BREAKING NEWS
UPDATED AFTER PRINT DEADLINE
Marion Reservoir’s blue-green algae warning was downgraded to a watch Thursday, but a new warning was issued for Marion County Lake.
Algae warnings and less-serious watches are effective for a full week and are re-evaluated each Thursday afternoon by Kansas Department of Health and Environment.
Rural Marion resident Melissa Kruse has a sincere, creepy feeling that the rickety old farmhouse she lives in may be haunted.
“This house is really weird,” she said. “Sometimes I think it’s a ghost. I could write a book about all the stuff that’s happened here.”
Having escaped the car just moments earlier, Pat Ash stood shuddering and in shock Tuesday as she watched flames engulf her Jeep Wrangler in a rural driveway.
“It was red,” she said, staring at the charred black remains. “It had new tires. I could hear each one of them pop.”
It you think it’s hot this week, wait a few decades.
A recent study by the Corps of Engineers predicts average temperatures around Marion Reservoir will rise 3 to 5 degrees by 2050.
Eleven-year-old Hannah Utecht of Hillsboro is putting an unusual spin on the classic summer lemonade stand.
Instead of selling lemonade or frozen treats, she is selling handmade holders, specifically designed for freezer pops, for $1 each. In her first two days, she sold 19 of them.
Roaring engines, the smell of motor oil, the crunch of twisted metal, smoke, fire and glory — Lehigh 11-year-old Parker Schultz loves everything about demolition derbies, especially his dad, Scott.
“I’ve been watching my dad do derbies for I don’t know how long,” Parker said. “It’s just pretty cool watching him.”
A couple and an infant escaped injury when their rental car was struck by lightning Saturday as they were driving on K-150 east of Marion.
Sergeant Mike Ottensmeier was in Florence when he received the dispatch at 5:50 p.m.
After Marion City Council members debated where to cut the city’s 2017 budget in the face of an 11 percent property tax hike, council members voted to spend another $755 to add lettering to a new $700 sign.
A first draft of the proposed budget would add more than 8 mills to the tax levy, taking it from 71.152 mills to 79.343 mills, pending equalization. Members discussed where to cut to avoid increasing the levy.
A Marion County mother and son are in jail on Oklahoma charges involving burglary and illegal use of credit cards.
Marla Kay Shiplet, 54, Marion, was arrested June 24 by Marion police on a warrant from Rogers County, Oklahoma.
Rushing the start of the July 4 weekend got a Peabody man in hot water when his fireworks set part of his lawn on fire and he had to call Peabody firefighters.
Sheridan Brown of 511 N. Elm St. discharged fireworks in his yard the evening of June 29, two days before fireworks were allowed, and started a fire in dry vegetation. He tried to stomp it out, but it moved faster than he anticipated.
Jesse Hamm’s phone was mostly silent Tuesday, a good sign after two days of rain.
“It wasn’t as bad as expected,” Hamm, the county road and bridge superintendent, said. “The western part of the county, Hillsboro, Goessel, and part of the south part of the county, were the worst hit.”
Although many in the capacity crowd who attended Monday’s 95th annual fireworks celebration in Peabody thought the show was spectacular, the finale was marred by aerial fireworks mishaps during the finale.
During an aerial display set to the tune of “The Battle of New Orleans,” two commercial Roman candles sailed horizontally a few feet above the ground. The first shell to fly toward the crowd triggered a temporary halt to the show, but the fireworks display soon resumed.
Money to pay for long-discussed Marion County Courthouse window repairs will come from a special building project fund the county has been setting aside for years. The fund now has over $1.3 million.
Part of the reason is that the project, though scheduled to begin late this year, won’t generate tax credits the county hopes to sell to pay a quarter of the $679,503 project until the job is finished in 2017.
Merlie A. Friesen, 86, died Saturday at Hillsboro Community Hospital.
Born April 30, 1930, in Balko, Oklahoma, to Jonathan and Marie (Plenert) Ratzlaff, she married Leonard K. Friesen on April 10, 1949, in Balko. He died in 2007.
Garry DuWayne Hanneman Jr., 55, grandson of Harry and Helen Hanneman of Peabody, died June 26 in Guthrie, Oklahoma,.
Born Aug. 28, 1960, to Gerald Hanneman Sr. and Marilyn Morton in Manhattan, he was a remodeler and tile setter.
Dean Hill 72, formerly of Hillsboro, died Monday at Dole Veterans Administration Hospital in Wichita.
Born June 28, 1944, in Hillsboro to Adam E. and Helen (Shiroky) Hill, he was a Vietnam era Army veteran. He worked at Associated Milk Producers in Hillsboro, ran a lawnmower repair business in Newton, and worked in the maintenance department at Newton High School.
John Douglas Wilson, 43, died Sunday at his home in Marion.
Born Feb. 2, 1973, in West Covina, California. to Malcom and Nola (Madera) Wilson, he married Sondra Bezdek on April 18, 2012, in Marion.
With most wheat cut and stored, depressed prices and corn development are at the forefront of farmers’ thoughts.
Cooperative Grain and Supply CEO Lyman Adams said they took in 2.3 million bushels at its Hillsboro, Marion, Lehigh, Canada, and Canton elevators.
Farming and family have been Bill Robinson’s life.
His 80 acres northwest of Florence have been in his family since his grandfather was a young man.
Sorry, no time to comment on unimportant issues this week — like whether the city really needs to spend several hundred dollars recarving a sign, whether county road crews lucked out or actually did something right, whether environmentalists need to get used to genetically modified crops, even whether ghosts are real.
A much more pressing issue has held us hostage for the past seven days — a criminal lurking in our backyard, stalking our every move, stealing at will, and mocking every attempt to encourage him to become a law-abiding good neighbor.
ANOTHER DAY IN THE COUNTRY:
Succumbing to life's little games
CORRECTIONS AND CLARIFICATIONS:
Deeds
Any barber likely knows hair matters. A particular style changes a person’s image. A snip here, a clip there, a buzz, a shear, and poof, when the hair settles, what once resembled the fabled Sasquatch suddenly becomes a real life person.
But who cuts the barbers hair?
More than 100 family members attended the James and Anna (Hayen) Conyers family reunion Saturday through Monday at Marion County Lake hall.
James and Anna were married in 1904. Activities at the reunion included fishing and swimming.
MEMORIES:
10,
25,
35,
50,
60,
100,
125 years ago
SENIOR CENTER:
Volunteers prepare center newsletter,
Senior menu
Current and former lake residents, part-time residents, and campers will be welcome for free hot dogs and hamburgers at 6:30 p.m. Saturday at the east shelter house at Marion County Park and Lake.
Officers of the lake’s Chat and Dine Club will provide entrees and fixings. Other attendees are being asked to bring guests and a dish to share for the club’s annual cookout meeting, which gives lake residents an opportunity to meet their neighbors.