Monthly Archive

The article, Out with the old, in with the new, in last week’s Athletic section of the Drexel Star stated that the season opener game for the newly formed Drexel Bobcat Softball/Baseball teams would be Thursday, March 26th, out of town, against Archie.
The game is not out of town. It is indeed a home game! So, grab your popcorn and Cracker Jacks and let’s cheer on our favorite local teams as they place history in the history books for Drexel!
*****UPDATE*****

The article, Out with the old, in with the new, in last week’s Athletic section of the Drexel Star stated that the season opener game for the newly formed Drexel Bobcat Softball/Baseball teams would be Thursday, March 26th, out of town, against Archie.
The game is not out of town. It is indeed a home game! So, grab your popcorn and Cracker Jacks and let’s cheer on our favorite local teams as they place history in the history books for Drexel!
*****UPDATE*****

The Cass County Corporation of Economic Development hosted a tour for the
Kansas City Area
Development Council and other guests last Friday. CCCED recently joined KCADC in their efforts to attract new businesses and jobs to Cass County. The tour was set up to show KCADC what assets are available in Cass
County: land and
buildings, educational opportunities, and available work force.
The tour began at Loch Lloyd with lunch and proceeded first to Drexel, then Archie, Harrisonville, Peculiar, Pleasant Hill, Lake Winnebago, and wrapping the tour up in

The Cass County Commissioners attended the Cass County League of Cities meeting where they were asked to visit with officials about issues and plans facing Cass County.
Gary Lathrop, President of the Cass County League of Cities facilitated the meeting and Commissioners Gary Mallory, Bill Cook, and Brian Baker took time to present city leaders with information on transportation and funding.

Private Edgar T. Groves graduated from the U.S.M.C. boot camp on Friday, March 13, 2009, in San Diego, CA.  
Groves was a member of the 1st Battalion, Delta Company, Platoon 1070.  
He is a 2005 graduate of Drexel R-IV and the son of Tom and Melissa Groves of Drexel.

Jessica and Shawn Fletcher of Drexel, Missouri are the proud parents of a daughter, born December 29, 2008. The baby has been given the name Sophie Michelle Fletcher. She was born at 11:49 a.m. at St. Luke’s South in Overland Park, Kansas. She weighed 6 ounces, and was 17 inches long.
Maternal grandparents are Cheryl Kraft and Scott Walker of Missouri. Paternal grandparents are Mike and Mary Fletcher of Drexel. Paternal great grandparents are Clara Gibbs of Grandview, Missouri and Mary and Kenneth Lesley of Warrensburg, Missouri.

Recently, the Missouri High School Volleyball Coaches Association announced the Academic All-State Volleyball players. The requirements were to have a varsity level player with a cumulative GPA of 3.6 or higher at the end of their first semester. Drexel has eight varsity team members on the list. In addition to these eight receiving individual awards, both the junior varsity and varsity volleyball teams, at right, were awarded Academic All-State Awards from the Missouri State High School Athletic Association. The requirements for those awards are a combined GPA of 3.0 or higher as a team.

School supplies for students in Iraq will be collected next week by returning Drexel R-IV students. The supplies will then be mailed to U.S. soldiers, and from there, the military units will distribute the supplies to needy schools in their districts.
Supplies such as pencils, erasers, school scissors, notebooks, crayons, rulers, and paper are many of the items to be collected.
Drexel students in K-12th grades will be collecting the items during the week of March 23-27, as part of a National Junior Honor Society project.

The Board of Aldermen of the City of Drexel, Missouri met in Regular Session on Monday, March 9, 2009 at City Hall. Citizens present were Tyler Black, Darrell Gilbert, Tina Harris, Phyllis Hocker, Windy Jones, Rose Marsh, Marilyn Nickell, Sheila Reece, Boyd Smith, Julie Snodgrass, Bob Strange, and Jerry Williams. Presenters present were Chad Harrington of Larkin Engineering and Phyllis Sheak and Doris Sherrick of Cass County Sustainability.

At a regular meeting of the Drexel R-IV School District Board of Education on March 11, 2009, a refunding bond resolution was approved by a unanimous vote. It authorized the sale of $1,280,000 General Obligation Refunding Bonds at an average interest rate of about 2.95 %, compared to combined average interest rate of 4.08 % for the Series 1998 and the Series 2004 Bonds. The District reduces the future interest expense by about $63,769, keeps total annual payments about the same as they are now, but without increasing the 90 cent debt service fund levy.

Mary Helen Thomas Jenkins died in her Drexel, Missouri home on March 16, 2009 at the age of 81. She was surrounded by family when she slipped away peacefully two months after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
Services werel held at 11:00 a.m. Thursday, March 19, at the Drexel United Methodist Church with Rev. Marilyn Niemeyer, Ph.D., presiding. Visitation was from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. Wednesday, March 18 at the Mullinax Chapel, Drexel. Burial in Sharon Cemetery, Drexel.

Story and photos by
RICHARD HETTINGER
The east baseball field at the south lake is getting a new face lift. These pictures in the Athletic section of the Drexel Star are attempting to depict the look of the reconstruction processes being made to the baseball and softball fields in preparation for the upcoming start of the newly organized high school sports at Drexel R-IV this spring.

Recently, the All-Conference picks for Drexel were chosen. They are, left photo, left to right; Mallari Russell - 1st Team, Blake Seba - Honorable Mention, and Chelle McAnany - Honorable Mention. Drexel High School players making All-District are: left to right; Mallari Russell - 1st Team, Blake Seba - Honorable Mention, and Baylee Kendrick - 2nd Team.

The Freeman community showed their enthusiasm and support for the Rotational Mobile Recycling program for the opening weekend event on March 7 and 8 by completely filling one container and partially filling an additional container with a total of slightly under one ton of materials. Instead of being transported to a landfill, these materials will be recycled to make new products.
Rotational Mobile Recycling Centers accept business and home recyclables at four Cass County locations. The locations and schedules for each center are:

A tour bus left Pleasant Hill bright and early on Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009 bound for Jefferson City, Missouri. It was Cass County Day at the State Capital. On the bus, several Cass County business leaders and representatives, including Drexel business owners Bob Miller and Sue Bush Wishon.

Gov. Jay Nixon is visiting community health centers across Missouri this week to announce a landmark agreement with the Missouri Hospital Association to provide quality health care to nearly 35,000 additional parents - at no increased cost to the state’s taxpayers.

By RICHARD HETTINGER
After making the long sixty plus mile bus ride to Leeton, MO to compete in District play our Bobcats decided to come to play. As they were seeded 7th, they were pitted against the number two seeded team in District 8, the Green Ridge Tigers. Seedings like this in the first round of district play usually indicate a one sided game. Not so! Our young Cats decided they could play with this team and carried a lead well into the 2nd quarter. A couple of errant passes and some good three point shooting by the Tigers brought Drexel to a 35 to 30 halftime deficit.

By RICHARD HETTINGER
Thursday night, March 5th, our Lady Cats again traveled to Leeton to take on the home town Lady Bulldogs in semi final action of District 8-1A basketball.
Drexel started strong with 3 layups and a 6 to 2 lead in the opening minutes of play. After a time out by Leeton, the Cats were unable to get much under the basket the rest of the game. In spite of this fact, a few fast breaks and some good outside shooting kept the game close. After three periods Drexel was trailing by only 30 to 32.

By RICHARD HETTINGER
Our Lady Cats proved again that they are a scrapping bunch. They won their first game of district play by a convincing score of 55 to 28. The Green Ridge Lady Tigers were never in this match. Drexel came out shooting and carried themselves to a 30-9 half time lead. This moved them on to the semi finals of District 8 where they faced the number 2 seeded Leeton Lady Bulldogs. Drexel was seeded number 3 as the seedings were evidently based on records only. As the Lady Cats were in...
Read the complete story in the March 12th print edition.

The Invitational Spelling Bee was held at Adrian R-III on Saturday, February 7, 2009. Students from Adrian, Archie, Drexel and Miami competed. Ian Bridges, right, was Top Speller for 4th grade, Haley Collins, left, and Trevor Gunnels, center, were Runner Up Spellers. Photo by Richard Hettinger

In accordance with National FFA Week last week, the local Drexel Chapter organized several activities at the school. On Wednesday, Drexel members prepared and served breakfast to the teachers and sponsored an Ag Power Day for the elementary students last Friday. During Ag Power Day, a project of the Ag Science I class, FFA members performed an agricultural melodrama, giving presentations on agricultural commodities and played a “Name that Ag Product” with the young students.

Cass County Assessor, Bob Huston, reminds property owners, including businesses, that they must report all personal property owned or held on January first to the Assessor’s Office by March 1, 2009. Those not returning a completed list to the assessor by the deadline may be subject to a penalty. The Assessor will waive the penalty if the personal property list is received in the office by April 15, 2009.
Penalties range from $10 to $100 depending upon the value of the property. The statutes provide the assessor with almost no discretion to waive the penalties.

The Drexel Community Betterment Corporation held their luncheon meeting on Tuesday, February 24, 2009 at the Drexel Community Center building. Drexel Bar and Grill catered the meal of taco salad and host Lynette Harris of Professional Bookkeeping provided a dessert of cobblers.
The meeting was called to order by Greg Mullinax with the Pledge of Allegiance and prayer.
The Treasurer’s Report was given by Mullinax of $1,428.10, no deposits or checks written. He announced that dues need to be paid or to get in contact with him.

The family of Martha Hocker recently gathered for a fifth generation picture following the birth of Abbigail Schuster. They are, back row, left to right, Amanda Romi and Joyce Sanders. Front row, left to right, Martha Hocker with Abbigail Schuster and Barbara Taylor.

Jeffrey Schuster and Amanda Romi of Harrisonville, Missouri announce the birth of their daughter, Abbigail Joleen Schuster, on January 30, 2009 at 4:45 p.m. at St. Luke’s South in Overland Park, Kansas. She weighed 7 pounds 1 ounce and was 18 inches long.
Paternal Grandparents are Connie Schuster of Harrisonville, Missouri and Rick Schuster of Raymore, Missouri. Paternal Great Grandparents are Melba Cox of Harrisonville, Missouri and Larry and Deanna Schuster of Harrisonville, Missouri. Paternal Great Great Grandmother is Betty Robertson.

By RICHARD HETTINGER
Our young Bobcats again met up with a talented bunch of upperclass Whirlwinds from Archie. Although they were again slightly shown up, the Bobcats continued to play hard and were as close as 10 points at one time in the third quarter. The Bobcats could not continue the pace as Archie outscored them 18 to 8 in the fourth quarter to pull away. Consequently, Drexel went down to defeat by the score of Drexel 38 and Archie 61.

By RICHARD HETTINGER
The Archie Lady Winds were treated rudely last Friday on Senior Parent Night. The Lady Cats started the night with a good shooting effort on one end of the floor and played strong defense on the other end. They jumped off to a nice 15 point lead behind the hot shooting of Baylee Kendrick who dropped in four treys and had 18 points when the half time buzzer had sounded. Evidently Baylee must have felt bad about assisting in such a lead when she scored two for Archie as the second half began?

On Saturday, February 28, student and parent committees met with NHS advisor Judy Daniel to continue planning the Drexel High School Lock In scheduled for May 1, 2009.  
Students will arrive at 10 p.m. and remain “locked in” until 6:00 a.m.   The evening will begin with a safe driving presentation by Sgt. Myers of the Highway Patrol using a simulator titled “The Convincer.”

Courtwarming activities began on Monday of last week and culminated on Friday at Drexel R-IV with the crowning of the King, Senior Cody Breuer and Queen, Freshman Jessica Gunnels. Numerous events took place at the school during the week with something different each day such as pajama day, backwards day and career day. Friday’s theme, black and gold, had students showing their Bobcat pride. The theme for the imaginative posters was “Nightmare on 4th Street”. The senior class won first place with their poster, followed respectably by the junior, sophomore and freshmen classes.

Recycling just got easier in Cass County with the new Rotational Mobile Recycling Program. Beginning Saturday, March 7 in Freeman, the Recycling Center will open regardless of inclement weather or holidays. Home and business recyclables welcome.
• Drexel: Third full weekend of each month. Community Building parking lot, 410 East Bates.
• Freeman: First full weekend of each month. East side of City Hall, 105 E. Main.
• Peculiar: Second full weekend of each month. Ray-Pec School Freshman Center, 21001 S. School Road, parking lot, west end.

The National FFA Organization will celebrate National FFA week February 21-28, 2009.
Step Up, Stand Out is the theme this year, challenging FFA members to step up to responsibilities, stand out from the rest of the crowd and reach for success. Nearly half a million FFA members across the nation will participate in National FFA Week activities at the local and state levels.

Viola M. Noyes, age 90, of Louisburg, Kansas died February 16, 2009 at her home.
Services were held on Thursday, February 19, 2009, at 10:00 a.m. at the Penwell-Gabel Louisburg Chapel. Visitation was from 6-8:00 p.m. on Wednesday, February 18, 2009 at the chapel. Burial was in the Louisburg Cemetery. The family suggests contributions to Louisburg Senior Center. To leave a special message with the family you may go to www.penwellgabel.com.
Arrangements: Penwell Gabel Louisburg Chapel 120 S. Broadway Louisburg, Ks.

George John Poster, age 75, Cleveland, Missouri passed away February 18, 2009 at St. Joseph Medical Center, Kansas City, Mo.
Funeral mass was held at 11:00 a.m. Monday, February 23, 2009, at Immaculate Conception Catholic Church, Louisburg, Ks. The visitation was from 10:00 – 11:00 a.m. Monday prior to the service. Burial was in Mt. Olivet Cemetery, Raytown, Mo. Memorials may be given to the Immaculate Conception Catholic Church, 606 S. Elm, Louisburg, Ks. To leave the family a special message you may visit www.penwellgabel.com.

By RICHARD HETTINGER
The Bobcats came to play on Friday, February 20th and started the game with good defense against the Osceola Indians by holding them to 4 points in the first quarter while scoring 10 for the home team. They led the entire game by outscoring their opponent in every quarter finishing the night with a nice win, Drexel 44 and Osceola 31.

By RICHARD HETTINGER
Prior to the game on Friday night, the 20th, the nice crowd was entertained with the presentation of our National Anthem played on guitars by Ellen Shannon and Megan Lane.

The Drexel R-IV School Board met in regular session on Wednesday, February 18th, 2009 at 6:30 p.m. in the Library Media Center. The meeting was called to order with the following members in attendance: President Christyne Hellebuyck, Vice President Vic Shipley, Treasurer Kim Hocker, and Members Chuck Martin, Ronnie Jacobs, Brad Lancaster, and Brenda Hadley. Others in attendance were: Jeff Levy, Robbie Shepherd, Linda Moles, and Dr. Judy Stivers.