Come to Fort Scott Public Library for the 5th Annual Holiday FamilyParty on Monday, December 16, at 4 p.m.
Miss Val will read and sing with everyone, and then families will experience the party in smaller groups.
Activities for teens will be held upstairs while games, snacks, and crafts for children and adults will be downstairs.
Children first grade and below must be accompanied by an adult at all times.
The party will run from 4 – 5:30 p.m. Registration will open at 3:45.
All kids and teens will receive a gift and book.
This event is FREE and open to the public.
Volunteers are needed to help supervise the activities.
Please contact youth librarian Valetta Cannon at [email protected], fill out a donation form at the library, or call 620-223-2882 if you would like to help. Happy Holidays from Fort Scott Public Library!
The big rock shelter house at Gunn Park is lit by Christmas as part of Christmas in the Park in 2017.
Christmas in the Park 2019 organizers hope to provide the community with a great holiday experience, according to Tom Robertson, one of the event coordinators. Robertson is the director of the Fort Scott Recreation Center. He and Diana Mitchell are spearheading the annual event.
Food, entertainment, crafts, and photo opportunities are provided with help from the City of Fort Scott many community volunteers who donate time and materials.
“If you haven’t been before, come,” Mitchell said. “It’s a wonderful evening. Where else can you go and spend three hours and it cost nothing.”
The event will take place on December 7th from 5 – 8 p.m. at Gunn Park.
The activities include chili for the family, a live band by Danny Brown Christmas music, real reindeer for viewing, a live nativity by Bethel Community Church, Christmas crafts for children to make, and a visit with Santa, portrayed by James Wood.
New this year is a coffee/hot chocolate bar with all the fixings and a selfie bar for fun family photos.
“The selfie bar will be provided by the Terrell Vann family,” Mitchell said. “You can hold crazy things up with a backdrop.”
Bring the camera for many other photo opportunities with Santa and real reindeer, Mitchell said.
All participants will be bussed into Gunn Park from parking lots at the Fort Scott Community College Nursing Department at 8th and Burke Street and the Fort Scott Professional Building at 8th and Osbun Street. Fort Scott Community College, USD 234, and some nursing homes are providing busses.
“We bus for the safety of participants,” Mitchell said. “Traditionally, there are about 1,600 people there.”
Some adventurous people walk into the park, she said.
“And that is acceptable, it is three-fourths of a mile to the center of the park,” Mitchell noted.
There will be long lines to some of the activities and patience is asked of participants.
The event is coordinated by members of the community in conjunction with the City of Fort Scott, according to Robertson.
The Fort Scott Police Department, the Fort Scott Fire Department, Fort Scott Community College, individual families, Winfield Scott Elementary School first-grade teachers and the Eye Center all are a part of the annual event.
“We want to provide a great holiday experience in a beautiful park in Fort Scott,” Robertson said. “It will allow our patrons to eat, listen to Christmas music, make crafts, decorate a sugar cookie, pet a live reindeer and of course… see Santa.”
Gunn Park will be closed to the public from Wednesday, Dec. 4 until the event to prepare for the event, Mitchell said.
The following is where the activities are scheduled:
Park at parking lots and buses will pick up attendees at those sites.
Shelter 1-chili will be served.
Outside of a tent near this shelter will be the live band, provided by Danny Brown playing Christmas music. Inside the tent will be the hot chocolate/coffee bar and kids can decorate a cookie.
Shelter 2- the selfie bar is provided for photo opportunities, bring your camera.
Outside of the selfie bar will be live reindeer from Towanda, KS.
Shelter 6-Santa will be available for listening to Christmas requests.
Shelter 7-Christmas crafts for children sponsored by Buck Run Community Center.
Buses will transport attendees back to the parking lot to their cars.
The City of Fort Scott is seeking citizens for boards.
Please see below the above openings for City of Fort Scott Boards:
Five openings (Four City residents – One County resident) on the Fort Scott Planning Commission.
Three openings (Three City residents) on the Design Review Board
Two openings on the Airport Advisory Board.
One opening (One County resident) on the Golf Course Advisory Board
Planning Commission
The function of the Planning Commission is to review and adopt (as well as update) the Comprehensive Plan for the City of Fort Scott, to establish zoning districts and allowable uses, to review zoning regulations within the City and to review requests for special permits or conditional uses within certain zoning districts in the City. Also reviews site plans for planned areas and is responsible for zoning within the 3 mile limit of the City of Fort Scott. Their recommendations are given to the City Commission for final approval. They meet on an “as needed” basis.
Design Review Board
The function of the Design Review Board is to review requests for Certificate of Appropriateness in the historic district of our downtown. They meet on an “as needed” basis.
Airport Advisory Board
The function of the Airport Advisory Board is to advise the City Manager and City Commissioners on matters pertaining to the continued growth and improvement of the airport. Their recommendations are given to the City Commission for final approval.
Golf Course Advisory Board
The function of the Golf Course Advisory Board is to advise the City Commission in all matters referred to them regarding the Woodland Hills Golf Course. They will also independently evaluate all aspects of the operation of the Golf Course and make recommendations to the City Commission and City Manager. They meet on an “as needed” basis.
If you have a desire to serve on any of these Boards and meet the above requirements, please submit a letter of interest to the City Clerk, Diane Clay, 123 S. Main, Fort Scott, Kansas 66701. She will then submit your letter of interest for consideration by the City Commission.
All of the boards and commissions serve on a volunteer basis and are not compensated.
If you would like more information on any of these boards, please contact Diane Clay, City Clerk at 620-223-0550 or [email protected]. Please submit your letter of interest by December 13th, 2019 at 5:00 p.m.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Nov. 19, 2019 – Evergy is standing with more than 100 utility companies throughout North America this week in support of the fourth annual Utility Scam Awareness Week. Utilities United Against Scams (UUAS) promotes this week each year to educate consumers and small business owners about the tactics scammers use to attack consumers.
“Evergy is uniting in this effort to ensure our customers know the signs of a scam and avoid being duped by con artists,” said Jeff Beasley, Evergy vice president, customer operations. “We want to help keep people from falling prey to any malicious fraud schemes regarding utilities.”
Evergy offers these safety tips for customers:
Verify the person you’re engaging is with Evergy by asking to see company identification or by calling the Customer Contact Centerbefore giving credit card, debit card, Social Security, ATM, checking or savings account numbers to anyone who comes to your home, calls, text and/or sends an email requesting this information about your utility bill. If you can’t verify that you’re speaking with an Evergy employee, do not give them this information.
Be suspicious if you receive an email about your utility bill if you have not requested online communications from Evergy.
For customers using Evergy’s online bill pay system, always make online payments directly through evergy.com.
Never provide personal information via email or click any suspicious links.
Signs of a potential scam include:
Threat to disconnect: Scammers may aggressively tell the customer his or her utility bill is past due and service will be disconnected – usually within an hour – if a payment is not made.
Request for immediate payment: Scammers may instruct the customer to buy a prepaid card – widely available at retail stores – then call them back supposedly to make a bill payment.
Request for prepaid card: When the customer calls back, the caller asks the customer for the prepaid card’s number, which grants the scammer instant access to the card’s funds, and the victim’s money is gone.
The phone scammer is often a live person posing as an Evergy employee who notifies the customer of a past due bill and demands immediate payment to avoid service disconnection. Scammers also can manipulate the caller ID to look like the company phone number. In some instances, the caller requests that the customer purchase a money gram to pay their bill.
If the customer is unable to make an immediate payment or does not answer, the caller gives out a return phone number unassociated with Evergy or the utility for customers to call back. When calling, customers are often prompted by a convincing, but fraudulent recording with instructions to make to make their payment with a live person. This phone number is not associated with Evergy.
Due to valued customer reports, Evergy has worked in conjunction with UUAS to quickly shutdown many of these fraudulent numbers and derail scams. In such cases, it is extremely valuable for the reporting customer to obtain and provide the scammer’s requested callback number.
UUAS is dedicated to combating utility scams by providing a forum for utilities and trade associations to share data and best practices, in addition to working together to implement initiatives to inform and protect customers.
If you have questions about the legitimacy of a bill, phone call or email regarding a utility bill, do not provide your personal or banking information to anyone. Contact the Evergy Customer Contact Center at the number located on your bill or at evergy.com.
If you feel you have been a victim of a scam, please work with your local law enforcement agency to report the crime. For more information, visit Evergy Utility Scams. Evergy will share more tips about protecting yourself against scammers on our social media accounts (Facebook and Twitter) as well this week.
A board has been formed to help the local government entities keep informed of safety and other issues at Lake Fort Scott.
The chairman of the board will be determined at the first meeting, according to Robert Uhler, Fort Scott Community Development Director.
“The chairman will be determined at the first meeting. I am sending out a Doodle Poll this week to plan for the first meeting.”
“We thought it would be a good idea to start an advisory to help guide the city in all things happening at the lake,” he said. “Just like we have the design review board for the downtown historic district and the airport advisory board for the airport.”
Robert Uhler
The Fort Scott Lake Advisory Board had its organizing meeting at the Sleep Inn Hotel Meeting Room on Oct. 17, 2019.
Fort Scott City Manager David Martin called the meeting to order and explained that he is getting the group started, but would have Uhler facilitate the lake advisory board meetings, according to a press release from the city.
Uhler then had the attendees introduce themselves and give a brief explanation of their interest in serving on the advisory board, according to the press release.
He explained the system of voting for the candidates for the board.
After a brief discussion, the attendees then voted to complete the board as per city ordinances.
After counting the votes, the following names were submitted to the Fort Scott City Commission on Nov. 5 for approval to serve on the board:
The east side lake representatives are Nancy Van Etten and Shane Wood; west side representative’s are Tom Brink and Dean Striler.
The at-large representative is Nancy Maze.
Other representatives are Jolynne Mitchell, Fort Scott City Commissioner; Jeff Fisher, Bourbon County Commissioner; Don Banwart and Marcy Myer, both city/county residents.
Others who attended the meeting: Becky Howard, Richard Clark, Valerie Graham, Tom Graham, Harold Martin, Jon Eden, Bob Talbot, Debbie Talbot, Dana Davis, Kerry Van Etten, Bourbon County Sheriff Bill Martin, Bourbon County Sheriff’s Office Major Bobbie Reed and Fort Scott Chamber of Commerce Director Lindsay Madison.
Lake Fort Scott is located on Indian Road, southwest of Fort Scott.
Carla Nemecek is Southwind District Director and agent.
Submitted by Carla Nemecek, Southwind Extension District Director
Kansas rural business owners, farm and ranch families continuously look at best options for feasibility and profitability– they attend educational meetings, try out new practices, assess any risks involved and talk with their neighbor or consultant. They make numerous decisions from day to day that will affect the operation both now and in the future. The holiday season is a good time to initiate those conversations with family and close friends.
Future sustainability of our local communities also depends on whether the family owned business has planned for succession. The average age of U.S. producers continues to rise and families will need to explore options for the transitional feasibility of current and future operators. Succession planning is a step-by-step process where families work together to develop a plan to incorporate the next owner and pass on knowledge and resources that will sustain the operation.
It can be challenging and difficult to begin developing a succession plan and find guidance moving forward. This is where a succession planning facilitator plays a key role.
The facilitator can help the family identify strengths, barriers and opportunities as they pass the farm business on to the next generation. They guide family members to resources and individuals who can help them find the information they need to develop an effective succession plan with help from facilitators and mediators from Kansas Agricultural Mediation Services, a program administered by K-State Research and Extension.
A facilitated meeting is described as guiding participants through shared discussions about important issues. Facilitators help families set an agenda and guide the process for planning their succession. The facilitator works to enable all voices to be heard within a respectful environment. While the facilitator remains neutral with the content of the discussion, they help everyone keep track of the substantive issues and options raised by the family as they chart their path forward.
Trained facilitators have experience working with Kansas farm and ranch families. They offer guidance and support as families cultivate options for creating a succession plan. Facilitation services can be requested by calling Kansas Agricultural Mediation Services at 800-321-3276.
Families may also visit the succession planning website and navigate through a variety of resources, such as “Transition Planning: 12 Steps to Keep the Family Farming” and more topic-focused areas such as estate planning or “FamilyTALK.” The website is available at Kansas Agricultural Mediation Services.
Kansas Agricultural Mediation Services is administered by K-State Research and Extension. The program supports Kansas producers in resolving a variety of agricultural-related concerns and maintains confidentiality during the process. Information and guidance on any ag-related issue will be provided at no cost through our toll-free hotline, 1-800-321-3276 FREE or visit our website at Kansas Agricultural Mediation Services.
Carla Nemecek
Southwind Extension District
Director & Agent [email protected]
620-365-2242
1 North Washington, Iola, KS 66749
