10 YEARS AGO

JULY 20, 2016

Great Bend-based Straub International announced Tuesday that it would close its Marion location by the end of the month.

“The local agricultural economy continues to be weak, and we’re just not getting the revenue generation in that location to be able to sustain its operation,” chief executive Ron Straub said.

Jim Christensen, former owner of the dealership when it was Lynn’s Farm Equipment, said he was blindsided and dismayed.

One hundred houses in Marion failed to pass a recent drive-by assessment by Jeremiah Lange and other volunteer observers, who deemed 15 homes beyond repair for reasonable cost.

City council members want to set up a rental housing inspection program, but it drew criticism from landlord Donna Fink, who said: “It seems like the City of Marion is out to get everyone for everything.”

Lutheran churches in Marion and Hillsboro have a full-time pastor now that vicar John Werner has been ordained as a minister.

Tobe Moore and his grandson, Corbin Wheeler, recently plunged feet-first into a derelict paradise of a history project.

Corbin fell through the floor a couple of times as the adventurous duo waded into preliminary stages of remodeling a 19th century stone house that wilderness overran just south of Marion on Sunflower Rd.

Marion High School senior Kaitlyn Goebel spoke to her American Legion Auxiliary sponsors last week about her experiences at Girls State, where she was elected president of the mock state board of education.