The LaRoche Baseball Complex Advisory Board will meet on Thursday, May 27th, 2021 at 1:30 p.m. at the City Hall Commission Meeting Room, 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.
The City of Fort Scott City Administrative Offices will be closed on Monday, May 31st, 2021 in observance of the Memorial Day holiday. The offices will reopen on Tuesday, June 1st, 2021.
The City’s tree and brush dump site located on North Hill will also be closed on Saturday, May 29th, 2021 for the Memorial Day holiday. It will be open again on Tuesday, June 1st, 2021 from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
MERCHANT MADNESS SIDEWALK SALE
The Fort Scott Area Chamber of Commerce announces a Merchant Madness Sidewalk Sale will take place in the Downtown Historic District on Friday and Saturday, May 28th and 29th.
Participating merchants include Angie Dawn’s Boutique, Barbed Wire & Roses Vintage Market, Bids & Dibs, Hedgehog.INK! Bookstore, Iron Star Antiques & Such, J & W Sports Shop, Laree + Co Boutique, The Rainbow Unicorn, Ruddick’s Furniture & Flooring, Shirt Shack, Sunshine Boutique, and Treasure Hunt Flea Market.
The Merchant Madness Sidewalk Sale is a great opportunity to support locally owned retailers while winning prizes and finding good deals.
Contact the Fort Scott Area Chamber of Commerce for more information at 620-223-3566 or visit fortscott.com.
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The Fort Scott Barber Shop will have an open house on Tuesday, May 25 at 9 a.m.
“We are ready to roll,” owner Jose Montanez said.
“There will be a drawing for free haircuts and shaves.,” he said.
“We also have vouchers ready to give to the city manager for all city personnel including police, EMT’s and firemen,” he said. “Free haircuts and shaves for 120 people.”
Jose Montanez is the owner of the shop and the other two barbers are his children: his daughter, Jaylisha Montanez, and son, Giancarlo Montanez.
His wife Mayra does bookkeeping for the business “and everything else,” Jose said.
The family has had a barbershop in Overland Park, Kansas for 20 years.
“Jose won an award for best barbershop in the midwest and the Trailblazer Award of Kansas City,” she said. “Jose started training other barbers.”
The barbershop specializes in straight razors, which give a clean, direct shave to the face, Mayra Montanez said.
To view a prior feature:
Opening Soon: Fort Scott Barbershop, 118 E. Wall
The shop is located at118 E Wall Street, Fort Scott, and the owners, Jose and Mayra Montanez can be reached at (620)215-1192.
Hours for the barbershop are Tuesday-Friday 8:00 am – 6:00 pm,
Saturday 8:00 – 2:00 pm. The shop is closed Sunday and Monday.
TOPEKA – Today, Governor Laura Kelly was joined by education advocates and a bipartisan group of lawmakers to sign legislation fully funding education for the third consecutive year, and guaranteeing funding through FY 2023.
“When I took office, the State of Kansas had failed to fully fund our public schools for nearly a decade,” Governor Kelly said. “That’s why today I’m proud to say that, for the third year in a row, I have signed bipartisan legislation fully funding our schools.
“I want to thank the coalition of legislative colleagues, advocates, teachers, and faculty for their advocacy. With their support, we followed through on our commitment to ensure students, teachers, and schools have the resources they need.”
During the signing ceremony, Governor Kelly said that ensuring kids have access to a quality education is good for Kansas students, and for the state’s economy.
“Ensuring kids have access to a quality education not only helps them succeed. It helps our businesses succeed and promotes economic development by providing employers with a highly-educated, skilled workforce,” Governor Kelly said.
In addition to fully funding education in Kansas, House Bill 2134 requires an annual report card for children in foster care, authorizes limited remote learning, provides the criteria for identification of students eligible to receive at-risk programs and services, requires boards of education to allocate sufficient school district moneys to improve student academic performance, authorizes school districts to pay tuition and fees for concurrent and dual enrollment programs, expands student eligibility under the tax credit for low income students scholarship program, extends the high-density at-risk weighting, and provides ACT college entrance exams and workkey assessments to certain nonpublic school students.
Governor Kelly also signed House Bill 2313, extending the dedicated statewide mill-levy which funds a portion of the overall K-12 budget.
HB 2313 also provides for reimbursement of property taxes for certain business shutdowns or restrictions, allows Kansas national guard and reservist members who are in good standing to receive a property tax exemption for up to two motor vehicles, authorizes appointment by the governor of a member pro tempore when a vacancy on the state board of tax appeals exists and directs post audit study of the impact of non-profit and governmental entities competing against for-profit businesses.
The below photos from today’s signing ceremony are available for media use:
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This year’s annual Fort Scott High School Tiger Drama Camp performs The Legend of Mulan on May 28 and 29.
Nearly 40 students in 1st through 9th grade have spent two weeks at camp preparing for the production.
Performances are at 7 p.m. on May 28 and 2 p.m. on May 29 at the
Fort Scott High School Auditorium.
The playwright, Kathryn Schultz Miller, describes the show this way, “Mulan inspires us all with a grand desire to be the best we can be: honest, tenacious and brave. She leads us on an epic journey over mountains and rivers — through the hills and valleys of fear and courage and human emotion. Mulan knows it doesn’t matter if she is a boy or a girl. She just wants to make her mark, prove her mettle, and leave the world a better place.”
The character of Mulan is played by 8th grader Ashley Cannon. Other notable characters include Captain Cheng, portrayed by freshman Mykael Lewis; Pika the Rabbit played by 6th grader Abel Chaplin and 7th grader Chrislen Newman; Imoogi the Dragon played by 7th graders Izzy Budd and Ana Rupprecht; and Momo, the Emperor’s Assistant, played by freshman Kaiden Clary.
The camp and show are directed entirely by FSHS Thespians.
Senior Christina King is the Director, assisted by sophomore Regen Wells who also serves as Stage Manager and Choreographer Kinsley Davis, a junior.
Technical staff include sophomore Lexi Hill – Lighting Designer, senior Khris Patel – Sound Designer, senior Breena Cox – Music
Director, sophomore Silvia Moreno – Props and Set Designer, and junior Izzy Carreno – Music Operator. Many other Thespians serve as acting coaches and leaders.
During the 2-week camp, students learn about most technical theatre areas such as lighting, sound, costuming, stagecraft, and make-up. They also help to create the artistic set decor and learn sabre combat.
Tickets for the show should be purchased in advance at fortscotthighschool.ludus.com.
Adults are $8 and children are $6. There may be tickets available for purchase at the door, but seating is limited. Masks and social distancing are required. Doors open 30
minutes prior to showtime.
Keys to the Kingdom by Carolyn Tucker
The sound of music — there’s nothing like it! It’s powerful enough to uplift your mood if you’re down in the dumps. The evil spirit that plagued King Saul would utterly vanish when young David played his harp for him. The day God created me, He threw in a little of this and a little of that. But He poured in a gallon of musical sauce that’s still seasoning my life. As a kid, I heard a beautiful song that has stuck with me for 56 years. “What the World Needs Now is Love,” written by Hal David (lyrics) and Burt Bacharach (music), was released by recording artist Jackie DeShannon on April 15, 1965.
The other day I was discussing this particular song with a musician friend and the word “timeless” came up. Because the world needed love, God provided it through what His only Son did at Calvary. And then from the cross Jesus said, “It is finished.” He accomplished His part, so now it’s in the hands of believers all over the world to love their neighbor. It’s pert near impossible to truly love others if the love of Jesus isn’t inside you. And even then, it can be a gargantuan challenge if the other person has a scratchy personality.
Sometimes I cut the tag off of my clothing because it’s scratchy and irritating. Some people are like tags, but you can’t just cut them off. We must learn to deal with them and love them like Jesus would. Books have been written on how to love people you don’t like, but none are better than the Bible. “Put up with each other, and forgive each other if anyone has a complaint. Forgive as the Lord forgave you” (Colossians 3:13 GW). That’s a tall order, but Christians aren’t called to just love the lovable.
Songwriter Hal David was inspired to pen these enduring words: “What the world needs now is love sweet love. It’s the only thing that there’s just too little of. What the world needs now is love, sweet love. No, not just for some, but for everyone.” The world still needs the timeless God-kind of love that emanates from believers. Here’s a red-letter scripture from the mouth of Jesus that’s sure to be a challenge for all of us who are followers of Christ: “Love your enemies! Do good to them. Lend to them without expecting to be repaid. Then your reward from heaven will be very great, and you will truly be acting as children of the Most High, for He is kind to those who are unthankful and wicked. You must be compassionate, just as your Father is compassionate” (Luke 6:35,36 NLT).
Have you ever wondered how to obey God’s command to love someone you can’t stand to be around? As usual, Jesus is our example because He practiced what He preached. In John Chapter 13, Jesus knew the time had come to ascend back to the Father. He loved all His disciples in the highest degree right to the very end. By now, the devil had Judas Iscariot firmly in his grip and everything was set for the betrayal. After supper, Jesus set aside his robe and put on a servant’s apron, poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet. If we had been in Jesus’ sandals, we might have chosen not to wash Judas’ feet. But Jesus did the right thing by not showing partiality and demonstrating His boundless love to that scratchy disciple. We can choose to love like that too.
The Key: I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me (Philippians 4:13 NKJV).
Economies of Scale
Rural areas will never be able to compete, if the measuring stick is scale; and that has been the trend in the vast majorities of industries and markets. Consider the following as examples:
Agricultural
In 1900, 40% of Americans employed, age 10 and over, worked in agriculture. By 1960, that number was 8%. In real numbers, despite the labor force increasing by 1.54 times, the number of people employed in agriculture was nearly cut in half. By 1920, more Americans were employed in manufacturing than on our farms. This despite the number of acres farmed dramatically increasing over time, until recent years. It is easy to understand why: technology. Instead of a farmer’s sons and daughters staying on the farm to work, they have moved to the city to work in John Deere manufacturing plants, among others. This has to be the number one reason rural America’s population has dropped since 1941.
Banking
The number of banks in the US reached an all-time peak of 30,812; by the end of 2017, that number was 4,918. The two primary reasons are regulation and technology. The number dropped dramatically after Congress established the FDIC 1934, which began a rise in bank regulation. Smaller banks could not absorb the additional cost of regulation, along with the fallout of the extended Great Depression, and began to sell to larger banks. When I started in banking in 1979, there were about 14,000 banks in the US. Then, in 1986, the Savings & Loan crisis spawned a whole new set of regulations, and our latest steep decline in number of bank charters ensued. This whole dynamic was hardest on rural America. The insurance industry has experienced a similar trend, as we well know from the loss of Western Insurance.
Retail
There is no need for me to recite all the raw numbers. We all know there are less stores in our small communities than when we were kids. Improved roads and transportation made it easy to drive to the cities. Big box stores shut down Mom and Pop shops on Main Street, including the small town newspaper who lost many advertisers. The latest blow is the Internet, which has helped delivery services to the detriment of retailers everywhere. In 2020, online sales represented 21.3% of total retail sales in the US. It is not hard to understand why rural communities struggle to hold a sales tax base.
What can we do? We can’t fix it all, but we can shop where we live, we can bank with local and regional charters, we can buy our insurance from a local expert, we can employ local expertise and knowledge to build for us. You might even want to open your own small business and invest your capital on Main Street, instead of Wall Street. There is certainly not a panacea, but we can use our buying and investing power for the maximum good of our rural communities.
Lastly, I would say love and support your local farmers and ranchers. When There is no bigger business in Bourbon County than agricultural, by dollars in sales, and by employment. The vast majority of the dollars they bring into our county is outside money; this is a tide that raises all of our boats. Show our agricultural community the respect they are due.
Experience the Shead Farm and gather ideas on how to live a SUSTAINABLE ORGANIC LIFE-STYLE.
ADMISSION:
SINGLE TICKET – $5.00 OR FAMILY (4+) $20.00
2468 CAVALRY RD, GARLAND, KS
620 223-4363
Agenda
Bourbon County Commission Room
1st Floor, County Courthouse
210 S. National Avenue
Fort Scott, KS 66701
Tuesdays starting at 9:00
Date: May 25, 2021
1st District-Lynne Oharah Minutes: Approved: _______________
2nd District-Jim Harris Corrected: _______________________
3rd District-Clifton Beth Adjourned at: _______________
County Clerk-Kendell Mason
MEETING WILL BE HELD IN THE COMMISSION ROOM.
Call to Order
Justifications for Executive Session:
KSA 75-4319(b)(1) To discuss personnel matters of individual nonelected personnel to protect their privacy
KSA 75-4319(b)(2) For consultation with an attorney for the public body or agency which would be deemed privileged in the attorney-client relationship
KSA 75-4319(b)(3) To discuss matters relating to employer-employee negotiations whether or not in consultation with the representative(s) of the body or agency
KSA 75-4319(b)(4) To discuss data relating to financial affairs or trade secrets of corporations, partnerships, trust, and individual proprietorships
KSA 75-4319(b)(6) For the preliminary discussion of the acquisition of real property
KSA 75-4319(b)(12) To discuss matters relating to security measures, if the discussion of such matters at an open meeting would jeopardize such security measures.
