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Pratt Public Library Thursday Afternoon Adventures Every Thursday @2 p.m. - Fun for the whole family! June 16 - Sedgwick County Zoo June 23 - Dan Dan the Magic Man June 30 - Exploration place @ 9:30 a.m.

By Jennifer Stultz Editor Miss Kansas 2022 Ayanna Hensley is a Dodge City resident with Greensburg connections, a Rudd Scholar and 2022 Fort Hays State… Login to continue reading Login…

The Kiowa County Commissioners convened in regular session on Tuesday, May 31, 2022, with the reciting of the Pledge of Allegiance. A time of prayer followed with Pastor Jeff Blackburn from the Greensburg Mennonite Church. General business included the approval of the consent agenda and the Minutes from the May 16 meeting.

True to tradition, the Pratt public swimming pool officially opened for business on Monday, May 30, Memorial Day. Temperatures were reaching the 90-degree mark, which was a great indicator for many kids to come cool down and have a fun start to the summer.

St. John native Taylor Clark has come to the end of her reign as Miss Kansas 2021, but it is not as bittersweet as one might think. Looking back, she has seen her own growth as a person in maturity, and looking forward she still has drumming to spur her on. This weekend Clark will be part of the Miss Kansas 2022 Competition, but this time she will not be judged, she will be performing, encouraging and celebrating accomplishments made as a successful title holder.

Owing at least partly to the fact that he was once homeless, Luke Einsel is a scrappy businessman, with a high tolerance for risk and a nose for a profitable niche. Over the last decade, he built an Overland Park smoothie stand into Smart Beverage, a 15-employee company that supplies schools, hospitals and other large institutions with healthy drinks. Along the way, Smart Beverage acquired several competitors, purchased every single 7-Eleven slushie machine in Mexico, and raised several million dollars from investors. In 2019, Kansas City officials lured Einsel’s Kansas-based company across the state line with tax incentives, paving the way for it to move into an 18,000-square-foot warehouse at the former Richards-Gebaur Air Force Base. All that promise and optimism seems like a distant memory these days. Einsel is winding the company down, he told The Star, his eyes sunken and his hair and beard grown long one afternoon earlier this spring.

Memorial Day 2022 was celebrated in traditional style with services at the Iuka Methodist Church and Cemetery in the morning of May 30 and at 2 p.m. at the Pratt Regional Airport Army Base Pavilion. Military servicemen who gave their lives in service to the protection of their country were honored by waving flags, messages of honor, songs of patriotism, beating drums and the playing of taps.

Burkes Outlet continues to celebrate the opening of a new store at 1801 East 1st Street in Pratt with special games along with shopping deals and prize wheels. The Pratt Area Chamber of Commerce welcomed the business to Pratt with a ribbon-cutting ceremony last Thursday morning, along with staff members and local customers.

The season for travel fun has arrived and millions of Americans will be enjoying vacation rentals – except the ones that experience vacation rip-offs instead. A Better Business Bureau (BBB) study in 2019 found that 43% of those who searched online encountered fake property listings. More than 5 million people lost money to such scams. It is reasonable to assume that with the easing of the pandemic, as so many feel freer to travel, vacation rentals will be highly sought after. Here is BBB’s advice for those who want to keep their getaways safe from bad actors and their vacation rental schemes. Easy to fake

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