The Fort Scott City Commission and the Bourbon County Commission will hold a work session on Wednesday, March 30th, 2022 at the Empress Event Center, 7 North Main Street, Fort Scott, Kansas at 12:00 p.m. Even though a majority of City Commissioners will be present, no City business will be conducted.
The Fort Scott Airport Advisory Board Meets March 30
The Airport Advisory Board will meet on Wednesday, March 30, 2022 at 12:00 p.m. at the City Commission meeting room at City Hall, 123 S. Main Street, Fort Scott, Kansas. This meeting is open to the public.
This meeting will be made available via the City’s you tube channel at City of Fort Scott.
Chamber Coffee at Fort Scott Public Library March24
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Annual Fish Fry Continues Two More Fridays With All Sit-Down Meals
The Knights of Columbus Fish Fry continues for two more weeks, with no drive-through orders. The sit-down meals will be inside Kennedy Gym at St. Mary’s Catholic Church.
Serving is from 5 to 7 p.m.
The dates for the last two fish fries are March 25 and April 1.
Obituary of Bertha Golden
Bertha Mary Golden, age 90, joined her Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ on March 22, 2022. She was born to Harry Wilson and Bertha Amanda (Thrush) Bisel on October 14, 1931 in Wakefield, KS. She married Raymond Theodore Golden on December 18, 1950 in Topeka, KS.
Bertha graduated from the 8th grade at Benham District #31 grade school in Wakefield where she assisted in the family business at Broadview Dairy. After marrying, she and her family lived in the Kansas City area until relocating to Leavenworth, then to Prescott, Kansas, and finally to Fort Scott, KS. She earned her GED (high school diploma) in 1972 while raising 7 children. She then worked as a nurses’ aid at Cushing Memorial and the VA Hospital in Leavenworth. After moving to Prescott, she served at Mercy Hospital in Fort Scott for 22 years, before retiring in 2000. She kept busy with gardening, canning and travelling for many years. She also baked and provided pies for Flanner’s Owl Roost until its’ closing in 1996. At the Leavenworth Wesleyan Church, she served as pianist until her family relocated to Fort Scott in 1974, where she became a faithful member of Parkway Church of God (Holiness). After some health struggles, Bertha resided at Medicalodge where she was well-loved. She was a devoted mother, sister and grandmother.
Bertha leaves behind her grateful children, Charlotte and John Jones of Denver, Colorado, Catherine Golden, Mary Woellhof and Joyce Flanner of Fort Scott, Janice Wallace of Mound City, KS and Paul and Deborah Golden of Ottawa, KS. She is also survived by her brother, David Bisel of Dade City, FL. Also left behind are 18 grandchildren, 23 great grandchildren and a host of nieces and nephews.
Awaiting her in Heaven are: her husband of 57 years, Raymond; her eldest son, Stephen Ray Golden; grandsons, Kyle Flanner and Aaron Alexander; her parents, Harry and Bertha Bisel; along with her five sisters and five brothers two sons-in-law, Karl Flanner and Wes Woellhof and many friends and family members.
Funeral services will be held at 10:30 A.M. Friday, March 25th at the Parkway Church of God (Holiness). Burial will follow in the Memory Gardens Cemetery. The family will receive friends from 5:30 to 7:30 Thursday evening at the Parkway Church of God (Holiness). Memorials are suggested to Integrity Hospice or the Fort Scott Christian Heights Building 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.
Update on Ascension Via Christi Fort Scott: Staying and Expanding
The closing of Mercy Hospital Fort Scott in 2018, left the community lacking emergency care. The community was apprehensive about the closure because the nearest emergency care facilities are in hospitals in Pittsburg, which is 30 miles south or Iola, which is 47 miles west.
History
In 2018, leaders in Bourbon County approached Ascension Via Christi Hospital leaders in Pittsburg to provide continued access to emergency care in the former Mercy Hospital Emergency Room.
After careful deliberation, Ascension determined they would play a role, President Drew Talbot of Ascension Via Christi Hospital said.
Mercy Hospital kept the ER open after the hospital closed on Dec. 31, 2018, until the Ascension Via Christi Fort Scott Emergency Department could get the approval to operate under the Pittsburg hospital licensure. Then Ascension filled the hole in services and saw its first patient on Feb. 28, 2019.
Services
Since that date, the emergency department has seen more than 16,000 emergency room patients, performed more than 20,000 imaging studies, and processed more than 54,000 lab tests, according to Talbot in an interview.
And they have expanded services.
“We subsequently opened a primary care and prenatal clinic with a local provider and later added a second provider to meet the community need,” Talbot said. “When our hospital in Pittsburg successfully recruited David Robbins, MD, and Justin Ogden, MD, we further expanded the services offered at our Fort Scott clinic to include cardiology and orthopedics.”
“We utilize the same laboratory used by our Ascension Via Christi hospitals throughout Kansas,” Talbot said. “We have on-site diagnostic imaging capabilities, including CT, digital X-ray, ultrasound, and most recently-cardiac echo ultrasound. As part of Ascension Via Christi, these images are read by a Kansas group of 30 board-certified radiologists with advanced training in a variety of areas, providing our Fort Scott ER and Pittsburg hospital with diagnostic capabilities on par with those of a large metro-area hospital.”
They currently have 35 associates serving in Fort Scott, he said.
Future
“We have an agreement with Bourbon County (Commissioners)that will take us to February 2023 and we hope to continue to offer our services in Fort Scott for as long as there is an unmet need,” Talbot said.
“We are proud of the sustainable model of care that we have established,” Talbot said.
“While we understand Bourbon County leaders’ desire to explore the viability of returning to a community hospital model, (see: Noble Health Announces Reopening a Hospital in Fort Scott) our lived experience as the community’s emergency care provider indicates that the volumes are too low to do so without federal or local taxpayer funding,” he said.
“However, as a department of our hospital in Pittsburg, we have demonstrated that we can operate an ER and supporting services in a financially sustainable manner,” he said. “We have an essentially self-supporting model of care and we are proud of our caregivers’ contribution to patients and families and to Fort Scott’s growth and development.”
Via Christi is working on securing a facility to continue to expand its services once the Feb. 2023 agreement is completed.
“We recognize and appreciate the need for patients and families to receive close-to-home care whenever there is sufficient demand to support services,” he said. “That’s what led us to respond to the community’s needs when Mercy closed its doors. Our clinics have received tremendous community support. We are already looking to expand the availability and types of services being offered. With that in mind, we are working on securing a long-term home where we can offer these and potentially other needed services under one roof.”
Precedent
“We accepted the community’s invitation to serve because ensuring Kansans’ access to care is in keeping with our mission as a non-profit Catholic healthcare system,” Talbot said. “It also has historical precedent, given that Ascension Via Christi Hospital in Pittsburg was founded by the Sisters of St. Joseph nearly 120 years ago at the request of Mt. Carmel Coal Mining Co. founder Charles Devlin, who recognized miners’ need for close-to-home care.”
Wellness Assessments Focus Groups 2022
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The Bourbon County Sheriff’s Office Daily Reports March 23
The Fort Scott Police Department Daily Reports March 22
St. Mary’s Catholic School Kindergarten Roundup April 13
St. Mary’s Catholic School Kindergarten Roundup will be held Wednesday, April 13 by appointment from 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM.
To enter kindergarten, a child must be 5 years of age on or before August 31.
If you would like for your child to attend kindergarten at St. Mary’s next year, please contact the school office at 620-223-6060 to schedule an appointment to be screened on April 13.
On the day of the screening, please bring your child’s social security card, birth certificate, immunization record/physical form, and if Catholic their baptism certificate.
A Kansas Certification of Immunization and/or a Kansas Child Health assessment must be filled out and submitted to the school before admission in the fall of 2022.
Parents may accompany their child into the building and wait inside until the screening is completed. At that point, a staff member will bring the child back out and discuss the results of the screening.
St. Mary’s Catholic School is fully accredited by the state of Kansas and welcomes students of all faiths.
Home Show Vendors Needed For 2022
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Be a part of a great team! They’re Hiring!
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Highly Pathogenic Bird Flu: Check Your Flocks
Highly pathogenic bird influenza has come to Kansas and families who have backyard birds should examine their flocks, according to both state and federal press releases.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service confirmed a highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in Franklin, Dickenson, and Sedgwick Counties recently according to recent press releases https://agriculture.ks.gov/news-events/news-releases/2022/03/12/usda-confirms-highly-pathogenic-avian-influenza-in-backyard-flock-in-kansas.
Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) is a contagious viral disease that can infect chickens, turkeys, and other birds.
The Kansas Department of Agriculture officials have quarantined the affected areas, and birds on the property are destroyed to prevent the spread of the disease.
All who are involved- from a small backyard chicken flock to a large commercial producer- should look at their flocks for signs of the flu.
“Coughing, sneezing, discharge around the eyes, lack of energy, not moving around, not making noise,” are some of the signs, Heather Lansdowne, Kansas Dept. of Agriculture Director of Communications said.
Other signs are decreased egg production and/or soft-shelled, misshapen eggs; incoordination; and diarrhea, according to the KDA press release. Avian influenza can also cause sudden death in birds even if they aren’t showing other symptoms.
If these symptoms are observed in your birds, immediately contact your veterinarian, according to a press release. If you don’t have a regular veterinarian, contact KDA’s Division of Animal Health office toll-free at 833-765-2006.
There are procedures intended to protect humans or animals against disease or harmful biological agents, which are called biosecurity measures that can be done to help stop the spread of the flu.
Find guidance on biosecurity on the KDA Division of Animal Health webpage at agriculture.ks.gov/AvianInfluenza. More biosecurity resources as well as updates on the current HPAI status nationwide can be found on the APHIS website at: https://www.aphis.usda.gov/aphis/ourfocus/animalhealth/animal-disease-information/avian/avian-influenza/2022-hpai.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the recent HPAI detections do not present an immediate public health concern. No human cases of these avian influenza viruses have been detected in the United States.
Proper handling and cooking of all poultry and eggs to an internal temperature of 165 ˚F are recommended as a general food safety precaution.
For more information about HPAI, including the current status of the confirmed cases in other states as well as more information about biosecurity for flocks, go to KDA’s avian influenza webpage at agriculture.ks.gov/AvianInfluenza or call KDA at 833-765-2006.
Basic Facts of HPAI
What is avian influenza?
• Avian influenza is a rapidly spreading viral disease that mainly affects birds.
Is it contagious, who is susceptible and how is it transmitted?
• Yes, it is contagious.
• Although rare, humans and other mammals can be vulnerable to the disease.
• The disease may spread through contact with infected birds or ingestion of infected food or water.
• Birds are the most susceptible animal.
• Exists naturally in wild birds.
What are the symptoms?
• Cough
• Sneezing
• Respiratory distress
• Decrease in egg production
• Sudden death
How do I avoid it or stop it from spreading?
• Notify veterinarian of any suspected disease.
• Stay informed about the health of neighboring birds.
• Do not move animals from farm to farm.
• Keep flock away from wild birds.
• Be sure your birds have no contact with contaminated birds.
• Isolate new birds.
• Restrict unauthorized people and vehicles from the farm
• Disinfect tires, equipment, and clothing going on and off the farm
• Quarantine contaminated areas and birds immediately
• Dispose of all dead birds properly
How is it treated?
• At this time there is no known treatment
Are there public health risks?
• Although rare, humans and other mammals can be vulnerable to the disease. If you have come in
contact with the disease and are showing symptoms, report it to your physician immediately
• There have been no reported cases due to consumption of infected, cooked meat.