BY ANDY TAYLOR
Montgomery County Chronicle

CANEY — City councilors Monday night agreed to put time, attention, and some taxpayer money into improving city parks this spring.

It’ll mean new picnic tables and benches, some new playground features, and repairs to a skateboard park — complementing the recently completed electrical upgrades at Wark Memorial Park.

Councilors agreed with a recommendation from city administration Don Whitman to apply for a state grant, administered through the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, to purchase eight benches and eight picnic tables made out of recycled tires. The total cost of the new benches and tables will be $5,424 with the grant paying 50 percent — or about $2,712 — while the remainder is paid through the citys’ park and recreation fund.

Whitman said several tables and benches will be placed at the Caney Swimming Pool.

The parks and recreation fund — which has a current balance of about $42,000 — will be tapped into to pay for new playground equipment. Under consideration by the council was the purchase of playground equipment geared toward smaller children. A Town Mushroom Kottage, geared for children age 9 months to 2 years); a Tea Cup Merry Go Round, for ages 5-12; and a Discovery Center, for ages 2-5, will be purchased at a total cost of $10,236. Mayor Dale McBride said he was hopeful to have the new playground equipment erected in time for the Mayfest celebration in late May.

Councilor Joe Taylor, whose ward includes North Park on North Wood Street, reminded Whitman, McBride and the rest of the council to pay attention to the needs of North Park.

“There are a lot more people who use North Park than what there used to be,” said Taylor. “Things are looking better there. So, let’s not forget about North Park.”

On a related note, councilor Jason Moore said several pieces of equipment at the skateboard park, located at Ridgeway and Fifth streets, were in need of repair or replacement.

Whitman said that because the skateboard park has been in operation for about three years, it would be a good time to consider replacing some of the broken or bent ramps and rails at the skateboard park. A special fund established solely for the creation of that skateboard park still has about $1,470 remaining in it, councilors were told.

“The whole thing looks pretty trashy,” said Moore of the skateboard park. “One of the ramps looks bent. There appears to be a homemade wooden ramp there, and some of the equipment has been removed and placed in the grass. I am still in favor of anchoring all the stuff down to the cement pad.”

Whitman said city crews would look at the condition of the skateboard park in the coming days.

Walt Moore, city superintendent, said city crews also would be in Wark Memorial Park this week to paint and cleanup the restroom facilities and provide other maintenance at the park.

He also noted that the electrical system upgrade at Wark Memorial Park was nearing completion.

A Caney Valley High School senior forensics team member is heading to a national tournament in June.

Casey McCammon, CVHS senior, qualified for the National Forensics League’s National Congress tournament, which will be held in Birmingham, Ala., in June.

McCammon earned the national tournament berth after placing first at an NFL District Congress tournament in Coffeyville last Saturday.

McCammon won first place in the Senate division and is the first national tournament qualifier from Caney Valley for the 2008-09 season.
Although not able to qualify for the national tournament, one other CVHS forensics member did earn a medal at the district competition. Quint Lockwood won third place as a presiding officer in Consolation House. Only the top two finishers in each contest will qualify for the national tournament.

Amber Benning, Jessica Wells and C.J. Brown did not earn medals but were able to qualify for the Super Session of their contest, which includes the top half of each chamber’s speakers.

Caney Valley won fourth place overall as a team at the district contest.

NFL district competitions continue on March 27-28 in Parsons with the Lincoln-Douglas and Public Forum debates as well as duo acting competition.
Individual events, such as informative speaking, poetry and extemporaneous speaking, will be tested for national competition at a district contest in Pittsburg on April 10-11.

The 27th Annual Cherry Blossom Festival will be held at Cherryvale’s Logan Park on Saturday, May 9, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. The annual car show will be held from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Arts and craft vendors as well as business vendors are able to register for the festival by visiting the Cherryvale Chamber of Commerce website at www.cherryvaleusa.com/chamber. Outside and a limited number of inside vendor booth spaces are available. All food vendor booth spaces are filled.

Booth registration is $40/$45 for 10×10 spaces. Electric and parking behind the booth will require additional fees. For more information, contact Tina Cunningham at 620-891-0072.

Vendors may set up on Friday, May 8 from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. and on Saturday morning until 8 a.m. All vendors must stay open until 6 p.m. Saturday.

Register for the Custom Car and Motorcycle Show before the show or the day of the event. Entry fees are $15. Send an e-mail inquiry to cherryvalechamber@hotmail.com for more information.

Kids’ carnival and games will be available all day for the kids to enjoy. The cost of games range from $.25 to $3.00.

More information about the Cherryvale Blossom Festival will be printed in upcoming issues of the Montgomery County Chronicle.

WICHITA — The Cherryvale High School chess team finished the 2008-09 season on a winning note, securing second place in class 3A at the Kansas State Chess Championship in Wichita on Saturday.

Cherryvale settled for the state runner-up title after losing to Anthony-Chapparal by one point. Among all other schools of all classifications, Cherryvale finished as the sixth-best team in Kansas.

The Charger chess team participants did not place at the 2008 state tournament but brought home a third-place trophy from the 2007 state tournament.

“This is the highest award we’ve won at the state tournament,” said Roy Kenast, Cherryvale Chess Club coach. “This is a major accomplishment for our program.”

Not only did Cherryvale finish at the state runner-up but chess club senior Curtis Williams, who is the chess team captain, had the fifth-highest score in Kansas among all chess competitors in all classifications.

Williams was paired in the final round against a 1,200-level performer: Hannah Purdy of the Purdy Chess Club. Kenast said Williams took a defensive stance during the round, was down one piece for a majority of the game, but came away with a victory.

“This is an incredible honor,” said Kenast. “We are proud of him, hate to see him go, but are happy that he will be leaving Cherryvale Chess on such a fine note.”

To compete at the state tournament, a high school chess player must win two out of six games, without any byes, at two different tournaments. However, Cherryvale set a higher standard by requiring state qualifiers to have won three out of six games in at least two tournaments.

Eight Charger chess club participants competed at the state tournament. They included DeAndrea Marchant, Emilio Cariman, Katie Allison, Curtis Williams, Kenny Coatney, Ashley Eddy, Andia Coats and Kevin Barron.

There were 150 participants and 28 high schools in the high school K-12 division at the state tournament. A team’s score is created by its top four players of the day. Cherryvale’s final score of 14 points was brought home by Curtis Williams, who won five out of six games, and Ashley Eddy, DeAndrea Marchant, and Emilio Cariman, who each won three out of six games.

BY ANDY TAYLOR
Montgomery County Chronicle

PEORIA, Ariz. – A former member of the Phillips Oilers basketball team who was credited with making the Converse shoe into a household name has died.

Grady Lewis, 92, of Peoria, Ariz., died Wednesday, March 11, 2009, at his home. Lewis was a frequent visitor to Caney, where his wife, the former Maxine Steele, was raised.

A memorial service was held Tuesday, March 17, in Sun City, Ariz., and burial will be held at a later date at Caney’s Sunnyside Cemetery.

Born in Boyd, Texas, in 1917, Lewis was a standout basketball player at the University of Oklahoma, where his 6-foot-7 frame caught the attention of the Phillips 66 Oilers basketball team based in Bartlesville. The Phillips 66 team was a member of the Amateur Athletic Union in those days, where many top-notch college players landed rather than take the road to the then-low-paying National Basketball Association. Lewis was the AAU Rookie of the Year in 1937, a three-time AAU All-Star and a two-time AAU All-American.

Lewis played four seasons with the Oilers before taking the jump to the professional Basketball Association of America as a member of the Detroit Falcons, St. Louis Bombers, and Baltimore Bullets. He averaged 5.4 points per game in his career and won a league championship with Baltimore in 1948.

Lewis coached the St. Louis Bombers during the 1948-49 and 1949-50 seasons.

The Basketball Association of America became the National Basketball Association during his two years at the coaching helm in St. Louis. During his two-year stint as the Bombers’ coach, Lewis faced some of the early-day teams of the professional ranks, including the Chicago Stags, the Rochester Royals, the Fort Wayne Pistons, and the Indianapolis Jets.

It was in the post-war years when a no-name shoe company called Converse was trying its best to get its brand into high school and college gymnasiums across the nation. The Chuck Taylor Converse All-Star shoe eventually gained acclaim, and the “Chuck high top” was a staple shoe on basketball courts.

Converse hired Lewis to be a member of its national sales team, where Lewis developed a lower-cut, or Oxford-style, basketball sneaker that gained a foothold in the professional ranks. Lewis was instrumental in getting the Harlem Globetrotters to test the low-cut Converse sneaker. And, by the 1960s, many professional players preferred the lower-cut Converse style to the Chuck Taylor high-top that the shoe company produced by the millions during the 1950s.

“We developed oxfords by working with and having the Harlem Globetrotters test them for us,” Lewis said in an interview in the 1990s. “We actually took ‘high cuts’ and cut the tops off until we developed a pattern that would not be kicked off under game conditions.”

Not only did Lewis market the lower-cut basketball shoe but he also became senior vice president for Converse. During his senior management days, Lewis developed the company’s extensive program of clinics and films for high school players and coaches.

He was nominated several times for the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass., as a contributor to the sport.

In 1977, Lewis was giventhe Clifford Wells Appreciation Award by the National Association of Basketball Coaches for his contributions to basketball.

He also was a member of the NAIA National Hall of Fame, to which he was inducted in 1975. Lewis played at Southwestern Oklahoma College, an NAIA school, before being recruited to the University of Oklahoma.

Lewis is survived by his wife of the home; a son, Rodney Lewis, of Peoria, Ariz.; a daughter, Ginger Olsen, Chino Valley, Ariz.; three grandchildren; and seven great-grandchildren.

BY ANDY TAYLOR
Montgomery County Chronicle

HUTCHINSON — Following the Cherryvale Lady Chargers’ 58-38 loss to Rock Creek in the consolation game of the class 3A state tournament on Saturday, a somber tone in the Cherryvale lockerroom turned upbeat when the team recollected their achievements in the past two years.

Tears were turned into grins.

Broken hearts were mended and made warm once again.

And, Cherryvale players and coaches were able to lift their chins, even though their state championship hopes were stung for the second year in a row at the state tournament.

“When you go into the state tournament, you realize that you are playing the top kids in the state,” said Rodney Vigil, Cherryvale head coach. “And, for the past two seasons, we’ve finished in fourth place among all of the class 3A programs in Kansas. For our seniors, they can walk away knowing that their junior and senior seasons ended on the final day of competition at the state tournament in Hutch. That, in itself, is an impressive accomplishment.”

Cherryvale concluded its second consecutive appearance at the state tournament with a fourth-place finish. The Lady Chargers were able to win their first contest of the tournament — a 56-37 triumph over Jayhawk-Linn last Wednesday — before getting dumped by eventual state champion (and tournament top seed) Southwestern Heights, 65-52, on Friday evening.

Fouls harmed the Lady Chargers in that semi-final battle. It took a toll on Cherryvale’s Kelsey Overacker, who was whistled with three fouls in the game’s first four minutes. She picked up her fourth final prior to the halftime horn while several other Lady Chargers were saddled with foul trouble going into the second half.

However, Cherryvale’s halftime deficit was reduced to eight points in the third period before Southwestern Heights took charge for the remainder of the second half and put victory out of reach from the Lady Chargers’ hands.

That loss in the semi-final round sent Cherryvale in Saturday’s consolation game against Rock Creek, the second seed in the state tournament. The Mustangs proved their worth in the game by hitting 51 percent of their shots from the field, 50 percent of the three pointers, and 60 percent of charity shots.

Meanwhile, Cherryvale stumbled and couldn’t get out of its slump as the Lady Chargers hit only 30 percent of their field goal attempts (16 for 53), 20 percent of the three-point attempts (3 for 15) and 43 percent of the free throws (3 for 7).

In the end, Cheryvale wasn’t able to keep up with the hot-shooting Mustangs or wage a comeback against the highly-touted Southwestern Heights team.

“As a coach, you are constantly evaluating the season, you evaluate what it takes to get to the state tournament, and you evaluate those things that you experience in those defeats,” said Vigil. “Overall, I thought we played well in the state tournament. What most people don’t realize is that at the state tournament, the sheer physical size, speed and mechanics of the state’s best teams are considerable. We played teams that had ungodly amount of size, speed, solid guards, and physical players. But to finish in fourth place among the state’s best . . . that says a lot about our team.”

The tournament was the finale for a solid corps of seniors: Kelsey Overacker, Alex Hugo, Sara Schwaninger, Megan Stewart and Abby Ezard. The five players have been together ever since they bought in to Vigil’s program as freshman rookies.

“They have been with the program since their freshmen seasons and have made basketball a 12-month sport,” he said. “They made this program better and gave our underclassmen a standard to reach. Even though I know the seniors thought they could have done better at state, they have a lot of reasons to be proud.”

Cherryvale finishes the 2008-09 season with a 19-7 record.

Cherryvale 56, Jayhawk-Linn 37

Cherryvale jumped to a 20-5 lead in the first period and took advantages of Jayhawk-Linn’s turnovers in last Wednesday’s 56-37 victory. Cherryvale converted 30 of Jayhawk-Linn’s season-high 35 turnovers into points.

Sara Schwaninger had a double-double with 21 points and 11 rebounds. Kelsey Overacker scored 10 points in the game.

CHERRYVALE (56): Schwaninger 9 3-6 21, Overacker 3 (1) 1-3 10, Hugo 1 (2) 0-0 8, Reilly 3 1-4 7, Ezard 1 (1) 0-2 5, Stewart 2 0-0 4, Hougardy 0 1-2 1. Totals: 19 (4) 6-17 56.

JAYHAWK-LINN (37): Rockers 7 7-9 21, Long 2 (1) 0-0 7, Beckman 1 2-4 4, Miller 1 1-2 3, Krull 0 2-2 2. Totals: 11 (1) 12-19 37.

SW Heights 65, Cherryvale 52

Cherryvale saw a 34-23 halftime deficit grow to 15 points in the third period before paring the gap to eight points. However, Southwestern Heights flexed its muscle in the second half by going on a 31-29 scoring run that left Cherryvale scrambling and contending with numerous fouls.

In the end, Southwestern Heights had a 65-52 scoring advantage.

Double-digit scorers included Kelsey Overacker with 15 points and Sara Schwaninger with 13 points.

CHERRYVALE (52): Ezard 0 (1) 2-2 5, Clopp 1 (1) 0-1 5, Overacker 3 (1) 6-6 15, Stewart 2 2-2 6, Schwaniger 5 3-6 13, Reilly 1 5-6 7, Hugo 0 -2 1. Totals 15 19-25 52.

SOUTHWESTERN HEIGHTS (65): Jacobs 7 0-2 14, Garinger 3 3-6 9, Olivera 1 10-11 12, He.Brown 2 (2) 0-0 10, Ho. Brown 2-10 6-9 10, Eakes 3 1-3 7, Butler 0 (1) 0-3 3. Totals 21-59 20-34 65.

Rock Creek 58, Cherryvale 38

Cherryvale trailed 21-6 after the first period and never could get on track in a 58-38 defeat to Rock Creek.

Sarah Schwaninger concluded her three-game appearance at the state tournament by being the Lady Chargers’ lone double-digit scorer with 13 points.

ROCK CREEK (58): T. Ebert 3 4-6 11, Yenzer 2 5-8 10, Blackwood 1 0-0 2, Zoeller 1 2-6 4, Elliott 3 10-12 16, Lightfoot 2 1-4 5, M. Ebert 2 1-2 5, Garetson 0 1-2 1, Herrs 2 0-0 4. Totals 16 24-40 58.

CHERRYVALE (38): Ezard 1 0-0 2, Hugo 3 (1) 0-0 11, Clopp 1 0-0 2, Overacker 3 0-0 6, Stewart 2 0-1 4, Schwaninger 5 3-6 13. Totals 16-53 3-7 38.

Caney Valley and Cherryvale high school basketball players were among the Tri-Valley League cagers named to the league’s first team and honorable mention lists for the 2008-09 season.

On the women’s all-league first team, Caney Valley senior guard Morgan Rolls was picked for the list as were Cherryvale seniors Kelsey Overacker and Sara Schwaninger.

On the women’s honorable mention list, Caney Valley had one player: Kati Hiner. Cherryvale had no players chosen as honorable mentions.

On the men’s first-team list, junior Gable LaForge was among the league’s top players according to the coaches who made the all-league selections. Cherryvale seniors Brandon Blackburn and Dennon Windsor were chosen as all-league first-team selections.

Chance Baker, a Cherryvale senior, was named as an honorable mention pick. No Caney Valley player was named as an honorable mention player.

All-Tri-Valley League
Women’s First Team:
• Burlington: Allyx Barnhart, Heather Eddings.
• Caney Valley: Morgan Rolls.
• Cherryvale: Kelsey Overacker, Sara Schwaninger.
• Eureka: Taylyn Schwartz.
• Fredonia: Christina Graves, Kaitlyn Rogers.
• Humboldt: Kelci Owens, Lenzie Boring.
• Neodesha: Taylor Giger.

All-Tri-Valley League
Women’s Honorable Mention:
• Burlington: Korinn Card.
• Caney Valley: Kati Hiner.
• Neodesha: Belinda Rohling.
• Yates Center: Taylor Heffern.

All-Tri-Valley League
Men’s First Team:
• Burlington: Ryan Louia, Corey Smith.
• Caney Valley: Gable LaForge.
• Cherryvale: Brandon Blackburn, Dennon Windsor
• Fredonia: Hayes Farwell.
• Humboldt: Tevin Strack.
• Neodesha: Shawn Livingston, Brandon Montgomery.
• Yates Center: Michael Bettega, Brent Matile.

All-Tri-Valley League
Men’s Honorable Mention:
• Burlington: Jeremy Black.
• Cherryvale: Chance Baker.
• Neodesha: Andrew Gutschenritter.
• Yates Center: Jordan Hughes.

CHERRYVALE — The public is invited to a forum for candidates of the USD 447 Board of Education next Thursday, March 26, at the Cherryvale Middle-High School Commons Area. The forum will begin at 7 p.m.

The forum is sponsored by the Cherryvale Middle-High School Site Council and the Montgomery County Chronicle. Andy Taylor, Montgomery County Chronicle editor, will serve as moderator.

All USD 447 Board of Education candidates have been invited to the forum. They include Gina Booe, Bruce Thornton, Tina Cunningham, Richard Basham, Kenny Baker, Michael Blake, Jeff Menzer, Jasmin Forman and Randell Studebaker.

BY ANDY TAYLOR

INDEPENDENCE — A Montgomery County landmark not only is the setting of a new children’s book by Independence author Wilma Andrews but the castle-like home called Belmont also is a trove for intrigue and family history.

Andrews has released her second book, “Dominica’s Castle,” published by Mennonite Press, after her 2007 book, “Tag-A-Long,” hit area bookshelves. “Dominica’s Castle” is more than a children’s tale of a family’s move from the Swiss Alps to the Kansas prairies. It is a biographical account of Andrews’ Swiss-born grandmother who often told stories of the large Belmont Castle that once stood near her childhood village in Switzerland.

Today, another Belmont Castle, located on county road 4500 between Independence and Cherryvale, stands as a monument to that ancient Swiss castle often mentioned by Dominica (Calonder) Tucker to her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

But to know why a Montgomery County home bears the resemblance to an ancient European castle, you have to know the story of Dominica, the main subject in Andrews’ book and also Andrews’ grandmother.

Dominica Calonder was raised near the Swiss village of Trin, where remnants of a 15th century castle called Belmont stood atop the jagged cliffs that overlooked the town. Andrews writes that Dominica often dreamed of living in a castle called Belmont, but those ideas were dashed when the Calonder family made a long voyage to America in the 1880s. The Swiss family found its way to the middle of America to take advantage of job opportunities (Dominica’s father was a stonemason). The family settled in the Independence area, where Dominica, as a teenager, earned a job as a cook at the Montgomery County Poor Farm, which was located southeast of Independence. It was at the poor farm where she met a carpenter, Marrell “Rella” Tucker, whom she married in 1898.

When hard times hit Montgomery County in 1929, the economic downturn could be felt in the Tucker home. They needed to downsize from their large two-story farm house located one mile east of the Verdigris River in Drum Creek Township. They were able to find one of the available homes built as employee housing for the Edgar Zinc Smelting Company in Cherryvale, which, like many of the industries caught in the grips of the Great Depression, was laying off workers due to the economic depression.

A small “smelter home” was acquired and moved from Cherryvale to the Tucker property. And, to better insulate the crudely-built smelter home, the Tuckers decided to erect rock walls (stone was abundant on the Tucker farm) as an insulation barrier.

What better way to design the home’s exterior than to recollect on Dominica’s memories of the ancient castle that cast idealic dreams on her childhood. The rock walls not only were a monument to the mountain castle that intrigued Dominica during her youth but they also served a more practical purpose: to keep the home cool in the summer and warm in the winter.

That’s why the smelter home-turned-Belmont Castle resembles something from a Frommer’s Travel Guide. Gargoyles stand sentry to the castle’s entrance, and large turrets stand on each corner. Even several shiny knights stand in the castle to complement the distinctly European atmosphere.
“This is the castle that my grandmother dreamed of,” said Andrews, a retired school teacher. “That’s the primary theme of this book: to never let go of your dreams. May you never lose your quest and curiosity about your family and your history.”

The home also is decked with the word “BELMONT” clearly spelled atop the stone wall near the front entrance. However, the word is not embedded in stone with shiny ceramic tiles or rare stones. Instead, the Tuckers used beer bottles — green in color and found in a nearby trash heap — to make the word a permanent fixture of the home. The bottoms of the beer bottles carefully spell out each letter. And, within the attic, the bottle neck and mouth protrude through the wall.

“My grandparents were practical people,” said Andrews. “They made use of a lot of materials, even if it meant using old beer bottles found in a trash dump.”

What is not mentioned in the book is the modern-day history of Belmont. Andrews’ nephew, Joe Tucker, and wife, Lara, bought the house in 2002 — after it had been owned by non-family members for about 60 years — and began an expansion project in 2005. The tough part of the project was blending the exterior so that it would appear much like the rock walls that were erected in the early 1930s.

“This was a self-taught process,” said Joe, laughingly. “We had a two hour lesson about laying rock and brick, and then it was up to us to complete it.”

Tucker said he blended the masonry patterns in the same way the stonemasons laid the rock and mortar some 70 years earlier.

“There was nothing simple about it,” he said. “I don’t know how many tons of rock I used, but I know I used about 15,000 pounds of mortar mix just on the exterior walls of the expansion.”

The newly-expanded Belmont home likely would appear much like the castle that Tucker’s great-grandmother would have remembered as a child in Switzerland.

“Seeing what Joe and Lara had to go through to expand this house made me appreciate what my grandparents went through when they moved that smelter house from Cherryvale,” said Andrews. “They probably didn’t have the luxury of power tools or electrical equipment. Everything was done by hand, including hauling huge rocks to form the exterior walls.”

And, what would Dominica have thought if she could have seen the old smelter house become a larger house . . . or a children’s book written in her memory?
s
“I think she would have been impressed,” said Andrews.

• Montgomery County Chronicle editor Andy Taylor is a lifelong resident of Montgomery County and also interested in knowing about the unique people and places of the county. If you have an idea for Taylor’s “This Is My Montgomery County” feature, send an e-mail to him at chronicle@taylornews.org, or call (620) 336-2100 or (620) 879-2156.