Month: March 2017

Bonner Springs Historic Preservation Society revived

Roger Miller helped publish a pictorial history book about Bonner Springs. It is on sale at the Wyandotte County Museum.

by Murrel Bland

The Bonner Springs Historic Preservation Society has been resurrected. That was the message from Roger Miller, who spoke to the Wyandotte County Historical Society Sunday, March 19, at the Wyandotte County Museum. About 50 persons attended the quarterly meeting.

Miller, a former president of the Historical Society, was a one of the prime movers in reorganizing the Preservation Society. Miller is the former owner of a Bonner Springs pharmacy.

Miller said the Preservation Society was organized in 1973 when the city of Bonner Springs celebrated its 75th anniversary of incorporation. One of the Preservation Society’s major projects was saving the old high school, which became a community center.

Several years ago, the Preservation Society lost many of its active members. Some died; others dropped out and turned to other interests.

But the Preservation Society now has been registered with the Kansas Secretary of State as a nonprofit organization. Interested members meet to discuss future plans at 10 a.m. Saturday mornings at the Bonner Springs Library.

Miller also told a brief history of Bonner Springs. He said it can trace its roots back to the days of Henry Tiblow, a Delaware Indian who ran the ferry across the Kansas River starting in 1830. Each August, the city celebrates “Tiblow Days” in downtown Bonner Springs.

The town was named after Robert Bonner, a New York newspaper publisher who was a big-time race horse owner. The idea was to encourage Bonner and other horse owners to bring their stock to race at a track north of town. However, the track was never built.

Spring water in the area was analyzed; its mineral content was touted as having health benefits. The Bonner Springs Improvement Club created a promotional brochure in 1907 listing these springs. Special trains brought visitors to the area. However, these efforts failed.

Miller, in cooperation with Arcadia Publishers, Charleston, S.C., has published a pictorial history book on Bonner Springs. It is on sale at the gift store at the Wyandotte County Museum.

The Wyandotte County Historical Society also presented its annual awards.

Dr. Mary Davidson Cohen, representing the Cohen Charitable Trust, received the Garland M. Smith Award. Dr. Cohen was recognized for donating $75,000, which will be used to buy a scanner that will greatly help access historic records. It should be operational later this spring. The Smith Award, which is the highest honor the Historical Society bestows, is named after the late Garland Smith, a longtime society board member and volunteer.

Mary Tenney Gray, who was born in 1833, received the Virginia Smith Award. Gray was most influential in unifying women’s clubs of Kansas and Missouri. She organized the first such association and was its first president. The preamble to that association reads “the object of this society shall be to promote a better acquaintance among thoughtful women…to raise the standard of women’s education and attainments.” She died in 1904. This award is presented annually. Dr. Glandon was a longtime museum volunteer and the first woman to be elected Historical Society president. She also taught history at the University of Missouri at Kansas City.

Dr. Dan Desko was named “Historian of the Year.” He was recognized for helping preserve the history of the B-25 bomber plant that was operational from 1941 until 1945 in the Fairfax Industrial District. The North American Aviation plant produced more than 6,600 aircraft and employed more than 60,000 persons. Dr. Desko also accepted the Margaret Landis Award for the B-25 history project. Landis was a longtime Wyandotte County historian who wrote several articles including those on the Rosedale community.

The Shepherd’s Center of Kansas City, Kansas, received the V.J. Lane Award. The Shepherd’s Center provides educational and health-related services for older adults. Many of the programs deal with the history of Wyandotte County. Melissa Brune Bynum, the executive director of the Shepherd’s Center, accepted the award. Also recognized was Ed Shutt II, a past-president of the Historical Society who presents programs on Wyandotte County to Shepherd’s Center members. Lane was a newspaper publisher and a founder of the Wyandotte County Historical Society.

John (Tiny) McTaggart, the president of the Historical Society, presented the Special President’s Award to Hal Walker. Walker is a past president of the Society and served as chief counsel for the Unified Government. He presently is serving in his second term as a Unified Government commissioner of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas.

Brenda Cantwell Miller was recognized as “Volunteer of the Year.” Miller, a retired Kansas City, Kansas, school teacher, helped edit historical society publications.

Murrel Bland is the former editor of The Wyandotte West and The Piper Press.

Federal government files case to shut down Olathe tax preparer

A case has been filed against a tax return preparer and his preparation business in the Olathe, Kansas, area.

The suit, filed in federal court in Kansas City, Kansas, asks the court to permanently bar Everett Bias and the company he owns and operates called Integrity Solutions Tax Consultants Inc. from preparing federal tax returns for others. The government also asks the court to order Bias and ISTC to turn over the names of customers for whom they have prepared federal tax returns since 2012.

The complaint alleges that the defendants unlawfully understated their customers’ income tax liabilities and overstated these customers’ refunds.

According to the complaint, Bias and ISTC unlawfully prepared federal tax returns that lower their customers’ federal tax liabilities by using S corporations. This type of corporation passes corporate income, losses, deductions, and credits to its shareholders for federal tax purposes. Shareholders report the flow-through of income and losses on their personal tax returns and are assessed tax at their individual income tax rates. According to the government’s complaint, Bias and ITSC misreport S Corporation items on their customers’ personal income tax returns by:

• Failing to report customers’ pass-through income as taxable income on the customers’ personal income tax returns;
• Falsely lowering the income of customers’ S corporations and then reporting that false lowered income amount on the customers’ personal income tax returns;
• Improperly double-deducting customers’ personal expenses, such as mortgage interest and real estate taxes, on customers’ corporate and personal returns; and
• Preparing and filing tax returns for fictitious S corporation businesses in order to improperly deduct customers’ personal expenses as business expenses.

According to the complaint, Bias and ISTC also allegedly fabricate itemized deductions on their customers’ personal tax returns, such as unreimbursed employee business expenses and medical-dental expenses, to fraudulently reduce their customers’ taxable income. Furthermore, the government alleges that Bias and ISTC similarly assert that some customers operate a business as a sole proprietorship, which is required to report its profit or loss on a Schedule C (Form 1040, Schedule C, “Profit or Loss from Business”) to the income tax return. According to the complaint, Bias and ISTC allegedly fabricate the income and expenses of the fictitious business to show a loss, which falsely lowers their customers’ taxable income.

According to the complaint, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has examined 200 tax returns prepared by Bias and ISTC and calculated a tax loss to the government of at least $828,506. The complaint alleged that out of these 200 tax returns, the IRS examined 130 personal tax returns. The IRS found that the defendants understated their customers’ liabilities or overstated their refund on 117 of the 130 personal tax returns (90 percent), according to the complaint.

The IRS has some tips on its website, www.irs.gov, for choosing a return preparer and has launched a free directory of federal tax preparers.

BPU to meet March 22

The Board of Public Utilities will meet at 6 p.m. Wednesday, March 22, at the board offices, 540 Minnesota Ave., Kansas City, Kansas.

On the agenda for the regular meeting at 6 p.m. are a visitors’ time, KMEA appointments, presentation on Senate Utilities Committee testimony, board comments and general manager comments.

There will be no work session March 22.