Stories from Saturday, October 10, 2015

During the upcoming weeks, the Bourbon County Commissioners will have to decide whether to accept a grant to partially fund the salary of one additional sheriff's deputy. On Tuesday, commissioners met with Bourbon County Sheriff Bill Martin and had a conference call with Senior Grant Writing Manager Samantha Dorm of Praetorian Digital in Pennsylvania to discuss their options...

While moving a little slower than anticipated, progress is being made on demolition of structures on the former Western Insurance property, officials said. Workers with Industrial Wrecking Co., Inc., of Kansas City, Mo., have been working since this summer to tear down the crossover that joins the two towers that make up the property located at 14 E. First St., as well as the non-historic structure to the west of the historic building...

Ethlyn Louise Rohrer, age 94, formally of Fort Scott, more recently of Merced, Calif., died Friday, Oct. 9, at the La Sierra Care Facility. Services for Ethlyn Rohrer will be announced by the Cheney Witt Chapel, 201 S. Main.

Billy Lee Eshelbrenner, age 86, a resident of Fort Scott, Kan., died Thursday, Oct. 8, 2015, at the Fort Scott Medicalodge with his family by his side. He was born Dec. 18, 1928, in Fort Scott, the son of Carl W. Eshelbrenner, Sr. and Sophie Leitz Eshelbrenner. ...

OSAWATOMIE -- Fort Scott High's volleyball team was in the unusual position of playing a league match on the court of a school that is not a member of the Southeast Kansas League here Thursday night. The Tigers played here as it was the first time that it was Osawatomie's turn to host since replacing former league member Columbus in this triangular a few seasons ago...

COLONY -- Uniontown High School's volleyball team came away with a pair of victories in Three Rivers League play here Tuesday, downing host Crest in two sets and edging Pleasanton in three. Against Pleasanton, Uniontown (5-4 TRL, 13-10 overall) dropped the first set 25-20 but responded with 25-18 and 25-14 victories. Lindsay Nietfeld led by going 17 of 19 on attacks with 7 kills. Holly Shinn was 8-21 on attacks with 9 kills. Haley O'Neal added 8 solo blocks...

INDEPENDENCE -- Fort Scott High's cross country team won three individual titles and a team title here Thursday. Tiger varsity girls won the team title with 40 points, well ahead of the 59 by second-place Independence. Fort Scott was led by Cassidy Westhoff's winning time of 18:31.66. McKenzie Willis of Pittsburg was a distant second at 20:15.38...

The defense took care of things early. The offense made things work in the second half. And Fort Scott High finished with a 31-14 victory over Independence in Southeast Kansas League play on Homecoming at Frary Field Friday night. Independence's offense held the ball for 5 1/2 minutes on its opening possession but wasn't able to advance to midfield. A bad snap to the punter resulted in a big tackle for a loss that gave Fort Scott's offense the ball at the Independence 29-yard line...