Fort Scott, KS – A major announcement for SEK came this morning (October 9th), an announcement that has been debated for a decade. Governor Brownback and Secretary of Transportation, Mike King, was in town to announce the final stretch of highway 69, from Arma to Pittsburg, will be widened to a four lane highway.
It will be a $23.5 million project that has been a long time coming. Brownback cites the reason for being able to do this now is other projects in the state coming in under cost. Already announced and funded is the stretch from Fort Scott to Arma, although construction has not started. The total project will cost about $70 million and will cover about 18 miles. Construction is expected to begin in 2017 and will be completed 2019.
Following the announcement Governor Brownback continued to visit local places in SEK, part of campaigning for the upcoming elections. He didn’t make any remarks but used the time to connect with local people at Papa Don’s pizza in downtown Fort Scott.
Fort Scott, KS — One of the greatest assets a community has are the people who make the city a great place to live. The fine folks at the Beacon are no exception to this. The Beacon is an inter-faith, not-for-profit network which helps Bourbon County residents with food, shelter, clothing or other necessities during times of need or an emergency.
Bob Eckles, Director, has been at the helm for about 14 years at the Beacon. He is the third director the ministry has had since its inception in 1985. Looking at the numbers, the Beacon serves an average of 400 families a month. Only 3 paid staff and about a dozen faithful volunteers continue to keep the doors open to help those families in need. “Nearly every church in town has involvement at some level,” Mr. Eckles said. However, there is always more help needed.
A big deal this weekend is the CROP walk, started in the 1947 to help mid-west farmers to share their grain with hungry neighbors in post-World War II Europe and Asia. The organizers of the CROP walk, Church World Service (CWS) are still working in foreign nations but also partner with local ministries.
This Sunday, the CROP walk is happening in Gunn Park at shelter #3. Registration is at 1:30pm and the walk starts at 2pm. All are welcome to come and join in the walk, approximately 1.8 miles. Proceeds raised will help both CWS and the Beacon.
For more information, please contact the Beacon:
525 E 6th St.
Fort Scott, KS 66701
620.223.6869
Hours: M-F; 9a-1pm
Mapleton, KS — Timber Hills Lake Ranch, just outside of Mapleton, Ks is hosting a national “Bird Dog Classic” for habitat this weekend. Now, if you’re not familiar with the Bird Dog Classic, it’s a hunting competition for owners and the ‘bird dog.’ There are numerous competitions that will test the abilities of your bird dog. The cool thing about this weekend’s competition is that all the proceeds will go to “Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever.” The mission is dedicated to the conservation of pheasants, quail and other wildlife through habitat improvements, public awareness, education and land management policies and programs. You can click here for more information the Bird Dog Classic or contact: Ed Holland @ 816.810.9535, [email protected] OR Joe Deschaine @ 479-586-1789, [email protected].
If you’re not a hunter, there is still plenty to do. There will be shooting skills, youth “outdoor experience,” raffles and live auction. You may not have made it out to Timber Hills Lake, it’s a beautiful 2,000 acre location which hosts many different events from corporate meetings to wedding. It’s a beautiful place to spend the weekend or to host your own event here.
If you have ever owned a pet, you know the benefit those furry (or sometimes not) little critters can bring to your home. Of course, we’ve also had those days that turn out to be more of an adventure you bargained for!
We also know how fast un-cared for pets can get into trouble and become malnourished. The good people over at Lee’s Paw & Claws (no-kill) Animal Shelter, help take care of those homeless critters, providing food and shelter. This Saturday, starting at 10am, they have planned a full afternoon of activities that will bring you face to face with some of those who are in their care. It is taking place at the Fort Scott Community College walking trail area from 10am – 3pm.
If you are looking to stretch your legs with your favorite four-legged animal, there will be plenty to do for everyone. Paws and Claws will have an agility run for dogs, photo ops, bake sale and live auction at 2pm to raise funds for continued care and facility improvements.
If you need some basic care for you animal, they will also be offering rabies shots for $7.50, Parvo shots for $10 and if you have been wanting to microchip your animal, you can do that also for $25. There will also be a drawing and the winner will get two pets microchipped!
And if you are looking to provide a great home to one of the animals, they will be adopting out during this event. There will be concessions and pet costumes, seriously, this will be a blast. You can check out more info by clicking here for their Facebook page or their website here.
Contact:
721 240th Street
PO Box 343
Fort Scott, Kansas 66701 620-223-2888 email: [email protected]
If you have an idea for an event you think we’d be interested in covering, please email us at [email protected]
FORT SCOTT, KS – Last Friday afternoon, a group of local young professionals gathered in a local pizza place for their monthly meeting. The meeting was the Young Professional League of Bourbon County (YPL). Heather Griffith, President, related the mission and vision of YPL is to engage young professionals to advocate for a better community through relationships and creative collaboration. YPL seeks to be a place for young professions who care about the advancement of Fort Scott and creates a place for their voices to be heard.
YPL was established in 2007 and continues to meet the first Friday of every month with varied topics of discussion. Mostly these are centered on economic and social issues within the city and surrounding areas. This also includes community members coming and giving presentations once a quarter about different activities and initiatives in the community.
This past meeting, the two candidates running for County Sheriff came and shared their platform, policy changes they would like to see in the future if they are elected and answered some general questions from YPL members. YPL is hosting a candidate forum October 20th the high school. Candidates who will be on the Nov 4th ballot will be present for comments and questions.
Other general announcements made at the meeting to give you a scope of other activities YPL participate in were: Decorating a pavilion at the Zombie Chase in Gunn Park, serving in the soup line November 5th, prepping for the job fair for high school students in January followed by hosting a chamber coffee later in January.
YPL is always looking for more members and active young professional to join. Dues are only $35 a year and membership is a great way to meet new people and became involved in Fort Scott. If you have further question, you can check out their website by clicking here or you can contact Heather Griffith at her office:
Director of Economic Development
City of Fort Scott 620.203.0318
www.fscity.org
Fort Scott, KS – If you are interested in getting out and about this weekend, plan on stopping and spending time at the Gordon Parks Celebration of Culture and Diversity event this weekend. Many of you may know Gordon Parks was born in Fort Scott, but can you name the cultural impacts he made as an artist? He was mostly known for photography, but also was a writer, musician, film director and composer.
This weekend’s events serve to honor Gordon Parks but also to hold further discussion of the issue of poverty and the many social implications within our communities. As a tribute to Gordon Park’s love of photography, a central theme of this weekend’s celebration is telling stories through pictures. The 26th annual Gordon Park’s Photography Competition finalist will be on display. You can view them by clicking here.
Here are two of the entries:
There are numerous events going on all weekend and most of them are free to attend. Certainly, you would benefit by participating all weekend, but if you need to pick and choose, you can click here for the entire weekend schedule. A few of the highlights include the “Poverty A-Z Exhibit,” a multi-media presentation incorporating photography and music. The display will be in the Ken & Charlotte Lunt lobby from September 19 – October 17th. Karen Haas, Curator of the Lane Collection of Photography at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts will discuss Gordon Parks photography, Friday 1:15-2:45pm, free event in the Ellis Fine Arts building (theatre). Friday closes with a “Celebration Tribute Dinner” with presentation of the 2014 “Gordon Parks Choice of Weapons Award.” Cost $30, Liberty Theatre, reservation required.
Saturday, “The Learning Tree,” Gordon Park’s biographical film will play in the Ellis Fine Arts Theatre at 9am. FREE. Finally, the weekend ends with “Picnic on the Patio” in the Ellis Center Geraldine and E.C. and Gordon Outdoor Patio – $8 (weather permitting).
For more information about this celebration or the life and work of Gordon Parks, please contact:
Jill Warford, Executive Director
Ft. Scott Community College
2108 S. Horton
Fort Scott, KS 66701
1-800-874-3722, ext. 5850 or [email protected]
Fort Scott, KS Looking for some good musical entertainment coming up soon? FSCC is presenting The Addam’s Family (a Musical) coming up the end of this month. Directed by Sara Mae Lamar in the Ellis Performing Arts Center.
Lamar is in her second year at Fort Scott Community College (FSCC) and chose to do this musical from a poll taken from community members. She also taught high school theatre five years and has a decade of professional performing experience.
The Addam’s Family cast has about 35 students, 10 of those are younger students who are invited to perform and gain a collegiate theatrical experience. This production is newly released, just first produced on Broadway in 2010 and based solely on the characters in the comic strip. The Addams Family is not your normal family. This story highlights every father’s nightmare. Wednesday Addams, the ultimate princess of the family, has grown up and fallen in love with a sweet, smart young man from a very normal family – a man her parents have never met. And if that weren’t upsetting enough, Wednesday confides in her father and begs him not to tell her mother. Now, Gomez Addams must do something he’s never done before – keep a secret from his wife, Morticia. Everything will change for the whole family on the fateful night they host a dinner for Wednesday’s ‘normal’ boyfriend and his parents.
If you want to see a sneak peak of a few of the songs, the cast will be preforming this Friday night at the park, click here for more info. Performances are Oct 23rd – 26th, Thursday – Saturday @ 7:30pm; Saturday & Sunday @ 2:30pm. Tickets are $8 for Adults, $5 for students, Faculty & Staff, Kids under 12 & Seniors. You can also “like” FSCC Theatre Department FB page by clicking here.
Fort Scott is the county seat for Bourbon County, also comprising of the highest population density in the county. It only makes sense the Emergency Manager (EM) would be in the center of it all. William Wallace, a 12 years FEMA veteran, is at the helm of all disaster preparedness activities happening in the county.
It’s easy for the EM position to go unnoticed during times of nice weather and everything going smoothly, much like most people live their lives. However, it’s the careful planning and mitigation of the EM that helps coordinate the emergency services during incidents that can expedite recovery efforts and more importantly save lives.
An important aspect of Wallace’s job is investigating the county and ensuring municipalities have taken important steps to mitigate against potential disaster that could occur in the county. Wallace’s office keeps close tabs with Topeka and FEMA Region 7 in assessing threats and solutions for Bourbon County. Mitigation may include fortifying current systems, such as electrical, to ensure a more expedited return of power. Another great example, just as this article is being written, the CDC has just announced the first case of the Ebola virus in the US. This is an issue where the EM may consult with the county health department to ensure we have a strategy should action need to be taken.
“Another big job in emergency management is the facilitation of all emergency services,” Wallace said. “I knew we had an excellent team after the tornado incident in April,” commented Wallace. Inter-agency cooperation during an incident is a critical component to ensure effective and efficient response and recovery. “Relationships and communication are a key component to ensure this happens,” Wallace said. During the relationship building process is something known in the emergency field as ‘exercises.’ These can range from simple discussion based “tabletop exercises” to a full scale disaster exercise. Wallace mentioned they try to have as many exercises during the year as possible without disrupting the daily responsibilities of the emergency service personnel.
Wallace also has an interest in increased communication within the county during times of disaster. They are launching a new alert system called CodeRED, you can read more about it here. Just as the EM is responsible for mitigation on a county level, he is also concerned about families taking steps in preparedness within their home. The emergency service will work tirelessly during a disaster to reach families and ensure safety. However, Wallace highly recommended families take some basic steps to increase each family’s preparedness. His top three recommendations for preparedness are:
Be ready to sustain your family for a minimum of 48 hours. This includes: water, food (not requiring heat), power (batteries) and adequate clothing and shelter
Communication plan. This includes family, extended family, cell phones, phone chargers, etc. Make a plan on how you are going to be able to communicate and when, during a disaster. For example, during a disaster cell phones maybe tied up, but you can send text or try calling, but should only try calling at designated times to preserve cell battery. Or if you are close enough, arrange meeting places.
Pay attention to media. It’s important to be able to access the latest communication the EM is sending out. This could be through radio, television or CodeRED. However you choose, it’s a good idea to have a back-up and check batteries periodically to make sure they are still working.
Wallace also discussed the possibility of working with the Citizen Emergency Response Team (CERT) program. CERT is a nationally recognized program that aims to provide citizens with some basic preparedness and organizational training to respond to local disasters. There is a wealth of information online if community members are interested in learning more about preparedness and mitigating disasters, including FREE online FEMA courses.
For more information about Bourbon County Emergency Management:
210 S. National Ave.
Fort Scott, KS 66701
620-223-3800 x124
620-223-3234 fax [email protected]
Bourbon County, KS – Communication during a potential time of disaster has proven to save peoples lives. Emergency personnel are always on the look for better ways to communicate to those living in their jurisdiction more effectively.
Starting this October, Bourbon County is launching a new alert system. This alert system is named “CodeRED.” Bourbon County Emergency Manager, William Wallace is enthusiastic about the possibilities of this system. “Not only can you receive alerts about potential dangers, but the user can choose to receive notifications about county wide events and news,” Wallace said.
CodeRED is a high-speed mass notification system that can deliver alerts to your land line or texts to your cell phone or email. Registration for the alerts is free and simple. Click here to go to the Bourbon County web page to register. There is also an app you can download for smart phones by clicking here.
For more information or questions:
620-223-3800 or [email protected]
This weekend’s weather was beautiful and hopefully you were able to attend a long-running Fort Scott celebration of the Pioneer days, skills and trades and, of course, tractor pulling.
Pioneer Harvest Fiesta kicked off Thursday night with a parade and ended around 3pm on Sunday. Activities were planned all weekend and certainly provided much entertainment as well as educational. On display is a strong heritage and tribute to those who work hard in our fields. Unfortunately, many of these skills are a dying craft, given over to urbanization.
Hundreds came from all around to visit the craft fair, flea market, the numerous vendors and to see those old tractors. David McCord, president of the Pioneer Harvest Fiesta, may be the Fiesta’s biggest fan, stated he’s already started working on next year’s Fiesta. Hopeful to bring in more people he’s wanting to bring in new agriculture technologies, such as greenhouses, drip irrigation and alternative power solutions, such as wind power. He also envisions capturing the younger audience with some very creative math and science competitions. The prize is something that even the adults may even want to join in the competition. However, you will have for the official announcement when the details have been worked out.
Many vendors from all around came with a wide variety of wares. Antiques, home-made items, food (including home-made peach ice cream and it was as amazing as it sounds.) Cynthia Files and Cindi Taylor were selling Feista ‘wear.’ Proceeds from those items purchased will go on to help restore the older buildings at the fairgrounds. Thanks to them both for the ‘photo op’ and thank you also for the countless volunteer hours (and many other who are unnamed) who help make the Fiesta possible.
It’s very difficult to cover all the interesting events that happened in a short blog, those of you who couldn’t make it did miss out. However, we have lots of pictures of this weekend for you to view. Make sure and put this on your calendar for next year, the last weekend of September, you won’t be disappointed.
If you have information on an event you think we would be interesting in covering, shoot us an email: [email protected]
FortScott.biz is always looking for more readers to tell about the news and events going on in Fort Scott and the surrounding areas! So……. we are giving away an iPod Shuffle to one subscriber! To sign up, all you have to do is to subscribe! <– Click there or you can click to the “subscribe” button on the right –>
The contest will run until October 11th, 2014. Here are the rules:
You have to be subscribed to the list to enter. That means you’ll need to type in your email address and then confirm the subscription.
You can enter from this link or using the form on the right hand side of the page.
You’ll need to come to Fort Scott to claim the prize. If you live in Alaska, this might not be cost effective for you.
The winner will be announced and have their picture posted to the site. This probably isn’t a good contest for people in the witness protection program.
If you are under 18, you’ll need a guardian to accept it on your behalf.
Crawford State Park (Farlington Lake), KS – Do you have an award winning chili recipe? Maybe it’s time to put it up to the test! This weekend, September 27th, Crawford State Park host’s Country Music Jamboree and annual Chili cook-off. This is the last big activity planned at the state park this year.
Cooking starts at 12:30 and judging starts at 4:00pm. If you are not the cook, but enjoy sampling the bounty of good cooks, tasting will take place at 4:30pm. If you think you have what it takes to compete, you can contact Kevin Smith, the chili commissioner: 620.362.3237 or [email protected]. The park is offering free park entrance for this event and if you decide to stay and do a little camping you can register at www.reserveamerica.com or visit the park office.
Also, included in the festivities, are live music and a pot-luck “end of season” dinner at 6:30pm. Bring a covered dish and join in. Live music starts at 3:30pm and includes performances by The Duling Band, Jeff Simpson, Kinley Rice, Jason Richison and more. All activities will be in the Oak Point Campground.
Crawford State Park
If you haven’t had a change to visit the lake, take some time before the winter weather comes to go and visit. The park is located 9 miles north of Girard on Hwy 7 and contains an 150 acre lake. The whole park comprises 530 acres, six campgrounds, five modern cabins (for rent), two boat ramps, a swimming beach and three bathhouses. Also, the park offers four hiking trails, a 9-hole disc golf course and a Civilian Conservation Core (CCC) Memorial Museum (when open).
We will do a more complete story on the historical activity of the CCC in a future article. The lake was constructed in the 1930’s by the CCC and shortly after, the hatchery was built. The Museum contains many artifacts retrieved from the CCC camp which was located were the park sits today. The museum is curated by Aggie Keeling and her friend Dorothy, both who are actively involved in the “Friends of Crawford State Park.” The two of them are diligently working to preserve the history and legacy of the men who built the park. They are also working hard to enhance the experience of visitors today, including raising fund to install storm shelters for park campers. There is an outdoor exhibit as you enter the park, make sure you take some time to observe the memorial and learn some of the history of this park.
Crawford State Park
1 Lake Rd.
Farlington, KS 66734
(620) 362-3671 [email protected]
www.ksoutdoors.com