Five members of the 226th Engineer Company that returned to the United States from a one-year tour of duty in Afghanistan were given a surprise last Thursday night: a personal visit by Mrs. Kansas, Samantha Reinecke of Chanute. At a chili supper sponsored by the Cherryvale Chamber of Commerce last Thursday, five Cherryvale soldiers from the 226th Engineer Company met Reinecke, who has made support of veterans a top priority. Pictured with Mrs. Kansas (top photo) were National Guard soldiers (left to right) Jake Rion, Andrew Snider, Dustin Housel, Shane Harris and Aaron Plumley. 

BY ANDY TAYLOR
chronicle@taylornews.org

Cherryvale city voters will be asked in April to renew several sales taxes for continuation of debt payments to sewer improvements and ongoing capital improvement projects in the community.

City councilors concurred Tuesday with a recommendation from city administrator Greg McDanel to put the sales tax questions on the April 5 general election ballot.
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Caney Valley High School’s FFA team earned prestigious honors when it finished in second place in the livestock judging contest at the Arizona National Livestock Show in Phoenix on Dec. 30.

Caney Valley represented Kansas at the national contest by virtue of the local team’s second-place finish in the state livestock judging contest last May. Caney Valley earned the runner-up title with 1,371 team points, trailing a team from Colorado by 37 points.
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Coffeyville Regional Medical Center announces its first baby born in the 2011 calendar year. Tyson Kruz Filtingberger, son of Samantha and David Filtingberger of Sedan, was born at 5:42, p.m., on Jan. 1.  Dr. James Christensen performed the delivery.  With 30 years of infant deliveries, Christensen said he had never delivered a baby on the first day of a calendar year.  Pictured are the Filtingbergers with their son and Dr. James Christensen (center).  (Photo by Coffeyville Regional Medical Center)

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BY ANDY TAYLOR
chronicle@taylornews.org

INDEPENDENCE — Montgomery County commissioners met Monday with several department chiefs and commissioner-elect Leon Rau to discuss the county’s vision of how to use the soon-to-be-vacated Washington School, located north of the Montgomery County Courthouse.

And, what they discovered during their conversations is that they have more questions than answers about how the school property fit in to the county’s overall office space scheme.

Commissioners, along with Independence city officials, will have until the end of January to develop a plan for the USD 446 Board of Education’s consideration as the board considers the future of the school when it becomes vacated later this year. The school, now used for fifth grade students, will be vacated when the new Jefferson School, now under construction, is open.

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(Editor’s note: In honor of Kansas’ sesquicentennial in 2011, the Montgomery County Chronicle will produce vignettes of the people and events of Montgomery County for the past 150 years. This week’s installment will be the first of the series, which will be titled “Kansas: 150 Years of Stories.”)

BY ANDY TAYLOR

CANEY — A.A. Truskett may have seemed as harmless as a puppy, but a fire raged deep down his red-blooded Caney soul.

Truskett was a lumber yard owner as well as an oil prospector in Caney in the earliest years of the 20th century. When word of the availability of a hot oil and gas lease south of Caney in Nowata County, Okla., reached his ears, Truskett jumped at the chance to strike “liquid gold.”

There was only problem. And, his name was J.D.S. Neely, an oil promoter and owner of the Wichita Natural Gas Company.

One hundred years ago this week, the paths of Neely and Truskett would meet in (of all places) a backyard outhouse. Neely would wind up dead. Truskett would become a martyr to the cause of petroleum independence. And, the eyes of the oil and legal professions would focus on that bloody confrontation for several more years.
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CHERRYVALE — Dollar General Store in Cherryvale should be officially moved to its new location at 321 S. Liberty on Saturday, Jan. 8, store manager Casey Huck reports.

The store, now located in downtown Cherryvale, is moving to its new, larger quarters this week. As of Tuesday, Huck said store employees were ahead of schedule in moving merchandise to the new location.

Huck said the new store not only will offer more space but also a wider variety of merchandise, including more quantities of grocery items.

“We’re becoming a halfway grocery store,” she said.

More seasonal items will be available in the new location, she said.

The store will be open from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m., seven days a week.