News

Kansas Department of Transportation

The Kansas Department of Transportation (KDOT) is warning about a new scam circulating via text message.

The texts falsely claim to be from KDOT and demand payment for outstanding traffic tickets.

KDOT does not collect money for traffic tickets and will never request or collect payments through text messages. These messages are not legitimate.

ELLY GRIMM

   • Leader & Times

The Christmas holiday may still be six months away, but Liberal’s Baker Arts Center is already making some holiday plans with an upcoming exhibit.

Baker Arts Center staff is seeking 20 artists or more to take part in the exhibit “Journey to Bethlehem,” which will be opening in November. All mediums are welcome – painting, poetry, sculpture, ceramics, textiles and everything in between, and artists must create a work inspired by scripture and share their emotional, spiritual, or intellectual interpretation with the community. The exhibit will be open from Nov. 24 through the end of January 2026.

Baker Arts Center Director Brittyn Heronemus said it was not exactly a hard decision to have such an exhibit.

ELLY GRIMM

   • Leader & Times

The Liberal City Commission will have multiple projects and bills to consider at its next meeting this evening starting at 5:30. This evening’s meeting will be in the commission chambers at the Liberal Recreation Center at 950 S. Grant Ave.

To begin the meeting’s new business, the commission will be asked to award a bid to French Construction in the amount of $1,439,755 for the Doll Addition Rural Housing Incentive District. The commission will then be asked to approve a Letter of Intent with Air Products.

ELLY GRIMM

   • Leader & Times

The 4th of July holiday is right around the corner, and plans are currently being finalized for this year’s festivities, including the parade.

This year’s 4th of July Parade will be Friday, July 4, with staging starting at 9 a.m. and the parade itself starting at 10 a.m. Staging will be at Trail Street, and the parade will start there and go north to Light Park, where the 4th of July Committee will be hosting a fun day in the park for everyone following the parade. The day in the park will wrap up later that afternoon, and then people can head to Brent Gould Field that evening for the annual Bee Jays baseball game and fireworks show afterward.