CHC/SEK locations close early Wednesday, delay opening Thursday
Due to winter weather conditions all Community Health Center of Southeast Kansas clinics, including Walk-In Care, will be closing at 5 p.m. on Wednesday Feb. 2, and delaying opening until 9 a.m. on Thursday, Feb 3.
Closing early will allow CHC/SEK staff to travel home more safely on Wednesday, and the late opening will allow time for clinic maintenance crews to get parking lots and sidewalks cleared of accumulated snow.
Focus on Heart Health This Valentine’s Day
By Clara Wicoff
Did you know February is American Heart Month? With Valentine’s Day approaching, it’s the perfect time to be thinking about heart health! Here are some heart-related items to keep in mind.
Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States. This is also true for the state of Kansas, where heart disease leads all causes of death. Making healthy lifestyle choices can help to prevent heart disease. Two of these choices include eating a healthy diet and being physically active. The former is essential because poor dietary quality is the top risk factor for heart disease, accounting for approximately half of heart disease deaths worldwide. The American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association have identified several diet recommendations related to heart health. This includes following a diet which emphasizes eating vegetables, fruits, legumes, nuts, whole grains, and fish. They also recommend choosing foods lower in sodium and cholesterol, replacing saturated fats with unsaturated fats (like cooking with vegetable oil instead of butter), and avoiding sweetened beverages.
In addition to eating a heart-healthy diet, being physically active is also key to promoting heart health. The Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans recommend that adults get at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity each week. These guidelines also recommend doing muscle-strengthening activities on at least two days per week. However, if this is more than you can do right now, focus on doing what you can. Even just five minutes of physical activity can have health benefits!
There are many tools out there which can help you to make healthy choices regarding diet and exercise, including MyPlate, the Nutrition Facts label, and more. Learning how to use these tools to improve your health and potentially reduce your health care costs will be the focus of a free class I am teaching at the LaHarpe City Hall on Saturday, February 26th at 1 PM. For more information about this class and other steps you can take to prevent heart disease, please contact me at [email protected] or 620-365-2242.
Operation Opioid Prevention Competition
Chamber Coffee Cancelled For Tomorrow
Chamber Coffee hosted by Lyons Realty Group This week’s Chamber Coffee will be canceled and rescheduled for next week Thursday, February 10th. Contact the Chamber of Commerce at (620) 223-3566 for more information.
The Bourbon County Sheriff’s Office Daily Reports Feb. 2
Ks. Department of Children and Families Virtual Office Offered
The Fort Scott Police Department Daily Reports Feb. 1
FSCC Closed Due to Weather
Due to inclement weather, ALL Fort Scott Community College locations will be closed Wednesday, February 2nd. Stay safe, Stay warm Greyhounds!
CHC/SEK has free N95 masks available for the public
CHC/SEK has free N95 masks available for the public
Community Health Center of Southeast Kansas (CHC/SEK) is among the first 100 community health centers across the country to receive shipments of N95 masks for free public distribution to help stop the spread of COVID-19 and its variants.
The non-surgical N95 masks are available for pick up at all CHC/SEK locations beginning Friday, Feb. 4. Pending availability, every person is allowed up to three free masks at the direction of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which is providing the masks.
The rollout of free N95 masks is part of the Biden administration’s effort to distribute 400 million N95 masks from the Strategic National Stockpile via pharmacies and community health centers. Some of the participating pharmacies include CVS, Walgreens and Kroger.
The masks distribution program is the largest deployment by the Strategic National Stockpile to date and is also the largest deployment of personal protective equipment in U.S. history, according to Dawn O’Connell, assistant secretary for preparedness and response at HHS.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that Americans wear “the most protective mask you can that fits well and that you will wear consistently,” and it notes that different types of masks can offer different levels of protection.
“Loosely woven cloth products provide the least protection, layered finely woven products offer more protection, well-fitting disposable surgical masks and KN95s offer even more protection, and well-fitting NIOSH-approved respirators (including N95s) offer the highest level of protection,” according to the CDC.
Also last week in the fight against the pandemic, the White House and U.S. Postal Service opened the website COVIDTests.gov for Americans to request four free at-home COVID-19 tests.
CONSERVATION THROUGH THE ARTS
Junior Duck Stamp Contest
Fort Scott Kan. – Saturday, February 19, 2022, Fort Scott National Historic Site and Marais des Cygnes National Wildlife Refuge are presenting the 29th annual national Junior Duck Stamp art contest. Art programs will run from 10am-noon and 2pm-3:30pm and all students in kindergarten through grade twelve are encouraged to participate in the art and conservation message contest. Participants need to check in at the park’s Visitor Center at 10am and 2pm for directions.
During the program participants will learn more about types of waterfowl and also what the judges look for in the artwork. Participants will create original artwork using watercolors, crayon, or pencil. Because students express themselves best in different formats, the conservation message contest gives them an opportunity to use the written word to express their knowledge. Submissions of your Junior Duck Stamp entry may be made on this day at the park or to the Great Plains Nature Center in Wichita for Kansas entries. Entry forms will be available and all entries must be postmarked by March 15, 2022.
Margaret McMullen, an 18-year-old from Kansas, took top honors in the Service’s National Junior Duck Stamp Art Contest with her acrylic rendition of a pair of Hooded Mergansers. The winning conservation message was by Josie Arp, 15, of Arkansas with her message: “When the world turned upside-down nature calmly and quietly laid a blanket of comfort over us all.”
The Federal Junior Duck Stamp Conservation and Design Program began in 1989 as an extension of the Migratory Bird Hunting and Conservation Stamp, commonly known as the Duck Stamp. The first national Junior Duck Stamp art contest was held in 1993. The stamp encourages students to explore their natural world, participate in outdoor recreation activities, and learn wildlife management principles. National Junior Duck Stamp Contest winner receives $1,000. The second-place winner receives $500; the third-place winner receives $200; the Conservation Message winner receives $200. Other prizes are awarded at the state level for each age category.
The National Park Service currently requires that everyone, regardless of vaccination status, wear a mask in all federal buildings and outside when others are present and physical distancing (staying at least six feet apart) cannot be maintained.
Credit Photo as Margaret McMullen Artwork
KS Tax Collections Exceed Estimates
Governor Laura Kelly Announces January Total Tax Collections Continue to Exceed Estimates
TOPEKA – Governor Laura Kelly announced that total tax collections for January were $944.5 million. That is $119.6 million, or 14.5%, more than the monthly estimate. This is also an 18.7% growth over January 2021.
“Over the past three years my administration has taken steps to restore the Kansas economy, and that fiscal responsibility has paved the way to provide direct tax relief to Kansas taxpayers,” Governor Laura Kelly said. “That relief will come specifically through proposals like axing the state’s sales tax on food. I urge the Legislature to send a clean bill to my desk quickly, so we can get this done for Kansas families.”
Individual income tax collections were $542.2 million. That is $82.2 million, or 17.9%, more than the estimate and 18.4% more than the previous January. Wage withholding remains strong going into 2022 reflecting both improved statewide employment and accompanying wage growth.
Retail sales tax collections were $258.2 million for January. This is $18.2 million, or 7.6%, more than the estimate and 14.9% more than January 2021. Compensating use tax collections also exceeded estimates by 5.2%. Those collections are also 30.2% more than the previous January. Both retailer’s sales tax and compensating use tax collections established new monthly collection records in January 2022.
“Individual income tax, corporate income tax, retailer’s sales tax, and compensating use tax all continue to perform well as the state’s primary revenue sources,” Secretary of Revenue Mark Burghart said. “Increased holiday spending in December accounts in large part for the record sales and compensating use tax collections in January.”
View the tax receipts here.