Stories from Wednesday, August 8, 2012

To celebrate John and Vera Parrish's 62nd wedding anniversary, their children Wayne and Christie Parrish and Janet and Mark Vanleeuwen surprised them with a party at McDonald's in Pittsburg. Others present were granddaughter Jenny and Ryan Dugan with Allyson and Karter. Also their McDonald's friends, Ron and Dorothy Heckert, Rich Brill, Karl Gregory and Keith Frankhauser attended. A decorated cake made by Christie was served with sundaes...

Uniontown Ruritan Club held its July meeting at the Uniontown United Methodist Church annex on July 16. President Randy Rockhold called the meeting to order. Skeet George, club secretary, led club members in singing "America." A delicious meal was served by the United Methodist women. The club gave a round of applause for the ladies. President Rockhold presented a new member pin to Daniel Johns...

Roger Hubbell, 91, formerly of La Cygne, Kan., died Monday Aug. 6, 2012, at the Adrian Manor in Adrian, Mo. Graveside services will be held at 10 a.m. Thursday, Aug. 9, 2012, at the Olathe Memorial Cemetery in Olathe, Kan. The family suggests contributions to the Roger Hubbell Memorial Fund in c/o the Schneider Funeral Home and Crematory, P.O. Box 304, La Cygne, Kan., 66040...

Michael James Bolan, 55, resident of Fort Scott, died unexpectedly Tuesday, Aug. 7, 2012, at his home. Funeral arrangements for Michael Bolan will be announced by Cheney Witt Chapel, 201 S. Main.

Marvel L. Harry, 86, of Pittsburg, Kan., passed away at 9 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 5, 2012, at Via Christi Hospital. She was born July 5, 1926, at Mindenmines, Mo., to Fred and Gladys (Lasley) Maxwell. She attended schools in Mindenmines and graduated from Mindenmines High School in 1943. She then graduated from Kansas City Secretarial College. On Feb. 12, 1947, she was united in marriage to Lee Edwin Harry at Pittsburg, Kan. He preceded her in death on Jan. 15, 1989...

Rita and Clay Wheeler, Fort Scott, and sibling Ainsley Wheeler are pleased to announce the birth of their daughter and sister Zadie Asher Wheeler at 6:53 p.m. Aug. 6, 2012, at Mercy. Zadie weighed 6 pounds and 10 ounces at birth. Maternal grandparents are Richard and Linda Cook, Fort Scott. Maternal great-grandparents are Mary Cook, Fort Scott, and Fred and Ann Black, Mound Valley, Kan...

The family of Kyle Thompson, son of Homer and Blanche Thompson of Bronson, is celebrating his 80th birthday on Aug. 15. Join them in celebrating this special occasion by sending a card to 301 Vinton Ave., Eldora, Iowa, 50627. Congratulations to a wonderful dad, grandpa and great-grandpa from the Dan and Teresa Merritt family, Jenks, Okla., and the Tom and Sheila Kadoph family, Parker, Colo...

Nicholas James McGuire, 23, Fort Scott, was arrested at 2:27 p.m. Monday by the Bourbon County District Court on a Bourbon County warrant and is still being held at this time. Curtis Wayne Harger, 46, Fort Scott, was arrested at 11:32 p.m. Monday by the Fort Scott Police Department for criminal threat, false impersonation, disorderly conduct and aggravated assault and is still being held at this time...

100 YEARS AGO (1912) There are a few fishermen in the city who are sportsmen enough to go to the trouble of seining the rivers with a large mesh seine in an effort to get the carp out. The carp kill good fish. All of the game fish caught in the seine were thrown back in the stream and then the men went after them with hook and line...

I apologize in advance for talking about politics again, but we are about to embark on one of the most important elections in Kansas history and it is important that everyone is aware of the possible consequences. It will determine whether the state continues on the radical path espoused by the Koch Brothers, Americans for Prosperity, the Tea Party and the Kansas Chamber of Commerce or whether the voice of reason and the vast majority of Kansans will be able to stand up to the onslaught of propaganda and big money that has entered the election.. ...

Bourbon County's burn ban continues, regardless of the temperature changes and any amounts of rain the area may have received. There is a very real danger of fires being started by lightning in the next day, Emergency Manager Keith Jeffers said in an email...

The Bourbon County Conservation District board of supervisors will hold a Local Work Group meeting at 5:30 p.m. Aug. 13 in the conference room of the USDA Service Center, 1515 S. Judson. The purpose of the meeting is to address Environmental Quality Incentive Program and Wildlife Habitat Incentive Program including the issues of:...

A local manufacturer plans to keep growing after a recent expansion. Labconco Corp., 2500 Liberty Bell Road, which manufactures laboratory equipment for research facilities and government agencies, hosted the Fort Scott Area Chamber of Commerce Coffee last Thursday morning. Plant Manager Mike Lakeman said the plant, which started in Fort Scott in 1988, expanded to include a 41,000-square-foot addition last year and plans are to add more staff and equipment in the future...

City officials said there will be no immediate search for a Fort Scott Police Department chief following the resignation last month Ron Puterbaugh, who formerly held the job. City Manager Dave Martin told the Fort Scott City Commission during their meeting Tuesday that Puterbaugh, who had been with the department since 2009, did resign and there was some recent restructuring done in the department. Puterbaugh made just over $66,000 a year...

Two longtime incumbents -- Bourbon County Clerk Joanne Long and state Sen. Bob Marshall -- lost their positions in Tuesday's primary, according to unofficial final results. Long faced fellow Republican Kendall Dawn Mason. Mason received 1,186 votes to Long's 846. Mason will square off against Democrat Evelyn Taylor, who received 724 votes Tuesday, in the Nov. 6 general election...

Initial moves to four-lane U.S. Highway 69 are slowly taking shape. Darrin Petrowsky, an area engineer with the Kansas Department of Transportation, recently met with Bourbon County Commissioners to request they consider the county's future involvement in the road expansion, scheduled to begin in 2017...

A caring person is a bright spot in a sometimes grim world where crime, anger, fear, hunger and loneliness have pushed even well-meaning people into isolation. We've moved, as a society, from the front porch to the back yard. We've gone from social visits to video games and the VCR. It's as if we're so overwhelmed by the needs around us that we've built invisible walls, blocked our vision of other people's problems and focused on ourselves...

A local family who chose to donate their childhood home to Tri-Valley Developmental Services will be recognized at the site's open house today. The Jent family of Fort Scott gave the home to Tri-Valley in April and is being honored for their deed today...

The American Red Cross is currently under a national appeal for blood, officials said. With the extreme heat and other factors leading to fewer donations in recent months, the organization continues to have an emergency need for donors of all blood types, a news release said...