Stories from Friday, July 11, 2014

Fort Scott's 10-year-olds won't be the only local team in action this weekend as Cal Ripken State and Babe Ruth District tournaments will be underway across the state this weekend. Fort Scott's 9-year-old Cal Ripken team is playing in the State Tournament at Garden City, which began today. ...

Fort Scott will host a Cal Ripken State Baseball Tournament for the first time since 2011 this weekend as play gets underway for 10-year-olds at noon today at Don Hewett Field. This is the fourth time Fort Scott has hosted a State-level Cal Ripken tournament. The community also hosted 10-year-old State in 2008, 12-year-olds in 2009, and 9-year-olds in 2011...

Lorene (Grimes) VanBuren 1947 -- 2014, a resident of Pittsburg, Kan., departed the earth and pain of cancer to be with her Heavenly Father on July 8, 2014. She was born in Fort Scott, Kan., to Claude L. and Frances (Wolfe) Grimes but spent much of her adult life in Arizona. A graduate of Fort Scott High School and Fort Scott Community College, Lorene married Gilbert Niemeir Dec. 17, 1966; they later divorced...

Matthew Christian Wiebelhaus, age 18, a resident of rural Garland, Kan., died Friday, July 4, 2014, in Montgomery County, Kan., following a drowning accident. He was born Dec. 12, 1995, in Parsons, Kan., the son of Bob Wiebelhaus and Janice Loar Wiebelhaus. Matt had completed his junior year at Fort Scott High School. He had helped his father with the family business, Wiebelhaus Tree service. He enjoyed reading, fishing and doing mechanic work as well as hanging Christmas lights...

Budgets presented to the Bourbon County Commissioners Monday involved offices that deal with people who commit crimes. Each budget request was for more funding than has been provided in this fiscal year. What concerned at least one commissioner was the reasons more funding is needed for those county services -- the number of criminal and child-in-care cases have increased...

A local teenager died in a reported accidental drowning that occurred July 4 in Independence, law enforcement authorities confirmed this week. Independence Chief of Police Harry Smith said 18-year-old Matthew Wiebelhaus, of rural Garland, is believed to have drowned after witnesses saw him unable to escape the currents of the Verdigris River in Independence and not return to the surface...

Editor's note: This is the third in a series of three stories profiling U.S. Rep. Lynn Jenkins' visit to Fort Scott. Congresswoman Lynn Jenkins made it a day in Fort Scott recently. In addition to speaking at the Fort Scott Rotary Club, she began by spending time with downtown business owners, and then ended it with a tour at local industry Labconco...

Workers from Cedar Ridge Roofing of Greenwood, Mo., install a Spanish tile roof on the First Presbyterian Church of Fort Scott Wednesday morning. The roofing started last week and will finish in two weeks, barring inclement weather, according to Salvadore Cabanas, a worker at the site...

Deanna L. Fuhrman, age 69, of Bronson, Kan., passed away on Friday, July 11, 2014, at Olathe Medical Center in Olathe, Kan. She was born on May 24, 1945, in Pleasanton, Kan., the daughter of Edward and Katherine F. (Dunavan) Umphenour. Deanna graduated from Pleasanton High School in 1963, and attended Fort Scott Community College...