Marion County RECORD

Church heads for its afterlife

Easter, a time for new beginnings, will mark the end of a Hillsboro Mennonite congregation. Trinity Mennonite Church, 211 Elm St. is closing because of its aging population, a decline in attendance, and a lack of willing leadership.

Goulash, with a side of rescue; Meal delivery brings help to woman in garage overnight

Cindy Unruh showed up at Sharon Gilmore’s home Monday morning to deliver goulash, mixed vegetables, pickled beets, and garlic bread from the Peabody Senior Center. She quickly found things amiss.

Principal tabbed as superintendent

A face already familiar to Marion students and the public was selected Thursday to be Marion’s school superintendent starting July 1. Justin Wasmuth, Marion Elementary School principal since 2011, was selected out of a field of 11 applicants and three finalists for the position.

Student accused of rape

A Hillsboro High School senior charged with rape, aggravated criminal sodomy, and aggravated sexual battery was arrested Jan. 18 in Lehigh. Abrey A. Nichols, 18, a lineman on the Trojan football team, was arrested in the 200 block of E. Main St. in Lehigh on a Mitchell County warrant.

Is Mama C's expanding or moving?

Carla Hamm knows she’s going to open a Mama C’s Take and Bake in Canton, but whether the original Hillsboro food business will remain open, she’s at a loss to say. The building where she operates at 111 W. Grand Ave. is rented from George Yang, who has been ordered by the city to repair its leaking roof or the city could repair or raze the building.

Container houses OK; making them isn't

Hillsboro city council members and residents of an area a mile south of Hillsboro can breathe a bit easier after county commissioners granted only a portion of a Rose Hill man’s request for a conditional use permit. Quentin Heidt’s original request to county planners was to operate a facility to modify shipping containers and to place three short-term rental units on property at 180th and Indigo Rds.

Marion focuses on clerk, not administrator

Marion City Council members met for nine minutes Monday and didn’t discuss hiring a new city administrator until a Record reporter asked about it at the end of the meeting. Mayor David Mayfield said his priority was hiring a new city clerk. Former clerk Tiffany Jeffrey resigned in December, as did her husband, police chief Clinton Jeffrey, and assistant police chief Steve Janzen after an executive session during which council members discussed allegations against former administrator Mark Skiles but didn’t take any action against him.

City openings stretch deputies thin

Keeping a police presence in both the county plus two of its towns is stretching the sheriff’s office. Peabody lost most of its police force in September when chief Bruce Burke, Josh Wilson, and Robert Bartlett resigned after a statement from then-mayor Tom Spencer that he “wanted druggies out of the city — legally or illegally.” Peabody’s remaining full-time officer, Caitlin Brunner, resigned in November to take a position with El Dorado department.

HRK buildings sold; restaurant possible

If Brent Miles’s dream comes true, an old gas station in front of HRK’s former main building will one day house a restaurant — specifically an Italian eatery with a patio and glass garage doors that would open during pleasant weather. An entrepreneur, Miles bought all three buildings at the HRK “campus” at Main and Roosevelt Sts. The purchase happened at the end of the year.

Pancakes to raise money for Peabody charities

Breakfast of pancakes and Peabody Sausage House sausage, along with kids running with skillets in their hands, are on tap Feb. 4 in Peabody. The event, a fundraiser for Peabody Community Foundation, will be 7 to 11 a.m. at Peabody-Burns High School’s Brown Building, 810 N. Sycamore St.

Survey about Marion available online, in person

A survey about Marion’s future asks about its housing, infrastructure, industrial park, and image. But one question it doesn’t ask is whether survey takers are residents of the city.

Thouvenell trial may be postponed for 15th time

Six years since Marion resident Jerry Thouvenell was charged with 12 counts of aggravated indecent liberties with a child younger than 14 and one count of battery, his trial already has been delayed 14 times. A conference is scheduled for Feb. 1 to decide whether trial will be delayed again because the case is no longer being prosecuted by the attorney general’s office. It was assigned Dec. 15 to county attorney Joel Ensey.

Fire district must redo election

Two out of four board members of Fire District No. 4, based in Peabody, must be replaced after its board was told last week that their Jan. 12 elections were nullified and must be redone. County attorney Joel Ensey attended Thursday’s board meeting to tell the board that the two were not permitted to take their seats because the fire district’s bylaws rule them out.

Parking stall suit dismissed

A Marion woman has lost a lawsuit against the Marion school district stemming from a fall in a parking area at the Performing Arts Center. Peggy Blackman filed suit Nov. 24, 2021, seeking more than $75,000 for injuries suffered in a fall two years earlier when she tripped over a parking block painted a dark, non-reflective color.

Holey graffiti, Batman!

Someone — or more than one someone — is bringing attention to potholes on county roads by spray-painting circles around them. In some cases, they’re also leaving pointed messages.

Bugged by pink? Not this VW lover

Pink cars most often are associated with Mary Kay Cosmetics. Hillsboro resident Dan Schaefer’s 1965 VW Beetle is an outlier.

3-way T-bird brings joy to owners

Mike Barter and his wife, Mindy, love cruising down the highway on beautiful, warm days in their 2004 Thunderbird convertible. The couple bought the car from its former owner in 2018, but can’t say which of them most wanted the car.

Jimmy Rudolph

Mass for Jimmy Rudolph, 83, whose obituary was published last week, will be at 10:30 a.m. Feb. 3 at St. John Nepomucene Church, Pilsen. Rosary will be at 10 a.m. A vigil is planned for 6 p.m. Feb. 2 at the church.

Accidents reported

Civil division cases

County jail arrests and bookings

Criminal division cases

Deeds recorded

Emergency dispatches

Offenses reported

Police activity reports

Silence isn't golden

After everything Marion has gone through in recent months, nothing should come as a surprise. Yet Monday night, the city council astounded us by meeting for just nine minutes — nine whole minutes — and not spending even a single second of that time discussing the elephant in the room: how it might replace the city administrator it fired a month earlier.

Survey says . . .

Marion’s current survey about long-term goals is a useful process that all communities should, and in many cases already do, participate in on a regular basis. The survey is likely to reveal that people move to Marion not so much for economic opportunity as for family connections. That could be interpreted two ways, of course: that we need to create new opportunities or that we need to focus on not losing current and potential residents because, for example, not enough long-term care is available for loved ones already living here.

Opening up on openness

Kudos to the Marion-Florence school board for quickly identifying a well-qualified candidate for superintendent and for adopting a more inclusive process for selecting him. We would have preferred if the school board had scheduled open sessions with the general public and allowed anyone interested to ask questions of the candidates, as Hillsboro did in its superintendent search last year.

ANOTHER DAY IN THE COUNTRY:

Activity director keeps residents busy

Amanda Gardner has been working at St. Luke Living Center for almost 23 years. She became a certified nurse’s aide in high school and worked at Marion Manor as a junior and senior and after graduating from Marion High School in 1999.

Chef to own restaurant at Elgin

Chef Kari Newell is taking over ownership of Parlour 1886 at the Historic Elgin Hotel on Feb. 1. “Tammy approached me in October with the idea to offer me an opportunity to own my own restaurant,” Newell said of Elgin co-owner Tammy Ensey.

Senior center menus

MEMORIES:

Schools get Healthy Habits grants

Marion High School received $2,000 for supplies for Junior Warriors, an after-school program that will focus on teaching students lifetime physical activities such as tennis, disc golf, and golf.

Registration for Boys State opens

Registration is open for American Legion Boys State of Kansas, which will be June 4 to 10 at Kansas State University. Kansas Boys State traditionally has been focused on students completing their junior year of high school the spring before each session. Boys State again is expanded registrants to students who will complete their sophomore year this spring.

College degrees and honors

Losing 95-4, they're still winners

The six girls on Peabody-Burns’s basketball team are learning more than fundamentals of the game. They’re also learning perseverance.

Weather defeats tourney play

Mother Nature had the game-winning shot in Saturday’s third-place game at Hillsboro’s Trojan Classic. The Trojan boys went 1-1, moving to 4-7 on the year, in the first rounds of the tournament.

Tourneys prove challenging for girls teams

Hillsboro’s girls went 1-2 in last week’s Trojan Classic, falling to 9-3 overall but salvaging a fourth place finish. Hillsboro whipped Republic County in the opener, 46-15, but Holcomb hung on to win the semifinal, 49-46, to send the Trojans to a third-place game.The Trojans didn’t have enough happen in a 47-43 loss to the Eureka Tornadoes.

Wrestlers compete in Eureka

Eureka’s wrestling tournament has grown in size, which led to stiffer competition for Marion and Hillsboro. Trojans finished 17th out of 28 competing schools with several Class 4A teams as well as 5A Newton in attendance.

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