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Not wanting to see diversion funds collected by the Meade County Sheriff’s Department sent to the state level, in 2019, a group of community members in that county formed a community foundation.
Cheyenne Federau, executive director of what is now the Meade County Community Foundation, said those funds were sent to the state because there was not a county organization where they could be sent.
A community’s emergency personnel works hard throughout the year, and 2024 kept Liberal Police Department officers busy, according to Liberal Police Chief Chet Pinkston.
“Overall, 2024 was a good year for the LPD. We saw an improvement in our staffing numbers – we hire some people, but not all of them work out, but we did end up hiring more people than we lost for this year, which is the opposite of what we saw in 2023,” Pinkston said. “Going into the start of 2024, we down 25 to 30 percent on staffing and we even have employees who stay for a few years but end up transitioning out due to other opportunities and/or other circumstances. So overall, 2024 was a good year in terms of staffing. We also put a significant emphasis on recruiting, which ended up taking us out of state, and we pulled applicants from California, Colorado, Texas and Oklahoma, so we went rather far and wide in that regard. For the most part, I would say 2024 was pretty on par with what we've experienced the past few years with only some minor variations as far as our numbers go. One of the things that's particularly problematic for us, especially when we're short-staffed, is it seems we have no time for breaks and we're constantly going from call to call to call. We were fortunate, since I've started here, for the Seward County Sheriff's Department to step in and give some help when we're in a bit of a bind, which is a huge benefit. But the call load has been pretty much consistent with what we've already seen.”
People finding themselves on both ends of the job hunt will soon have the chance to come together thanks to the Liberal Chamber of Commerce.
The annual Southwest Kansas Regional Job Fair will be from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 28, at the Seward County Activity Center at 810 Stadium Road. Businesses can come in that day from 8 to 10 a.m. to set up their booths, and then will be able to meet everyone else during the event.
While county road projects continue in Seward County, so too will work on state and federal highways, and some local leaders recently attended the listening session regarding new ideas for project scoring hosted by the Kansas Department of Transportation in Dodge City.
Among those attending were Seward County Administrator April Warden and Commission Chairman Scott Carr, and both gave some of their thoughts about the meeting at the commission’s most recent town hall meeting in mid-December 2024.
Warden said while KDOT hosts local consults in many communities throughout the Sunflower State, the Dodge City event focused on project scoring rather than actual projects, something she appreciated, as local consults, she said, tend to get somewhat territorial.
Communities throughout the U.S. will soon be commemorating Martin Luther King Jr. Day and honoring his work and legacy.
Liberal will be among those communities, but as Martin Luther King Committee President Presephoni Fuller tells it, the 2025 festivities will be slightly smaller than in the past.
