Young Professional's League

The anual Beacon Soup Line will be held March 29th from 11am to 7pm. $5 gets you soup, a desert, a drink and a chance to help a very important local non-profit. Please put it on your calendars and ask others to come. Tickets can be purchased from County Cupboard as well as from members of YPL.

If you use Facebook, please visit the event page, join the event and share it with your friends.

Here are some photographs of last year by Kenny Felt:

Jerry Witt with the Riverfront Authority, detailed some of the progress that is being made toward the proposed master plan of developing the Marmaton River into a Riverfront Park.

Mr. Witt explains the plans and progress by the Riverfront Authority

There have been a number of grants applied for and several awarded. One is for $1.5 million to put in roads. Another for $100,000 will go toward building walking trails. Mr. Witt said he expected there to be some elements of the plan ready for public us in the next two years or so.

Eventually Riverfront Park will have the following:

• Walking trails
• Stocked pond
• Wetlands area with board walk
• Botanical gardens
• RV park
• Equestrian trails
• Educational signs
• A structure to keep water in the park section of the river year round
• Event pavilion
• A locomotive engine on display
• A trail that connects into Gunn Park
• Camping sites

Young Professionals League
Fall Family Social

Friday, October 28th
5:30 – 8:30

Gunn Park
Shelter House #3 & #5

 Dinner 5:30 – 6:30
Hayrack ride 6:00 – 7:00
Guord Decorating Contest 5:30 – 6:30
Smores 7:00

RSVP with the number of Adults and Children

by email info@ypl-bbco.org
or by phone 223-0404

Dave Martin, Fort Scott City Manager, gave an update about what was going on in the city. Some of the highlight:

• City is working with KDOT on improving the safety of the 18th and 23rd street intersections with 69 highway.
• Pool project is on track to open next summer.
• The city has moved an assistant to the finance director out to the golf course where she can take green fees, but continue to do work for the city.
• The project to put the houses at the lake on the sewer system is coming along nicely.

Macy Cullison – New Director of Economic Development

• Is meeting with employers in  community.
• Her job is to help pull together all the resources and people to bring new businesses to town and help existing businesses expand.
• She will be working on grants and other opportunities.

Frank Halsey has been working on the Gunn Park bike trails.

• Started building some trails for himself in Gunn Park about two years ago–without asking for permission.
• When the city found out what he was doing, the insurance companies got involved and advised against going forward with the trails.
• Frank was able to keep riding the trails by signing a waiver.
• When David Martin started at the city, Frank got permission to continue with expanding the trails system.
• They hope to end up with 7 miles of trail. After 5 miles of trails, Gunn Park can host races.
• About 12 people are currently working on expanding the trails currently.
• The trails are designed to be at a  ”green” level of difficult and easy for a beginner to ride.
• Facebook Page

David Gibson, owner of the Fort Scott Professional Building,  talked briefly about the office space he has available. He is offering several months free rent to businesses along with a $500 referral fee for individuals who refer someone that signs a lease.

YPL will be meeting this Friday for lunch at the Lyon’s Mansion.  Dave Martin and Macy Cullison from the City of Fort Scott will be speaking.

Lunch is $6 for both members and non-members. If you know you are coming ahead of time, send an email to info@ypl-bbco.org.

Kenny Howard updated YPL on the airport.  Some interesting facts from the meeting:

• The airport gets an average of 50 small planes per week.
• A significant number of corporate jets and even some military aircraft use the airport on a regular basis.
• There are efforts underway to expand the runway by 600 feet to make it more accessible to jets.
• Airport day is coming up on September 10th.

Jeff Armstrong represented YPL in the hotdog eating contest at the Riverfront Festival on Saturday. He placed 2nd by eating 9 hotdogs in 10 minutes.

The Riverfront committee announced that a grant of $100,000 has been awarded toward the creation of a 60 acre park that will include trails, a fishing lake and historic informational displays. The trails will stretch from Gunn Park to the old military bridge with the primary entrance in the park near north end of National.

Last Friday there was a Fort Scott Fiber Initiative meeting held at FSCC. The meeting discussed some different ways to get higher speed Internet to Fort Scott for businesses and residents.

There will be another meeting at FSCC on July 7th, 2011 at 2pm.  If you are interested in the future of Internet connectivity in Fort Scott, it would be worth your time to attend.  For more details about the past meeting, read this overview.