TEG
Thoughts and prayers
are with the
Vietti family
Monday, December 28, 2015
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Salvation
Dirty Kanza registration begins January 9, new route TheArmy
Red
Kettles raise
over $59,000
By Brandy Nance
[email protected]
By Kerri Jackson
[email protected]
At 8 a.m. on Jan. 9, registration
for the Dirty Kanza 200 will begin.
This year, organizers have limited
the event to 1,900 registrants, just
100 over the limit for last year.
“We set a field limit based on how
many people we feel like we’re ready
to handle, and then we say that registration closes once the field limit is
met or by a particular date, which is
May 3 — basically one month from
the event. Now history tells us that
we’ll sell out long
before we get to that
May 3 date, but we have
to have a cut-off date just so
that we can order T-shirts
and
know how much liability insurance
to purchase and all that kind of
stuff,” said Jim Cummins, executive
director of the Dirty Kanza.
Last year, the 1,800 openings
were filled very soon after registration opened.
“It’s anybody’s guess, but I mean
like last year we sold out in 32 hours
— less than two days it was sold
out,” said Cummins
“So it’s kind of fun to
see those numbers roll
in.”
The race will be held
on June 4, and will take a different route than previous years with
checkpoints at Madison and Eureka
rather than Madison and Cottonwood Falls, taking riders a bit further south than the westward trip
they’ve previously taken.
“We’re going to have a new route
this year,” said Cummins. “It just so
happens that we conflict with the
Strong City rodeo for the next three
years. Dirty Kanza is always the
first weekend after Memorial Day.
The Strong City Rodeo is the first
full weekend in June. So depending
on when Memorial Day falls, sometimes it is the same weekend and
sometimes it is not ... The reason
that makes a difference is when we
were a much smaller event, it was
unconsequential to Chase County if
those two events were on the same
Please see Dirty Kanza, Page 3
Chase County restaurants offer
produce for sale
By Jesse Murphy
[email protected]
Three area restaurants are
currently offering a variety of
items for retail sale since the
closing of Strong City Grocery
earlier this year.
El Chico in Strong City, Keller
Feed & Wine and the Grand Central Hotel and Grill in Cottonwood Falls all have items for sale.
Grand Central offers a range
of raw steaks while Keller Feed
& Wine and El Chico mostly sell
produce.
Bryan Williams, owner of
Keller Feed & Wine, said that the
restaurant sells everything from
apples to zucchini along with
prepared soups and salad dressings. They also have Hildebrand
milk and butter and fresh herbs.
Along with his wife Janice,
the couple owns eight acres of
land in Cottonwood Falls where
they will be growing the produce
when the season comes.
Williams said that when they
opened the restaurant in the
spring of 2015, they had planned
to sell the produce from their
garden as well.
“Our dream was to eventually
sell what we’re growing for the
restaurant,” Williams said. “It
was up and going so quick that
we were using all of the food we
were growing in the restaurant
and never got around to the store
component.
“Hopefully, when it’s in season, the things we sell in the
market will all be stuff we grow
ourselves right here. The way
we’re doing it is to try and make
it zero-waste.”
Williams said that the items for
sale in the market are the freshest
each week, and they try to use everything that doesn’t sell.
“We’re basically using all of
the produce,” Williams said.
“We have it out for retail sale to
keep everything fresh. Then we
cut the rest up and use it in the
kitchen. We’re keeping the freshest produce out for retail customers to buy and take home.
VOL. 124, NO. 153
The Salvation Army’s Red
Kettle campaign wrapped up at 3
p.m. Christmas Eve with a final
total of $59,571, pending bank
confirmation today. This year’s
goal was $50,000.
“I’m praising God and
thanking Emporia people,” Lt.
Lynn Lopez of The Salvation
Army said. “We use the funds
that we collect to serve families in need for Christmas,”
Lopez said earlier this season.
After Christmas needs are
served, the remainder is used
to help stock
the pantry and
help with other
things such as
rent assistance,
utility assistance and more.
“We serve so many needs
now,” Lopez said in a previous
interview. “There’s so many variables. We’ve been buying people
work boots. If you can go to work
and that’s the only thing holding
you back — I’m not going to buy
them for you over and over again
— but I will buy them for you to
go to work. If somebody needed
a tire fixed on a car, and that’s
the only thing holding you back
from being productive and successful, I’m going to fix a tire to
put on your car.”
Husband of
interim ESU
president
died
Courtesy photo
Ray Vietti, husband of Emporia
State University interim
president Jackie Vietti, died on
Christmas Eve.
By Jessie Wagoner
[email protected]
Courtesy Photo/Leader-News
Keller Feed & Wine is one of three Chase County restaurants that are currently selling items to take home.
Grand Central Hotel and Grill — which sells pre-cooked steaks and sides — and El Chico in Strong City
offers residents have options on produce, dairy and other items without having to leave the county.
Until spring hits, they are purchasing produce from the River
Market in Kansas City.
“Our fortunes are not going
to be radically changed by selling produce,” Williams said. “We
look at it more as a convenience
factor for customers. The idea
came to us when someone said
it