by Tracy McCue, Sumner Newscow — We are counting down the top 10 Sumner Newscow news stories for 2012. In this segment we will be counting No. 10 through 6.

10. Drought continues. 

If there is any truth to the saying that “things come in threes,” then 2013 will be a dry one. For Sumner County, and everyone else in Kansas, has now had two straight years of significant drought. Sumner County, which received moisture in the middle of the year, was back to gasping for moisture by the end of the year.

According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, Sumner County is once again approaching “exceptional” drought status (see graphic here http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/DM_state.htm?KS,HP). If you are really in the mood at looking at trends, click on the archive portion of the website to see just how this drought has had a grip on Kansas and this county since the early months of 2011.

For the year, it was only slightly wetter than 2011. In Sumner County, Wellington had 23.08 inches of precipitation in 2011 compared to 28.56 in 2012. While the drought took its toll on spring crops and the hunting season, there was just enough moisture at the right time to give Sumner County a bumper wheat crop.

So what is the outlook in 2013? The National Weather Service forecasters are predicting another dry three months to start the new year.

Sigh.

9. The potential for oil is still there. 

This is a story on a holding pattern. There were no oil gushers in Sumner County, but no oil company has up and left either. While Harper County to the west continues to see an influx of new business by the oil boom, Sumner County to the east continues to wait and ponder if such growth will come here. 

But just two weeks ago, Gov. Sam Brownback stated at an oil and gas consortium at the Kansas State Fairgrounds in Hutchinson that vast amounts of oil and natural gas are trapped in a rock formation in the state known as Mississippi Lime.  And energy companies are beginning to work it.

Something is definitely up. In August, Wellington residents saw these funny looking yellow boxes on the side of the road. Those were “geophones” being used to conduct seismic data. Then in December, city property owners received a letter from TGS-NOPEC Geophysical Company asking permission to collect that mineral rights data on their private land.

Whether any of this comes to anything, is left for the future. But for the moment, land prices are high, mineral rights are to be had, and Sumner County people hold their breath in hopes of a boom that hasn’t been seen since the 1950s.

8. Businesses closes, businesses re-open.

Wellington lost three businesses adding to the sad fact that retail is not what it used to be locally.

Thankfully, at least one business re-opened after temporarily closing.

Local residents were stunned by the closing of A&W Restaurant in February. One of only a handful of stand alone A&Ws in the state. The issue was due to tax issues between the owners and the state of Kansas.

However, with new owners and renovation inside and out, the restaurant re-opened in the late summer.

Let’s hope it turns out better than another reopening of a business in town. The old Wellington Steakhouse and Roundup Room was reopened in 2011 to much fanfare with a new look, a new restaurant “The Rock” and a new bar called “Clubhouse 3.”

But after a year, both businesses closed on Dec. 22 – once again leaving the building on U.S. 160 unoccupied.

In downtown, Ewings Electronics, a business that had been around since 1973, closed its doors for good just yesterday. This is not to mention that Tibbs Furniture Store, which announced its closing in late 2011, did close in January of 2012.

There was some good news for Wellington on the retail front. Pea Pod Consignment Gallery opened its doors offering furniture on consignment. The National Depression Glass Association opened its national museum in downtown Wellington and will hold its national convention here during the 2013 Kansas Wheat Festival.

7. Tornado(s) sweeps through western Sumner County.

On April 14, 2012, a tornado, maybe two, swept through Sumner County – taking out six homes in the Argonia and Conway Springs area.

One tornado entered Sumner County at 9 p.m., unusually late for tornado activity, destroying the home of Mark and Sue Tracy, south of Argonia. It was the fourth time the Tracys had a home hit by a tornado. The tornado would then travel north but dissipated before hitting the Conway Springs community. Another tornado formed east of Conway Springs and traveled north, hitting the Thomas Klausmeyer residence. It dissipated before getting to Clearwater.

While there was significant damage, it most certainly could have been worst. Sumner County Emergency Management Director James Fair said the atmospheric conditions were ripe for severe weather on that evening. So much so that the county was upgraded to the maximum “D5 significant risk” zone for severe weather 24 hours before the storms hit. That hadn’t happened since May 3, 1999 which was the date of the Haysville tornado.

“We were lucky,” Fair said at the time. “It could have been much worse.”

6. Voters approve half-cent sales tax for hospital, new administrator hired.

Wellington city voters on election day in April made a significant statement. It wanted a hospital. So much so that a city election referendum calling for a half-cent sales tax designated to Sumner Regional Medical Center for three years starting in July passed by a 826-275 margin.

City leaders expressed surprise by the vote, thinking the referendum would pass but it would be close. The debate was significant on both sides of the issue leading up to the vote. SRMC had racked up $2.15 million in debt during a three-year period. The additional sales tax revenue would be used for medicare funding, facility upgrades, restoration of lost staffing, capital equipment and fixed assets.

The sales tax increase put Wellington at 8.55 percent. Wellington City Manager Gus Collins estimated that each household will pay additional $10.67 per month because of the tax.

Whether the sales tax revenue is enough to save the hospital is left to be determined. But that responsibility now lies on the shoulders of Leonard Hernandez, who was hired by the SRMC board following the resignation of Bob Bean.

Hernandez has over 20 years of hospital administrative experience.