Hill-Topics: Butterfly gardens, and the three technoteers
My wife, Claire, came to visit late last week from Fort Scott, with a carload of books to put in her new fifth grade classroom at Hillsboro Elementary School.
She's excited about her bigger classroom and the wonderful wall of windows that will catch the morning sun. I think she was most happy with the butterfly garden just outside her classroom wall.
Claire is living at our house in Fort Scott this summer, making it ready for Realtors to show at a moment's notice.
She was here for the big windstorm Friday night, which rattled the roof of the second floor apartment I'm renting on Main Street. I told her, "When you're not in town, downtown Hillsboro isn't usually this exciting after 10 o'clock."
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Sophomores Isaac Leihy, Tyler Lofton, and Brett McIntosh, along with tech teacher Creigh Bell are headed for the National Technology Student Association (TSA) Conference, in Dallas.
It was inspiring to meet these three "technoteers," who are so cranked about doing amazingly complicated things with model bridges, dragsters, and airplanes. Don't be surprised to see them in future stories, after they win college scholarships.
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Hats off to the staff and volunteers at the Hillsboro Family Aquatic Center, who put all hands on deck to clean up the pool after the windstorm, and then hosted a wonderful swim meet Saturday.
It was good to see the storm wasn't severe enough to keep city administrator Steve Garrett from his afternoon assignment as a swim team parent. His was the loudspeaker voice you heard.
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Wasn't it just last week that I promised to keep fessing up to my mistakes? In last week's article about the wheat harvest, and in the photograph, I confused Jeff Williams with his brother, Doug.
There is no excuse for the mix-up, but there is an explanation. I had written Jeff Williams in the story and in the cutline. But a coworker saw the photo and said, "Oh, that's Doug Williams."
Since one of my best friends is named Jeff Williams, I thought maybe I'd used his name without thinking, so I changed it.
The local Jeff's wife, Tami, told me that Jeff "kinda-sorta" looks like Doug. But she's too kind.
There's no excuse.
I should have called.
— GRANT OVERSTAKE