Stories from Saturday, March 16, 2013

Dyane Smokorowski, the 2013 Kansas Teacher of the Year, dropped by the Lowell Milken Center to visit the facility for the first time Friday morning as part of her continuing statewide tour. Smokorowski - known to her students as Mrs. Smoke - is an eighth-grade advanced language arts teacher at Andover Middle School. Last November, she was named 2013 Kansas Teacher of the Year by the Kansas State Department of Education...

Early last May, Drywood Township officials thought they had put a long-running feud to bed after appointing newly elected Garland Rural Fire Department Chief Dennis Krom to run the department. Wrong. Krom was recently told to resign his post, once again leaving the township and the department at odds. ...

Bourbon County commissioners met with county department heads during their regular Friday meeting to make final preparations for next Thursday's Southeast Kansas District Meeting, which will be at Fort Scott Community College. Registration for the event so far involves 204 people from 17 counties. The total includes about 100 Bourbon County employees who will attend the lunch and opening program, which will be Norm Conard and Megan Felt from the Lowell Milken Center...

During Spring Break next week, FSPD officers will conduct another similar training session in certain district schools that is designed to help prepare them for possible future large-scale emergencies. The Active Shooter and School Familiarization training will focus on intruder drills, Active Shooter drills, and school familiarization drills, according to FSPD School Resource Officer Toby Nighswonger. ...

The company that received the Fort Scott Area Chamber of Commerce Business of the Year award is one that took put money in the pockets of 20 Bourbon County area workers. When Carlisle Transportation Products shut down it's China plant last year, that opened the door for new jobs in Fort Scott beginning in September...

Carol Hood Minden, 82, of Paola, formerly of Fort Scott, died March 15 at Olathe Medical Center. Services are pending through Penwell Gable Mortuary of Paola.

Donald Paul McDermed, age 78, resident of Fort Scott, Kan., died Thursday evening, March 14, 2013, at Mercy Hospital Joplin, Mo. He was born Oct. 16, 1934, in Girard, Kan., the son of Virgil McDermed and Letha Oldham McDermed. Paul graduated from the Girard High School. ...

Billie Juanita Huff Carter, 82, formerly of Fort Scott, died Thursday evening, March 14, 2013, at the Carthage Health and Rehab Center in Carthage, Mo. She was born Aug. 6, 1930 in Augusta, Kan., the daughter of William Calvin and Mary Elizabeth (Bailey) Oakes. She married Harry Frank Huff on Dec. 24, 1952 in Bentonville, Ark. He preceded her in death on Jan. 10, 1971...

Peggy Jo Sutterby McNally, 72, of Windham, Conn., beloved wife of Thomas J.McNally Jr., passed away on Jan. 21, 2013 at Douglas Manor Nursing Home. She was born in Iola, Kan. on May 18, 1940, the daughter of the late Walter and Faye Sutterby. She grew up on a farm in Mapleton, graduated from Blue Mound High School, was a member of the Mapleton Methodist Church and was employed by Key Work Clothes , Braymore Coat Factory and the Town of Windham...

The last piece of the puzzle for Fort Scott Community College's softball team is pitching. Greyhound first-year head coach Kristin Schalk is happy with the way her team's offense has started to come around, batting well over .300 as a team. She's pleased with the way her defense makes every effort to make plays...