Hank Staples, at 94 years old, is a World War II Veteran.

After World War II broke out, Hank, along with his kid brother and a neighbor boy, went down February 4, 1942 to join the Navy.

Hank’s kid brother asked for flying duties in Naval planes during basic training. The brother was declared Missing in Action in later years and Hank never saw him again. Hank had an older brother who was in the Army. Luckily, that brother came home after serving during the war.

They did basic training at Great Lakes Naval Base. During basic training, volunteers were requested for submarine duty. Hank had stated there were two things he would never do while in the Navy: get tatooed and get in a submarine. He learned he should never say “never” because he ended up doing both. He volunteered for submarine duty after all. Read More →

The Hugoton High School Class of 2016 graduated Saturday, May 14 in Hugoton. Music was provided by the high school band, directed by Ms. Amy Freeman. The senior class choir representatives provided music with Director Trevor Waechter and pianist Carly Martin. Six students were selected as Valedictorians. They included Austin Nordyke, Parker Titus, Sarah Johnson, Carly Hittle, Zack Littell and Mark Persinger. Two students, Sarah Johnson and Austin Nordyke, were selected to give the valedictory remarks.

Mrs. Chelle Leininger was in charge of awards and honors recognition. HHS Principal mr. Jon Girodat presented the Class and USD 210 Board of Education President Mr. Don Beesley, assisted by school board members, accepted the class and awarded the diplomas. Abagail Crawford offered the invocation and Carly Martin gave the benediction.

Scholarships totaling more than $90,000 were awarded to students. Read More →

Mother’s Day was Sunday, May 8, and for a select few, the day was made even more special Monday morning, when the winners of the 2016 Super Mom contest were drawn. Wendy Coats won the big prize, being named Super Mom 2016 after her name was drawn at Creative Specialties. She won a $25 gift certificate from Creative Specialties and 50 Chamber Dollars. This lucky lady also won the priceless gift of pampering herself with a $25 Tan’alon gift certificate! Wendy is married to Pastor Ben Coats and the two have two little girls, Madison and Ashley. Read More →

The Stevens County Board of County Commissioners met in regular session Monday, May 2, 2016 with Commissioners Pat Hall, Dave Bozone and Joe D. Thompson all present. Also present were County Counselor Paul Kitzke, County Clerk Pam Bensel, RoGlenda Coulter from The Hugoton Hermes and District Two Commissioner Candidate Don Beesley.
The following is just an agenda for the morning with a few of the unofficial highlights. The agenda included Bills at 8:30; Rodney Kelling at 8:45; Sherry Martin at 9:00; Dorothy Hagman, Mike Willis and others at 9:15 with Paula Rowden; Tony Martin at 9:30; Eunice Schroeder at 10:00; Susan Schulte at 10:15; Chris Lund at 10:30; SDSI & RCDC budgets at 11:00; Alfredo Don Juan at 11:30; and lunch at 12:00. Read More →

The Stevens County 4-H Council hosted their annual Businessmen’s Appreciation Dinner Sunday, April 24, 2016. The entertainment was presented by 4-H members who received Blue Ribbons at County Club Day for music and talent presentations. Read More →

Sheriff Ted Heaton reports that in the late afternoon of Wednesday, April 13 a report came in of a hand-grenade that had been found in the City of Moscow at Michelle Daniels’ home. Michelle had found the grenade in an old fence line while she was mowing. Not knowing, she picked it up and moved it up closer to her house. Sheriff Heaton arrived at the scene. He, being worried about it being so close to the house, moved it again a safer distance away.

After the other Stevens County Deputies arrived, Deputy Lines moved it even further away where it was marked. The Kansas Highway Patrol Bomb Squad was notified. They arrived and took possession of the grenade. The bomb squad then took the grenade to the gun range where it was properly disposed of.

The public should be aware if coming across something like this in the future, stay away, don’t touch it and notify the Stevens County Sheriff Department immediately.

Sheriff Heaton stresses, “Be sure to give this kind of situation a lot of room. Do not make any attempt to move it, just stay away.”

Multiple wildfires have been reported across Kansas last week, as weather continues to challenge suppression efforts. The current wildfires in Kansas are separate incidents from the recent Anderson Creek wildfire in south-central Kansas. Read More →

It may be called April Fools’ Day, but there was no fooling around for Rolla Friday, April 1. Rolla’s State science fair participants loaded up four suburbans and headed east to El Dorado to participate in the State Science Fair.

After a whirlwind trip to the Museum of World Treasures in Wichita, the group arrived at Butler County Community College and proceeded to begin setting up their displays. Judging began at 5:30 p.m. Rolla has some of the best science teachers around and the awards won by the students at the State competition showed just that.

The big winners of the weekend were Deserae Schwindt and Paige Claassen. They were chosen as the Overall Science Fair winners and they are invited to attend the International Science Fair in Phoenix, Az., May 8 to 13, with all expenses paid! Read More →

Working in close cooperation, civilian firefighters and Kansas National Guard air crews made significant progress in battling south central Kansas wildfires over the past few days. Four Stevens County volunteers contributed their efforts to fight the fire. Rodney Kelling of Hugoton and Greg Sohm of Rolla were deployed as members of the state incident management team, while Bailey Esarey and Mike Milhon were deployed as firefighters. Rodney served five days, Greg volunteered for four, and both Bailey and Mike fought the fire for two days. Saturday, four UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters piloted and crewed by Soldiers with 1st Battalion, 108th Aviation Regiment of the Kansas National Guard arrived to assist in fighting the fires. Read More →

Easter Sunday falls on March 27 this year, and it is quickly approaching! Several churches in the area will be hosting special services for the holiday.

Hugoton’s Agape Church, at 409 E. Ninth, will be having their regular services and invites everyone to come worship at 10:30 a.m. Sunday morning. The
Assembly of God will be hosting “Unstoppable” at a special service Saturday evening at 6:00 p.m. at 138 S. Main. If you can’t make it then, make sure to attend Sunday morning at 10:45 a.m. Afterward, there will be an Easter egg hunt for the kids. You can bring your favorite Easter basket or a bag will be provided.

Bethel Friends Church will have their annual Sunrise Service at the old Bethel site at 7:30 a.m. Sunday. There will be a breakfast afterward at the church building at Eleventh and Jefferson at 8:30 a.m. in lieu of Sunday school. They will then have regular services at 10:30 a.m. Sunday morning. The First Church of God announced they will have an Easter egg hunt for the kids at 3:00 p.m. Saturday, March 26 at their building at 801 West City Limits. Read More →