During the Rooks County Commission meeting held on Tuesday, July 12th, road and bridge supervisor Rich Bouchey met with the commissioners for his weekly report. During his time with the commissioners, Bouchey said he would bring in data at a future meeting dealing with landfill rate increases. It has been over eight years since the last increase, and now is the time to look at the rates during the budget process for the coming year.

The August Kansas Primary Election, which will be held on Tuesday, August 2nd, includes a constitutional amendment on abortion rights. Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab, who oversees elections in the state, said all Kansas voters are eligible to cast a primary ballot.

At the Stockton USD No 271 Board of education meeting held on Monday, July 11th, and after the members approved the appointments for the 2022-2023 school year (article located elsewhere in this issue), they turned their attention to the letters of interest for the open Board Member position vacated by Aftan Tso. Those submitting letters were Ginger Riffel, Brett Bedore, Dr. Michael Oller, Adam Balthazor, Heather Shamburg and Daphne Plumer. After a short discussion, and noting that Plumer had run in the last election and had recently served on the Board, the members moved to select Plumer to fill the open Board Member position. They then thanked the others interested and asked that they run in the next election.

The Nicodemus, KS 144th Emancipation Celebration is just a week away. The four-day event begins next Thursday, July 28th, 2022 with the final day being Sunday, July 31st.

Settling into his new position at the Rooks County Historical Museum in Stockton is Rick Gianni, who has a master’s degree in history and teaches online college courses in history and political science, which means this newest venture suits him just fine as a different avenue to enjoy a subject he loves.

As the Seattle Children’s Hospital prepared to start Ezra's treatment due to his diagnosis with Chronic granulomatous disease, they ran tests on his younger brother, Charlie (bone marrow donor), and found him to be anemic. There was no answer as to why the tests weren't run months ago, so the next step was to give Charlie iron therapy to get him healthy enough to proceed with the transplant procedure.

At the regular meeting of the Stockton City Commission on Tuesday, July 5, the commissioners started off the evening session by first approving the Consent Agenda for the evening, which included the Solomon Valley Manor gross payroll in the amount of $62,821.83, the Solomon Valley Manor warrants in the amount of $67,824.47, the City of Stockton warrants in the amount of $141,041.45, the City of Stockton gross payroll in the amount of $128,227.27, the June 21st regular meeting minutes and the July 1st special meeting minutes.

Most of the July 5th regular weekly meeting of the Rooks County Commission was spent working on the 2023 proposed county budgets with auditor John Mapes. Before the work session the commissioners held the business side of the meeting with sheriff Gary Knight.

The Kansas Department of Transportation announces approved bids for state highway construction and maintenance projects. The letting took place June 15, 2022, in Topeka. Some of the bids may include multiple projects that have been bundled based on proximity and type of work.

The Kansas Highway Patrol is releasing its Independence Day Holiday Activity Report. The reporting period for the holiday ran from 6 p.m.