Clarence William “Bill” Willey, age 69, resident of Deerfield, MO, formerly of Lane, KS, passed away Thursday morning January 19th, 2023, at Cox Barton County Hospital in Lamar, MO. He was born July 3rd, 1953, in Garnett, KS to Lloyd Warren Willey and Ester Rebecca Ashburn Willey.
Clearance, “Bill”, or “Billy” was raised in Lane, KS, and graduated from Central Heights in Richmond, KS. Bill would serve thirty-five years in the military before his retirement. Bill spent three years in the U.S. Marine Corp from 1972 to 1975, and then he served thirty-two years between the Kansas Army Reserves and Kansas Army National Guard before retiring from the military in April for 2007.
Survivors include his three children, Brian Willey of Louisburg, KS, Jeremy Willey (wife Nikki) of Deerfield, MO, Deedra Doherty (husband Josh) of Columbus, KS; six grandchildren Brooke, Kayla and Carter Willey, Christian Doherty, Haven Cooper, and Neaveh Doherty; his brother David Willey and Helen Johnson; as well as numerous nieces and nephews.
He is preceded in death by two brothers Lloyd and Johnny Willey, his sister Sally Willey, a niece Vona Jo Willey, and his parents.
Graveside services will be held at 11:00 AM Friday, January 27th, at the U.S. National Cemetery Fort Scott with military honors.
Memorials are suggested to the Bill Willey Memorial Fund and may be left in care of the Cheney Witt Chapel, PO Box 347, 201 S. Main St., Fort Scott, KS 66701. Words of remembrance may be submitted to the online guestbook at cheneywitt.com.
Fort Scottians experienced a couple of infrastructure problems on Jan. 23.
There was a power outage.
“From what we are hearing from Evergy (the electric utility)it was an outage in a substation,” Brad Matkin, Fort Scott City Manager said. “They did a great job getting the problem located and solved in a timely manner and we appreciate this.”
Brad Matkin. Submitted photo.
According to a call to Evergy, it was a substation problem and the outage was first reported at 10:44 a.m. with power restored at 11:06 a.m.
In addition, there was a water line break in the city.
“A lot of times the weather is a main issue for these water line breaks,” he said. “They happen more in the winter than in the summer because of the weather changes. One day it is in the 50’s and the next is in the 20’s,”
“They also are caused by the lack of rain,” Matkin said. “This weather change causes the ground to shift which causes our water lines to break.”
“Other reasons for these water leaks are caused by other utility contractors hitting the water lines when digging, which was the cause for the leak yesterday,” he said.
A Fort Scott City Crew works on a water main break on Jan. 23. Photo from the city’s Facebook page.
Unfortunately this problem is not a new one as Fort Scott had 62 water leaks last year, according to Matkin.
What major projects need to happen to minimize these outages of both electricity and water?
“We cannot speak for Evergy on what projects they have in the works, but we do have a couple of water projects we are working with our engineer to get started, but again, with the weather we have, we will have leaks and we will continue to work hard to service our citizens.”
“We do not see very many lateral breaks which is good and shows our lines, even though they are old, are still in good condition,” he said.
Matkin save thanks to city workers on the city’s Facebook page last evening.
“Thanks Bill Lemke, Stanley McKeen, Jason McReynolds, Brady Coffman, Joseph Reid, and Dayton Mitchell for your hard work,” he stated.
This year the annual downtown festival Good Ol’ Days is June 2-3.
“We expanded the street fair on North Main again this year to sell on Friday, June 2nd,” Shawn O’Brien said in a press release. “These street fair vendors will be selected on a first come, first served basis. Limited space is available.”
The event will be rain or shine.
Time for the street fair is June 2 Friday, from 5 PM -10 PM (North Main Street craft and food vendors only) and on June 3 Saturday from 9 AM – 6 PM.
FEES: CRAFT VENDORS: The following fees are for Friday and Saturday: 10’x10’ (no tables, or chairs provided; no selling from vehicles) $100 The following fees are for Saturday ONLY: 10’x10’ (no tables, or chairs provided; no selling from vehicles) $75
FOOD VENDORS: There are no tables or chairs provided.No Tables The following fees are for Friday and Saturday: Self-contained units – $250 Snack foods, desserts, beverages, etc. not in a self-contained unit $100 The following fees are for Saturday ONLY: Self-contained Unit – $200 Snack food, desserts, beverages, etc. not in a self-contained unit $75 (10’x10’)
ELECTRIC HOOKUP Booths requiring electricity will be charged an additional electricity fee – $10
The deadline is May 12, 2023 Late fee of $10 if paid after May 12, 2023
CATEGORY:Indicate on your application what you sell. We fill this show by category so there is a wide variety to offer to the public. No booth may play music during the street fair hours without consent of the committee. No booth may sell food or drinks unless it is a food vendor or an approved vendor. No booth may sell any merchandise that shoots projectiles of any kind.
EVERY booth must always have at least ONE PERSON in the booth. All applications are subject to the approval of the committee. Each applicant will be notified of acceptance as soon as possible by email when possible.Please include a current email address on your application form.If email is not available, the correspondence will be mailed.
ANYONE NOT COMPLYING WITH THE POLICIES SET FORTH BY THIS COMMITTEE WILL BE ASKED TO LEAVE AND WILL NOT BE INVITED BACK.
Hosting SpaceX in Kansas It was great to host SpaceX President and COO Gwynne Shotwell in Kansas this week. During the visit, we toured local manufacturers including MAX Aerostructures, Accurus Aerospace and Spirit AeroSystems. The Greater Wichita Partnership also hosted a lunch reception at Wichita’s historic B-29 Hangar for local manufacturers, academia and community leaders to meet with SpaceX. Thank you to the more than 200 Kansans for attending and to Jeff Fluhr and his team at GWP for hosting the reception.
It was inspiring to hear SpaceX tell me that Kansans are outworking, outperforming and beating all their expectations.
You can watch a video recap of SpaceX’s visit to Kansas here.
My focus has been to bring space leaders, rocket manufacturers and NASA leaders to Kansas so they can witness firsthand the incredible work Kansans are doing each and every day to support the aviation and aerospace industry. We are the Air Capital of the World, and that involves commercial and general aviation, but there are many new opportunities to expand into space and defense manufacturing. If we want to maintain our status as a hub for flight, aviation and aerospace, we need to partner with businesses and industries who are leading the way in space and defense and diversify our manufacturing in Kansas. This will help provide better jobs and more opportunities for Kansans.
Thank you to Gwynne and her SpaceX team for visiting the Air Capital of the World and thank you to the many Kansans who helped make their visit a success.
Kansas Corporation Commission announces workshop series on resource adequacy
TOPEKA – The Kansas Corporation Commission has scheduled a series of informational workshops to discuss the topic of resource adequacy.
As renewable energy resources continue to grow nationwide and aging gas, coal and nuclear facilities are being retired, careful planning is required to ensure adequate energy generation and reliability in the event of extreme weather events. As part of this inquiry, the Commission recognizes the physical attributes of various generation options must be taken into consideration. These considerations include the intermittency of renewable resources, fuel availability and cost for thermal generation, and outage rates for all generation types.
KCC Utilities Director, Jeff McClanahan addressed these considerations in speaking before the Kansas House Energy, Utilities and Telecommunications committee at the Capitol last week.
“How far can you go with renewable generation given the need for reliability? Given the variability within renewable generation, you can’t always count on it. For example, there is just not as much wind in the winter. You need dispatchable generation out there to balance it all out until we get to long term, longer duration battery storage or other technology that can provide that,” said McClanahan.
Each workshop will feature experts on resource adequacy sharing information and answering questions from KCC Commissioners and staff.
The current workshop schedule appears below with additional dates to be added:
January 25 9 – 11 a.m. Black and Veatch
February 8 10 a.m. – 12 p.m. Midwest Reliability Organization
Heartland CEO appointed to National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative Board of Directors
Heartland Rural Electric Cooperative, Inc. Chief Executive Officer Mark Scheibe will advocate for the technology needs of cooperatives in Kansas, Colorado, Nebraska and Wyoming following his election to the National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative (NRTC) Board of Directors representing District 7.
NRTC is a national cooperative that helps rural electric and telephone providers deploy advanced technology solutions in rural communities. Scheibe said he is particularly interested in helping cooperatives leverage smart grid technologies to improve reliability, security, and efficiency of the electric grid.
“NRTC has always been there for major technology decisions at every co-op I’ve been at,” Scheibe said. “Whether it’s advanced metering infrastructure, solar, battery technologies, or electric vehicles, they’re always there to provide support and help solve problems.”
Scheibe said his background in data analytics and engineering lends him a unique perspective. He sees many opportunities for cooperatives to make better use of the data and streamline operations through automation of repetitive tasks.
“I want to ensure people are able to do the hard work once to get things automated and then reap the rewards in the future,” Scheibe said.
Scheibe was elected to the District 7 seat, which became open in 2021 upon the retirement of Dale Short as CEO of Butler Rural Electric Cooperative in El Dorado, by vote of the other NRTC board members, who considered several impressive cooperative leaders and conducted interviews prior to their vote. His election was effective January 13, 2023, and his term continues until March 2025.
“Mark’s track record of deploying technology to improve reliability, security, and efficiency of the electric grid is impressive,” said NRTC Board Chairman Tim Mergen, CEO and General Manager, Meeker Cooperative Light & Power Association in Minnesota. “We look forward to his contributions to the Board as NRTC continues to drive technology innovation on behalf of its members.”
Scheibe is a licensed professional engineer and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from the Iowa State University. Prior to coming to Heartland, Scheibe worked his way up from Distribution Engineer to Director of Engineering for Maquoketa Valley Electric Cooperative in Anamosa, Iowa.
Prior service on local, state, and national boards and committees includes:
Board member for Learning Tree Institute at Greenbush
Trustee and Executive Committee Member for Kansas Electric Power Cooperative, Inc.
Chairman of Loss Control, Safety, and Compliance Committee for Kansas Electric Cooperatives, Inc.
Member of Strategic Technology Advisory Council for the Business and Technology Strategies area of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association
Scheibe is also an avid long-distance cyclist. He lives with his wife and two children in rural Crawford County, Kansas.
About Heartland Rural Electric Cooperative, Inc.
Heartland Rural Electric Cooperative, Inc. powers rural lifestyles throughout more than 11,000 locations in southeast and eastern Kansas. Heartland’s service area includes consumer-members in 12 counties, including Allen, Anderson, Bourbon, Cherokee, Coffey, Crawford, Labette, Linn, Miami, Neosho, Wilson, and Woodson counties.
Heartland REC is a non-profit, member-owned cooperative that traces its roots back to three original rural electric cooperatives: Cooperative Electric Power & Light Company, Sugar Valley Electric Cooperative Association, and Sekan Electric Cooperative Association. Cooperative Electric Power & Light Company joined with Sugar Valley in 1975 to form United Electric Cooperative; United Electric Cooperative joined with Sekan Electric Cooperative Association in 1996 to form Heartland.
James Erwin Golden, Sr., age 69, a resident of Ft. Scott, Kansas, passed away Saturday, January 21, 2023, at the Via Christi Hospital in Pittsburg, Kansas. He was born April 9, 1953, in Kansas City, Missouri, the son of Royal S. Golden and Elsie L. Foote Golden.
James grew up and attended school in Denver, Colorado. He served with the United States Army from 1975 to 1979 where he was stationed at Ft. Leonard Wood in Missouri. While with the Army, James served with the Military Police and also did photography work.
Following his time with the Army, Jim moved to Ft. Scott, Kansas to pursue a career in truck driving. He married Connie Hayes and they had two sons, James Jr. and Daniel. For the majority of his life, James worked in the trucking industry where he was able to travel throughout the country. For a time while his sons were in high school, James worked for the Water Treatment Plant in Ft. Scott, but later returned to trucking. Following his retirement, James loved to drink coffee and spend time with his grandchildren.
Survivors include his two sons, James E. Golden, Jr. and Daniel Golden (Joyce) all of Ft. Scott; twelve grandchildren and a great-granddaughter. Also surviving are three brothers, John, Dean and Dale Golden and a sister, Colleen Schmersal.
He was preceded in death by his parents, two grandchildren and his former wife, Connie.
Following cremation, a celebration of life service will be held at a later date.
Memorials are suggested to the James Golden Memorial Fund and may be left in care of the Cheney Witt Chapel, 201 S. Main, P.O. Box 347, Ft. Scott, KS 66701. Words of remembrance may be submitted to the online guestbook at cheneywitt.com.
Wade Douglas Young, age 69, resident of Fort Scott, KS, gained his Heavenly wings surrounded by the love of his family on Friday, January 20, 2023, at Medicalodges Fort Scott. He was born October 10, 1953, in Fort Scott, the son of Marion and Lena (Kerr) Young. He was united in marriage to Mary Lou Johnson on August 26, 1982, in Fort Scott on the steps of the church. They cherished each other for 40 years and from their union came beloved daughter, Kimberly Young.
Never knowing a stranger, you would usually encounter Wade with a smile on his face or offering a helping hand to someone in need. He could be found at the dirt track rooting for Bolin, donning his blue and orange for the Denver Broncos, cheering on the Fort Scott High School football team, singing to some Motown oldies, or waving as he cruised around town with Mary by his side. He was also a very adoring father, grandfather, and friend.
Those left to treasure his memory are his wife, Mary; his children, Kimberly Young (Brett), Cyress Alexander (Todd), Wade W. Young (Rusty); step-sons, Shawn Judson (Becky), Larry Judson (Tasha); bonus daughters, Chelsea Zandler, and Danielle Wisely (Shawn); twelve grandchildren, Keegan, Nicholas, Wade, Bekah, Elisha, Mary, Benjamin, Jonathan, Donathan, Darian, Gabrielle, and Alessandra; five great-grandchildren, Savannah, Whitney, Melissa, Moses, Rhysland Wade, and another on the way; siblings, Nellie Satterfield (Terry), sister-in-law Eloise Young, Wayman Young (Linda), Floyd Young, brother-in-law Frank Davis, Rodney Young, and Rhonda Warren (Ike).
He was preceded in death by his parents, and siblings Loretta Young, Mary Anne Young, Janice Ray, Goldie Young, Junior Young, and Teresa Davis.
There was cremation. No public services are planned.
The guestbook is available to sign at the Cheney Witt Chapel. Memorials are suggested to the Wade Young Memorial Fund and may be left in care of the Cheney Witt Chapel, PO Box 347, 201 S. Main St., Fort Scott, KS 66701. Words of remembrance may be submitted to the online guestbook at cheneywitt.com.
The FSCC Cheer Team: Front row: Seth Thomas, Angie Martinez, Allie Brewer, Karlie Knechtel, Emily Noll. Second row: Addey Froggatte, Madison Warner, Haven Conner, Mackenzie Heuszel, Lamyjah Lewis- Kent, Denise Barnard, Brooke Snell, Lillie Easterby. Boys: Brayden Moore, Xavier Kasper,Josh Martin, Gage Pugh, Malachi Kucza, Ethan Bittle, Donovan Law and Javonte Garrett Top row of girls: Julia Lopez, Hannah Merando, Savanna Fisher, Haily Sheat, Stephanie Matul, Macy Michalski, Claire Holt Not pictured: Andrea Matul and Ally Gomez Gonzales. Submitted photo.
The Fort Scott Community College Cheer Team is heading a second time to Florida for the National Cheer Association contest. There are over 400 teams competing in the contest on April 5-9 in Daytona Beach, Florida.
“We compete small coed advanced against other junior colleges all over the nation,” FSCC Head Cheer Coach Chelsea Yount, said.
The cheer teams cheer all FSCC men’s and women’s basketball games, home flag football games, and “We are super fans home volleyball games,” Yount said.
“We also compete in four competitions this year,” she said. “National virtual college championship-we are reigning national champions,
Innovative choreography College open competition, and NCA nationals Region 6 regional games.”
The team practices Monday – Friday from 8-10 a.m. plus three hours a week of weights, and has a two-hour study hall in addition to the FSCC games.
Head coach Yount, from Shawnee, is assisted by coach Allee Morillo, Olathe.
From left Allee Morillo, FSCC Assistant Cheer Coach and Head Coach Chelsea Yount. Submitted photo.
The team is comprised of the following athletes and where they are from:
Addey Froggatte – Princeton, KS
Allie Brewer – Ottawa, KS
Ally Gonzales Gomez- Carthage, Mo
Andrea Matul- Carthage, Mo
Angie Martinez- Houston, TX
Brayden Moore- Fort Scott, KS
Brooke Snell- Wichita, KS
Claire Holt- Fort Scott, KS
Denise Barnard- Nevada, MO
Donovan Law- La Cynge, KS
Emily Noll- Spring Hill, KS
Ethan Bittle- Prattville, AL
Gage Pugh La Cynge, KS
Haily Sheat- Lamar, MO
Hannah Merando- Walnut, KS
Haven Conner- Mound City, KS
Javontte Garrett Memphis, TN
Josh Martin La Cynge, KS
Julia Lopez- Arma, KS
Karlie Knechtel- Boulder, CO
Lamyjah Lewis-Kent- Omaha, NE
Lillian Easterby- Wichita, KS
Mackenzie Heuszel
Macy Michalski- La Cynge, KS
Madison Warner
Malachi Kucza- Lawrence, KS
Mason O’Brien- Uniontown, KS
Savanna Fisher- Carthage, Mo
Seth Thomas- Lawrence, KS
Stephanie Matul- Carthage, Mo
Xavier Kasper La Cynge, KS
The FSCC Cheer Team. Submitted photo.
To help get the team to nationals, they have several fundraisers.
“We currently have a raffle for a Visa 500$ gift card,” Yount said. “You can reach out to us on social media or email me at [email protected] .”
“We will have several other fundraisers coming up, and are always looking for business sponsors to help fund the trip,” she said. “All funds raised will go to competition fees, hotel stay, food, flight/travel expenses, team gear and more.”
Property Tax Relief Just a reminder from my update last week about tax relief programs passed by the legislature last year that the applications are now available. The link for the application for property tax relief for low income seniors and disabled veterans is posted at https://www.ksrevenue.gov/pdf/k-40svr.pdf and the application for some property tax relief for businesses shut-down or negatively impacted by the Governor’s shutdown during COVID is at https://www.kdor.ks.gov/Apps/Misc/PropTaxAssistance/StoreFront You may also call KDOR at 785-368-8222 or e-mail [email protected] with questions about the programs and applications.
Official Website of the Kansas Department of Revenue
Sales Tax Holiday on School Supplies The Senate Tax Committee held hearings to establish one weekend in the year that “school supply” purchases could be exempt from state sales tax. Years ago, myself and others worked on this legislation. As a result, Fort Scott created a local sales tax holiday and have been doing so for over 10 years. Many Kansans go to Missouri and Oklahoma to make these purchases. It would not only help families with students, all persons purchasing the supplies on the defined weekend would qualify for the exemption if the bill becomes law as written.
Income Tax Savings , We passed a law last year allowing a workaround from a federal tax law that capped State and Local Tax (SALT) itemized deductions at $10,000, and our law provided a path for Kansans to take these deductions on approximately $130 million dollars. Basically, it saved Kansans on their federal tax returns while not impacting the amount of state or local taxes collected. It was reported to the Senate Tax Committee that some members of the U.S. Congress are trying to remove the $10,000 cap, but until it is removed there is still a workaround in Kansas.
Government Picking Winners and Losers In Senate Commerce Committee and the Joint Post Audit Committee there were presentations on big business tax incentive programs. Twenty-eight companies were selected to respond to questions, such as “would you have proceeded with their project as planned, even without the incentive?” Of the respondents, 11 (37%) said they would have preceded with the project – the incentives did not affect their business decision. Instead of government picking ‘winners and losers’, we should try to level the playing field and lower taxes for all, making Kansas a competitive market for business and individuals to be successful. The full report can be found at:
