About Us
Welcome to The Scott County Record's website.
Rod and Kathy Haxton, owners of The Scott County Record are glad you stopped by.
In the beginning
Rod Haxton moved from Kinsley to Scott City in 1993. At the location of 104 West Fourth he began publishing The Scott County Record on Wednesday, September 8. Spearville News was the location of the printing press. Haxton has a long working-relationship with the company owned by the Vierthaler’s dating back to his ownership of the Kinsley Mercury.
Yes, it was a two hour drive one way, to drop off the pages and bring home the paper every week.
This publication had 12 pages and it's first headline read, Deja Vu, Hospital Board Gears Up for Recruitment Challenge - Again.
The first staff consisted of four employees, in addition to Haxton. The advertising staff consisted of Glenda Ryan and Bev Strickert; the office manager was Shirley Suppes; and assisting with news reporting was David Frederick. Rod’s sons would sell papers on the corner and his parents Don and Boots Haxton, would drive up from their retirement home in Arkansas to help out on a regular basis.
The Tri-County Advocate
Haxton decided to tie the three neighboring counties of Wichita, Scott and Lane together with a FREE monthly publication that would represent their communities with news, sports and events.
The first Advocate hit the presses on Tuesday, August 11, 1998 and had 12 pages. The idea was akin to the many shoppers on the market, however, Haxton wanted to offer more meat than advertising and brings communities together by giving them the news from their surrounding area.
Digital Age
In 2003, Kathy Jasnoch moved to town and brought with her technology to move the newspaper printing into the digital age. The first paper was sent to Spearville by internet in 2005. The waxer and paste up pages were retired and cut Haxton’s drive down to one trip to pick up the finished product. This also changed photography at The Scott County Record as a new digital Pentax camera was purchased and the evolution was complete. No more darkroom work that used to take an hour or more each week to deveolp what was hoped to be amazing photos from film. Now hundreds/thousands of photos are stored on DVDs and amazing photos are easier to produce.
The Move
On June 1, 2007 The Scott County Record opened it's doors in it's new location at 406 Main St., Scott City. Previous businesses in this location included a hardware store, clothing store, tshirt shop, shoe store, gift store and photography studio. The building was completely remodeled from floor to ceiling and new walls were erected that actually sit on a foundation. The parking pad was added to the back and electricity to the outside was installed. Other than replacing the beautiful tin ceiling tiles that still exist above a false ceiling and the wooden floor boards in the front half of the building and two cement block walls that divide the building from front to back, every wall, fixture and door was replaced.
A Wedding
On June 10, 2010 Rod and Kathy married in the Chapel at Camp Lakeside near Lake Scott State Park. The company is now owned by the couple.
Color
In 2012 The Scott County Record was ready to evolve and add color to it’s pages. The broadsheet paper began publishing at the Garden City Telegram each Thursday. And although the pages are narrower they are certainly prettier. The Tri-County Advocate is still published at Spearville each month.
The Website
The Scott County Record began it's website in November 2004 with the help of Tony Jasnoch who served as first webmaster. Rodenbeek & Green Agency was the first business to advertise on the website and remains the longest advertiser. The first online subscription was sold to Katie Regier, who is the longest online subscriber.
In 2007 The Scott County Record hired Pixel Power Haus, Hays, Ks to design a new website that included more page options to display and the ability to upload full pages to our online subscribers.
etype Services representative Thad Swiderski had a table at the Kansas Press Associations annual convention in 2017 and offered a brighter future for online visitors. The Scott County Record strives to keep up with technology, so the changeover became official in May and The Scott County Record Online became mobile friendly. New subscribers join us every week and we are excited to continue our growth and offer more options to advertisers and subscribers.
What to do with a Facebook page…Check out weekly posts and updates and photos from around the area.
More importantly stop by and see us.