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Monday marked the first meeting of the year for the USD 480 school board, and the evening saw the board re-elect Brad Carr and Sarah Thompson as Board President and Vice President, respectively.
Monday evening also saw the USD 480 school board spend much of the meeting hearing about the fiscal year’s audit. Craig Hay from Hay, Rice & Associates led the discussion.
Seward County Community College welcomed a familiar face in a new office as the spring 2026 semester opened.
Business & Industry Director Norma Jean Dodge moved into the office of SCCC registrar.
The process felt familiar to Dodge: 15 years ago, with her four children old enough to attend school, she swapped the role of stay-at-home-mom for the lead position at B&I.
Now, with her youngest poised to graduate from Liberal High School, Dodge is taking on a similar challenge.
With grocery bills seemingly growing out of control with each visit to the store, customers are looking for ways to cut costs.
Many chain stores offer ways to cut costs and reward frequent customers for shopping at their store at the same time. In Plains, the locally-owned Grand Avenue Market (GAM) has its own rewards program, and Manager Cara Cain said in addition to regular savings, customers can save even more with a new promotion the store offers.
“It is our rewards program, and we are doing it every 13 weeks,” she said. “You get a stamp for every $10 you spend, and once you get 20 stamps or $200, you get entered into our weekly drawings, which I do every Wednesday. Our drawings are for a $50 gift card, three free pizzas and three drinks. There’s seven winners every week, and it’s been really great.”
Liberal Bee Jays fans will see a new face leading the dugout this coming summer.
Last week, the Bee Jays organization announced Caeden Trenkle as head coach for the 2026 season. And as Trenkle tells it, he is no stranger to the game or the Southwest Kansas area.
“I played three years at Oklahoma State, where I was named a Freshman All-American and All-Conference selection. I also played for the Bee Jays in 2020, and we went 30-9 that year under Eric Olmstead,” Trenkle said. “I was born in Liberal and grew up in Hillsboro, Texas, and my mom was also born in Liberal. My grandparents live in Liberal still, so I’m familiar with the Bee Jays, and I think the leadership staff is at least somewhat familiar with me. I’m currently an assistant coach at Dodge City Community College and work with outfielders, hitters, and recruiting, and when the job opened up, Danny Luebbers, the general manager, reached out to me and put a feeler out to see if I was interested. The more I thought about it, the more I was thought ‘You know what? I want to be the head coach of Liberal Bee Jays,’ so that’s how everything came to be.”
A Liberal woman and a Liberal youth were injured in an accident Saturday morning in east Liberal.
The Kansas Highway Patrol reported just after 7:30 a.m. Saturday, a 2017 Hyundai Elantra and a 2017 Honda Civic were stopped at the stop light at the intersection of South Country Estates Road and East Pancake Boulevard.
KHP said a 2025 Freightliner semi collided with the back of the Elantra and pushed it into the Civic.
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