The City of Fort Scott will be open to the public beginning Monday, May 4th, 2020.
We ask that if you are not feeling well, have a temperature, or breathing issues to NOT come into City Hall but rather call 223-0550. We will have a policy of one person in and one person out during Phase One of the Governor’s Reopening Plan. The City Commission meetings will not be open to the public at this time due to the limited number of 10 allowed. They can be viewed on the City’s You Tube Channel at City of Fort Scott.
You can still pay your utility bill or Municipal Court fine online at www.fscity.org and click on the Online Bill Pay button. There is also a drop box in the alley behind City Hall.
Department of Commerce introduces new grant program for
Kansas arts organizations affected by COVID-19
Topeka, Kan. – Kansas Governor Laura Kelly announced today that nearly $500,000 in grant funding is being made available to provide operational support to Kansas arts organizations experiencing financial difficulties as a result of COVID-19.
The Kansas Department of Commerce and the Kansas Creative Industries Arts Commission will distribute CARES Act arts funding through the Short-Term Operational Support (SOS) Program, a grant program developed to assist with immediate financial needs resulting from the COVID-19 outbreak. Applications will be accepted beginning Monday, May 4, through May 15, 2020.
“COVID-19 has placed unexpected strain on all facets of our economy, including the arts,” Kelly said. “Together, we will ensure no organization is left behind in this emergency.”
Kansas-based nonprofit 501(c)(3) arts organizations whose primary purpose is to produce, present, promote or serve the arts are eligible to apply for SOS grant funding. SOS grants can be used by organizations to cover payroll, fees for contract personnel and facility costs such as rent and utilities.
“The arts account for thousands of Kansas jobs and play a critical role in creating a high quality of life in Kansas,” Secretary of Commerce David Toland said. “Ensuring this sector isn’t overlooked during the COVID-19 pandemic is an important step as we rebuild the Kansas economy.”
For more information on the Short-Term Operational Support Program and to apply online, visit www.kansascommerce.gov/ArtsSOS.
For current information on COVID-19 in Kansas go to covid.ks.gov.
(PARKER, KS) – Caryn Tyson, Kansas Senator, has filed for re-election and released the following statement:
“I am greatly encouraged by the very positive response I have received encouraging me to run for re-election. With increasing threats of massive tax increases and threats on our personal freedoms, my experience and problem solving skills in technology, business, agriculture, and in the legislature is needed in Topeka now more than ever.”
Caryn is a senator of the people – someone who will truly listen, someone who represents their values and someone who has the real-world experience necessary to get the job done.
Tyson said, “I am not a career politician. They’re the problem. Politicians pretend to be something they’re not. Leaders have a record that demonstrates who they are. I am a leader with proven results who shares your Kansas values.”
Caryn Tyson has math and computer science degrees from Kansas State and an engineering management degree from KU. After graduating K-State she began working in the Information Technology industry and continued working in this field for more than 25 years. Caryn’s work included space shuttle support for NASA where she received awards for achievement and teamwork.
Caryn is serving her second term in the Kansas Senate. She served one term in the Kansas House and is presently the Chair of the Tax Committee, one of most important committees in the Kansas Senate. As one of the leading freedom fighters in the Senate, Tyson, works diligently for smaller, smarter government.
Caryn and her husband, Tim – both fifth generation Kansans – own and operate Tyson Ranch in Linn County, established in 1871 by Tim’s great-great grandfather.
Kansas is on target with revised estimates; down 51.4% compared to last April
TOPEKA – As predicted, the State of Kansas saw a decrease in total tax collections when compared to April of Fiscal Year 2019. These reductions are largely due to announced tax date extensions, which gave relief to Kansans while moving collections into the Fiscal Year 2021.
On April 20, the Consensus Revenue Estimating Group, comprised of the Department of Revenue, Division of Budget, Kansas Legislative Research Department, and economists from the University of Kansas, Kansas State University, and Wichita State University, met to review the fall estimates and make revisions. These revisions take into consideration the changes in tax deadlines, consumer purchasing behaviors, and employer withholdings.
The state’s total tax collections for April were $578.1 million. Compared to April last fiscal year that is down $610.7 million or 51.4%. However, the state is in line with the revised estimates as those collections are 0.10% or $360,655 more than the estimate.
Individual income tax collections were $282.5 million; $1.2 million or 0.4% more than the new estimate. Corporate income tax collections were $37.8 million; 2.3% or $888,372 below the estimate.
Retail sales tax collections were $184.1 million; $2.3 million or 1.2% below the estimate. Compensating use tax collections were 2.4% higher than estimated with $41.5 million collected.
Haley Troutman, 27, is the new kindergarten teacher at West Bourbon Elementary school in Uniontown for 2020-2021.
She has two years of experience teaching at Precious Lambs Preschool and two years teaching at Eugene Ware Elementary School in Fort Scott in Grades 3 and 4.
Troutman completed a Bachelor of Science in Psychology from KSU in 2014, then took a position with Precious Lambs Preschool as their director/lead teacher.
“To gain more experience in childhood behaviors, I worked for a year at SEK Mental Health as a children’s case manager,” she said.
“In 2018, I began Kansas State University’s Master of Arts in Teaching Program (MAT program). I have spent the last two years as a 3rd and 4th-grade teacher at Eugene Ware Elementary. It has been a wonderful journey, but I am beyond excited to settle in my hometown.”
Troutman’s hometown is Uniontown, Kansas.
“I am so excited to be an Eagle again,” she said. “The staff has been so welcoming and wonderful to me already.”
She is married to Stuart and has three children, Molly (age 8), Sadie (age 5), Jett (age 2).
What is the best part of teaching for you?
“I love building relationships with students and their families. It is also rewarding to see the gains that children make throughout the course of a school year, both socially and academically.”
What are the greatest challenges?
“I would say, ensuring that every student is challenged at his/her academic level while meeting the needs of the whole group. I love the challenge of differentiation. Additionally, being a responsive teacher can be challenging; being able to notice what is working and change what isn’t.”
When I read that 10,000 New York Covid-19 victims had died, I could not stop thinking about who logs the names of the deceased and tries to find their relatives. About how long the bodies could be stored in semi-truck freezer vaults. About what kind of burial they would receive. To think that this was playing out 1200 miles from where we live in the Midwest seemed unfathomable. A little research led me to Hart Island, the largest municipal cemetery in the United States and burial ground for over one-million deceased.
Since New York law does not allow for the cremation of unclaimed human remains, the mass-grave site near the Bronx is where “indigent,” Coronavirus New Yorkers (who were not claimed from a morgue within 15 days of their death) are now being buried. City officials hope that when this virus ends, families will retrieve their bodies.
Fresh trenches for the deceased are dug with backhoes in a large pit holding 150 pine boxes that are stacked three-high in two long rows. Hazmat-suited workers lift coffins, some with a name and others with “unknown” written in permanent marker and a carved grave number on the lid.
After April 3rd, paid landscaping contractors buried the bodies. For years before then, jail inmates had the unenviable job. What I found most inspiring was that these inmates, themselves knowing the stigma of being “indigents,” had found ways to honor the dead when they asked correction officers to switch the portable speaker from drum and bass to Mozart.
According to the “Washington Post,” Saxon Palmer, a former inmate who spent four months at the end of 2019 burying bodies on Hart Island, shared how he and his fellow grave diggers dignified the bodies they were burying. “As they moved the coffins out of the coroner’s truck, they’d say ‘rest in peace’ or draw a cross on the pine box, or say goodbye. We’d say, ‘Mr. Rothman, this is going to be your last trip here, we’re going to make it easy for you, nice and slow,’”Palmer said. “We just had a conversation with the coffins in a kind of gentle way.”
I admit, up to that point, I had been rankled that several articles used the word “indigent” to describe the dead, knowing that in God’s kingdom, there is no such thing. No one deserves that label. But then I thought, maybe that’s why the inmates showed such compassion. They knew, first-hand, what it was like to be rejected. They knew, first-hand, what it was like to be treated with no dignity. Perhaps some of them even knew what it was like to be innocent yet be victimized by things out of their control. For some of the deceased, it might have been the first time they had been shown that kind of respect.
So, what do we take from this? We need to see others as God does, He who has “crowned us with glory and honor” (Psalm 8:5), in spite of how we all are sinners and fall short of His glory. (Ro. 3:23) If He can dignify us (yes, you and me), the undignified, maybe it’s time we learn from the “indigent” inmates. Saxon Palmer gave us a great place to start. Maybe we just need to “make it easy” for others less fortunate than us by striking up a conversation “in a kind of gentle way.”
No Post 25 general membership meeting on Monday, May 4.
Post 25 continues to lead Second District membership at 126.32%. We now have 96 paid 2020 members at our Post. However, National has Post 25 with 100 members. Please note that membership numbers between Department and National rarely agree.
I have received a $100 membership check from Second District. The check is an award to Fort Scott for attaining 100% membership by November 11, 2019. Post 25 was the only Second District Post to have reached 100% membership by the November deadline. Thanks to all our members who renewed in a timely manner for Fort Scott Post 25 to earn the $100 award.
I have received “I Got ONE” membership pins for several Post 25 Legionnaires. These cap pins are awarded by Department to Post members who recruit at least one new Legion member into their Posts.
Membership pins were received for
Skipper Brown
Scott Dorsey
Mike Hansen
Barbara Ritter
Bryan Ritter
Jim Streeter
I’ll make arrangements for these members to receive their pins.
I have requested National Commander Membership Incentive Pins for two Post 25 Legionnaires who recruited at least three new members into the American Legion. Marilyn Gilmore and Darrell Spencer will be receiving these special Membership Incentive Pins.
These dedicated and hardworking Legionnaires contributed to Post 25’s continued growth for FOUR straight years.
American Legion Baseball. Bryan Smith is working to pull together a Fort Scott American Legion baseball team. The Department of Kansas has decided to hold the state baseball program, pending loosing of social distance restrictions. Bryan’s goal is to recruit a junior team that will grow into a state-level powerhouse in two or three years. If you know of a young man between the ages of 13 and 19, get in touch with Bryan. We need to have a 14 player roster by midMay.
American Legion Baseball is about sportsmanship, team building, character development and pride in America. Fort Scott was a powerhouse in Legion Baseball for many years and can be again.
Fort Scott American Legion Post 25 is recruiting baseball players for the 2020 summer season. Male students from Fort Scott High School or Fort Scott Christian Heights who are between the ages of 13-19 before January 1 are eligible to play Legion baseball. For more information contact Bryan Smith at [email protected] or at 360-720-1569.
The Second District picnic is scheduled for Saturday, June 27 in Garnett at 11 am, pending loosing of social distance restrictions. The picnic is open to all Legion family members. More information will be forthcoming as it becomes available.
The Department Convention has been rescheduled for July 31 – August 2 in Topeka. Local members interested in attending should contact Post 25 Commander Carl Jowers for more information.
Our Fort Scott Wal-Mart appears to be well-stocked with paper goods, eggs, cheese, fresh meat and staples. The liquid carbohydrates (beer) cooler is also well-stocked. If you know of a local Veteran who needs shopping assistance, please have them contact me to arrange pickup and delivery of their grocery needs.
Wal-Mart now has traffic signage on their floors to help maintain social distancing. For some of us, it brings back memories of military commissaries that also used traffic signage on their floors to direct shoppers. Photos of the signage are attached.
Don’t hesitate to contact any of your Post Leadership Team with your suggestions to improve Post 25 programs to Veterans and their families.
May 5: 10 am Choices Storytime on Zoom (the meeting will be recorded and may be made available after it ends).
11 am Choices Storytime on Facebook Live (we may post the video on the library’s YouTube channel as well).
Join Miss Val online for virtual storytime! The library will use the Zoom platform for the 10 am storytime and Facebook Live for the 11 am event. This should remain the schedule until the library reopens, but stay tuned to Fort Scott Public Library’s Facebook page for all event updates. To attend the Zoom meeting, you will need to message the library for the meeting link. You may receive the link by one of two methods:
Message Fort Scott Public Library through Facebook or email Miss Val at [email protected] before the start (10 am Tuesday) of storytime, and they will send you the link. The same link will be used for all future Zoom storytimes.
Zoom can be accessed on any pc with a camera and headset, smartphone, or tablet with online access. The application will allow families to see and interact with one another, in addition to being a part of storytime. Storytimes will be recorded and posted afterwards, when possible, for anyone who misses part or all of the meetings to view later. You will have the option of turning your video and audio on and off anytime during the meeting.
This week’s books: “That is NOT a Good Idea!” and “Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!” by Mo Willems!
We will read two stories this week, in lieu of a craft. Suggested activity to do after storytime: Tic-Tac-Toe or another decision-based game.
Due to lack of participation this week, we will hold a repeat of our teen & tween game night on Wednesday, May 6 at 4 pm – Virtual Teen & Tween Game Night on Zoom. To receive the link, families should email Miss Val at [email protected] or message the Fort Scott Public Library Facebook page prior to the start of the meeting. Games played will include 2 Truths, 1 Lie (bring at least enough truths and lies for 3 or 4 rounds) and Charades (bring ideas for words & phrases to act out). Other games may also be played. This meeting is for middle and high school students only.
