Special to the Leader & Times

At an official signing ceremony, Gov. Laura Kelly officially proclaimed August as Immunization Awareness Month across the state, recognizing the importance of immunization in protecting Kansans of all ages from preventable disease.

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) joins the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and partners nationally and across the state in this one-month observance to highlight the importance of on-time, routine immunization to protect people of all ages against vaccine-preventable diseases.

ELLY GRIMM

   • Leader & Times

Churches in Liberal are always looking for ways to increase their community outreach and later this month, they will have just that.

Members of all churches in Liberal are invited to participate in a special parade Wednesday, Aug. 26. The parade will start at 7 p.m. and will go from Trail Street to 11th Street. Coordinator Summer Hernandez said the main goal of the parade is unity.

“The goal of us doing this is to be united and proclaim the name of Jesus. This parade is for churches around and anybody who wants to be part of it,” Hernandez said. “Anyone wanting to be part of this can put together their own floats, or they can just walk, whatever they feel like doing. We need to come out of the church, out of the four walls of the building, and proclaim  Jesus is the center of us all.”

Special to the Leader & Times

The Liberal Fire Department recently received a $2,375 grant award from Black Hills Energy and the Black Hills Corporation Foundation.  The funds will be used to outfit our firefighters with safety goggles and face and neck shields to be used in wildland/grassland firefighting situations.

A check presentation by local Black Hills Energy employees was made at Station No. 1.

ROBERT PIERCE

   • Leader & Times

Many local constituents have called to stop funding Seward County Assistant Administrator Brock Theiner’s salary out of the county’s landfill fund.

Some, including Liberal residents Rick Madden and former county commissioner Jim Rice, have taken to the mic at commission meetings as part of the Citizens  Comments portion of the meetings to address their frustrations with the issue.

“You’ve turned a blind eye to it instead of trying to find a workable solution,” Madden said at the commission’s most recent meeting July 20.

Saying an answer has yet to be found as to the legality of the issue, Madden said the commission’s inability to act on the matter puts any potential fines in the taxpayers’s hands, not the commission’s.