Shirley Phelps-Roper, daughter of Westboro Baptist Church pastor Fred Phelps, confirmed to The Signal Friday morning that “probably 15 to 20” persons affiliated with the congregation will be in Greensburg the afternoon of May 4 to picket the appearance of President George W Bush, who’s scheduled to address the school’s graduating seniors during a 3 p.m. commencement.

   Citing the need for facilities to store recycled material from construction to begin soon on such LEED certified projects as the courthouse remodeling, the Kiowa County Commission agreed at its April 21 meeting to lease three 45-foot pods to be located with the cardboard baler at the north county landfill.

   The Greensburg City Council met in special session Wednesday morning (April 23) to transact business held over from Monday night’s meeting that was cut short due to lack of a quorum.  While councilmen Rex Butler and Bethel Thronesbery were both absent Monday, Thronesbery verbally resigned before the conclusion of Wednesday’s special meeting, again bringing City business to a halt due to less than four members being present.

   While the keynote address of Bill Snyder may have been the highlight of Monday night’s Honor Roll Banquet, the primary purpose of honoring the 42 students qualifying to attend the event was accomplished near the conclusion of the evening, students being called to the front by class and awarded individual certificates by school counselor Sue Greenleaf.

   Though much of Greensburg remains abuzz over the return of President Bush to address the community’s 18 graduating seniors as part of their May 4 commencement, nine of those seniors likely heard their graduation message two weeks in advance at the forty-ninth Honor Roll Banquet, held April 21 at the GHS practice gym.

   The May 2 groundbreaking of the business incubator, originally scheduled to kick off next weekend's Tragedy to Triumph celebration at 10 a.m., has been moved up to 7 a.m.

   Two things were certain regarding Greensburg’s business incubator building following City Council’s April 16 special meeting—groundbreaking is still set for Friday, May 2, and the project’s contractor will be Compton Construction of Wichita.  Other than that, little was determined due to larger-than-expected projected costs and the short time available to bring costs and funding to a common level.

   Though details are still being finalized, plans for “Tragedy to Triumph—Greensburg Rising” are taking shape, revealing a chock full itinerary for the one-year anniversary celebration of the May 4 tornado scheduled for the first weekend next month.

   Saying that $2 million in federal grant money had suddenly become available “from another project that just fell through” Patty Richardson of Great Plains Development told Greensburg’s City Council last Monday Great Plains would administer the application for and distribution of the grant funds for a fee of $20,000.  As a result the City signed off on filing of Form 424, or the pre-application paperwork for the money to be put toward Greensburg’s streetscape project.

   Telling those gathered for the April 7 City Council meeting his agency has “tried hard to be responsive and sensitive to (Greensburg’s) rebuilding concerns,” Kansas Department of Transportation Deputy Secretary Jerry Younger nonetheless told the crowd the recently submitted requests for additional access points from the planned US 54 freeway into town had been rejected by KDOT.

Greensburg City Administrator Steve Hewitt confirmed this morning that the White House has finalized plans for President George W. Bush to give the keynote address at the Greensburg High School commencement the afternoon of Sunday, May 4.

   Appearing with a pair of her board members, Kiowa County Memorial Hospital Administrator Mary Sweet and Kiowa County Commissioners discussed at length at last week’s meeting how best to proceed with the County’s future relationship to the hospital-related, but County-supported ambulance service.

   While noting the “speed” with which Greensburg is recovering from May 4 is “phenomenal,” USD 422 Superintendent Darin Headrick cautioned those listening at Kansas State’s Forum Theatre last Thursday to delay evaluation of the community’s return “for four or five years.  It’s going to take a while before dramatic results are visible.”

A whole community is virtually leveled by a tornado, the churches destroyed, and physical and emotional landmarks forever gone. One would hardly expect people who have experienced such a tragedy to be ready to give to others.

   Telling the Greensburg City Council at last week’s work session he’s been “talking to NREL as to how we implement our vision for a green community” Greensburg GreenTown’s Daniel Wallach presented for the group’s perusal a pair of documents he said are an “attempt to articulate what that means.”