With the first day of fall classes rapidly approaching, Fort Scott Community College can again boast in the fact that it is ranked in the top five community colleges in the nation according to a study by SmartAsset.

For a third year, the New York based company looked at the community colleges in the nation and ranked them according to their in-state tuition, student-faculty ratio, the graduation and transfer rate and the ratio of the students’ starting salaries upon entering the work force compared to their tuition fees.

Out of the 565 two-year colleges considered, FSCC was ranked fifth, dropping from its position at number one in 2015 only because of a slight decrease in their graduation and transfer rate, which SmartAsset revealed had been evident in many of the colleges in their most recent study.

“It is really an honor,” FSCC President Alysia Johnston said, saying the study again shows they offer high quality courses at an affordable price. “We’re very proud of our faculty and staff and of course our students.”

The study showed that FSCC has a student-professor ratio of 14-1, more ideal than the national average of 20-1. The starting salary for students is 1.05 times the tuition they paid and the graduation and transfer rate is 51 percent, higher than the 40 percent national average but slightly lower than previous years.

“Continuous improvement is what we’re striving for,” Johnston said, adding the study is evidence of those efforts made by the staff at FSCC.

SmartAsset’s vice president of content, AJ Smith, oversaw the research for the study which has placed FSCC as one of the top two-year colleges each of the three years the study was released.

“Compared to the national averages, Fort Scott does very well,” Smith said.

Neosho County Community College was ranked ninth in the nation after being considered #45 on the list in the previous year’s study results.

Smith said SmartAsset’s goal is to provide readers insight concerning financial issues, especially large purchases and investments such as college tuition. For more details on the recent study, see the following link:  https://smartasset.com/student-loans/best-community-colleges-2016

Despite the wet weather, numerous dogs and their owners attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony Saturday morning for the new Bark in the Park dog run located at Gunn Park near Shelter House #7.

The idea for the dog park began when community members Jim and Martha Scott saw such a park a few years ago when traveling through another city. Since that time, the city of Fort Scott, the Fort Scott Area Chamber of Commerce and several other individual businesses and persons assisted in making the park a reality.

“It was all donations,” Jim Scott announced. “No tax dollars.”

Some of the donations included dog toys, park benches, waste bags, a sign as well as money for the fencing materials and time volunteered to dig the postholes from businesses such as Sleep Inn and Suites and Walmart as well as a collection of individuals.

“When you have a community like Bourbon County and like Fort Scott, you can do these things to raise the money, because you don’t need tax dollars,” Scott said. “Because the people raise it and say ‘I want to help, that sounds like a great idea.’”

Lindsay Madison, executive director of the Chamber of Commerce, expressed their excitement for the new dog park and encouraged others to approach the chamber with similar ideas for the city of Fort Scott.

“This is just one additional, great asset to our community,” Madison said. “The more things we have here, the more people will come.”

With the software already in place, the Unified School District 234 will utilize online enrollment for the first time this school semester as a means to provide a more convenient method for parents and guardians to enroll their students and make payments.

“We hope it’s a great asset for our parents,” business manager Gina Shelton said during the board of education meeting held Monday evening, pointing out that the same process will be completed by parents, whether done in person or online.

The online enrollment will kick off Friday, July 15, and will allow guardians to log into their Parent PowerSchool account, where they can enroll students, pay textbook fees and add money to lunch accounts electronically. That online enrollment will be available until at least about a week prior to the Sept. 1, school start date, providing time for the information to be imported.

Any progress made in the enrollment process can also be saved and returned to later at the parent’s convenience. Those enrolling more than one student can decide to enroll and pay for one student at a time instead of all at once or having to make numerous trips to the school offices.

“We’ve had some good feedback, I feel like, from anticipation of people doing it,” Shelton said of the response so far.

Shelton said the school completed a couple internal tests already and said the process is simple, likely taking only about 15 minutes, but Shelton encourages parents to go ahead and start gathering information so that process will not be delayed once it is started. Some of that information required includes contact information for parents and step-parents, such as phone numbers, addresses and social security numbers; three emergency contacts, preferably local; and the student’s basic medical information such as immunizations, personal doctor and any allergies.

With the easily available opportunity to use electronic payments such as credit or debit cards as well as checks, Shelton said they hope it may reduce the number of returned checks, adding the entire process will help the district save money.

New students to the district will still be required to enroll in person.

Those needing to find out who their students’ teachers will be in the upcoming semester can contact the individual school secretaries after Aug. 17. That information will be posted on Parent PowerSchool about a week after that date.

If anyone comes across an issue while enrolling online, they can contact Jason Fryar at [email protected] or contacting the board office at 620-223-0800 for assistance.

“We want to be as helpful as possible,” Shelton said, especially as it is their first year of using the online enrollment.

Shelton said the only thing that cannot be done online is the free and reduced food application, which still needs to be printed out and sent in or dropped off at the school. Shelton encourages all parents to fill them out because it affects school funding.

Shelton also pointed out that there will be a flat textbook fee of $35 this year instead of providing reduced textbook fees based on free and reduced lunches. Accommodations may be available for those unable to pay at once.

During their July meeting, the board of education also took time to reorganize itself as it does annually. Jordan Witt was nominated to be the board president for another year. Gary Billionis submitted his resignation from the board, effective immediately. Jamie Armstrong was nominated to take his place as board vice president. Vanessa Poyner was named the hearing officer for suspensions and expulsions.

During their first July meeting, the Fort Scott City Commission approved a series of recommendations from financial director Jon Garrison and director of informational technology Dustin McClure to improve the efficiency of the technology among the public buildings.

The three requests the commission unanimously approved included changes to the city website, economic development website, fiber systems and phone system. While some of the items require the city to commit sums of money to the improvements, others will save the city even larger amounts in upcoming years.

The planning process to update the current phone system to a digital program began a couple years ago and, although it will cost $20,000 initially, the city would then save about $46,000 each year. The phone lines will move away from the current 62 lines used between the city buildings.

“We are able to improve our technology but also save quite a bit of money,” Garrison said of the change.

In recent years, the city also got a high-speed fiber network through Suddenlink, but now needs to expand that reach. By working with the county and United School District 234, the city will be able to connect their own fiber system with the other taxing entities’ to connect city hall to other places such as the police station and public works facility.

“It just opens up a wide variety of benefits, not only for us, but for the school and the county,” Garrison said, while McClure emphasized the shared lines will not compromise security from the other entities and will be redundant enough that, if a line went down, the entities would not each lose their systems.

This project will cost about $60,000 and is available in the city budget.

City Manager Dave Martin said having the high-speed fiber network is key to the city moving forward, especially by connecting them to the police department.

The final project approved by the commission included hiring Civic Plus to make updates to the city website for a total of $46,014 stretched over three years. The changes would allow visitors to the website to accomplish more such as receiving or giving information. Martin said a city’s website is often crucial for businesses or potential visitors considering coming to Fort Scott.

“We feel very strongly that it’s something we need to do to continue moving the city forward,” Garrison said.

The city also heard a report from Director of Economic Development Heather Smith concerning her plan to separate the economic development website from the city’s, apart from sharing a link, so that economic information can be found readily without being lost in other city details. Smith said she plans to work with the area Chamber of Commerce and Tourism on the site.

Submitted July 1

Calling all kids in Fort Scott and the surrounding area! Are you bored sitting around the house playing video games this summer? Are you looking for something fun and exciting to do? Do you like to dig in the dirt? Or act in a play? How about doing scavenger hunts or looking through old buildings?

All of these activities will be offered as part of Fort Scott National Historic Site’s Trailblazer program for youth from ages 9-12. Participants can sign up for one of two weeks, July 18–22 or August 1–5, with programs running from 8:30 a.m. to noon each of those days.

During the week, youth will dig for buried treasure, explore the fascinating creatures and plants of the prairie, go green and have fun. The program will attempt to answer the question: “Kids, will they love National Parks?” We hope by the end of this week that the response will be yes!

A new and exciting element this year is an artist workshop. Youth will be guided by a professional artist in creating National Park Service inspired paintings, drawings, etc., that they will show off to their parents.

Registration for the workshop is underway. To register, contact Fort Scott National Historic Site at (620) 223-0310. Participants must be aged 9-12 years as of the beginning day of the camp. They will be sent an informational packet after registration is complete. There is no charge for the workshop.

Submitted June 29

Two Fort Scott Community College students earned medals at the 52nd annual SkillsUSA National Leadership and Skills Conference held in Louisville, Ky., on June 22 and 23.

Matt Volmer, FSCC Construction Trades student, competed in the college carpentry division and earned first place for the second year in a row. Mack O’Dell competed in the high school masonry division and earned third place. O’Dell is a Pittsburg High School student who is receiving dual college credit through a program at FSCC.

“We are extremely proud of Matt and Mack. They have worked diligently over the past several months to prepare for the national competition, and their hard work and dedication paid off,” said Nacoma Oehme, FSCC Program Industry Coordinator.

SkillsUSA is a national organization that serves high school and college students who are preparing for careers in technical, skilled and service occupations. SkillsUSA programs include local, state and national competitions in which students demonstrate occupational and leadership skills.

For more information about carpentry, masonry or other occupational programs at Fort Scott Community College, please contact Judy Meister, FSCC Occupational Recruiter, at (620) 223-2700, ext. 5247.

Despite the scattering of rain throughout the weekend, residents of Fort Scott still had ample opportunity to celebrate the holiday weekend with fireworks, anniversaries, historic activities and other events.

The Fort Scott Fire Department used the weekend to celebrate their 125^th anniversary Saturday by grilling hot dogs and inviting the community to come view the station and old equipment, including a truck from the 1940s, gear that is now out-dated and even illegal to use because of improved technology and records stretching as far back as the 1920s.

First Baptist Church of Fort Scott also celebrated an anniversary with a Saturday night gala, special Sunday service and opening of a time capsule as well as festivities at Gunn Park Sunday afternoon in honor of their 150^th anniversary.

The Fort Scott National Historic Site provided activities Saturday through Sunday, including characters dressed up in period clothing and demonstrations of different aspects of the fort and its history.

The second annual Wounded Warrior Classic also brought in a number of high school baseball teams and provided Sunday evening activities at the LaRoche Baseball Complex, while the city also put on a fireworks show that evening and then held the annual Burke Street parade the following morning.

Ever since its opening in 2015, the LaRoche Baseball Complex has been used by the city of Fort Scott and USD 234 to bring visitors to town as well as host local events for the community’s benefit.

The complex will continue with that goal by hosting the second annual Wounded Warrior Classic Sunday Funday event July 3, starting at 6 p.m. at the Dave Regan Stadium.

“This is a very special place,” Coach Josh Regan said of the facilities during the weekly Chamber Coffee hosted at the complex Thursday. “It’s not lost on us, the opportunity we’ve been given.”

Regan said their goal is to take advantage of that opportunity by being a blessing to the community with events such as the upcoming one recognizing veterans and military members for their sacrifices and heroism, hopefully inspiring the young people present for the baseball games and other activities.

“We want to make it really family-friendly,” Regan said of the Independence Day event. “I think it’s just going to be awesome. We want there to be something for everybody.”

Starting at 9 a.m. Saturday, festivities will kick off with baseball games between 12 local and out-of-town high school teams, with some traveling in from out of state. Games will continue on Sunday and Monday starting at the same time, with games being played at the Dave Regan Stadium and Lyons Field at Fort Scott Community College. This year those teams will consist of athletes 18 and under, as opposed to 16 and under as it was the previous year.

Other activities will include a fireworks display after dark sponsored by Briggs Auto Group and other local businesses, a bounce house and inflatable obstacle course for children, an E3 Meat hamburger stand, other concession stands, t-shirts for sale, a beer garden provided by Bourbon County Shriners and a country music concert performed by Luke Axtell and Friends. The event is expected to be done prior to midnight with alcohol sales ceasing before then.

Combat veteran Brian Keaton will also be on hand to speak at about 8 p.m. Sunday, after the final baseball game, on behalf of military men and women and the Wounded Warrior Project, which Adam LaRoche has held a strong connection with over the years.

“He’s got an amazing story,” Regan said of the speaker.

Already, tickets are on sale for $5 at the Chamber of Commerce, Bids & Dibs and Country Cupboard. Admission can also be paid for at the gate. Children under five years of age and veterans and active military members can attend for free. Proceeds will be donated to the Lone Survivor Foundation and Wounded Warrior Project.

Regan said he hopes the event will continue on in years to come and only increase in size and its impact.

In their most recent meeting, the Fort Scott City Commission gave permission for alcoholic beverages to be sold on the city facility’s property as well as fireworks to be set off for the event, expressing their support for the cause.

Regan also mentioned that each weekend this summer, a tournament will be hosted at the complex and they are looking into holding some there in the fall as well so it does not go unused. During those months, as many as hundreds of visitors will come to Fort Scott, fulfilling the complex’s goal, as Regan referred to it, of being a fountain in the community and not a drain.

City Manager Dave Martin also gave an update on the project to begin construction on a second entrance from Highway 69 both to the complex and the industrial park. Work on the $1 million Kansas Department of Transportation and Fort Scott project is underway.