Opinion

What keeps us from being happy about our town?

L&T Publisher Earl Watt

During the Fourth of July weekend Heather and I traveled to Lawrence to help our oldest daughter move to her new apartment in Shawnee Mission. She started her “big girl” job as she calls it after graduating from Kansas University and is now an engineer.

While going from corner to corner of the state, Kansas is lush green from end to end, a sign of increased rain and also great land management by the farmers and ranchers.

Thank you, Ideatek, for the upcoming free day at Adventure Bay

LETTER TO THE EDITOR, Amanda Devellen, President, Food Truck Saturdays Board

I am excited to announce that Ideatek has partnered with Food Truck Saturdays to offer free entry to Adventure Bay Waterpark on July 27.

Thanks to Ideatek's generosity, from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m., both attendees of Food Truck Saturdays and the citizens of Liberal and surrounding areas can enjoy the waterpark at no cost.

This is a wonderful opportunity for our community to cool off and have fun.

Thank you, Ideatek, for making this possible.

The joys of summer

GUEST COLUMN, Kim Baldwin, Kansas Farm Bureau

A few months ago, I registered my two children for two weeks of swimming lessons at our town’s pool. Registering my 8-year-old daughter for lessons was a nonnegotiable. She needs to continue learning skills that’ll help her keep her head above water while also gaining strength as a swimmer. My son, on the other hand, had a choice of taking lessons or not.

Enrollment decline + more staff = budget deficits

GUEST COLUMN, Dave Trabert, Kansas Policy Institute

Some Kansas school districts are facing tough budget decisions this summer with deficits on the horizon, and the reasons are largely self-inflicted. The Kansas Association of School Boards and some state education officials try to blame the Legislature for not providing more special education funding, but school districts’ budget files show that that isn’t the issue.

School districts collectively lost 3,056 students in the just-ended school year, but they added 1,772 more employees. Employment has outpaced enrollment for a long time, which eventually can lead to budget deficits.

Voters need to shift their focus to local elections this week

L&T Publisher Earl Watt

A record number of Americans tuned in to the presidential debate June 27, and while many thought they were going to see two well prepared candidates go toe-to-toe over the issues, they witnessed the sad truth of a candidate seeking re-election who has aged dramatically despite the American people being told Joe Biden is as sharp as he has ever been.

I guess they may be right, although I doubt it. If this is the sharpest Biden has ever been, it leaves the question of just how bad was he before? Because what the American people saw at the debate was a sad shell of a man, something many of us has seen from an aging family member or friend.