The Kansas Adjutant General’s Department on Friday released the names of the communities where 18 of its 56 National Guard armories will close in early 2010 due to state budget cuts.

Cherryvale is among the 18 towns that will lose their armory. Other Kansas communities to see the closure of their armories are Atchison, Burlington, Chanute, Council Grove, Fort Scott, Garden City, Garnett, Goodland, Horton, Kingman, Larned, Phillipsburg, Russell, Sabetha, *Salina East, Troy and Winfield. (*Salina East building will remain open for Guard use, but armory operations will be transferred).
Read more

The results of the Dec. 1 special election to condor a one-half cent sales tax increase in Coffeyville were much closer than previously calculated.
Read more

INDEPENDENCE — Independence Community College trustees on Monday promoted ICC linebacker coach Steve Carson to the role of head coach.
Read more

The first leg of a journey that will take area National Guard soldiers to Afghanistan began in earnest Saturday when troops from Detachment 2 of the 226th Engineering Company in Cherryvale departed for pre-mobilization training.
Read more

BY ANDY TAYLOR
chronicle@taylornews.org

INDEPENDENCE — Sixty-five years this week, a crowded airport hangar in Independence offered a much-needed yet brief respite from the news of war.

As the United States and Japan were trading fatal blows in the Pacific and Allied troops were hunkered in snow-covered foxholes in Europe, Bob Hope was in Independence, bringing his blend of comedic relief, blond bombshells and patriotic feel-good to the cadets of the Independence Army Air Field.

Read more

In its final month of the 2009 season, the Caney Valley High School’s debate program is walking around with a big target on its back.

That’s because everyone in eastern Kansas is gunning against the CVHS speakers, who have posted the most successful season in school history.
Read more

Caney Valley High School’s FFA Chapter won high honors at a speech competition hosted by the chapter on Monday, Nov. 30.
Read more

BY ANDY TAYLOR
chronicle@taylornews.org

Kansas Army National Guard troops from the Montgomery County area will be keeping close tabs on the future of two National Guard armories as Adjutant General Tod Bunting considers closure of one third of all armories in the state.

Bunting issued a statement last week indicating the proposal to close 18 of the 56 National Guard armories in Kansas and to consolidate its operations into 38 existing armory facilities.
Read more