Teacher Spotlight from Adrian High School

Another congratulations going out to Brenna Rich as she moves to Director of Special Services in the 2024-2025 school year!

 
Brenna Rich graduated from Penney High School in 2001. She received her Bachelor's in Psychology from Truman State University in 2005. In 2008, she completed her Masters in Educational Psychology with an emphasis in Counseling and Personnel Psychology from the University of Minnesota. She earned her Education Specialist in Counseling and Assessment from Missouri State University in 2016 and will soon complete an Education Specialist in Educational Leadership K-12 from Northwest Missouri State University.

 
Brenna is in her eleventh year of school counseling. She is currently the elementary school counselor and psychological examiner in the Adrian School District where she has served for almost seven years. Prior to Adrian, she was a school counselor for four years in the Nevada and Mt. Vernon School Districts.

 
Brenna lives in Rich Hill with her husband, Jason, and near extended family. They have one daughter, Merida (6 months), a new member of the Blackhawk tribe! Most of their free time is spent outdoors fishing or camping or planning how to camp and fish with a wee one.

 
I am honored to move into the role of Special Services Director and work with the committed and extraordinarily skilled staff of Adrian R-III. I will continue to build positive and supportive relationships with staff, families, and all stakeholders as we team for every student to reach their full potential. I am BLACKHAWK proud!!

Sonshine Ladies bringing joy at BCMH

Liz and Dee are "SonShine Ladies", a local sewing group who craft comfort items. They are holding two of their latest creations, bright pillows destined to cheer up patients who are admitted as an inpatient at BCMH.

Together with others in their group, the SonShine ladies have been stitching since 2006 and gifting their goods to our hospital and other facilities/groups in the community. Thank you, SonShine Ladies, for sharing your talent and your handiwork with those who need comfort: Liz Schlechty, Dee Hall, Charlotte Guss, Donna Huber, Kathy Bunch (all Auxiliary volunteers for BCMH), and Sharon Fain.  

Pictured with them are Med/Surg Nurses (left to right) Teri Cashell, RN; Karalee Terry, RN; Bettina Fitzpatrick, CNA and Patti Wilson, LPN.

Bates County Sheriff Chad Anderson seeks re-election

Today I am announcing that I will be running for a 5th term for the Office of Sheriff. Official sign ups are on Tuesday February 27th. I love this County and the men and women who serve with me as a team at the Sheriff’s Office. I have been in law enforcement for 27 years, starting my career out as a volunteer police officer for the City of Adrian in 1997. In 1999, I received my police officer license from the University of Central Missouri. 

In 2000, I went to work for Butler, where I was promoted to Sergeant. My duties there were to supervise patrol officers, conduct sex crime investigations, and I taught DARE in the Butler Schools. My entire law enforcement career has been serving the citizens of Bates County. More than half my life has been dedicated to serving this community.

When I took office in 2009, the office was struggling financially to the point monies were transferred from other funds to cover the operations of the Sheriffs Office. This directly affected the quality of services the citizens of Bates County were provided. This affected the quality of safety equipment the deputies were provided, the ability to respond to calls, created unsafe staffing levels and poor pay for employees. 

Over the last 16 years, despite various obstacles, the Sheriff’s Office has become financially independent and has always operated within its budget, even contributing to a substantial financial reserve. This has allowed the General County Budget for other offices to increase its reserves, as law enforcement has not needed any transfers from the General Revenue Fund to cover operating expenses as it had in the past.

I immediately made it a priority to put the citizens first and to serve them to the best of our abilities. My priority was to put more deputies on the streets to improve response times and reduce crimes. I have improved services to the citizens by recruiting, retaining and providing top of the line training and equipment for the hard working men and women of the Sheriff’s Office. Under my leadership, we have increased programs that serve the community to include; Deputies who are assigned to the rural schools with a K9, a dedicated narcotics Deputy and two K-9 patrol units, security for employees and the public while doing business at the courthouse, a great search and rescue program that has already been instrumental in saving a life, creation of the Sheriff’s Emergency Response Team for high risk events, top of the line equipment and the training to be prepared for any emergency situation that should arise that puts our citizens at substantial risk. We have a built a great community policing program that has built strong, lasting relationships within the communities we serve, emphasizing working with our youth. I have invested in technology that helps us be more efficient and effective in the performance of our jobs. I have invested in my employees to help them develop professionally and personally so that they can concentrate on serving our citizens. We are members of the CNET Drug Task Force, Western Missouri Critical Incident Team, Southwest Missouri Major Case Squad, Missouri Sheriff’s Association, National Sheriff’ Association, Missouri Tactical Officers Association, National Tactical Officers Association to name just a few.

These are only a few things that under my leadership we are achieving daily. God has blessed me with a beautiful family and I am proud to say my wife and I have raised our family right here in Bates County. They too, are following in my footsteps by serving or planning to serve our community in emergency services.

I am not a perfect man, but I have always done my best to put the interest of the Citizens of Bates County first. I have and will continue to be a working Sheriff that is dedicated to bettering this community. My pledge to ALL the Citizens of Bates County. My staff and I will continue to honor and respect God and our Country. My staff and I will continue to serve you regardless of your political affiliation. My staff and I will continue to be guardians of the Constitution of the United States of America and ALL its Amendments. My staff and I will continue to serve you with Honor, Integrity and Dedication.

- Sheriff Anderson

News from the Butler High School Speech & Drama Team

We would like to congratulate the Butler High School Speech & Drama team for bringing home three 1st-place medals from the Adrian Tournament! Skilyn Roberts in Prose and Poetry; Collin Core and Zedrick Hamersley in Duet!!

We would like to congratulate the Butler High School Speech and Drama competitors who advanced to finals in Warrensburg on Saturday: Skilyn Roberts: 4th in Champion Poetry and 6th in Champion Prose; Collin Core & Zedrick Hamersley: 5th in Duet!

Butler Bears roll through first round of districts blowing out Holden

The Butler Bears begin district play in Adrian against the Holden Eagles. The Bears come in on an 8 game win streak. The Bears were looking to continue that streak and move on to the district semi-finals.

The Eagles controlled the tip and instantly turned it over into the hands of the Bears, Chandler sunk the first basket of the game on a drive to the rack. Jenkins answered, tying it up 2-2. Chandler grabbed another basket to spark a 10-0 bears run which would force an Eagles time-out. Out of the time out, the Bears would finish out the quarter on a 7-0 Butler run, capped off by Payne drilling home a deep ball at the buzzer. The Bears carried a 19-2 lead into the second quarter.

The second half started much like the first, with Chandler recoding a steal and running the break to grab bucket at the other end. In the opening 5 minutes of the 2nd, Butler would outscore the Eagles 9-0. With under 3 minutes remaining in the half, Kolbi Hill would finally record the second FG of the night for the Eagles. The Eagles would start shooting slightly better, but would still find themselves trailing 37-10 at the end of the first half.

The Bears, at the half, out rebounded the Eagles 30-3. Jake Chandler, for the Bears, recorded a double in just the first half with 10 points, 11 rebounds.

The Eagles began the first half drawing first blood before Payne would find an open Dylan Davidson for a post score. The Bears would close out the quarter on a 13-6 run to carry a 57-29 lead into the final period.

The clock would run during the 4th as Butler would quickly push the deficit in excess of 30 points. The Bears would cruise to a 67-32 victory.

Trumbore led the Bears with 20 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists. Jake Chandler recorded a double-double for the Bears with 16 points, 14 rebounds, and 3 assists. Dylan Davidson tallied 13 points and 13 rebounds for a double-double as well.

Jenkins led the Eagles with 13 points.

The Bears will move on to face the El Dorado Bulldogs on Thursday night. The Bears defeated the Bulldogs once this season already by a buzzer beater as time expired, be sure and come cheer the Bears on in the semi-finals on Thursday!

See more Tailgate TV here https://linktr.ee/tailgate_tv

-Courtesy of Cody Morris

Bates County Sheriff's Office welcomes new K-9

The Bates County Sheriff's Office is pleased to welcome K9 Scout to the office. Scout is a two year old Labrador mix that received his certification on 2/15/2024. Scout’s handler is Sergeant Adam Thomas who oversees the School Resource Officer Program for all the rural schools in Bates County.

Scout is certified to detect the odor of illegal drugs like methamphetamine, heroin and cocaine. Scout is also able to detect scents of nicotine, marijuana and gun powder. Even though those items are legal to possess they are not legal to possess by students who are attending school. The safety and security of our rural schools is a priority of ours at the Sheriff’s Office and keeping drugs and other prohibited items out of the schools helps create a positive learning environment.

The Sheriff’s Office plans to continue training for scout to add tracking for lost persons and articles searches.

We would like to thank Von Henger Kennels for our long term relationship through the last 16 years. Von Henger Kennels has provide majority of our patrol dogs and continues to support our K9 programs with training and guidance.

Traffic Alert: Northbound I-49 slowed at Archie due to accident

The Missouri State Highway Patrol along with Cass County Sheriff's Deputies and the Archie Police Department is currently working a motor vehicle accident in the median of I-49 at the Archie Exit.

Please slow down and use caution if you must travel in the area! The northbound lane is down to one lane at this time. 

Now hiring in Butler