Students at Elk Valley High School are celebrating homecoming week in anticipation of the homecoming festivities that will be held this Friday night, Jan. 30.

Spirit week has been held all week with Monday designated as “PJ Day”, Tuesday as “Big Hair Day”, Wednesday as “Disco Color Day”, Thursday as “NFL Super Bowl Day”, and Friday as “Orange and Black Day”.

Coronation will be held Friday evening during halftime of the varsity boy’s basketball game verses the Argonia Raiders. The homecoming theme for this year is “Disco Nights.”

Homecoming candidates this year are junior Joey Englebrecht, senior Derrick Fisher, senior Briar Baty, sophomore Heather Beoughter, sophomore Monique Wade, and junior Denise Beaumont.

NIOTAZE — Tim Tucker, a rural Chautauqua County beekeeper, has reason to be proud this week: the honey produced at his farm near Niotaze was judged Best of Show at the American Beekeeping Federation convention in Reno, Nev., last week.

Tucker, whose honey is branded Tuckerbee’s Honey, said he submitted eight different varieties of honey for the national honey competition and earned high honors all but one of the classes. Tucker’s light amber and amber honey each garnered first place honors in their divisions, and the amber light entry eventually won the top award in the national convention: Best of Show.

He also won a second place award and three third-place awards in other entries.

“I was pleased to win Best of Show not just because of the high honor but because the top honey usually is a lighter quality,” said Tucker. “My amber honey is a bit darker but met all of the qualities that the judges looked for, including taste and color, clarity, moisture content, and consistency when placed in a jar.”

For six years in a row, Tucker has earned highest honors in at least one of the classes in the national competition. But, the Best of Show honor has only been earned twice by Tucker: 2005 and 2009.

Dozens of beekeepers from across the United States compete each year in the ABF’s annual honey show, which is regarded as the Super Bowl in the honey industry.

Tucker said the downturn in the economy has had a slight impact on the honey industry, including on the price of honey as a commodity.

However, he said the American Beekeeping Federation and other bee-related organizations were striving to inform consumers about the healthy qualities of honey as well as its low cost on a consumer’s grocery bill.

He said consumers can view information about the benefits of honey at two websites: the American Beekeeping Federation at www.abfnet.org and at an updated honey-industry news site at http://apixinfosource.com.

Consumers can go to http://apixinfosource.com to find more than 150 recipes in which honey can be used.

Tuckerbee’s Honey can be purchased at a variety of area grocery stories and gift shops.

“We’re expanding each year,” said Tucker. “We now sell our honey in stories from east of Coffeyville to north of Wichita.”

Anna Beth Fish will be honored with a public retirement reception this Friday, Jan. 30, in the West Elk High School cafeteria.

Anna Beth has served as clerk of the USD 282 Board of Education for the past 24 years. Because of KPERS regulations, she will come back March 4 and spend two days a week through the end of June.

Everyone is invited to attend the reception which will be held from 2:30 to 5:30 p.m.

Succeeding Anna Beth as board clerk will be Paula McAlister who has been training for the past year to assume the post.

McAlister resides in Moline with her husband, Gary. They have a daughter Abby who lives at home and a son Scott who is a student at Kansas State University.

“I will truly miss all the friends I have met during my years in this job,” Anna Beth said. And she will miss seeing all the students each day.

She started her role as board clerk in 1984 while Charles Hill was superintendent. She and her husband, Richard, moved to Howard from Bethany, Mo., where she worked in a vocational school. Richard is president of Howard State Bank.

They have a son, Scott, who resides in Smithville, Mo., with his wife, Katy, and their two daughters, Regan and Riley; as well as a daughter, Robin, who lives in Overland Park.

Anna Beth plans to start a new career in the field of insurance, working with her friend Diana Bredehoft at Independence. She recently passed her insurance tests and will specialize in working with clients on the Cafeteria 125 plan.

She hopes everyone continues to support the West Elk school district as they have in the past. “More than anything I hope everyone remains positive,” she said. “Times are difficult right now and we all need to move forward.”

Listed below is the women’s bracket from the 2009 Dale Misak/South Central Border League Tournament in Arkansas City:

Tuesday’s first-round games:

Argonia 57, Central-Burden 26

Sedan 57, Udall 54

Cedar Vale/Dexter 55, West Elk 29

South Haven 49, Caldwell 33

Friday game schedule:

Argonia vs. Sedan, 7 p.m.

Cedar Vale/Dexter vs. South Haven, 8:30 p.m.

Central-Burden vs. Udall, 4 p.m.

West Elk vs. Caldwell, 5:30 p.m.

Saturday game schedule:

Championship game, 6 p.m.

Third-fourth place game, 3 p.m.

Fifth-sixth place game, noon

Seventh-eighth place game, 9 a.m.

* * * * *

Listed below is the men’s bracket from the 2009 Dale Misak/South Central Border League Tournament in Arkansas City:

Monday’s game results:

Oxford 76, Caldwell 51

Central-Burden 54, Udall 41

Cedar Vale/Dexter 64, South Haven 51

West Elk 57, Sedan 44

Thursday’s game schedule:

Argonia vs. Elk Valley, 2:30 p.m.

Caldwell vs. Udall, 4 p.m.

Sedan vs. South Haven, 5:30 p.m.

Oxford vs. Central-Burden, 7 p.m.

West Elk vs. Cedar Vale/Dexter, 8:30 p.m.

Saturday’s game schedule:

Championship game, 7:30 p.m.

Third-fourth place game, 4:30 p.m.

Fifth-sixth place game, 1:30 p.m.

Seventh-eighth place game, 10:30 a.m.

The website “Down Range Television (DRTV)” has been purchased by the Outdoor Channel. Its manager is Marshal Halloway of Howard.

According to the CNN Money website, Marshal Halloway (known as Kjell Heilevang to his friends in Elk County) and his partner Michael Bane, have been working on the deal for several months. Official papers have now been signed and CNN carried the story last Friday.

The Outdoor Channel has its headquarters in Temecula, Calif.

Halloway, who returned only this week from the SHOT Show in Orlando, Fla., said he will still manage the website for the Outdoor Channel, adding that the new venture will add to the resources which he and Bane will have available to them.

Kjell and Teresa Heilevang will continue to reside in Howard where they enjoy the good, quiet life in the town where she grew up.

“We love Howard,” he said. “Teresa and I enjoy working on our DRTV projects together and she travels with me sometimes. I couldn’t do it without her at my side.”

Tom Hornish, COO at Outdoor Channel, said, “”This is a logical step in Outdoor Channel’s mission to become the top, complete destination for shooting, hunting and outdoors information both on TV and the Internet. With our production technology capabilities, we will boost DRTV to the next level, cementing its place as the top destination for shooters and firearms enthusiasts on the web.”
DRTV is the premier online source for gun owners, sport shooters and hunters to access valuable information about the gun industry, related products and services, reaching 150,000 to 200,000 visitors each month. Among the site’s many features, www.downrange.tv offers original streaming video, weekly podcasts and gun giveaways, as well as the ability to socially interact with fellow gun owners, show hosts and columnists.

See a complete story in next week’s printed edition of Prairie Star.

Click on this link to view the announcement on CNN Money:

Area basketball fans will get their money’s worth this week with teams competing in the 2009 Dale Misak/South Central Border League Tournament in Arkansas City.

Tournament action began on Saturday with play-in games for the lower-seeded teams held at Sedan and West Elk high schools. At Sedan High School, the Sedan men’s team defeated Elk Valley, 58-27, while Caldwell surpassed Argonia, 53-39.

Sedan then went into the first round of the tournament on Monday night against West Elk. The Patriots from West Elk High School were victorious, 57-44.

In other first-round action on Monday, Oxford, the top seed in the tournament, dismantled Caldwell, 76-51; Central-Burden defeated Udall by a baker’s dozen, 54-41; and Cedar Vale/Dexter, the sixth seed in the tournament, recorded the tournament’s first upset with a 64-51 win over third seed South Haven.

Second-round games in the men’s bracket will be held on Thursday, Jan. 22 at Cowley County Community College in Arkansas City. The game schedule will be:

• Argonia vs. Elk Valley, 2:30 p.m.
• Caldwell vs. Udall, 4 p.m.
• Sedan vs. South Haven, 5:30 p.m.
• Oxford vs. Central-Burden, 7 p.m.
• West Elk vs. Cedar Vale/Dexter, 8:30 p.m.
The men’s bracket championship games, consolation game, and fifth/sixth and seventh/eighth places will be held on Thursday.

In the women’s bracket, play-in games were held at West Elk High School on Saturday with West Elk defeating Elk Valley, 49-24, and Central-Burden squeezing past Oxford, 33-30.

The tournament’s first-round games were scheduled for Tuesday night, Jan. 20, however tournament results were unable to be printed in this edition of the Prairie Star. Those games included Central-Burden at Argonia, Udall at Sedan, West Elk at Cedar Vale/Dexter, and Caldwell at South Haven.

Semi-final round games are scheduled for Friday with championship and consolation games set for Friday.

Tournament pairings and scores will be updated each day at www.taylornews.org.

A judge in Los Angeles last week ruled that a case against Little House on the Prairie, located between Caney and Independence, will soon be heard in California and not in Wichita where Little House owners would prefer the case to be tried. The judge did not rule on the merits of the case which claims the museum and historical attraction has no rights to use the “Little House on the Prairie” name.

Jean Schodorf and her brother Bill Kurtis expressed disappointment in the ruling but added their commitment to fight the case in court, even if it means taking some trips to Los Angeles.

“We believe we have a very good case,” said Schodorf who is a state senator from Wichita. Kurtis is a television producer who lives in Chicago and both have second homes at Sedan.

See the remainder of this story in this week’s edition of the Prairie Star or Montgomery County Chronicle.

When history was made Tuesday with the inauguration of the nation’s first African-American president, the seed of the civil rights movement could have well been plucked from dusty corners of Chautauqua County history, where a former slave became the state’s first African-American legislator.

His name was Alfred Fairfax, and he came to southeast Chautauqua County in 1880 to settle in the rural hamlet of Cascade Springs, located southeast of Niotaze and just a stone’s throw from the Little Caney River.

Fairfax came to Kansas as a former slave — a “freedman” who survived the calamity of the Civil War and who found solace in Kansas. For it was in Kansas, because of its proximity to the southern states, that became a beacon to the thousands of Fairfax’s fellow freedmen. The years of the mid- to late-1870s became known in Kansas as the era of the Exodusters — former slaves who migrated on the dusty prairies of Kansas in a great Exodus from the war-weary and still-segregated south.

Born a slave in Loudon County, Va., Fairfax became quite influential in the local and state Republican Party during the years of Reconstruction in the war-ravaged southern United States. He held several elective and appointive positions and received a congressional nomination. But, as Southern “redeemers” increasingly tightened their grip on the state, reestablishing white control of the post-Reconstruction South, Fairfax looked north and west for a land in which he might better his condition.

See this fascinating story in this week’s Prairie Star or Montgomery County Chronicle printed editions.

Five cities in Elk County will hold spring elections and the deadline for filing for open positions is next Tuesday, Jan. 27, at 12 noon.
Candidates may file at the county clerk’s office in Howard.

Howard City will be electing a mayor and two council members. All positions are four (4) year terms.
Longton City will be electing a mayor and two council members. All positions are four (4) year terms.
Moline City will be electing a mayor and five council members. These positions are four (4) year terms.
Grenola City will be electing a mayor and five council members. These positions are two (2) year terms.
Elk Falls City will be electing a mayor and five council members These positions are two (2) year terms.

For information about filing, contact Elk County Clerk Donna Kaminska

The following city offices in Chautauqua County will be open for election in the April 7 general election:

City of Cedar Vale: Mayor and two council members.
City of Chautauqua: Mayor and five council members.
City of Elgin: Mayor and three council members.
City of Niotaze: Mayor and five council members.
City of Sedan: Three council members.
City of Peru: Mayor and five council members.

Candidates for city offices may file with their city clerk or at the county clerk’s office in Sedan.

For information on any election matter in Chautauqua County, contact County Clerk Cammie Farner at the Chautauqua County Courthouse.

__________________
City elected positions and school board seats will be the focus of spring elections across Kansas, including those in Elk and Chautauqua counties.

The city and school general election will be held Tuesday, April 7.

The deadline to file for office is noon next Tuesday, Jan. 27. If a primary election is required, it will be held on Tuesday, March 3.
The following school board offices will be elected in 2009:

USD 285 - CEDAR VALE
Three positions are up for election. All positions are at-large and candidates may reside anywhere within the school district. Positions 4, 5 and 6 are available for candidacies.
All voters within the USD 285 school district may vote upon all candidates.

USD 286 - SEDAN
Three positions are up for election and candidates must reside in the member district they represent.
Open positions are: District 1 – Position 4, District 2 – Position 5 and District 3 – Position 6
If a primary is required to be held in USD 286, only voters within the member district will vote for that position. In the general election, all voters within USD 286 are eligible to vote on all positions.
Anyone interested in filing for school board positions in USD 282 (West Elk) or USD 283 (Elk Valley) will have until noon, Jan. 27, to file in the county clerk’s office at Howard.

USD 282 WEST ELK
In the West Elk district, there will be three positions open for election. They are: Pos. No. 4 currently held by Connie Russell; Pos. No. 5 currently held by Vicky Wedman; and Pos. No. 6 currently held by Casey Smith.
All positions for the West Elk district are four-year terms.

USD 283- ELK VALLEY
In USD 283-Longton, there will be four positions open for election.
They are: Dist. No. 1, Pos. 2 now held by Judy Beem; Dist. 2 Pos. No. 1 now held by Jim Greer; and Dist. 3 Pos. 1 now held by Steve Osburn. All three positions are four-year terms.
In addition, voters in USD 283 will elect someone to the post currently held by Denise Jones and this will be a two-year term to fill the unexpired term of Doug Hines.

For questions about any aspect of voting or filing for office in Elk County, contact County Clerk Donna Kaminska. In Chautauqua County you should contact County Clerk Cammie Farner. Candidates for school board positions must file in their county clerk’s office, not at the school board offices.

Both the Sedan Junior High FCCLA and the Sedan Senior High FCCLA decided to concentrate their STAR Event (Students Taking Action With Recognition) activities to Community Service projects for the 2008-2009 school year.

Kaci Hartley and Leneta Bailey and all the junior high FCCLA members are working to raise money for the local cancer project Relay for Life. They have concentrated their efforts in helping one of the school paras who had cancer this past fall and had to have surgery. They gave her a gift certificate to her favorite restaurant and fixed her an evening meal. They are now concentrating on raising funds for the Relay for Life. They are asking for $1 donations toward this project and each person who donates a dollar receives a ticket for a drawing of several quilts that will be given away on Feb. 2.

Brandee Loftin and Kylee Baker and all the senior high FCCLA members are working to raise money to help refurbish the Gregg Theater. Their plans include gutting the concession stand and installing new upper and lower cabinets, new floor, new paint, and new plumbing. They also plan to hang new curtains between the lobby and the theater, repair the roof, and install new back doors. To help raise money for this project they have sewn several quilts and are asking for $1 donations. Each person who donates a dollar receives a ticket for a drawing of several quilts that will be given away on Feb. 2. These quilts have all been quilted by Koren Alliston, an area quilter.

If you donate, you do not have to be present to receive the quilt; it will be hand delivered or mailed to the recipient. There will be a total of at least eight quilts distributed for these two causes.

If anyone would like to donate time or money for either of these projects, please contact Linda Fadely at 725-2221. Major needs for the theater are the roof repair, the back doors, upper cabinets, and a new sink. Flooring, paint, curtains, plumbing, work equity, and lower cabinets have been provided by Sedan High School, Mark and Kim Jones, Sedan High School FFA members and their adviser, Sedan Junior and Senior High School FCCLA members, Jim Bob Thompson, Ackarmans, Floyds’ Market, Chad Whitmier, Mr. and Mrs. Brad Monday, Dale Fadely, John Simpson, Donna Wolfe, David and DeeAnn Short, Charley Stettler, Elaine Craft, Janet Hartley, Elroy Smith, and the First National Bank.

The ECCEF Board Members are excited to announce the 4th Annual Table Setting to be held at Longton High School on Saturday, March 28. Committees are being organized and help is being sought from all communities in Elk County.

Table Setters: please get ready and contact us. Kate Perkins will lead that committee again with co- chair Linda Cooke. The theme will be open this year to allow everyone to have more avenues from which to choose.

More details to follow on tickets, menus and exact times. “We plan to continue our teamwork again with Elk Konnected this year. We see this event as an all inclusive regional event and our major fund-raising event for the year,” organizer Shirley Black said.

SEDAN — In the past couple of months, Scott Hills has turned to age-old advice: when given lemons, make lemonade.

That’s precisely what the top administrator in USD 286 is doing after a state audit gave the school district unflattering marks on how it uses state money to reach at-risk students.

Nowhere in the Legislative Post Audit Report, which was released to state lawmakers on Dec. 19, does it accuse USD 286 of mismanaging tax dollars intended for students who are considered to be at a greater risk for failure.

However, the report does chide USD 286 in how it measures and monitors students who could qualify for more academic assistance.

The remainder of this story may be found on the front page of the January 14 Prairie Star.

A total of 12 new features will be announced by Prairie Star during the year 2009, and the community calendar is our first one.

Here’s the way it works: When you are planning any type of community event, in any community in Elk or Chautauqua County, just call Veda Siebuhr or Margie McKenna in our Sedan office (725-3176) and they will add your event to the calendar which is on display in the front office.

Or you can drop by the office and check for yourself as you plan an event just to make sure it doesn’t conflict with another one.

“We will always check this calendar before we go to press, making sure your event gets printed,” said editor Jenny Diveley. “Of course, we hope you will advertise your events, too, but a calendar in the newspaper office will serve as a clearing house for organizations, school or churches as they plan events.”

Diveley said this one will not replace those at local chamber or city offices, but will enable anyone with their own calendars to double check dates to make sure they are not duplicating activities planned on a specific day. There is no charge for this service.

Jim McDonald finishes his 12 years service as an Elk County Commissioner this week and he’s doing it with a smile.

“It’s has been a good experience,” the Elk Falls resident said. “There will be some parts of being a commissioner that I will miss.” Then he adds with a smile, “… and some parts I definitely won’t miss.”

One thing for sure, Jim McDonald won’t be bored in his retirement. For one thing, he will keep his part-time job as an operator for the Longton Water Works. And, he can always do substitute teaching as he did for many years at the Elk Valley School. Or he can go squirrel hunting and stay busy talking to friends around world on an internet squirrel hunting forum. Or he can go to Flint Oak and help out as a hunting guide — a job he held at one time. Or he can involve himself in veterans’ activities.

But chances are, he will spend lots of time playing some sweet blues on his harmonica.

Say again! This retired military sergeant plays the French harp?

You can say that again — in any key he wants to play it in.

McDonald has played the harmonica since he was 10 following after his father and grandfather who both were accomplished French harp players. “My dad gave me my first harmonica,” he said. “I’ve never made a big deal of it, but I spend my quiet times playing this little instrument.”

He opens a case containing 15 or 16 harmonicas of different sizes, each one for playing in a different key.

Most are about five inches long, but one is tiny — only about 2 inches long, and a big one (shown in the photo) is thicker and longer than the others.

“I played one time at my church but it was no big deal,” he said. “And, I sometimes play for friends if they ask me.”

He plays mostly “barn dance” tunes but he also gets into a different genre for any occasion, including blues.

“I’m not all that good at it, but I really like playing Piedmont, Delta and Chicago blues and all the chug-and-chord tunes,” he said.

But he’s just as happy playing the old tunes that made harmonica playing so famous — the very first tune he learned at the age of 10 was “Over the Waves.”

McDonald likes to talk about the finer aspects of playing the harmonica. Even though he doesn’t read music, he knows the technical parts of harp playing as well as anyone in the world.

The harmonica is played by blowing air into it or drawing air out by placing lips over individual holes (reed chambers) or multiple holes. The pressure caused by blowing or drawing air into the reed chambers causes a reed or multiple reeds to vibrate up and down creating sound.

He participates in a worldwide internet forum composed entirely of harmonica aficionados.
“We’ve got harp players from all over the world on the forum,” he said.

In recent years, McDonald has enjoyed competing in a contest sponsored by the Bushman Music Works, maker of a premier line of harmonicas. Last year, he won the “People’s Choice Award” in the contest and he was notified on Tuesday of this week that he won the same award this year.

As his prize, McDonald received a $250 gift certificate with the Bushman Music Works.
Harmonica players presented their entries in the form of homemade videos and they are encouraged to be entertaining, funny and musically talented.

For his studio, he uses the Longton Water Plant which allows the sound to echo off the masonry walls. “I just clock out 30 minutes for lunch and play the French harp,” he said. “And when I get ready to send in my contest entry, I turn on a video camera, mess up my hair and try my best to look the part.”

The video is then uploaded to “You Tube” for anyone to view.

Last year’s top winner was a friend, Leo Enry, who lives in Chile. “He certainly deserved to win it,” McDonald said of Enry. “I’m not good enough to win anything in the regular contest, but I do have a chance again in the People’s Choice competition. Votes are cast by other harmonica players.”

McDonald, who spent part of his childhood in Elk County and the rest at Yates Center, said it always was a goal to move back home where his parents and grandparents lived.

He and his wife, Janet, enjoy the good life in Elk Falls. They have four children and eight grandchildren. And he has many relatives, friends and neighbors throughout the area.

To view Jim McDonald’s winning entry in the World Video Harmonica Contest visit the You Tube site and search for Jim McDonald.

The Kansas Arts Commission has awarded a $5,192 grant to the Sedan based Chautauqua Hills Blues Festival operated by the non-profit organization Chautauqua Hills Festivals and held every Memorial Day weekend. The ‘infrastructure support grant’ will be used to expand this annual event.

The festival recently completed a two-year project to install a large permanent stage. The grant will be used to double art and vending booths, expand parking and improve access to the north camping areas.

“We appreciate the support we have gotten from the community,” said organizer Greg Wilkinson. “They have done so much and we really want to make a difference. The goal is to expand the festival and start a second event later in the year, we’ll start small and see how it goes, the events will help pay for each other.

“The hard part to make this work we need to keep improving the lineup and, as part of the proposal, we need $5,000 in matching donations. We also have been approved by the FAA and the Pentagon to have a flyover, we just need to find a local Guard or Air Force unit to do it. 2009 will be an exciting year,” he said.

This local event has featured the Blues Music Awards (BMA) top artists, including the last two years’ Entertainer of the Year winners and the year before that the Band of the Year. Along with rising stars Ana Popovic, Moreland & Arbuckle, Bernard Allison, Trampled Under Foot and The Insomniacs the festival has grown to a major regional event with a national reputation.

The BMAs are right before our event and we book in January, says Wilkinson “so people are wondering how we keep getting these acts.”

Anybody with ideas for sponsorships, vending requests, or to make a donation is encouraged to call Greg Wilkinson at 620 870-0651. There is time to make tax deductible donations before the end of the year. For more information visit the website www.cqbluesfest.com.