News

By Alan Rusch

Rep. Steven Johnson, R-Assaria, made a timely prediction during a Sept. 17 update to the Ellsworth Kiwanis Club — education will be the “big issue” during the Kansas Legislature’s 2016 session beginning Tuesday, Jan. 11. “I am very interested with who will be writing the formula, for the lack of a better word, as you come from the block grant going forward,” Johnson said during the weekly breakfast meeting at the Ellsworth Steak House. “I hope there is a dialog in offering that plan.

Early-rising residents of Ellsworth County were treated to a full rainbow in the stormy-looking western sky as dawn broke the morning of Sept. 16

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By Alan Rusch

Thirteen Ellsworth County residents gathered Sept. 15 in the basement of Ellsworth’s J.H. Robbins Memorial Library to begin a three-month leadership learning journey aimed at community betterment. For Ellsworth business leaders Stacie Schmidt and Barbara McPherson, Leadership Ellsworth County was a bit of deja vu. Schmidt, manager of Security First Title’s Ellsworth office, and McPherson, owner of Boomeros, are both members of the Leadership Ellsworth County Class of 2014.

On Saturday, Sept. 12, the Marquette Chamber of Commerce and Harley’s Bicycles of Hutchinson sponsored the 5th annual Pedal Power Tour in Marquette beginning at 10 a.m. The morning was cool in temperature after a long stretch of hot, humid days.

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BY I-R STAFF

Ellsworth’s Ron Svaty is recovering after suffering a concussion Friday while working the chain gang at the Beloit-Ellsworth football game at Shanelec Field in Ellsworth.

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BY ALAN RUSCH

WILSON — The Wilson City Council has received assurances that the front wall of the Wilson Czech Opera House will be stabilized and safe before winter. “That’s our goal,” said Allison Ford, president of the Wilson Czech Opera House Corporation board of directors, during a Sept. 8 update to the council. “We really want to have that done this fall — and I think that should happen.”

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BY ALAN RUSCH

An Ellsworth woman’s visit to the emergency room Aug. 30 led to the surprise birth of her son — and history being made at Ellsworth County Medical Center. “I was having normal cramps so I decided to go to the emergency room to see what it was, because you never know,” said 18-yearold Bushton native Cassandra Leigh-Ann Witt during a recent telephone interview with the Independent-Reporter.

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BY MARK MCCOY

Ellsworth-Kanopolis-Geneseo School District superintendent Dale Brungardt dropped a bombshell at the Sept. 8 school board meeting when he announced that the concrete poured for the new Bearcat tennis courts failed the tensile-strength test. The architectural plans call for a tensile concrete strength of 4,000 per square inch, but the stress tests conducted by Kirkham Michael, of Ellsworth, came out at 3,300 per square inch.

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