BOOKED: Joseph Butts of Great Bend on GBMC case for domestic battery, bond is set at $1,000 C/S or 48-hour OR bond.

BOOKED: Angela Duffield of Great Bend on Great Bend Municipal Court case for domestic battery, bond is $1,000 C/S.

BOOKED: Thelma Hernandez-Medina of Great Bend for Great Bend Municipal Court case for contempt, $692.50 cash needed. GBMC case for contempt, $522.50 cash needed.

BOOKED: John Ellis on BTDC warrant for probation violation, no bond.

BOOKED: Ricky Bryant of Susank on Great Bend Municipal Court warrant for contempt of court with a bond set at $1,052.50 cash only. Warrant for contempt of court with a bond set at $382.50 cash only.

BOOKED: Stacy Warren of Larned on Barton County District Court warrant for failure to appear with no bond. Warrant for failure to appear with a bond set at $500 C/S.

RELEASED: Angela Duffield of Great Bend for GBMC case for domestic battery, posted bond of $1,000 C/S through Ace Bail Bonding.

RELEASED: Martin Martinez of Great Bend on BTDC warrant for probation violation, BTDC warrant for failure to appear, released by BCDC.

RELEASED: William Fields of Great Bend on Ellinwood Municipal warrant for contempt after posting a $403.50 cash only bond. BTDC warrant for failure to appear after posting a $500 cash only bond.

RELEASED: Joseph Butts of Great Bend on GBMC case for domestic battery, posted bond through Ace Bail Bonding.

EDWARDS COUNTY— Four people were injured in an accident just before 8a.m. Monday in Edwards County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2004 Dodge Durango driven by Sandra Oreuga, 29, Macksville, was westbound in the 300 Block of Q road eight miles south, south west of Macksville.

The driver lost control of the SUV. It traveled into the north ditch and rolled.

Oreuga and passengers Claudia Bautista, 28; Ma D. Nunez-Martinez, 35, St. John; Norma Garcia, 36, Macksville, were transported to Edwards County Hospital.

All four were properly restrained at the time of the accident, according to the KHP.

The Great Bend High School Auditorium is the location for Tuesday night’s Candidate Forum that begins at 7 p.m. The local chapter of the League of Women Voters will be hosting the event that traditionally has been held at the Crest Theatre.

The event is not a town hall meeting so there will be no vocal audience participation. However, candidates will be available both before and after the forum and during intermission to visit with constituents. Candidates who are running unopposed will be introduced but will not speak from the podium. Questions for the candidates will be a mix of questions that have been submitted by the public and those that have been crafted by league members.

Candidates participating who are running in contested races in the August 7^th primary include incumbent Alicia Straub in District 4 on the Barton County Commission. Straub is opposed by Great Bend businessman Randy Suchy.

There are several candidates who are seeking a spot on the Great Bend City Council who will be participating Tuesday night. They include Bobby Lee Roller, Alan Moeder, Bradley McCune, Josh Ellis, and Jessica Milsap in Ward 1. In Ward 2, James Breitenbach and Chad Summers are running. In Ward 3, past council member Dana Dawson will be on the ballot along with Jacob R. Davis.

Candidates running for U.S. representative in the primary who will be at the forum include Alan LaPolice and Nick Reinecker. Representative Roger Marshall is in Washington D.C. and will not be able to attend.

There will be no live broadcast of the forum on Eagle Radio however you can hear the entire broadcast starting at 5:30 Wednesday evening on 1590 KVGB and 97.7 FM. The event will also be available on greatbendpost.com.

After receiving no requested information and no one from Rosewood Services present to talk, the Barton County Commission once again tabled discussion on offering a letter of support to Rosewood to receive tax credits.

Rosewood asked for a letter of support from the County at the previous meeting on July 16 to receive tax credits from the Kansas Department of Commerce to help remodel the old E&E Glass building in Great Bend. The plans for the building include expanding a Rosewood training facility and creating office space upstairs.

Despite being on the agenda to provide additional details, Rosewood’s Director of Development Anna Hammond-Bodine was not in attendance. After contact with Rosewood later Monday, Eagle Radio was notified that Rosewood had informed the County last Thursday verbally and in writing that they would not be in attendance. The deadline for information to be turned into the consultant finalizing the tax credit application was July 19, and with the deadline already passing there was no point to be present.

Commissioner Alicia Straub stated at the July 16^th meeting that she wanted to see the application and a budget on how the tax credits were going to be used. With nothing submitted to the County, Straub expressed her disappointment.

Alicia Straub Audio

Commissioners voted 5-0 to table the agenda item, but this time not setting a date for further discussion. Commissioner Homer Kruckenberg commended Straub for questioning the letter of support and Commission Chair Jennifer Schartz stated any time the Commission requests additional information it is for a valid reason.

“It is disappointing the County had such a difficult time understanding the value of this to our community,” said Tammy Hammond, Rosewood Services Executive Director. “Representatives from the Tax Credit Program indicated they had never encountered a city or a county not wishing for an award to their community…”

Straub questioned that the property owner of the building at 1117 Williams Street along with the nonprofit arm of Rosewood might stand to profit from the remodel. New Leaf LLC purchased the property in 2015 and the resident agent of New Leaf’s office is Anna Hammond.

Alicia Straub Audio

The Community Service Tax Credit Program has been awarded on a competitive basis across the state each year since 1994, with 13 recipients being awarded credits last year. Projects eligible for tax credit awards include community service, crime prevention, health care, youth apprenticeship and technical training.

Rosewood does not need the letter of support from the County to receive the tax credits, but it is helpful in the application process.

Hammond-Bodine noted last week that like many Rosewood operations, developmentally challenged workers at the training facility would have to master certain skills before getting paid.

First as usual, a drought update is in order.  Again, nothing after 8 a.m. this past Tuesday is included.  Most of NW and North Central Kansas are no longer even considered abnormally dry.  The drought, while not erased from SW Kansas has eased overall as it has somewhat in parts of South Central Kanas.  The worst conditions are found in NE Kansas, however, some recent rains may have helped a bit but are somewhat erased by the recent hot weather.  As an aside, while we are fairly miserable outside with the humidity, it does help crops cope better with the heat.  With August almost upon us, it seems fitting to take a break from anything serious.  This is fair month across Kansas with Barton’s the week before last, Stafford and Reno last week and Pawnee County this week.  Most of us know what county fairs are today but where did they come from and why?

The earliest record of what we may term fairs appears in the Bible and occurred over two thousand years ago.  Fairs started in Europe as a blending of commerce, agriculture and religion.  A sort of free/holy day for people to get together socialize and take a day off.  Remember this was long before labor laws, forty hour work weeks, and where the vast majority of people lived on and were involved in agriculture.  As time passed these gradually morphed away from being centered on religion and more towards what we understand as a fair.  The first record of a fair in North America was 1765 in Windsor, Nova Scotia.  The first U.S. fair seems to date from 1807 in Pittsfield Massachusetts by a man named Elkanah Watson, a man who had advised President Washington.  In fact many of our first fairs were held by private individuals, organizations and agricultural societies.  As these struggled for proper funding, many state governments organized boards and in turn these events.  Okay, all fine and good, but why?

• As always there was the social aspect to this. This was a time to take a break, socialize and just have fun.  And these fairs often coincided with harvest and were an opportunity to celebrate.  Entertainment, whether horse racing or musical, was part of a fairs attraction.
• Commerce, just like today, was an important factor. This was a place to congregate and reach a large pool of potential customers.  Customers could be exposed to, look at and even try out new implements, machinery, and the latest and best from the “big city.”
• Competition for the best or most with cash prizes was and is a draw. And part of that was showing off to the community what you had reared, grown, or made.  Another aspect to this was evaluating cultivars and breeds, finding the best quality or highest yielding crop or animal.
• However, the primary reason agricultural societies and then states promoted and even help fund them has a deeper purpose. Fairs were a place to disseminate knowledge and educate on everything from advances in animal husbandry and crop production to food preparation and storage.  This coincides with the development of the Land Grant University system, the Cooperative Extension Service, and 4-H.

Today’s fairs maintain much of this tradition while adding to it.

The City of Hoisington is still awaiting word if they received a $25,000 grant to help construct a dog park. Hoisington applied for the grant through PetSafe and should find out in August or September.

The dog park would be located in Bicentennial Park.

Hoisington City Manager Jonathan Mitchell says the project would still need a few donations, but Karla Crissman from Clara Barton Hospital has played a huge role in spearheading the project.

Jonathan Mitchell Audio

The park itself will be 150 feet by 200 feet and a chain link fence will divide the park for bigger and smaller dogs.

Jonathan Mitchell Audio

The park will also include watering fountains, dog waste stations, shelter area, and an obstacle course.