News

Health Fair tests at no charge thanks to donors, SWMC

ROBERT PIERCE

• Leader & Times

Late summer has arrived, and autumn will soon be here as well.

Fall normally means the arrival of cold and flu season too, and soon, health departments and doctors’ offices will be filled with patients waiting to get immunized.

For the past 15 years in Southwest Kansas, fall has also marked time for the annual Community Health Fair in Liberal, and Oct. 5, the Seward County Activity Center will once again be filled with people waiting to get screenings, testings, checkups and exams.

SCCC Library to host Holocaust exhibit

Seward County Community College

The Seward County Community College Library is one of 50 U.S. libraries newly selected to host “Americans and the Holocaust,” a traveling exhibition from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and the American Library Association that examines the motives, pressures and fears that shaped Americans’ responses to Nazism, war and genocide in Europe during the 1930s and 1940s.

Following a highly successful tour to 50 libraries from 2021 to 2023, the touring library exhibition – based on the special exhibition of the same name at the Museum in Washington, D.C. – will travel to an additional 50 U.S. libraries from 2024 to 2026, covering wide distances from Hawaii and Alaska to Texas and New Hampshire.

District compares KAP performance with other area districts

ELLY GRIMM

• Leader & Times

The USD 480 school board had a busy agenda for its first meeting of the 2024-25 school year Monday evening.

Up first in the meeting was the administrators’ reports, starting with Superintendent Stephen Linkous, who recapped the first day of classes.

“It was a lot of fun talking to everyone, and it was really cool at Liberal High School seeing the senior sunrise and then seeing all the other students coming into school,” Linkous said. “It was great, and we had a lot of positive reports from the people we talked to. We really wanted to talk to a wide variety of people from students to faculty/staff, and we were glad to hear everyone seemed to have a great start to the 2024-25 school year, and I want to also give a shoutout to the janitorial and maintenance staffs for all the work they did to make the buildings ready for everyone.”

Ortuño housing addition breaks ground

ELLY GRIMM

• Leader & Times

There has been much going on in the way of housing throughout the Liberal community and recently, one of those projects had its official groundbreaking.

Wednesday morning, City of Liberal leaders and others involved in the Ortuño Addition project gathered to officially break ground on the project.

Black History Committee seeks entries for T-shirt design contest while planning for 2025

ELLY GRIMM

• Leader & Times

The 2025 Black History Month festivities may seem a long time away, but Liberal’s Black History Committee is already making plans to ensure the month’s success.

One of the ways the committee is looking to involve the community in the plans is through a new contest, which coordinator Earmy Najera-Herman said is very exciting.