After 33 years of tenure at The Citizens State Bank, Fred Schrag, president and chief operating officer, announced his retirement, effective at the end of June. In that time, he has served in a variety of roles, from loan officer and operations manager to his current position as president. “I will always cherish my years of work at The Citizens […]

St. Luke Hospital in Marion was recently named one of the Top 20 Critical Access Hospitals for Quality Index. Quality Index is a rating of performance based on the percentile rank across the five categories of care measures in the country. As of 2018, there are 1,346 CAHs throughout the United States in which St. Luke Hospital is compared. The […]

Norma Nickelson cuts the Chamber of Commerce ribbon marking the opening of Nick’s Canton Hardware & Lumber on Main Street. Husband and business partner Nick Nickelson is to her right. Nick Nickelson and wife Norma have spent most of their years together either operating a lumberyard at various places in Kansas, or traveling coast to coast to help liquidate lumberyards. […]

Kansas Farm Bureau was recently granted a waiver from the Federal Communi­ca­tions Commission to challenge the legitimacy of coverage maps from various major cellular carriers in Kansas. “Coverage maps of Kansas indicate there is virtually full coverage by at least one cell phone carrier in the state,” said Rich Felts, KFB president. “But we know this isn’t the case from […]

Grandma and Grandpa Becker were people of action rather than words. Not that they didn’t have much to say. They just chose their words well and needed only a few to convey much. As their oldest grandson, I visited them during the summer when I was growing up in the late ’50s. I always talked Grandma into letting me sleep […]

Piano students of Beverly Richards performed in a spring recital April 29 at Parkview Mennonite Breth­ren Church. Participating were Gabbie Arnold, Camden and Maleiah Bartel, Dawson Boldt, Joshua and Sarah Diener, Jenna Hinerman and Katie Rempel. Assisting in duets were Maleigh Bartel, Tracy Boldt, Caleb Diener, Sara Rempel and Beverly Richards.

Perhaps conserving energy is important to you. You’ve switched out all of your incandescent light bulbs with LEDs. You keep your thermostat set at 78 in the summer. You might even get mad at your kids when they leave a light on. Your neighbor, on the other hand, isn’t quite as concerned. He keeps the thermostat set consistently at 68 […]

Three Tabor College students were awarded scholarships for their participation in the Dr. Wilmer Harms Anabaptism Contest. Sierra Sanchez, a senior from Thailand, won the first-place prize of $300. Timothy Vinduska, a senior from Lincolnville, and Ricardo Benavides, a junior from Van Nuys, Calif., won $200 and $100 prizes for second and third place, respectively. “Each year these submissions represent […]

Unless something changes in the moisture situation, Barb Downey and husband Joe Carpenter will not burn their grassland in the Flint Hills this season. The ranch couple report no (moisture) run-off event in more than a year on their native grassland in Riley and Wabaunsee counties. Every spring across the vast, open Flint Hills grasslands, fires blaze for miles. The […]

This photo of Jessi Dalke serves as a photographic “self-portrait,” and is an example of her professional skills. “I think it’s just hard advertising myself,” she said. Jessi Dalke, a freshman at Hillsboro High School, started a business in photography after encouragement from family, friends and her teacher, Nathan Hiebert. “I’m not sure if I would have started my own […]