The Hays Municipal building took fire last week, supposedly from spontaneous combustion in the furnace room, and the east side of the building is a complete loss. The east side housed the G.A.R., the ladies rest room and the police courtroom, the farm bureau office and the city auditorium upstairs. The loss is estimated at $25,000.00. The city clerk’s office and the offices of the city treasurer and city manager were badly damaged by smoke and water, but the city records in the vault were intact. The upstairs of the west side contained rooms for the Chamber of Commerce and city attorney and were damaged by smoke. All the pictures, souvenirs, guns and relics of the G. A. R. were destroyed—a keen loss to the organization.

THE CITY CREWS were busy putting up the town’s Christmas decorations in anticipation of the 1994 Santa Madness, which was held on the Friday after Thanksgiving..

* And So They Say: Warren Harding; “Rooks County has reason to be proud of its 4-H Clubs. Of the 134 4-Hers in the state chosen for Who’s Who awards this year, five were from this county.” Judge James Gilbert: “With this laryngitis, I am not taking any chances as I can’t holler very loud and I can’t run!” Jane Dix: “I am not kidding you. There is a wolf killing our livestock and I don’t mean a coyote. It’s twice as big.”

A ribbon-cutting event was held to celebrate the opening of Main Street Gallery. On hand for the formalities were business people and chamber members: Pastor Vince Williams, Jeff Dean, Connie Conyac, Jayne Prockish, Linda McLaughlin, co-owners Randy and Lin Cross, Kelly Buss, Twila Sander, Christopher Cross, Tracy Buss and Chris Sander.

Since the Missouri Pacific put into effect a radical change in the passenger time card several weeks ago, the Stockton Chamber of Commerce has been fighting for a change to the betterment of the town. The layover here of the passenger for three hours was not long enough to facilitate mail correspondence and the inconvenience of leaving on the train in the middle of the afternoon, with a layover at Downs of nearly three hours. Encouragement came Tuesday in the form of a telegram from the headquarters at St. Louis to W. F. Hughes, president of the chamber of commerce. The telegram read: “Appreciate your letter relative to passenger schedule. Arrangements will be made to adjust service in line with your request.”

The Stockton Grade School 3rd graders and their teachers, Mrs. McReynolds and Mrs. Kollman, visited Joe Bellerive’s Pumpkin Patch. They each got to choose a pumpkin to take home, thanks to Joe! Pictured with Joe and his daughter, Elaine Maddy, were: Brendan Harrison, Brayden Winters, Tristan Williams, Joel Green, Kian Coffey, Kieran Graf, Dillon Krier, Kyle Hull, Chance Snell, Evan Ruiz, Cassie Jackson, Taren Kuhlmann, Emily Conyac, Caity Merritt, Hannah Reichard, Crystal Bliss, Allison Morgan, Hannah Wildeman and D. J. Wise.

JERRY AND PATTI STERLING (left) are shown being presented a “thank you” plaque for their four years of hosting the Area One Special Olympics Bowling Tournament as owners of 183 Lanes in Stockton in the fall of 1994. Shown making the presentation are Special Olympics coach and local organizer Rusty Hrabe and Sue Nickel of Central Plains ARC.

* And So They Say: Ivan Grimes: “I am not going to shoot any pheasants. I am not mad at them.” Rooks County Farmer: “I never did refuse to let anyone hunt on my place if they asked me first, but I have kicked some off who didn’t.” Glen Stice: “All I know is what I heard the pheasant hunters saying on Sunday, and you would not dare print that.”

The Union National Bank of Beloit failed to open its doors for business last Monday, closing due to the fact that borrowers were unable to make good their indebtedness to the bank. A notice was posted on the door by the board of directors and put in the hands of a special examiner. A heavy run was made Saturday and the bank was virtually without funds at the close of business that day. Representatives of the three other Beloit banks canvassed the situation with the board of directors with a view of taking over or reorganizing the bank but found that it was impracticable. The Union National was a $1,000,000.00 institution and the first national bank to close in Kansas since 1914. Probably 9,000 former