News

Gardeners in the Washington Community Garden met on Feb. 18 to discuss the 2015 garden efforts. Plots available will be 20’x25’ with a registration and deposit fee required. The clean up deposit will be refundable if the gardener follows the guidelines and policies of the garden and their plot is cleaned by Oct. 31. Registration forms are available at the Washington Offi ce of the River Valley Extension District in the basement of the Washington County Courthouse.

Kansas Territory Brewing Company, downtown Washington’s fi rst microbrewery, is set to hold an open house from 7-10 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 26 at the brewery, which is located on C Street in downtown Washington across from Mayberry’s. Samples of beer will be available for tasting while tours of the facilities will be ongoing throughout the evening. Master brewer Parker Harbaugh and associate brewer Eric Helms will be on hand to explain the process of making hand-crafted beers.

In David Douglass DeArmond’s introduction to his new book, An Open Road—Sketching the 1914 Kansas White Way, he writes about the offi cial log book, a narrow paper pamphlet that could be slipped into a shirt pocket for easy retrieval. Half of its 122 pages was devoted to local advertising, and the other half contained a mile-by-mile navigation of both branches of the Kansas White Way. “You could slip this guide book into your linen duster’s pocket,” he wrote. “Fiddle with the auto’s crank, turning over the engine a few times.

The house that once belonged to Charlie and Jessie Becker, formerly of Munchkinland, Oz, has been purchased by Harry and Dee Metz, Washington. The Metzes hope to have the house open for visitors by sometime this summer, if all goes well. The house is located at 6th and E Street. Charlie Becker, a 3’9” German-American actor best known for his role as the Mayor of Munchkinland in The Wizard of Oz, retired to Washington in the mid-1960s with his wife, who was originally from a farm south of Mahaska. Jessie Becker also performed as a Munchkin in The Wizard of Oz. They lived in Washington for two years before returning to California. Both died in 1968 and are buried in Hayward, Calif.

Local law enforcement goes through a peculiar change of roles when dealing with the criminal element of Washington County. As enforcers of the law, the sheriff and deputies are responsible for apprehending individuals involved in

illegal activity. But as soon as they do arrest someone, sometimes in the midst of the effort, their role can do a 180-degree turn where they find themselves responsible for the care and protection of the same individuals they just arrested.

Two high school scholar bowl teams from the county will advance to state competition Saturday, Feb. 14. Hanover High

School will compete at the 1A Division 1 Tournament at Centre High School in Lost Springs and Washington County High School will compete at the 2A State Tournament at Ell-Saline High School in Brookville