BREAKING NEWS
UPDATED AFTER PRINT DEADLINE
A brief but tense standoff with an intoxicated and suicidal gunman who fled into a shed in Lehigh ended in a fatal shooting Tuesday evening.
Although law enforcement officers would not immediately identify the victim or confirm that he had died, radio transmissions indicated that Robb Stewart, 408 E. Maria St., was shot and killed at 6:46 p.m., just 33 minutes after police and sheriff’s deputies were dispatched to his house.
As it has been all month, Marion Reservoir will remain under a blue-green algae warning for the next week while Marion County Lake has been upgraded to less significant “watch” status.
The Kansas Department of Health and Environment issued the advisories Thursday. They will remain in effect for a week
Among calls ambulance personnel receive, one provokes anxiety above all others.
“Here is small-town Kansas, almost every call is someone you know,” emergency responder Ben Steketee said. “But it’s almost unfathomable to think of responding to one of your loved ones.”
If all were right in the world of Tom and Cheryl Potts of Peabody, they would have ridden out Thursday’s storm in their 102-year-old two-story house at 612 N. Walnut St. in Peabody, and they still would have a car.
However, a December electrical fire rendered the house uninhabitable, forcing them to look for temporary living quarters.
A half-dozen miniature cattle, missing and feared stolen for five days, were recovered by their owners Sunday from a pasture seven miles away in Butler County.
Rudy, Blue Belle, Duck, Daisy, Bessie, and Rosie were in their own pasture, with the gate chained shut, when owner Aaron Moore completed her chores at 6 p.m. June 13.
An electronic “out of service” message on an automatic car wash pay station apparently speaks for the entirety of Highway 56 Car Wash in Marion.
Scrawled on a folded slip of paper in a coin return of a self-service unit is the word “broken.” A vacuum/shampoo unit is inoperable, its coin slot jammed with quarters. A wash bay that once accommodated large trucks doesn’t have a sprayer hose.
Marion night owls won’t have to leave town to satisfy their snack cravings when Casey’s General Store expands its hours in July.
Casey’s financial analyst Sam Knezevic confirmed Friday that Marion’s store will be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, starting in early to mid-July.
Two fights, both leading to ambulance calls and one leading to an arrest, broke out after Bluegrass at the Lake this weekend at Marion County Lake
The Sheriff’s Department, Marion’s canine unit, and Marion ambulance responded to both incidents one just before midnight Saturday, the other near 4 a.m. Sunday.
County commissioners debated Monday whether to award a contract to demolish the Florence school to the lowest bidder or to a local business whose bid came in close but higher. In the end, they awarded the contract to Belle Plaine-based H Excavating.
H Excavating had bid the project at $79,500, with an additional $2,500 to replace existing sewer line beneath the building if the demolition work destroys it.
Operational changes are being contemplated for Marion County Park and Lake after the resignation of superintendant Steve Hudson.
Hudson’s resignation was effective Monday, the same day he was rehired by the county as an equipment operator for the road and bridge department. He worked for the road and bridge department for 3½ years before being appointed lake superintendant 11 years ago.
Two semi-automatic handguns, 6.5 grams of marijuana, and paraphernalia were reportedly found under a front seat during a traffic stop June 12 at Industrial Rd. and US-56.
At 12:32 a.m., Marion officer Lee Vogel pulled over a Chevylet Camaro with a defective tag light and obstructed tag. In his report, Vogel said he smelled marijuana and called for Marion’s canine unit.
Expanding digitized records, forming partnerships with other museums, and adding programs for the public are 2018 goals for Marion Historical Museum, board chairman Pamela Varenhorst told city council members Monday.
The museum has been working to digitize all artifacts, but the best software is expensive and a dedicated internet line is needed. The museum is asking the city for extra help.
People living on the east side of Cedar St. will soon have trenches dug along the front of their property as AT&T works to replace fiber optic cable. City administrator Roger Holter said the company was installing new line as an upgrade. The new cable will run from U.S.-56 along Cedar to the AT&T building. The city was notified of the project last week when AT&T had the city locate utilities for them. Work will begin next week, he said.
A new weekly panel discussion program featuring newsmakers and a rotating panel of journalists from five Kansas newspapers, including news editor David Colburn, will premiere at 7:30 p.m. Friday on KPTS-TV, Channel 8.
The half-hour “Kansas Week with Pilar Pedraza,” formerly of KWCH-TV, will include a different journalist each week, starting with the Wichita Eagle then moving to the Marion County Record, the Wellington Daily News, the Times Sentinel suburban Wichita newspapers, and Kansas Publishing Ventures’ newspapers and shoppers in suburban Wichita, Newton, and Hillsboro.
Services for retired farm wife, rural teacher, and school cook Aileen Hanschu, 91, who died Monday at St. Luke Hospital, will be 10 a.m. Thursday at Our Savior Lutheran Church. Burial will be in Lewis Cemetery, Ramona.
Born July 3, 1925, to Ernest and Minnie (Hill) Bird of Hope, she married Theodore Hanschu on May 24, 1947. The couple farmed for 29 years, and she worked as a teacher at a rural school for five years. They moved to Marion in 1976, and she cooked at the elementary school and did housework for others.
Services for Erma Koehn, 83, who died Sunday at her home in Hillsboro, were this morning at Alexanderfeld Mennonite Church.
Born Sept. 6, 1933, in Chickasha, Oklahoma, to Daniel and Lena (Schmidt) Smith, she married Marvin Koehn on March 8, 1953, in DeRidder, Louisiana.
Services for Amanda A. Marler, 37, who died Monday in Wichita, will be 11 a.m. Thursday at Hillsboro Mennonite Brethren Church.
Visitation will be 7 to 8:30 tonight at the church. A committal service will be at 10 a.m. Thursday.
Services for retired Boeing worker Bruce Sayers, 59, of Burns, who died June 14 at Via Christi - St. Francis Hospital in Wichita, were Saturday in Peabody. Burial was in Hillcrest Cemetery, Florence.
Born Dec. 10, 1957, in Wichita to Lawrence F. and Lois L. (Glass) Sayers, who survive, he was preceded in death by son Travis Wayne Sayers.
Services for Ramona native Darlene F. Sondergard, 94, Herington, who died Saturday at Herington Municipal Hospital, were to have been this morning at Trinity Lutheran Church, Ramona, with burial in Lewis Cemetery.
Born June 11, 1923, to Adam and Mary (Schick) Helbach, she married Alfred J. Sondergard on Sept. 16, 1942, at her parents’ home in Ramona. She worked as office manager for his business for more than 40 years. He died July 13, 2014. A grandson and a brother also preceded her in death.
IN MEMORIAM:
Del Hollon
This year, patrons of Marion City Library’s eighth annual Garden Tour can expect to experience five delightful country stops and chance to acquire rustic garden items and refreshments.
The tour will run from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. June 24 throughout the county.
Back when we had a democracy instead of a bureaucracy, county officials were required to publish, in newspaper legal notices, the payee and amount of every check they wrote.
Citizens would pore over the published lists of checks, technically called warrants, to make sure tax dollars weren’t being wasted.
ANOTHER DAY IN THE COUNTRY:
With answers, short isn't always sweetCORRECTIONS:
Care home abuse, mission
Jackson, Mississippi, and Marion, Kansas, are vastly different cultures, but Lee Jones finds Marion’s culture a pleasant change.
A Jackson native, the soon-to-be senior at Alcorn State University in Lorman, Mississippi, is in Marion for a summer internship with Natural Resources Conservation Service.
Members of Bluestem Art Guild will exhibit numerous art pieces through September at Gallery 101 in Marion.
A pre-opening from 7 to 9 p.m. Friday will give the public a chance to meet the artists. Proprietor Jan Davis will offer wine and refreshments.
Raymond R. and Eunice (Janzen) Matz will celebrate their 71st wedding anniversary Thursday.
They were married June 22, 1946, in Hillsboro.
MEMORIES:
10,
25,
35,
50,
60,
100,
125 years agoSENIOR CENTER:
Girl Scout cookies sweeten lunches,
Menu
Marion twins Taylor and Paige May have turned another double play.
After winning $1,000 health professions scholarships from St. Luke Hospital Auxiliary earlier this month, the twins each won an additional $1,000 scholarship at a National Sports Clinic fast-pitch softball tournament in Overland Park.
Centre’s FFA chapter will receive $2,500 to defray expenses of additional members attending FFA’s national convention.
The donation, from a Monsanto Fund program called America’s Farmers Grow Communities, was directed by Tampa farmer Francis Jirak, one of 87 Kansans selected to choose a favorite charity to receive $2,500.
Elmdale ranchers Joe and Connie Mushrush will share stories about the history and science of ranching at a Ranching Heritage Prairie Talk at 1:30 p.m. Saturday at Pioneer Bluffs, a mile north of Matfield Green on K-177.
The Mushrush family has raised red angus cattle for more than 60 years.