Wireless networks Alltel and Verizon are negotiating with the City of Pratt to place a 200-foot communications tower on the former J.C. Foods property, which the city is converting for use by the Fire Department.

At pre-fair events Monday at the Pratt County Fairgrounds, 4-H members were busy showing off the skills they have learned as they prepared exhibits to be judged. These are not kid skills, but kid-sized versions of skills that will serve them throughout life.

Preston 4-H’er Kelli Evert is expected to be released from Pratt Regional Medical Center sometime this morning following a fall during the horse events Monday night at the Pratt County Fair that sent her to the hospital.

USD 438 Skyline is gearing up for another school year by sending out enrollment packets to parents next week.  Parents are welcome to return the completed information by mail or during enrollment from 8 a.m. to noon and 1 to 3 p.m. Aug. 4 or 1 to 7 p.m. Aug. 5. 

It’s one of the traditions at the Pratt County Fair that few people see but everyone who attends the fair appreciates.

Cullison fighters Keith Loveless and Steven Wahrman (right) move a barrel across a cable with a fire hose while Cullison Firefighter Chris Freeman and Elsmere, Del. firefighter Jonathan Bredbenner (far left) try in vain to stop the barrel. The four were part of teams  from several districts that took part in a fundraiser for the Cullison fire department.

Vocabulary is the foundation for learning, and if everyone doesn’t agree on the meaning of the words there is no fair way to test what has been learned. Kansas teachers found themselves in that situation this past school year when they were required for the first time to administer state assessment tests in science. When an opportunity to correct the problem occurred, Brenda Riffey volunteered.

A suicidal 21-year-old Pratt man voluntarily committed himself to Larned State Hospital after he was rescued from a tree early Sunday morning in Pratt County.

A man wanted on a Pratt County felony drug conviction was extradited to Pratt on Wednesday. Carlos Contreras was extradited from Houston, Texas and is in custody in the Pratt County Jail, said Pratt County Sheriff Vernon Chinn.

Concrete workers smooth out freshly poured concrete to form curbs for the new Pratt High School parking lot. More curb work has to be done before the parking lot is paved with asphalt. Workers have just three weeks to complete construction work before school starts on Friday, Aug. 15.

For all but the first few of the 61 years the Pratt County Fair has been held “on the hill” south of town, there has been a food stand at the fairgrounds, and for most of those years, it was operated by Extension Homemaker Unit members. When the number of units dwindled to two and the County Extension Homemaker Council disbanded last fall, new plans had to be made, said Jodi Drake, K-State Research and Extension agent for Pratt County.

The investigation into an arson fire that destroyed a Pratt County landmark has come up empty but the investigation will continue.

Nearly a year after first announcing it would return a full-service grocery facility to Greensburg, Dillons made good on its promise Thursday morning with a groundbreaking ceremony that made official the start of construction of a 5,300 square foot supermarket that will be linked to the existing Kwik Shop a block west of Main Street on US 54.

The Pratt County Recycling Center is participating in a statewide program to dispose of products containing mercury at no cost to residents or to the county at the hazardous waste recycling facility, 1102 S. Main. The facility is open from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday. The free mercury collection program will run through Sept. 13.

A volunteer program at Pratt Regional Medical Center gives young people hands-on experience in health care. Will Shoup, one of eight Volunteens at PRMC this summer, doesn’t draw blood or run any tests, but he is getting a first-hand look at how a medical laboratory functions, what technicians do and the relationship between doctors and the labs.