Eudora residents noticing thick smoke bellowing skyward about noon Saturday just south of Kansas Highway 10 needn’t call the fire department. It’s just a house burning.

Eudora Fire Chief Ken Keiter said his department and the Eudora Township Fire Department will burn down a house Saturday at 610 West 20th as a training exercise. Property owner Mark Gabriel donated the house to the city for that use earlier this year. Since that time, the Eudora Fire Department and other departments have conducted extraction training exercises in the building, he said.

Although burning derelict houses for training used to be somewhat common, it is rarely done in these days of greater environmental awareness, Keiter said.

“We had to get a burn permit from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment,” he said. “It’s not easy to burn a structure because of all the preparation you have to do before you can actually burn it. There had to be asbestos remediation, and all the asphalt tar roofing and electrical wiring with plastic covering had to be removed.”

Gabriel did much of that work, Keiter said.

Saturday’s training will first involve setting a number of fires in a 55-gallon drum placed in the house and filled with wood and rags. Different teams of firefighters will extinguish those fires as training before the structure is set aflame sometime about 11:30 a.m., Keiter said. The fire department will remain at the scene until there is no danger of the fire restarting.

“With the exception of myself and the assistant chief, everyone on this department is a volunteer,” the chief said. “Any time you can get the opportunity to train at a real structure under real conditions, it’s invaluable.”

The Baldwin City Business and Professional Women learned this month that its application for a grant to erect a hoop house at the community garden it has managed the past five years has been approved. BPW President Barbara Pressgrove said a grant up to $7,000 was approved from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resource Conservation Service for a hoop house at the garden on Second Street north of the cemetery. That is enough money to build a the hoop house of plastic rolled over metal loops 70 feet long and 10 to 12 feet wide. That’s much longer than what’s needed, but there will be a need for a solar-powered ventilation system, she said.

A representative from the NRCS will visit the community garden next week to help determine how big the hoop house should be and provide advice on other elements of its design, Pressgrove said. It probably will be August before the hoop house is completed, she said.

Meanwhile, plots are available for residents needing garden space, Pressgrove said. Rental fees are $35 for a 10- by 50-foot plot and $60 for two plots that size. Another $25 deposit is required, which is returned at the end of the season if renters clear their lots of weeds and other growth, she said. Renters have access to the water system at the site and to a tool shed, where they can store their tools or hoses, she said.

“The plots were refilled in the fall and the spring,” she said. “There’s a lot of plots remaining.”

For those eager to engage in spring planting and wanting to help the earth, the Eudora Parks and Recreation Department is looking for help with planting and general cleanup at 1 p.m. Saturday at CPA Park. The plants placed in the ground at the Earth Day event will create, conserve and protect monarch butterfly habitat. Refreshments will be available for volunteers.

Eudora high school sports fans needing help with their own cleanup and other tasks will be pleased to know members of the EHS football team are available, for a price. The team will have a benefit labor auction starting at 3 p.m. Sunday at CPA Park.

Eudora High School students will perform Thornton Wilder’s classic play “Our Town” at 7 p.m. Monday at the Eudora High School Performing Arts Center. Admission is $3 for students and $5 for adults. The EHS Dance Team will have a flower sale at the performance.

Baker University will offer performances of the play “Don’t Dress for Dinner” at 7:30 p.m. April 28 through April 30 and 2 p.m. May 1. All performances will be at Rice Auditorium on the Baldwin City campus.

The Ives Chapel United Methodist Church will have its monthly free community meal from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. April 28 at the church, 1018 Miami St.