Opinion
Our View
Excitement building The 100th edition of the Labette County Fair is just around the corner. While some events have already taken place — food judging and clothing — the bulk of the events run over a period of days. The first day is Saturday, with horse check in and 4-H horse competition. Sunday features a parade and a cattle drive down an Oswego street. Most weeknights will feature musical acts, many from this area, but also a big named count...
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Public Mind
Prayer definitely necessary for city meetings To The Sun: The walking trail as first proposed seemed rather a good idea, utilizing the Frisco right of way for an estimated cost of around $100,000 with 80 percent to be paid by the taxpayers of all Kansas. As time went on the length of the project dramatically decreased, accompanied by a dramatic increase in cost to possibly $1,000,000, about the same cost as the wonderful running track at Pars...
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Public Mind
Choice on street work questioned To the Sun: The state of the city’s infrastructure, particularly the streets, has often been the subject of discussion by city staff, residents and other interested parties. The continued difficulty finding a viable solution and funding to address improving the streets has been debated. City staff has released plans for the annual street overlay and improvement project. Progress to be sure but I find one aspect...
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Tips help get your homes organized
Is clutter a problem? Do you say, “This house is a mess” more than three times a week? Do you move something every time you want to sit down? Do you have piles of paper all over the house? Do you have closets and drawers that are brimming? Do you spend lots of time looking for things? If this sounds like you, it is time to take control of the clutter at your house. Start with a positive attitude. Cleaning is a chore, but taking a positive appr...
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Landscape to add ‘wow’ factor to yard
Are you wanting to add “the wow factor” to your front yard? Is your house missing something? Could be your landscaping is lacking. We have bought many homes through our married years. Never have we bought one that had anything attractive growing near it. That leaves nothing to inspire me, just flat land. Once, when looking, we saw one with an old rock garden I wanted, but the house had a wavy floor. We had a house with a stacked stone retainin...
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A rush to judge
By Colleen Surridge Sun staff columnist The Internet is busy again with e-mail forwards on illegal aliens, and while snopes.com says the e-mail is fact, it actually is filled with half-truths. The e-mail contains pictures of a protest at the Arizona state Capitol, where illegal aliens have spray painted words on an American flag and Arizona state flag and were walking on them. They were aghast that law enforcement took no action to stop this a...
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Erie places 2nd in first tourney
The Erie and Oswego high school golf teams traveled to Caney for the Caney Invitational Monday to begin the 2011 golf season. Erie placed second overall as a team with a 379 while Oswego came in fourth with a 407. Caney placed first overall to win the first meet of the season with a 363 and Fredonia rounded out the top three with a 386 as a team. Individually, Hunter Mildfelt of Erie shot 46-40 — 86 to win the tournament by one stroke. His ...
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Junior Grizzlies begin year in Parsons
The Altamont Junior Grizzlies traveled to Parsons on Sunday to compete in the Parsons Invitational Wrestling Tournament. Fourteen Grizzlies took the mat for the first time this year and had an impressive showing. Rogan Bruce and Rhett Griggs finished undefeated for the day and finished in first place in their weight divisions. Tucker Humble, Donavhon Brady, Andon Searles, Chandler Kohler, Wyatt Griggs, Joseph Robertson, A.J. Kohler, Evan B...
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Oswego modifies attendance policy
By Colleen Surridge Parsons Sun OSWEGO — The Oswego USD 504 Board of Education Monday made changes to its student attendance policy. Superintendent Terry Karlin said the changes eliminated automatic exempt days that were formerly allowed, providing students instead only nine days of absenteeism per semester. Prior to the change, students were allowed to be exempt three days for illness. Even if not ill, students would take advantage of thr...
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Guest Viewpoint: Kindalls leave long legacy in Parsons
By Carol Ponce Shankel Guest Columnist To Mr. and Mrs. Kindall: Congratulations on your retirement. The Parsons school system is losing two tremendous assets. I know I am not alone as I reminisce on the caring and quality teachers you were. I share these stories out of shear appreciation for having known you and been taught by you. Mr. Kindall Mr. Kindall was my homeroom teacher/adviser when I was a seventh- and eighth-grader at the then ...
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Fertilize spring flowering bulbs
By Keith Martin Labette County Extension Agent The best time to fertilize spring-flowering bulbs is when foliage emerges in the spring rather than at flowering. Traditionally, gardeners have applied fertilizer during bloom or a bit after, but because bulb roots start to die at flowering, fertilizer applied at bloom is wasted. Roots are active when the foliage first pokes through the ground. Nutrients applied then help the plant produce flo...
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Walk Kansas needs you, your team
By Kylie Ludwig Family and Consumer Sciences Extension Agent More than half of the people living in Kansas do not reach the minimum weekly goal for physical activity. Only 19 percent of Kansans eat enough fruits and vegetables each day, and chronic disease is responsible for more than 70 percent of health care expenditures in our state. Many chronic conditions can be prevented and controlled by healthy lifestyle behaviors. Walk Kansas teams...
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Consolidation
The Wichita Eagle The Kansas Legislature needs all the help it can get to close a $400 million-plus budget hole, so interest is high in a new audit report finding the state could save an annual $15 million or $129 million by consolidating some of its 293 school districts. The Legislative Division of Post Audit report, presented last week to a joint House-Senate committee, outlined two scenarios: If the state tried to consolidate districts wi...
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Our View
The Labette County Chapter of the American Red Cross, an organization dedicated to helping us in our time of need, needs your help. It needs the community’s help. The chapter, with a budget of less than $60,000 a year, has overspent this allotment over the last four years by providing its many services to families in our county, to firefighters and other emergency workers, and in instructing various life-saving classes and first aid. The cha...
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Support Red Cross
The Labette County Chapter of the American Red Cross will be looking for efficiencies in its operations in the coming weeks. While there is no immediate threat, nationwide most non-profit agencies are suffering because of the recession, as families have less money to give to local causes because of lay offs or pay cuts. A public meeting is set for 5:30 p.m. Jan. 7 at the Red Cross office, 1921 Crawford, to look at current and future operation...
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100 years
This year marks an important anniversary for a national civil rights organization, although no local celebration has honored it yet. At least this newspaper has not been told of one. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was formed during a time of racial tension. A document written by an abolitionist editor that called for a meeting on the plight of blacks released on Abraham Lincoln’s birthday, Feb. 12, 1909, led to...
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Returning to sports after illness
Two questions I hear from athletes and coaches are “when should I return to practice/competition after suffering from illness?” and “what can we do to prevent becoming ill?” The main variables associated with the decision-making process of when athletes return are strength and conditioning level (which depends on the amount of time lost due to illness) and whether or not they will infect other members of the team. I don’t want to harp on a ...
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Last tomatoes of the season
Our cooler temperatures are hinting that our first frost may be soon to come. Tomatoes should be harvested prior to a killing frost. Tomatoes will ripen off the vine but must have reached a certain phase of maturity called the mature green stage. These tomatoes are mature enough to harvest though not yet red. Look for full-sized tomatoes with a white, star-shaped zone at the bottom end of the fruit. When harvesting fruit before a frost, separ...
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More bad news
Kansas’ financial picture got more bad news on Friday, especially for the state’s schools. Declining property values and an influx of new students in the school systems are proving to be a one-two punch that may hammer a $70 million hole in the state’s delicate budget. Dale Dennis, who is the state’s deputy education commissioner, is wisely concerned. Kansas may not be able to meet its legal obligations for providing aid to its 293 school di...
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Wrong is wrong
Labette Community College President George Knox underwent some uncomfortable scrutiny in recent weeks because of a college trustee’s questions. The accusations of misuse of funds leveled by college Trustee Mike Howerter proved off the mark, and he has received criticism for speaking out and the Sun has taken some heat from his fellow trustees for its role in reporting on the issue. It seems the core issue was lost in all the venom. Knox and ...
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