Annette's Country Kitchen New Hours of Operation

Monday  11 am to 2 pm
Tuesday  11 am to 2 pm and 5 pm to 8 pm  TACO NIGHT
Wednesday  CLOSED
Thursday 11 am to 2 pm and 5 pm to 8 pm   BURGER NIGHT
Friday     11 am to 2 pm
Saturday  11 am to 2 pm and 5 pm to 8 pm  First and Third Saturdays are STEAK NIGHT
Sunday    11 am to 2 pm on the Second and Fourth Sundays

United States Post Office, Barnard, Kansas 67418...CLOSED?

     In order to stem losses of 2.6 billion dollars in the 3rd quarter, the United States Postal Service has revised it's possible closure list.  The Post Office in Barnard, Kansas is on that list.  Out of over 3,000 post offices being evaluated for possible closure, just over 150 of them are in Kansas.

     The Postal Service reports that due to the amount of postal business conducted over the internet and the alternatives to the USPS, there isn't the need for the physical offices.  An alternative that the USPS is offering to areas affected by the possible closures are village post offices.  The following is from the USPS.com website:

Post Office study list

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Our customer’s habits have made it clear they no longer require a physical post office to conduct most of their postal business.

More and more of them are choosing to conduct their postal business online, on their smart phone and at their shopping destinations. And that means the need for us to maintain nearly 32,000 retail offices has diminished.

So we are taking the next step in right-sizing our retail network by studying approximately 3,700 retail offices to determine customer needs. As part of this study, we are introducing a retail-replacement option –– Village Post Offices –– as an option for affected communities.

Village Post Offices would be operated by local businesses, such as pharmacies, grocery stores and other appropriate retailers, and would offer popular postal products and services such as stamps and flat-rate packaging.

Please click here for the list of retail offices being studied.

     The closure of the Barnard Post Office could have devastating effects on the community.  Council member, Randy Pickering, said that not having a post office would have a negative affect on receiving grants and other funding.  Many applications, he says, asks if there is a local post office.  With the budget of Barnard as tight as it is, grants are significant in the completion of some projects.

     In addition to funding issues, closing the Barnard Post Office will have an effect on where and how Barnard residents will obtain postal services.  Beverly and Simpson Post Offices are also being studied for closure.  If that happens, Lincoln will be the closest Post Office.  Many residents in the Barnard service area are not connected to the internet and do not drive that distance that would be required to visit the closest office.  Losing the post office would be a blow to the the morale of the community.  As the only other business with operating business hours, Annette's Country Kitchen would probably not be suitable for a Village Post Office.

     In 1966, Barnard lost its high school followed in 1977 by the closure of the grade school.  The remnants of the school are used as farm storage.  Cargill's lease on the Barnard grain elevator will end after this farm harvest, and much of Barnard's downtown district is empty or demolished.  Losing the post office may very well be the final nail in the coffin for a town struggling to survive.

     There is hope, however.  Senator Snowe (R-Maine) has petitioned the USPS to study the impact of Post Office closures on rural communities and report the findings the the Congress.  From the Senator's website:

Snowe Urges USPS to Examine Impact of Post Office Closures on Rural Communities

WASHINGTON, D.C.  – U.S. Senator Olympia J. Snowe (R-Maine) is urging the United States Postal Service (USPS) to examine the potentially harmful effect possible post office consolidations and closures could have on rural communities. In a letter to Postmaster General Patrick Donahue following the release of a report by the USPS identifying 34 possible post office closures in Maine, Senator Snowe has requested the Postal Service examine potentially harmful consequences for rural communities at risk of losing their post offices and report back on their findings.

Senator Snowe said:

“There is no question that tumultuous economic times have forced families and businesses alike to make tough choices when it comes to their finances.  However, the current financial challenges faced by the USPS should not preclude the preservation of universal postal service and convenient community access, which together constitute the bedrock of towns large and small across the nation.  It is critical we carefully assess the potential impact of these proposed closures, especially as it relates to service in rural communities.”

In her letter to the Postmaster General today, Senator Snowe asserted, “While I understand the imperative to reduce costs, it is absolutely critical that your actions not tear at the fabric of island communities and rural towns and villages by denying them the reliable, affordable and convenient postal service currently provided.”  A copy of the Senator’s letter to the Postmaster General is attached.

BACKGROUND:  In an attempt to cut costs after reporting a $2.6 billion third quarter loss, the USPS believes it can save $200 million by closing 3,700 of its 32,000 post offices nationwide.  According to the USPS, over 3,000 of the offices identified reported less than $27,500 in annual revenue.

     The Barnard city council has already voted to send a letter to our government representatives.  You can also send letters to tell Congress and the USPS that the Barnard Post Office is necessary and important to the community.  You may choose to call or fax your representatives but PLEASE also send letters postmarked in Barnard so that they will see the office in action.

IMPORTANT ADDRESSES:

Representative Tim Huelskamp

Washington, DC Office
126 Cannon HOB
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: (202) 225-2715
Fax: (202) 225-5124


Salina Office
119 W. Iron Ave., 4th Floor
Suite A, P.O. Box 766
Salina, KS 67402
Phone: 785-309-0572
Fax: 785-827-6957


Senators:

Jerry Moran

Washington, D.C.

Russell Senate Office Building
Room 354
Washington, D.C. 20510
Phone: (202) 224-6521
Fax: (202) 228-6966

Hays

P.O. Box 249
1200 Main St. Suite 402
Hays, KS 67601
Phone: (785) 628-6401
Fax: (785) 628-3791

Pat Roberts

Washington DC

109 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510-1605
Phone: (202) 224-4774
Fax: (202) 224-3514

Overland Park

11900 College Boulevard
Suite 203
Overland Park, KS 66210Phone: (913) 451-9343
Fax: (913) 451-9446

United States Postmaster General:

The Honorable Patrick Donahoe

Postmaster General

U.S. Postal Service

475 L'Enfant Plaza, SW

Washington, DC 20260-0010

Fundraiser for the Cafe Fund

Why We Celebrate the Fourth of July...The Declaration of Independence

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

 

hen in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.
— John Hancock

New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton
Massachusetts:
John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery
Connecticut:
Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott
New York:
William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris
New Jersey:
Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark
Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross
Delaware:
Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean
Maryland:
Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Virginia:
George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton
North Carolina:
William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn
South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton
Georgia:
Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

Text provided by ushistory.org

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Barnard, Kansas Fourth of July Celebration Goes Off With a Bang!

Annette Sneath, owner of Annette's Country Kitchen in Barnard, has done Barnard proud.  With the help of a few friends, family, and employees, she has kept the Barnard Fourth of July Celebration going.

This year the celebration started off with a "cook out" dinner at the community building, continued with elephant bingo, fireworks, kareoke, a street dance, and activities for the young people.

Elephant bingo was a new experience for me.  People brought things that they were willing to donate as prizes and the winner of each bingo game selected from that collection.  The fireworks show was accompanied by Jeff Wallace singing "God Bless the USA" and Lee Greenwood's version of  the "Star Spangled Banner."

Dinner and Bingo.  Bingo was hosted by Monty Fuller and Jan Dowlin.

Kathy Brockway, Annette Sneath, and Lena Wickham created a great cookout meal.

Jan Dowlin, the Bingo Lady.

Gathering for the festivities.

Brandon Sneath as DJ.  Jeff Wallace (not pictured) followed with karaoke.

Notice of Barnard City Council meeting change

The next city council meeting has been changed from Monday, July 4th to Monday, July 11th at 7:30 pm. If you want to let your council know you care about Barnard, please consider attending.

Saturday July 2 in Barnard

Barnard Community Center

Dinner Kick-off at 5 pm
Elephant Bingo at 6 pm
Karaoke at 9 pm
Fireworks at DARK

Hope to see you all there. This celebration is put on by Annette's Country Kitchen in Barnard.