Fiscal year tax collections exceed previous year by $183.49 million
TOPEKA—Fiscal year tax collections have exceeded previous year’s totals by $183.49 million according to data from the latest revenue report released Thursday.
Fiscal year 2019 tax collections so far total $2.20 billion, exceeding estimates by $105.60 million.
October tax collections were up $10.71 million, or 2.14 percent over last year. October’s tax collections exceeded expectations for the month by $6.99 million.
Individual income tax collections in October totaled $242.29 million which is $12.88 million or 5.61 percent above the same time last year. October sales tax collections fell short of last October’s collections by $3.88 million.
One of the St. Martin’s Academy boys rappeling at Looking Glass Arch, near Moab, Utah. Courtesy photo.
St. Martin’s Academy, a new Catholic boys boarding school started its inaugural school term in Moab, Utah in September.
The staff and students spent six days canoeing, technical rock climbing and exploring, during the first days of the school year.
” It was a time of intense bonding and camaraderie, and life-long friendships were born,” Daniel Kerr, founder of the school said in a newsletter.
St. Martins’ Academy, Oct. 2018, is still in the construction stage.
The school campus is still under construction, with a tentative completion date for the first building, Theotokos Hall, by late spring 2019, according to Patrick Whelan, headmaster of the academy.
Meanwhile the students/faculty are staying in the Levine House on South National until the facility is complete.
“We have 18 students this year, eight freshmen and ten sophomores,” Whelan said. “We have students from all over the country including Virginia, Georgia, Texas, California, Colorado, Kansas, Maryland, etc.”
” We have a relatively large staff (12) due to the 24 hours per day supervision requirements,” Whelan said. ” We have four residential staff that we call House Fathers. They live in the same building as the students and are responsible for supervising all daily activities.”
“St. Martin’s is unique in that it is neither a prep school for the socio-economic elite nor is it a reform school for young men with behavioral problems,” Kerr noted in a recent newsletter.
The platform-tent at Camp Kapaun on the campus of St. Martin’s Academy, located on Indian Road, serves as a classroom each morning for Natural History, Liturgy, Ancient History and Latin lessons. Courtesy photo.Courtesy photo. Coach Simon Webster said many of the St.Martin’s Academy freshmen and sophomore boys had never played soccer. The school ended with a winning record and had competed against varsity level teams.Courtesy photo. Two St. Martin’s students take a turn milking Sweet Molly Brown, a Jersey cow. St. Martin’s Academy students participate in daily chores. The first two weeks of work, students butchered rabbits, castrated hogs, bucked two fields of alfalfa hay and milked cows.
These are the faculty and staff of the school:
Chris DeCleen age 24 is from Indiana and earned a degree in philosophy from Ave Maria University in 2017. He teaches Freshman History.
Joseph Free, age 23, is from Massachusetts and earned a degree in the Humanities and Liberal Studies from Ave Maria University in 2018. He teaches music and is assistant rugby coach.
Joshua Mincio, 20, is from California and interned at a monastery in Oklahoma before joining us this fall. He teaches advanced Latin.Simon Webster, 20, is from Texas and comes from the University of Houston Business College. Simon is the head soccer and rugby coach and athletic director.
Faculty:
Travis Dziad and his wife Margi come from Ave Maria University where Travis is ABD in a Ph.D. in Theology. He serves as the Residential Dean and teaches Algebra and History.Daniel Kerr is from Fort Scott and is the owner and co-founder of Adjuster Pro. Dan is the president and co-founder of St. Martin’s Academy; he leads development efforts and teaches Natural History.Kenneth Klassen is from Fort Scott. He holds a Ph.D. in literature from the University of Kansas and has taught a variety of subjects for over 30 years. He teaches Literature and Geometry.Ronald Klassen is from Fort Scott, holds a Masters degree in Classics, and has taught in public and private schools for over 30 years. He is the head Latin teacher.Sebastion Macik and his wife Erin come from Dallas, TX where Seb taught and served as an EMT. He is the chef.Fr. Bob McElwee is from Pittsburg, KS holds several Masters degrees and is a retired priest in the diocese of Wichita. Fr. McElwee is the Chaplain and teaches all Religion classes at the academy.
Michael Taylor and his wife, Jenna, recently moved to Fort Scott from Mound City, KS. Mike has worked as a hunting guide in Alaska and in various dairies for over a decade. Mike is the Farm Foreman and teaches leather-working and pottery.
Patrick Whalen and his wife, Kristi, moved to Fort Scott last year from St. Louis. Patrick is the headmaster and co-founder of the academy. He is a Marine veteran, a reserve officer in the Marines, and a Ph.D. candidate at Washington University in St. Louis. Whelan teaches literature at the academy.
Whelan provided the following information about the school:
The curriculum taught at the academy for freshmen: Mythos, Greek Literature, Roman Literature, Pre-History to the Hebrews, Greek Civilization, Roman Civilization, Basic Catechism (The Problem of Evil), Natural History, Algebra 1/Applied Mathematics, Latin 1.
The curriculum for sophomores: Rome and the Incarnation, Medieval Literature 1 and 2, Roman Empire to Late Antiquity, Early Middle Ages, High Middle Ages, The Liturgy, Earth Science, Biology, Geometry/Euclidean Geometry, Latin Advanced.
” In addition to their academics, the boys play soccer in the fall and rugby in the spring,” Whelan said. ” We are currently engaged in the FORT (Functional Outdoor Resilience Training) program which is an outdoorsmanship, fitness, and leadership development program we designed. In their free time, the boys learn folk music, juggle, and enjoy the parks and trails around Fort Scott.”
“All students participate in athletics and a series of Practica that include Leatherworking, Pottery, Drawing, Painting, Cartography, and Gregorian Chant,” according to Whelan.
The Friends of Fort Scott NHS are once again hosting an 1800s Grand Ball on Saturday, November 10, 2018, as part of the citywide Veterans Day Weekend in Fort Scott.
We will honor all veterans and current military personnel as well as remember the WW1 armistice signed on November 11, 1918.
Veterans and military personnel, along with their escorts, will be leading off the Grand March to begin our evening of 1800’s period dancing and music.
We would like to encourage everyone attending the Veterans Day Weekend activities to come and participate in the 1800s Grand Ball, and likewise, we encourage anyone attending the 1800s Grand Ball to take part in the other activities offered during the weekend in Fort Scott.
All funds raised at the Grand Ball will go to support the activities of the Friends of Fort Scott NHS.
The Friends provide support to the national historic site in a variety of ways, such as assisting with educational activities and programs for all ages as well as providing refreshments for special events.
Submitted by Dee Young
For more information contact Dee Young at 913.557.1632 (home), 913.269.1632 (cell),[email protected]
Governor Colyer highlights the successful launch of KanLicense, mobile driver’s license renewals
TOPEKA—Governor Jeff Colyer, M.D. on Wednesday congratulated the Department of Revenue and its partners on the extraordinarily smooth rollout of two new interfaces to serve Kansas driver’s license and ID holders.
Kansas is now the first and only state in the country to offer driver’s license renewals through a mobile application. Mobile renewals join other already existing services like vehicle registration renewal and vital statistics on the iKan application available for iOS and Android.
“My vision for Kansas is to make as many services accessible through phones and computers and this is a huge addition. Most everyone has to renew their license and now many of them can do it without ever stepping foot in an office,” Governor Colyer said. “Congratulations to KDOR and its partner PayIt on getting this fantastic service out the door and ready for use.”
The availability of mobile renewals was made possible by the launch of a different system, KanLicense, the new secure interface used by driver’s license examiners to issue licenses and IDs.
“This launch was incredibly smooth with minimal interruption to service for Kansans,” Governor Colyer said. “The modernized system now in place empowers faster customer service, plus ease of use for examiners—two critically important factors for a better experience for Kansas drivers at the office.”
Web access to iKan services like mobile renewal, vehicle registration and more is at ikan.ks.gov.
This week, the hours of operation for most driver’s license offices statewide changed to 8 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. Monday through Friday, which brings the addition of a full day of service every week.
Seth Simpson, Fort Scott City Airport Manager, as of Dec. 2018.
Seth Simpson has been hired as the Fort Scott Airport Airfield Operation Flight Manager.
His hiring was announced at the airport Monday afternoon.
The Fort Scott Airport entrance at 187th and Indian Road.
A 2002 Fort Scott graduate, Simpson, 35, has worked at Elgin Air Force Base, Florida for six years as an Air Force Air Traffic Controller.
He then entered the Air National Guard and served in Stillwell, OK; Manhattan, KS; Montgomery, AL; Biloxi, MS, and most recently St. Joe, MO.
Simpson is married to the former Amy Cozens and his parents are Scott and Becky Simpson, Fort Scott. They have three children: Lydia, Maylie, and Alex.
“Five people applied,” said Kenny Howard, the current airport director, who will be retiring in December 2018.
“We selected Seth because of his experience in aviation, plus he was a local boy,” Howard said.
“He will be training one day, every other week, until December 21,” when Simpson will become fulltime and Howard will step down, Howard said.
“I will be in charge of air traffic control, airfield operations, and landing systems maintenance,” Simpson said.
Simpson will continue in the Air National Guard one weekend a month, two times a year, he said.
St. Martin’s Academy will present a quarterly public faculty lecture on Friday, November 9 at 7:30 p.m. at the Boiler Room Brewhaus, located at National and Wall Street.
“We’re planning the lecture on Friday the 9th to kick off Veterans Day weekend and the feast of St. Martin of Tours on the 11th, our patron saint,” Patrick Whelan, headmaster at the boy’s Catholic school, said. ” I will be the one giving the lecture, and the title of the talk is ‘Warfare in Epic Poetry.'”
“I’m a Marine veteran and still serve as an officer in the Marine Reserves in addition to pursuing my Ph.D. in combat trauma in literature,” he said.
The event will start with a mixer /cocktail hour at 7:30 p.m. The presentation will begin at 8:30 p.m. and with time for questions, will run until 9:30 p.m.
“Then folks are free to hangout and talk until the pub closes (at 10 p.m.),” Whelan said. “This is open to anyone who is interested in hearing the talk. Our students will be present so we ask that folks be respectful.”
” St. Martin’s Academy does these in order to share the intellectual work and interests of the Academy with the local community, family, and friends,” he said.
