Larry Lee Amer Sr., 65, beloved son, father, grandfather, brother, and friend, passed away on April 2, 2024, leaving behind a legacy of love and cherished memories. He was born on August 2, 1958, in Fort Scott, Kansas, to Dorothy Irene Burch and James Lawrence Amer.
From a young age, Larry embraced his faith and accepted the Lord as his savior at the tender age of six. This foundation of faith guided him throughout his life, shaping his character and influencing his relationships.
Larry was a devoted son, bringing joy and comfort to his mother, Dorothy, with his love and affection. His dedication to his family extended to his role as a loving father to Larry Lee Amer Jr. of Fort Scott, Kansas, and Amanda Lynn Herrington and her husband Paul of Fort Scott, Kansas. He took immense pride in his role as a grandfather to Christian Herrington, Kaydence Herrington, and Kholsn Herrington, finding joy in every moment spent with them.
He was a devoted brother to Kenneth Meek of Fort Scott, Kansas, and Fred Meek of Great Bend, Kansas, as well as a caring brother to his sister Darlene Norvell of Great Bend, Kansas. Larry cherished his family deeply and also leaves behind numerous nieces and nephews, whom he held dear to his heart.
Larry dedicated many years of his life to Extrusions Inc, where he formed lasting friendships with his colleagues. He had a passion for fishing, camping, and watching old western reruns, but his true love was found in everything related to hot rods and cars. Whether tinkering in the garage or attending car shows, Larry’s enthusiasm for automobiles was infectious.
In his later years, Larry found solace in the simple pleasures of life, cherishing the company of his neighbors and closest friends. He lived each day with a profound appreciation for the moments shared with those he held dear.
Larry Lee Amer Sr. will be deeply missed by all who had the privilege of knowing him. His kindness, warmth, and unwavering love will forever remain in the hearts of those he leaves behind. May his soul rest in peace, and may his memory be a blessing to us all.
Funeral services will take place at 2:00 p.m. Saturday, April 6, 2024, at the Konantz-Cheney Funeral Home.
Burial will take place later in the Prescott Cemetery, following cremation.
The family suggests memorial contributions to Care to Share, and may be left in the care of the Konantz-Cheney Funeral Home, 15 W. Wall Street, P.O. Box 309, Fort Scott, Kansas, 66701. Condolences may be submitted to the online guestbook at konantz-cheney.com.
Daniel Zywietz and son, Noah on a recent solar installation in Chanute. submitted photo.
If you own a business in Bourbon County and selected other counties in rural Kansas, you can apply for a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) grant and get up to 50% off the cost of solar panels.
Add the 50% federal tax credits available for renewable energy installations in Bourbon County, and a business owner could get a solar system for nearly free, according to Daniel Zywietz, founder of SEK Solar, Chanute.
SEK Solar designs and installs solar systems and also helps with the grant application, allowing business owners to drastically reduce their utility bills, he said.
Before starting SEK Solar, Zywietz founded and ran Enerwhere, the Middle East’s largest rooftop installation company and one of the world’s largest microgrid operators. The company started as a provider of temporary power services to the construction industry in 2012 and quickly expanded into the commercial rooftop solar market in Dubai, building over 45 MW of solar over 10 years, including the world’s second-largest solar rooftop system at the time, covering an area of more than 23 football fields, he said
He ended up in the Middle East as a management consultant working for Booz & Company, a spin-off of Booz Allen Hamilton, and one of the best-known management consulting companies worldwide.
With his wife (who is originally from Humboldt, KS) looking to move home after the COVID-pandemic, Zywietz started to look into the solar market in Kansas and was astonished to find that there were hardly any solar panels installed, despite the clear and sunny skies and large open spaces. With over $1 billion in grant funds for solar and energy efficiency available to agricultural and rural small business owners under the USDA’s Rural Energy for America (REAP) program, Zywietz and his wife decided to set up a solar company to service local business owners.
What made the opportunity even more exciting was that the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), passed in 2022, not only refilled the REAP program, which had been running for 10 years with much lower funding levels, but also significantly improved the Federal tax credits available to rural Kansans, according to Zywietz.
According to the EPA website, the credits are structured in three separate buckets, according to information from Zywietz. The 30% base tax credit is available to anyone wanting to install a solar system at the business or home, anywhere in the US. A further 10% “Low-Income Community” bonus is available to projects in disadvantaged areas. (Bourbon County, together with most of South-East Kansas, qualifies). Finally, there is another 10% “Energy Community Bonus” available to areas that previously hosted coal mines or coal-fired power plants, and again, Bourbon County qualifies, according to a map provided by the Department of Energy. Added together, the tax credits can add up to 50% for a renewable energy project in Fort Scott and the surrounding area.
While the tax credits don’t require any special application process, the REAP grants do. It all starts with checking whether a business’s location is eligible based on the USDA’s Property Eligibility site, says Zywietz.
The USDA defines a rural area as an area with a population of less than 50,000 people. The second criterion is the business size. The small business size standard is based on either annual revenue or the number of employees, depending on a North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code, which is used by federal agencies to classify businesses by industry type, according to http://kansasenergyprogram.org/assessments/REAP-OverviewFAQ
This generally means that if a business has less than $10 million in revenue or less than 100 employees and is a for-profit business, such as a restaurant, hair salon, retail business, or farm business, the owner is eligible to apply, Zywietz said.
“It’s a tedious grant application process,” he said. “The smallest grants of up to $20,000 have a nearly 100% approval rate because $200 million were set aside for these small projects and there aren’t enough applications, as most small business owners find it too time-consuming to fill in all of the forms. Larger grants, which can go up to $1 million, compete with other projects based on a scoring system, so getting the grant application right can make a big difference to the chance of approval. The next application deadline is June 30th.”
“It’s a big opportunity for rural business owners to lower their utility bills and go green. And while filling in government paperwork can be frustrating, I think it’s only fair for them to check if your business is legitimate before they hand you what is essentially free money. I’m happy to answer any questions on solar or the USDA REAP grants and the IRA tax credits as well,” Zywietz said.
Would you like to make an impact in your community while broadening your skill set, connecting with people, working close to home, and receiving good pay & great benefits?
As Uniontown City Clerk/Municipal Court Clerk you can do all this and more! This is a 40 hours per week position with above average wage and benefits, including:
Paid Time Off: 10 Holidays, 1-4 weeks Vacation, 12 days Sick Leave, & More
Retirement Plan: participate in KPERS (Kansas Public Employees Retirement System)
Health & Life Insurance available
Wage Scale: minimum $15.00, may be more depending upon experience
Personal Requirements:
You must be a Motivated, Self-Starter
High Attention to Detail
Basic Computer, Accounting, and Secretarial Skills
Ability to Maintain Confidentiality and Discretion
Live Within 10 Miles of Uniontown
Valid Driver’s License & Pass Pre-Employment Drug Screen
The Clerk position entails performing all duties as defined by Kansas State Statute and City Ordinances: receive and disperse monetary funds and maintain financial records; complete various administrative reports; grant applications & administration; prepare, mail and apply payments of monthly customer utility billing; assist residents via phone or walk-in; attend and record minutes of all city council meetings, write monthly community newsletter; other duties as required (a more detailed job description and list of duties available upon application).
Apply in person at Uniontown City Hall, call 620-756-4742, or submit your resume via email to [email protected] . Applications accepted until position filled.
TOPEKA – The Kansas Department of Transportation is accepting applications for the Safe Routes to School Program for its second round of Planning and Programming (P&P) grants.
Applications are due by 5 p.m. on May 3. KDOT will award up to five grants for the 2024-2025 school year.
The P&P grants fund the development of SRTS plans that will include an overview of existing conditions and public outreach. The plans should also identify potential infrastructure and non-infrastructure solutions to help more children safely walk, bike and roll to school.
All communities, school districts and organizations are encouraged to apply. More information on the P&P grant program, including the application, recordings of prior informational webinars and a question/answer sheet can be found at https://saferoutes.ksdot.gov/grants-and-funding.
About KDOT Safe Routes to School
Safe Routes to School is a comprehensive approach to getting more kids walking, biking and rolling safely to school. It provides kids and parents with a variety of activities, events and lessons, while also addressing local pedestrian, bicycle and personal safety concerns. Visit KDOT’s Safe Routes to School website at SafeRoutes.ksdot.gov to learn more and sign up for the quarterly e-newsletter.
KFF Health News and Cox Media Group’s Series on Social Security Overpayments Wins the Goldsmith Awards’ Inaugural Government Reporting Prize
KFF Health News and Cox Media Group Television Stations announced today that they received the 2024 Goldsmith Awards’ inaugural Government Reporting Prize for their joint reporting in the series “Overpayment Outrage,” which exposed how the Social Security Administration routinely reduced or suspended monthly checks to take back funds to pay off large debts that were often created by its own miscalculation of people’s benefits.
The investigation revealed that more than two million people each year are hit with overpayments, including those least able to repay the debt, such as individuals who are poor, old, disabled, blind, or who suffer from a chronic illness.
The reporting triggered congressional hearings, a “top-to-bottom” review by Social Security officials, and increased Senate oversight. Commissioner Martin O’Malley also recently announced sweeping policy changes to stop what he called “clawback cruelty” and “grave injustices.”
The Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School honored KFF Health News and Cox Media Group at the Goldsmith Awards ceremony yesterday with the new prize, which recognizes reporting on how government and public policy implementation works, including how and why it can fail and how it can most effectively and efficiently solve problems.
“This series exposed the significant impact of these mistakes on millions of people, including those who had little to no ability to pay back the government, forcing some people to lose their homes, cars and savings,” said KFF President and CEO Drew Altman, who is the founding Publisher of KFF Health News. “This is why KFF reports on systemic issues like this through our news service—to reveal how people are affected by policy. ”
“We’re honored to receive this prestigious award because it reflects CMG’s commitment to local news and investigative journalism,” said Marian Pittman, CMG’s President of Content. “The team’s relentless efforts to uncover the truth behind complex government policies and their implementation has resulted in tangible changes within the SSA and will directly benefit millions of people impacted by overpayments.”
The series was reported by David Hilzenrath and Fred Clasen-Kelly of KFF Health News and Jodie Fleischer of Cox Media Group. A list of additional contributors is available here.
More on “Overpayment Outrage”
Each year the Social Security Administration (SSA) issues billions of dollars in overpayments to recipients whose incomes or other qualifying criteria have changed. Under federal law, the SSA is required to demand repayment of this money, treating it as a debt to the federal government. These clawbacks can happen even decades after the initial overpayments.
In “Overpayment Outrage,” Cox Media Group and KFF Health News examined the overpayment issue and the impacts clawbacks have on vulnerable people. They found that overpayments happen due to rules that are complex and hard to follow, inadequate SSA staffing, outdated limits on assets and lagged or otherwise inaccurate data on income and other beneficiary information. The reporting also laid out potential solutions to address the legislative, funding, and process failures that cause this systemic problem.
About the Reporting Partnership
KFF Health News and Cox Media Group television stations used FOIA requests, reports by the inspector general and SSA, and interviews with agency employees, advocates for the disabled, and dozens of beneficiaries to piece together the story. What emerged was evidence of a systemic problem in which the SSA routinely reduces or halts monthly benefit checks to reclaim billions of dollars in payments it sent to beneficiaries then later said they should not have received.
After they published the series, hundreds of disability beneficiaries came forward with troubling accounts, including that the government sent them overpayment notices without explanation and threatened to cut off their main source of income with little warning. The agency has since restored benefits to several of the beneficiaries featured in the reporting.
About KFF and KFF Health News
KFF is a nonprofit health policy research, polling, and news organization. Our mission is to serve as a nonpartisan source of information for policymakers, the media, the health policy community, and the public. KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth and award-winning journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF. KFF Health News has been recognized repeatedly for its journalism, with awards honoring its investigative reports on the American health care system.
Other major KFF programs include Policy Analysis; KFF Polling and Survey Research; and KFF Social Impact Media, which conducts specialized public health information campaigns. A new program on Health Misinformation and Trust will be launched soon.
Welcome: Twenty-two members representing eighteen agencies attended. Billie Jo reminded members that the 2024 family swim pass applications to the Aquatic Center are available at Buck Run and The Beacon; applications must be returned to Buck Run by the end of April.
Member Introductions and Announcements:
Elizabeth Schafer, Pioneer Kiwanis and CASA – CASA needs volunteers!
Angela Handly, Compassionate Ministries: There will be a bake sale fundraiser Friday, May 5, at the First Baptist Church.
Lindsey McNeil, COPE: Since the COPE grant will be ending at the end of the month, she will be moving to a position with KRI.
David Gillen, Beacon: 266 families and 614 people were served in March, twelve of the families were new. They had forty hours of volunteer service for March.
Craig Campbell, GNAT and FSACF: GNAT is in the spring clean-up mode; April 22, 4-6 p.m. is the scheduled date for the Downtown Clean-up; contact Bailey Lyons to volunteer. Fort Scott Community Foundation grant applications open August 1; check the website for grant information.
Tammy Alcantor, Crawford County Health Department: They are working toward virtual pre-natal classes for Bourbon County moms; this will eliminate the need to travel to Pittsburg for classes.
Travis Wilcoxen, Angel Care Home Health: The specialty this month is wound care; they can help with this according to doctor’s orders.
Nick Johnson, USD 234 Pre School: Kindergarten round-up will be held on April 10; Pre School round-up will be held on April 12. Spring Fling family night is April 18; contact Nick if you wish to have a space for your agency.
Rachel Carpenter: The SEK Childcare Conference will be on April 20; the Dare to Dream Women’s Entrepreneurship conference will be held on June 14-15. Flyers for these events will be sent as an attachment with the minutes.
Program: Mike Sharpmack, Executive Director, Kansas Renewal Institute (KRI) explained the concept behind the first ever institute of this type. Phase 1 of KRI will be a residential hospital with 58 beds in the adolescent unit, twenty beds in the adult unit, and an adult detox unit. Phase 2 will include an ER, hopefully within six months. Doors will open on April 15 with the first ten patients. The education proponent will be done in cooperation with USD 234. Ribbon cutting for this new facility will be April 18; 11:00 a.m.
May program: Amanda Classen, K-State Research Community Vitality Agent
June program: Tara Solomon Smith, QPR Suicide Prevention
Open Forum: Nothing further came before the membership; Billie Jo did remind members that we do not meet in July.
Adjournment: The next General Membership meeting will be May 1, 2024.
Once again, EVERGY has awarded the Lowell Milken Center with a Community Impact grant for $1,500 to bring a Golden Eagle and Bald Eagle from Operation Wildlife (OWL) to Fort Scott, Kansas.
The “Raptor Birds” presentations will honor the Unsung Hero and Holocaust survivor Pavel Weiner. Pavel was a teenage boy who survived the Terezin Concentration camp by writing in his diary and helping to create 10 secret magazines about his and his roommates’ experiences in Terezin. These magazines were later used at the Nuremberg Trials. The young men called themselves “Nesharim” which in Hebrew mean “Eagles!”
The event is planned for Wednesday, April 17th, at the Lowell Milken Center for Unsung Heroes. Pavel’s museum panel will be unveiled at 1:00pm followed by a presentation from Jessica Rockhold, Executive Director of the Midwest Center for Holocaust Education in Overland Park, Kansas who will speak about Terezin. The eagles will be outside in the Lowell Milken Park at 2:30pm and 4:00pm. Everyone is welcome for all or part of the event!
“This is a really special treat to see two eagles at once and get to hear Jessica Rockhold who is an expert on all things Holocaust!” said Ronda Hassig, a spokesperson for the Lowell Milken Center for Unsung Heroes.
About the Lowell Milken Center: The Lowell Milken Center is a non-profit 501 (c) (3) that works with students and educators within a range of diverse academic disciplines, to develop projects focused on unsung heroes.
About Evergy: As an energy provider, Evergy is committed to creating a sustainable energy future and minimizing our environmental impact. They do this through the advancement of clean energy resources, education, stewardship, and environmental actions and activities.
There are (2) open positions for the Fort Scott Public Library beginning in May. The function of the Library Board is to review requests in reference to the library. These are (4) year terms and the board meets the second Tuesday of each month. These are voluntary positions and board are not compensated. Please send your Letter of Interest to the City Clerk at [email protected] (or City Hall, 123 S. Main Street, Fort Scott, KS 66701) by April 16th, 2024 at 4:00PM, and PLEASE be sure to include your contact information.
All submitted letters will be presented to the Library Board for consideration. The board will then make a recommendation to the City Commission for approval. All letters will be posted on www.fscity.org, as they are included in the City Commission Agenda Packet and are a matter of public record (contact information will be redacted).
For further information or questions about the position, please contact Jennifer Gum-Fowler, Fort Scott Public Library Director at (620) 223-2882.
