News

Liberal airport preps for uptick in holiday traffic

ELLY GRIMM

• Leader & Times

Millions of people will be traveling for the Christmas holidays in the coming weeks, and the Liberal Municipal Airport staff is expecting to be part of that.

“Last year's travel season ended up really well for Liberal Municipal Airport, our numbers ended up being really, really good. Since we've partnered with SkyWest, our numbers have increased, and that's been great to see. Everyone really likes SkyWest since they're very reliable and don't have to cancel a lot of flights compared to some airlines, and that's really great for people preparing their holiday travel plans, especially if they're planning on flying out of Liberal,” Airport Manager Brian Fornwalt said. “I think we'll see a lot of travelers again this year. We've got a lot of college students who will be flying home for the holiday, and we have a lot of other families who will be flying. Thanksgiving and Christmas are when we see really big numbers with the Liberal Municipal Airport, and I expect we'll see that again this time around. I'm not sure exactly how many will be flying out of here this month, I typically don't get the numbers until the beginning of the next month – i.e., I'll get December's numbers shortly after the start of January, so I can't fully say that right now. Plus, there are still tickets and reservations being made, so that number would fluctuate anyway. I can make a rough guess and have a general expectation, but I couldn't give an exact number quite yet.”

Rubber meets the road at county town hall meeting

ROBERT PIERCE

• Leader & Times

Roads in Seward County have been a hot topic of conversation for some time now, and at last Tuesday’s town hall meeting, Administrator April Warden brought constituents up to speed on some of what the county is doing with roads.

Warden first reviewed the work of the engineering firm Kirkham Michael & Associates and the progress with Road O and Road P.

WKCAC eases the trauma at the holidays for abused children

ROBERT PIERCE

• Leader & Times

With a mission of helping to heal the trauma of abuse to a child, the Western Kansas Child Advocacy Center has many kids coming through its agency throughout the year, and leaders with the agency during Christmas time try to make the holidays a little brighter for the youngsters they see.

“We try to give them a gift for Christmas,” WKCAC Family and Child Advocate Haydee Rodriguez said. “It’s not just one kid. It’s usually all the kids who come to our agency.”

Western Kansas Community Foundation to award $86,072 in community grants including several in Seward County

Western Kansas Community Foundation

GARDEN CITY – Western Kansas Community Foundation (WKCF) is awarding 18 area nonprofit organizations with core grants totaling $86,072 for its November grant cycle.

The grants serve a wide variety of programs in the Southwest Kansas region. The November grant cycle is the last of three grant cycles offered by WKCF each year. A total of 22 programs applied for core funding through the November grant cycle.

Hugoton economic development director reacts to new owners of dairy plant

ELLY GRIMM

• Leader & Times

Last week, Gov. Laura Kelly announced Flora Food Group, which is a global food company out of Amsterdam, purchased the former Kansas Dairy Ingredients (KDI) manufacturing facility in Hugoton, which will equal a capital investment of around $90 million and the creation of approximately 100 new jobs over the next several years.

As Stevens County Economic Development Director Jan Leonard tells it, there was a lot of quick work that needed to be done before the sale was made official.