MONTGOMERY COUNTY THURSDAY ALWAYS FEB. 11, 2021 CLEAN AND 18 PAGES NEWSY! $1.00 PER ISSUE Rural addresses with city streets to conform to 911 of address change in 2022. months, Miller said. After 18 More than 930 rural By switching those ru- months, the four-digit county Independence residents ral residents who now have road address system will be city street addresses to the permanently used by all gov- will be impacted by four-digit county road num- ernmental agencies, she said. bering system, 911 personnel Miller emphasized that change of address due will have an exact geographic only those rural residents who address in which to respond, currently have been assigned to integrated 911 system Miller said. There have been a city address will be impact- levels of confusion locally ed. Rural Independence res- BY ANDY TAYLOR when a rural residents seek idents who now have an as- [email protected] emergency services but pro- signed four-digit county road INDEPENDENCE — Ap- vide a city street address to address will not be impacted proximately 934 residents a 911 dispatcher, Miller said. under this address change, who live outside of Indepen- That’s because the city-based she said. dence will be impacted by a street addressing system is Commissioner Larry Mc- change of residential address formatted differently than the Manus of rural Independence as part of an integrated 911 four-digit rural road address. is among the 934 residents addressing system, county “Under the current system, who will be impacted by the commissioners learned Mon- we have had cases where address change. McManus, day. emergency personnel respond who resides south of Inde- Anne Miller, GIS (Geo- to a rural area with a city pendence, said his home al- graphic Information System) street address but have had ready uses both an assigned director, said the statewide to knock on doors to find the city street address and also integrated 911 addressing correct address,” she said. the four-digit county road ad- system will require rural res- Rural Independence resi- dress format. idents who live outside city dents will be notified by letter He also said he believed limits but have an assigned of the change to a four-dig- many rural residents have ex- city street address to convert it county road address sys- perienced a change of address to the four-digit county road tem in March. Those address at least four different times, addressing system. changes will go into effect by the most recent being when All Kansas counties are re- the end of March. The U.S. many rural Independence quired to convert to a state- Postal Service will continue residents were assigned a city wide 911 addressing sys- to send letters and parcels street address. tem, Miller said. Locally, the to both the four-digit coun- Miller said having a coordi- change in addressing is a ty road address and the for- nated, integrated 911 address multi-year, phased-in system. mer city street address for 18 system will create not only Rural Cherryvale was target- greater uniformity but also ed for completion in 2020; more geographically specific n ALSO IN THIS ISSUE: USD Independence is slated for locations for rural addresses. the address changes in 2021. 447 Board of Education stalls Also at Monday’s meeting, Rural residents who have city superintendent’s recommen- county commissioners signed address in Caney and Cof- dation on hiring district trea- an agreement with the Kan- feyville will be the final area surer. See page 8 An ice-cold salute sas Department of Transpor- A thin coating of silvery ice on the military statue at Wark Memorial Park in Caney gives a tation calling for preliminary metallic appearance but exposes the stone-cold weather that has hit southeast Kansas this design for the addition of week. The National Weather Service in Wichita anticipates dangerously cold temperatures to shoulders and turn lanes at the intersection of Oak Street continue through the week and into the weekend. ANDY TAYLOR / MONTGOMERY COUNTY CHRONICLE How do the four-digit county and Peter Pan Road. Jim Wright, public works road addresses function? director, said the preliminary The four digit county road 911 address assignments engineering design of that in- NWS: freezing weather will are based on the numerical county road numbers. tersection upgrade will take Tthe first two digits of each set of four-digit numbers several months. He said he will indicate the road’s direction. The first two digits of believed the construction bids increase through weekend west-east roads are even numbered (i.e. 20, 22, 24, 26 would be let in 2022. and so on); the first two digits on north-south roads are According to traffic volume Bone-chilling, teeth-clattering tempera- in the 20s on Thursday and into the teens on odd numbered (21, 23, 25, etc.). studies, the junction of Peter tures will be the norm for southeast Kansas Friday through Sunday. So, the county road 2200 is an west-east road while Pan Road and Oak Street is for the remainder of the week, according to a Nighttime lows are expected to hover below county road 3500 is a north-south road. one of the busiest intersec- forecast from the National Weather Service in the 0 degree mark with dangerous wind chill This numbering system begins in the southwest cor- tions in a rural area outside Wichita. readings of -10 to -25 degrees. ner of the county with CR 1200 and CR 1100. The north- of Independence. Forecasters said the arctic vortex that The National Weather Service forecast also east corner of the county has CR 6600 and CR 5900. The IN OTHER BUSINESS at plunged into the midwestern United States predicts a 30 percent chance of snow on Fri- county roads are based on a grid system, so any roads Monday’s meeting, the com- earlier this week will continue to settle on the day and into Saturday. between this grid are numbered based on their location. mission: nation and keep daytime high temperatures • see 911 ADDRES, page 2 FEBRUARY IS BLACK HISTORY MONTH Finding voice amid silent history is push for ICC professors BY ANDY TAYLOR The gravesite of Ar- [email protected] thur Harper, located in INDEPENDENCE — The efforts the Potter’s Field area of two Independence Community of Mount Hope Ceme- College professors are putting a tery in Independence, face behind a hidden story of local now includes a U.S. flag history. holder to denote Harp- Bridget Carson, English profes- er’s service as a mem- sor, and Isaias McCaffery, history ber of the military . professor, have undertaken a and a wreath as a show project to memorialize the life of of appreciation. Until Arthur Harper, who was one of McCaffery Carson about 15 years ago, three slain victims in a 1920 race Harper’s gravesite, like riot in Independence. There was no tombstone pro- As a Black man living on the vided for Harper. An unmarked most burials in Potter’s wages of a cement plant worker in gravesite was common in a pot- Field did not have a 1920, Harper nor his family had fi- ter’s field, as the city government tombstone to identify nancial resources or life insurance expended very little money, except the deceased person. to pay for a proper burial at Mount for the cemetery plot itself, for the ANDY TAYLOR / MONTGOMERY COUNTY Hope Cemetery. So, Harper, who burial of any person who died with CHRONICLE was shot and killed in that 1920 little to no cash. riot, was buried in an area known Fast forward to 2020. Upon recall the events in their own the local Veterans of Foreign Wars ago after a local school student as Potter’s Field, which the City of learning of the 100th anniversa- unique way. McCaffery, who has finally placed a tombstone on Ar- discovered that Harper had served Independence had designated as ry of the race riot, Carson and an intense interest in Montgomery thur Harper’s gravesite at Mount an area for impoverished persons. McCaffery took up the cause to County history, remembered that Hope Cemetery about 15 years • see HARPER, page 2 INSIDE THIS ISSUE Opinions .........................Pages 4-5 Today’s Sports ...........................Pages 11-16 Public notices .....................Page 6 Chuckle FunnierU.com Classified ads ....................Page 17 Obituaries ............................Page 3 The weather in the Dakotas this weekend SEE CHRONICLE SUBSCRIPTION will reach 40 below OFFER ON PAGE 16 Ads needed for Caney book Wrestling journey continues Fire destroys local home wind chill. Starbucks Deadline nears for advertisements in Local wrestlers compete at regional Donut shop employees pull fire victim will serve coffee on Caney history book. Page 7 meets, advance to next level. Page xx from burning home. Page 2 a stick. Page 2 Montgomery County Chronicle Thursday, February 11, 2021 Harper: professors dig into archives to discover details about riot victim • continued from front page pendence Daily Reporter that Harper had been dead for more than one hour before any in the U.S. Army during World War I. one came to his body,” said Carson. “Addi- However, since that tombstone was erect- tionally, his body was unidentified at a local ed, the gravesite did not include the U.S. mortuary until other people were called to flag medallion to commemorate a veteran’s make positive identification.” service. Nor, were there any flowers placed While other victims in the race riot, in- on the gravesite during Memorial Day. cluding Wharton and Clennan, were provided Carson and McCaffery changed that in the for full burial and lengthy stories about their past weeks.