Mike Matson

Since the beginning of the year, those of us who live north of town out near the lake have been unable to get from Point A to Point B efficiently.   When completed, new roundabouts at the intersections of U.S. Highway 24 and Kansas Highways 13 and 113 will save time and lives. Part of the work on K-13 involves installing a massive culvert box, a sort of poster child for infrastructure. A rectangular, reinforced concrete structure to channel stormwater under the roadway to pre

My name does not appear on the rolls of the Screen Actors Guild. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences remains blissfully unaware of my existence, much less inclined to shower me with nominations, though a man can dream. And if you go looking for me on the Internet Movie Database, prepare for disappointment. Still, your every-other-weekend Manhattan Mercury columnist has, in fact, managed to flicker across the silver screen.   Three times. In one year.   At 20, I w

On the surface, it was a simple exercise in logistics. Get the country kids to school in town, Monday through Friday. Then get ‘em home again.   I entered kindergarten in the fall of 1962 and rode the country school bus for four years before the old man sold the farm and we moved to Wichita. In Plainville, Kansas in the early ’60s, there were two rural school bus routes. One went north and west, ours, south and east. Kindergarten through 12 th  grade. Each bus held about 50 y