Foundation has grown quickly

Written by Joel Klaassen Tuesday, 14 February 2012 16:03

The Hills­­boro Com­munity Foundation has probably already exceeded expectations for many people, including its founders.

Think about all of the money in the form of grants from the foundation’s investments that has helped area groups and organizations fund their mission and operations. This is the fifth year grants have been awarded with a total exceeding $40,000.

Now HCF has a new website that tells the story. It can be found by going to hillsborofreepress.com and clicking on the HCF tile at the top of the home page. Or you can go to hcfoundationks.com.

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One of the great things about living in a small rural community is our natural instinct to trust people—almost to a fault. We’d like to be able to trust everyone, but...

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We’re part of several associations

Written by Joel Klaassen Tuesday, 07 February 2012 18:31

The Free Press, under the umbrella of Kansas Pub­lishing Ventures, LLC, belongs to several newspaper and trade associations (state, regional and national) that probably not many of our readers know about. You may have seen some classified network ads on our classified page, but possibly didn’t know why they are printed there. Before I explain the ads I will tell you briefly to which associations we belong.

Our memberships include the Kansas Press Association, Midwest Free Community Papers, Independent Free Papers of America and Association of Free Community Papers. The Buyer’s Edge of South Central Kansas belongs to IFPA and the Free Press belongs to the other three groups.

Belonging to these associations keeps us abreast of what...

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Try a recipe for the best soup ever

Written by Joel Klaassen Tuesday, 31 January 2012 14:56

I’m not sure if I should be admitting my addictions in the newspaper, but here goes.

If you have ever had sauerkraut soup, then you might understand why I’m addicted to it. Lately I can’t get enough of it.

I know some people are repulsed by sauerkraut, and as a kid I was too. But now I crave the stuff. If I’m not exactly sure what to order in a new restaurant, I just make it a Reuben sandwich for the sauerkraut.

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It would be almost unkind to not include the recipe, now that I’ve mentioned the sauerkraut soup. I need to give credit to Linda Mathis for this version.

Ingredients:

1 lb. smoked sausage

6 tsp onion, chopped

1/4 cup flour

1/2 tsp thyme

1/2 tsp black pepper

3 cups milk

1 cup half and half

8 oz. cubed...

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Still asking what used to be ‘there’

Written by Joel Klaassen Tuesday, 24 January 2012 15:16

More and more I am think­ing we need to gather many of the long-time Hillsboro residents in a room and then pick their brains about what used to be “there.”

Recently, I was thinking about the building that sits just north of ours and was trying to remember what was in it before the carpet business.

By looking in old phone books I determined it had been Cather Floor Cover­ing prior to being Hillsboro Carpet Center. I thought it was a Western Auto store at one time.

Then I saw Ray Franz downtown and figured he would know since he had a business across the street in those days.

He confirmed it once was a Western Auto store owned by Jake Loewen and later by Zeke Plenert. Before that it was a bowling alley run by Harvey Schultz...

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