Stories from Wednesday, June 3, 2009

USA Track & Field/Missouri Valley Association has announced that its annual Junior Olympic Championship will be held June 12-13, at Shawnee Mission South High School in Overland Park. The competition is open to all USATF members, boys and girls, age 7-18 years of age. The top six finishers in each event will qualify for USATF Region 9 Junior Olympic Track & Field Championships to be held July 9-12, at Wichita State University, in Wichita...

The Girard American Legion baseball team will be sponsoring a youth baseball tournament July 17-19 at Red Wutke Park in Girard. There will be separate divisions for second grade and under, third grade, fourth grade, fifth grade and sixth grade. The second-grade-and-under division will use a pitching machine...

Six members of Fort Scott High School's softball team were named to the All-Southeast Kansas League team, which was released earlier this week after Iola concluded its run in the Class 4A State Tournament. In baseball, only one member of Fort Scott's team received honors as junior Mikey Karleskint was named to the First Team...

Austin Bailey of Boy Scouts of America Troop 114 is in the final stages of his Eagle Scout Project. Bailey's project was to promote the use of In Case of Emergency contacts in cell phones. He said the contacts would be used by emergency personnel to gather personal and medical information of persons involved in an accident in a more efficient manner...

After reading the biography of George Washington Carver, students from Fort Scott Christian Heights had an opportunity to visit the George Washington Carver National Monument. On May 15, a group of FSCH students traveled to Diamond, Mo. as a conclusion to their studies about Carver. According to FSCH teacher Maria Bahr, while on the field trip, the students enjoyed making peanut milk in the new expanded site, which now has a discovery area and science lab...

On Thursday, June 4, the Kansas Department of Transportation expects to start a repair and resurfacing project at a bridge on Kansas Highway 39 in Bourbon County. The bridge is approximately two miles east of the south Kansas Highway 3 junction. Signals will guide one-lane traffic through the work zone. Motorists should expect delays of 15 minutes or less at the bridge site...

A Fort Scott man was injured in a motorcycle accident Friday evening on U.S. Highway 69. Andrew W. Miles, 324 E. Huntington St., was hurt Friday when he lost control of the blue 2004 Suzuki motorcycle he was driving northbound on U.S. 69 near Shepherd Team Auto Plaza, wrecking the bike. Fort Scott Police Department officers and other emergency personnel responded to the accident shortly before 10 p.m. Friday...

The Good Neighbor Action Team is getting some help from a local church in its effort to renovate and repair 40 local houses later this month. GNAT co-convenor Treva Williams, a representative of the First Presbyterian Church, said that between June 1-12, the church will match any donations the group receives, up to $7,000, as it continues to raise money for several home improvement projects that volunteers will complete June 25-30...

The Kansas State Firefighters Association has been awarded a grant from the United States Department of Homeland Security in the amount of $518,400, according to a press release form the KSFFA. The money will be used over a four-year period to recruit and retain volunteer firefighters in Kansas, the press release said...

Editor's note -- The original version of this story was published in the print edition of the Tribune with an incorrect headline that inferred that only Christian Heights students were involved in the fundraising. The Tribune regrets the error.

A wide variety of entertainment options for people of all ages will be available during the four-day Good Ol' Days festival this weekend. Good Ol' Days events kick off with the 4th Annual Fort Scott Idol singing contest at 6 p.m. Thursday at Memorial Hall, 1 E. Third St. Admission to this event is $3 and children 5 years of age and younger will be admitted free of charge. Contestants will compete in three age divisions: 4-10, 11-17, and 18 and older...