Seward County Clerk’s office

Former Liberal Mayor Jose Lara has filed to run for Seward County commissioner in District Four.

ROBERT PIERCE

   • Leader & Times

Monday, Seward County commissioners approved the annual renewal of health and dental insurance plans for employees for Fiscal Year 2026.

The county provides comprehensive medical and dental insurance to all full-time employees, and historically, the county has utilized Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas (BCBSKS) as its primary carrier.

For the 2026 plan year, though, the county is now moving away from a “worst-case scenario” budgeting model to a more precise project based on actual claims data from the previous  24 to 36 months.

ELLY GRIMM

   • Leader & Times

Since the late 1990s, Judge Jason Maxwell has been a fixture in the Liberal community and the Liberal Municipal Court system.

Soon, however, Maxwell will be leaving Liberal to take a position in Salina. As Maxwell tells it, his journey in Liberal has been an interesting one.

“When I was in college, I did a pre-law internship when I was at Oklahoma State University with the district attorney's Office in Guymon, Okla.,” Maxwell said. “And while I was there, I met an attorney named Robert Miles, and after law school, he made an offer to me, and I came out here to work. I had met Robert while I was working for the DAs office, and he made an offer to me, and I came back out here and went to work. The move to Liberal was different than what it will be from Liberal – I was broke coming out of law school and was coming in with a beat up trailer that had plywood sides that were falling in and had to be strapped down to keep from falling apart. I was a single person when I made my way to Liberal and now I'm married, and I have two adult children, and I'll be moving away from a place that's been really good to us.”

ROBERT PIERCE

   • Leader & Times

Young people from all over the Five State region converged upon Liberal earlier this month to take part in the annual First LEGO League competition hosted by Liberal Recreation.

The event is part of the FLL worldwide competition, and this year’s theme was “UNEARTHED.” Robotics Supervisor Michelle Webber said challenge teams did a project presentation, robot design and demonstrating FLL’s core values, with all of this taking place before the afternoon’s portion of the competition.

“That’s when the robot games start, and we have 15 missions on the table,” she said. “They have to program their robot to get as many done as possible in two and a half minutes.”