Street and National Avenue.
This year to beef up community attendance, Scoutmaster Seth Needham is hosting a Corporate Pinewood Derby.
Tiger Den Scouts receiving awards for the 2021 Pinewood Derby. Scouts from left to right: Robert Needham. Payton Golden. Max Petrillo. Submitted photos.Winners from each den in the 2021 scout derby. From left: Robert Needham. James Gooderl, Allison Moore, Charlie Widder, Emory Ellis. Submitted photos.
“It will be a night of fun and racing,” Needham said. “The Pinewood Derby is an annual scout event where we design, build, and race pinewood derby cars,” Needham, said. “Pinewood Derby cars are small-scale cars made from wooden blocks, carved and cut for unique designs, and then raced down a special track. They are powered 100% by gravity, so the design is very important, and something the scouts work hard on.”
Needham decided to make this year’s race a community event because the scouts do work so hard on their cars.
“I wanted the community to have a chance to come and cheer them on,” he said. “The scouts give back a lot to the community through various projects, so it’s nice to have an event that can bring the community out to see them.”
“The corporate race is open to local businesses and organizations,” he said. “So far, I have about 10 different businesses signed up, and they are all really excited. Also, the sheriff’s office and the city of Fort Scott will have cars entered.”
Key Apparel is sponsoring the derby by providing prizes for the fastest cars, and best designs, he said.
The corporate derby has a cost of $25 that includes one derby car kit, registration for the race, and one meal ticket, he said. Extra meal tickets are $10. Companies can register more than one car, too.
1st and 2nd place will be awarded for both categories, and the prizes are $150 and $100 gift certificates to purchase items online from Key Apparel.
“The design contest will be judged by a panel of judges,” Needham said. “Currently, Lindsay Madison from the Chamber of Commerce, Mayor Kevin “Skitch” Allen, and Kelley Zellner, city manager, are our judges.”
Dinner will be served at 6 p.m. for race contestants and their guests.
Each company that registers gets one meal ticket, and extra meal tickets are available for $10.
“If people want to come and just watch the race, we will charge $5 entry,” he said “All proceeds will go directly to Cub Scout Pack 114.”
“I decided to do the derby as a fundraiser because so many people have fond memories of these races when they were scouts,” he said. “Anytime scouts are brought up in conversation, the first thing people want to talk about is their experience with the pinewood derby.”
Robert Needham testing the track at the 2021 Pinewood Derby. Submitted photos.
The Corporate Pinewood Derby
“Area companies are invited to design and decorate a car, race, and have dinner with the scouts,” he said. “You can be as creative as you want with the design of your car, as long as it complies with the official scout pinewood derby rules.”
The cost to compete in the Corporate Derby is $25 per car, and each registration will include the following:
1 BSA approved Pinewood Derby Car Kit
1 dinner ticket
Area to display your car and company literature before and after the race.
Features on our Facebook page.
Agenda for the Event
Check-in will begin at 5 p.m. with the official scout races starting at 6 p.m., and company races will start immediately after.
Dinner will be served at 6:30 p.m. Additional meal tickets can be purchased for $10 before the event, or $15 the night of the event.
Please make checks payable to BSA Pack 114.
Key Apparel has donated gift certificates with prizes from their business website, which is www.keyapparelstore.com
Prizes will be awarded for the following categories.
Speed: 1st place $150, 2nd place $100
Design: 1st place $150, 2nd place $100.
If your business would like to register, please contact Needham at (620) 215 6934, or send an email to [email protected].
“Upon registration and payment, you will receive your pinewood derby car kit and a copy of the rules,” he said. “Also, be sure to follow BSA Pack 114 on Facebook for tips and tricks that you can use to make your car faster.”
Needham provided the rules of the derby:
RULES FOR BUILDING YOUR PINEWOOD DERBY CAR
BSA’s Pinewood Derby Car Building Rules
All cars must pass the following inspection to qualify for the race:
Width shall not exceed 2-3/4 inches.
Length shall not exceed 7 inches.
Weight shall not exceed 5 ounces.
Axles, wheels, and bodies shall be from the materials provided in the kit.
Wheel bearings, washers, and bushings are prohibited.
No lubricating oil may be used. Axles may be lubricated with powdered graphite or silicone.
The car shall not ride on any kind of spring.
The car must be free-wheeling, with no starting devices.
No loose materials of any kind are allowed in the car.
A double-elimination method is used to determine the winner.
This method uses a “winner’s bracket” system that begins with every car filling one spot. At the end of each heat, the winning car advances to the next level of the winner’s bracket while the other cars are entered in the loser’s bracket. Those cars then race against one another, with the winners of each heat advancing. The final car of each of the two brackets competes with the other for first place.
Each judge will give each car a score of 1-10, with 10 being the best. The car with the highest score wins.
T-Mobile is located at the strip mall at 2400 S. Main. The soft opening of the store is Jan. 28.
This Friday a T-Mobile wireless network store opens in Fort Scott in the strip mall on South Main Street.
The store is located in the former Cash 2 Go storefront at 2400 S. Main and has 1,300 square feet for the sales floor.
The hours will be 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday, noon to 6 p.m. on Sunday. They have seven employees.
January 28, 2022, is the soft opening date, with a grand opening in the future.
The store’s phone number is 620.644.0347.
Why Fort Scott?
“T-Mobile is the leader in 5g, bringing cellular service to the entire nation,” said Scott Hunsaker, manager of the Fort Scott store.
“T-Mobile wants to service communities that have been historically dis-served within the cellular community,” Hunsaker said. “Fort Scott was chosen because of its geographic location and the City of Fort Scott had been approved to receive a $50,000 Hometown Grant. This gave us a reason to invest here.”
T-Mobile Employees from left: Kyle Holmes, Lindsay Reno, Summer Burkett, Scott Hunsaker, Sabra Stoughton, Donnisha Moreland. Submitted photo.
To view the prior story on the Fort Scott Hometown Grant:
Betty Boyko, currently the superintendent at both Fort Scott National Historic Site and Fort Larned National Historic Site will assume a new position in mid-March, according to a press release.
National Park Service (NPS) Regional Director Bert Frost announced the selection of Boyko as superintendent of Homestead National Historical Park located in Beatrice, Nebraska late last week.
She has been the superintendent of Fort Scott National Historic Site since 2006, Boyko said in an interview with fortscott.biz.
Fort Scott National Historic Site is located at the north end of the town’s historic district.
Her duties at FSNHS were to provide leadership for all aspects of park operations to include preservation, interpretation, maintenance, administration, policies, public use management, public affairs, and park development, she said.
” I also became the superintendent of Fort Larned NHS in a dual superintendency in August 2013,” she said. “The position at Fort Larned became vacant so they needed someone to help out on a temporary basis for 30 days. Challenges in filling that position resulted in the extension of my temporary appointment and eventually led to it becoming a permanent position along with my current duties at Fort Scott NHS.
The best aspect about Boyko’s job in Fort Scott?
“It is definitely the park, park staff, and people of Fort Scott,” she said. “When I arrived here, everyone was so welcoming and supportive. That is still the environment today which makes the job so rewarding. It has been a pleasure to work with the community, many partners and volunteers and I know that the new superintendent – whoever that is – will appreciate the same support and working relationship.”
A new superintendent has not been selected for FSNHS yet, she said, but the regional NPS office is working on a plan to fill it.
The biggest challenge for Boyko in her job has been the COVID-19 Pandemic.
“Unfortunately, the pandemic has challenged how we mitigate operations to remain open and still provide a quality experience for the community and visitors,” she said.
Boyko starts on March 13th at Homestead National Historical Park, Nebraska.
Duties there will be similar to the current position: the management and leadership duties, but focused on the purpose for which that park was established.
A 37-year veteran of the NPS, Boyko has a wide range of administrative and leadership experiences in parks throughout the Midwest Region including eight years at Homestead National Historical Park where she served as the administrative officer and several years as deputy superintendent. She began her NPS career at Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site and has held leadership positions at St. Croix National Scenic Riverway and Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail, according to the press release.
Boyko is a graduate of Dakota Business College in Fargo, North Dakota, and of the GAP International Executive Leaders Program. She represented the NPS region in the Emerging Leaders Program Executive Challenge Course. She will relocate to the Beatrice area this spring and looks forward to being near her son and his family, according to the press release.
In a continuing effort by Bourbon County and the City of Fort Scott leadership to combine services, the city’s tourism department will come under the Bourbon County Regional Economic Development Inc.
Jackson Tough, the City of Fort Scott’s Tourism Director moved his office into the Bourbon County REDI office at Landmark Bank today.
Jackson Tough. Submitted photo.
“The city commission voted, this month, to move their tourism (department) over to Bourbon County Regional Economic Development Inc.,” Rob Harrington, REDI director said. “Jackson Tough will remain a city employee.”
Landmark Bank, 200 S. Main, Fort Scott. From its Facebook page.
Funding Is From Bed Tax
The city’s tourism department is funded through a Transient Guest Tax, Harrington said. “Any money left from the transient guest tax, after the administrative stuff, payroll, FICA, and any incumbrances…will come to REDI for marketing.”
The transient guest tax, commonly known as the “bed tax,” is imposed by a city or county on transient guests of hotels, motels, and tourist courts, according to 2006-022 | 9/1/2006 | Kansas Attorney General Opinion (washburnlaw.edu) The purpose of the tax is to provide revenue “to promote tourism and conventions.”
“Convention and tourism promotion,” is defined as follows, according to the website:
“‘Convention and tourism promotion’ means: (1) Activities to attract visitors into the community through marketing efforts, including advertising, directed to at least one of the five basic convention and tourism market segments consisting of group tours, pleasure travelers, association meetings and conventions, trade shows and corporate meetings and travel; and (2) support of those activities and organizations which encourage increased lodging facility occupancy.”
“I’ll oversee the funds to see they are being used appropriately, for what they are supposed to be,” Harrington said.
“Tourism will be under REDI jurisdiction, we’ll be responsible for tourism marketing,” he said. ”
“We are trying to not duplicate services at the county and city levels,” he said. “Just because it doesn’t affect local taxpayers, it does have an effect on tax funds collected from the transient guest tax, which should be efficiently spent.”
Combined Services
The city and county officials have been working together in economic development, finance management, and human resource services, in recent years, to share resources. Tourism will now be a shared service.
Carol Oakleaf, left, and Lori Lovelace show the donation can for clothing to the Fort Scott Community Closet which is located in the Fort Scott Washateria in this 2019 photo.
Carol Oakleaf and Lori Lovelace, owners of Fort Scott Washateria, 501 S. National Avenue, started the Fort Scott Community Closet when they opened the laundromat in September 2019.
Recently they have been revamping their clothes-give-away operations to be more accessible to the people of Fort Scott.
“After Saturday, Jan 29th, we will be open to the public from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday,” Lovelace said. “Those interested in finding clothing or household linens and bedding can sign in at the laundromat front desk and will be able to go into the closet and pick out needed items.”
“We will have bags at the front desk to put items in after sign out,” she said. “As always, our items are donated by the people of Fort Scott and are available to all in need.”
“We will be open on Saturday, Jan 29th as we are finishing up the retooling and welcome all who wish to come by,” Lovelace said. “We have a good selection of coats and cold weather items as well as clothing and bedding.”
“Thank you to all of the people who have donated,” Lovelace said.
“We started the Community Closet when we opened the Washateria in September 2019 because there was limited availability for obtaining donated clothing for folks since Beacon( a local helping agency) had ceased taking clothing donations,” she said. “We thought that a laundromat was a logical place, as we wash the clothes and we have a large outreach within the community.”
Fort Scott Washateria, 501 S. National Avenue. 2019
The clothes and bedding are free to those in need.
Then In March 2020, the COVID-19 Pandemic hit.
“While the laundromat has remained open as an essential service, we limited access to the closet, taking requests over the phone and gathering clothes for people to pick up at the laundromat,” she said.
“We are ready to move out of the COVID restrictions and the number of calls has increased, making it difficult to keep up,” Lovelace said. “So, we have redesigned the closet for folks to be able to come to the laundromat, sign in and go to the closet to gather clothing and household linens as needed during the closet open hours.”
She said they have had a large number of items donated and are trying out the self-service idea.
“The kick-off is Saturday, Jan 29th and we will see how it works,” she said. “Our mission has always been to be a middleman for a flow of items from folks willing to donate to folks in need and we have been learning how the best way to efficiently do that over the past two years.”
Fort Scott Washateria Services
“Fort Scott Washateria continues to provide a clean place for people to do their laundry and we have been doing a lot of laundry in our Wash/Dry/Fold Service,” she said. “We still have free pick and delivery for the WDF service including hotels and campgrounds in the area and we provide commercial laundry service to local businesses.”
Oakleaf and Lovelace give a tour of the Washateria prior to opening in Sept. 2019.
“We have some new promotions and services set up for this year, stay tuned for more information on those,” Lovelace said.
The laundromat is open seven days a week, Monday through Saturday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. and on Sunday from noon to 8 p.m.
“We also starch and press, steam, and do some limited alterations,” she said.
Rules for the Community Closet
“The rules for the closet are, for folks looking for items, to sign in at the front desk and when they are done looking to come back in for a sack and to sign out,” Lovelace said. “We ask for respect in going through the items, returning them to their tubs and shelves so the next folks can easily find what they need.”
To Donate
For people interested in donating, they accept clothing, bedding, and coats.
“We can’t handle shoes or items other than the clothing due to space limitations,” she said. “You just have to bring your items to the front desk in bags, boxes or loose, we will take care of them from there. We take donations during all hours the laundromat is open.”
Community Health Center of Southeast Kansas, 403 Woodland Hills Blvd.
Krista Postai, CEO of Community Health Center of Southeast Kansas sent an update on the Fort Scott clinics for 2021.
“Altogether, at our Ft. Scott clinics, we employ 109 staff,” she said. “We had 71,000 patient visits last year and our pharmacy filled 57,000 prescriptions. We completed 1,400 mammograms.”
Krista Postai. Submitted photo.
COVID-19
“On the COVID front, we completed 8,769 tests and 7,842 vaccinations,”Postai said. “We were approved to receive the COVID-19 Anti-Virals (Merck’s Molnupiravir and Pfizer’s PAXLOVID) at no cost and will be dispensing them, as appropriate, with a prescription through our pharmacies including the one in the Woodland Hills Ft. Scott Clinic.”
“Unfortunately, the initial allocation is very limited but we hope to see that increase as the national supply increases,” she said.
“We have also just been notified that we’re eligible to receive 20,000 N-95 masks from the federal stockpile – recommended for protection from the Omicron variant of COVID — for distribution to the public; we do expect those to arrive by the end of January and we will publicize once they arrive,” she said.
“We also expect another supply of the at-home testing kits for public distribution,” she said.
Preparing to Move Location in Fort Scott
“The design phase continues on our new building ( the formerPrice Chopper building on South Main Street),” she said. “We are still on schedule to be open in December 2022.”
“The CT Scanner – a Hitachi Supria 64-Slice unit – has been ordered, she said. “It is identical to the one being installed this week in Pittsburg. The Board did approve the charges for scans which will be as low as $50 for those who meet financial guidelines
The CHC/SEK Board of Directors elected new leadership for 2022 including Board Chair Patrick O’Bryan, Vice Chair Jake Letner, Secretary Rose Madison, and Treasurer David Shepherd.
CHC Fort Scott clinic hours remain the same – Walk-in Care is 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. seven days a week; the main clinic is open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday.
