* And So They Say: Harold Copper: “I’d like to shoot those people who were so anxious for cold weather to get here.” Butch Ostmeyer: “After having my picture in the Record last week I thoughg I’d be getting lots of fan mail by this time.”

Scores of employees at the Schult Homes manufacturing plant in Plainville were shocked to receive a note terminating their employment along with their lunch on January 21, 2008, served up by a corporate spokesperson. The news was a total surprise to the employees, as well as Rooks County Economic Development Director Roger Hrabe, who said he had no clue about this closure. Congressman Jerry Moran released a statement following the news: “Schult Homes has a long history in Plainville and has played an integral part in the community. I was disappointed to learn of the news about the Plainville plant.”

The new high school came near going up in smoke last Saturday night. It was a great scare for the populace and while considerable damage was done everything was soon repaired. The fire started in the basement among some trash that had been dumped in a corner. The fire rapidly spread and before it had been gotten under control burned up several new school desks, several boxes of paper towels, toilet paper, etc. The water pipes in the room above were melted and other damage resulted to the woodwork in that particular section of the building The fire was discovered by the janitor Allen, about 11:30 p.m. as he was returning to his room at the building. He lives in one of parts of the basement and being unable to gain access through the door broke out a window to get in. The heat and smoke were too great for him to combat the fire with the building’s fire hose and consequently he gave the alarm. The Board had the insurance adjuster at the building on Sunday morning and estimated the loss at $1,000.00. Three or four plumbers were busy that day getting the plumbing in order so that nothing might hinder the working of school on Monday morning. It was a close call for the fine building and lucky the damage was no greater.

SPC Kristen Dinkel, who was serving a tour of duty in Iraq as a ground ambulance medic for the Army Reserves, never told her parents, Vicki and Allen Dinkel of Plainville, a lot about what goes on over there because she didn’t want her parents to worry. But when Kristen went above and beyond all odds to save a life, it was noticed and acknowledged by CW3 John Christian Frobenius, a Black Hawk helicopter pilot for the Combat Medical Evacuation on the Army base where Kristen was serving. Word of Kristen’s actions were sent back to her family through an email from Frobenius to Kristen’s older brother, Matt, describing how Kristen had applied three tourniquets while enroute to the hospital in the back of a moving Army ambulance. He said the patient would have certainly bled out if it weren’t for the work Matt’s sister had performed. Frobenius wanted Kristen’s family to know the kind of work she was doing and that they should be very proud of her.

THE WILKENS SITE south of Stockton had been a hub of activity during the first of the year in 1994 when five loads of structural steel had been unloaded to begin the construction of the building. Roger Roy of Roy Construction had supervised the project.

* And So They Say: Butch Ostmeyer: “I made the women happy at last year’s Fair by bringing them Myron Floren, so I’m going to make the men happy this year with Joann Cassel.” A. L. Pettijohn (Monday): “It is this kind of weather which makes me glad I moved in from the farm.”

The Stockton Motor Company got in a carload of Chevrolets the first of the week, the shipment containing three cars and a truck. The Chevrolet has made a big growth as one of the popular medium-priced cars, the transportation averaging lower costs per mile than of other automobiles. See the advertising of the Chevrolets in this issue.

* And So They Say: Pat Langley: “People will steal anything—even Beatles records.” Judge Gilbert: “The next time they have a bunch of robberies in the county, I hope they choose any other day except Sunday, as it disturbs my day off.” Lloyd Hollern: “You’re not the only one who wishes I knew something. I’ve wished it for a long time.”

THE MEMBERS OF THE 1994 STOCKTON JUNIOR HIGH seventh-grade girls basketball team were (bottom row, from left) Tiffany LeSage, Whitney Muir, Tisha Kibbee, Shannon Lowry; (middle row) Karen Iman, Kayla Muir, Jenny Poore, Brandi Ray; (back row) coach Dave Steeples, Tara Cikanek, Amber Glover, Sara Keller and assistant coach Chris Bacon.

A fiery plane crash Saturday night, Dec. 15, near Phillipsburg Municipal Airport, injured two New York men. The pilot of the plane, Darren H. Mesibov, 32, Potsdam, N.Y., was in critical condition at Via Christi Regional Medical Center, St. Francis Campus in Wichita. A passenger, Christopher Calderone, 20, St. James, N.Y., was taken to the same hospital, treated and released. Investigators say the aircraft was enroute from Potsdam to Flagstaff, Ariz., when it suffered engine problems and was forced to make an emergency landing. The pilot contacted air traffic controllers in Denver and was advised the Phillipsburg airport was the closest to their location. The plane, a 1963 Mooney single-engine, missed the airport by about a mile and made a crash landing in a nearby field. The occupants escaped the crashed plane just as it caught fire, according to a press release from the Phillips County Sheriff’s office.