BREAKING NEWS
UPDATED AFTER PRINT DEADLINE
Despite reporting only 34 new cases of COVID-19 in the seven days that ended Monday, health officials are bracing for what they expect will be a surge in cases after Christmas.
The newest cases — 22 on Monday and 12 last Wednesday — add up to the lowest seven-day total since immediately after Thanksgiving, but that probably doesn't indicate a lessening in spread of coronavirus illness.
Three mothers who asked online for help giving their children a happy Christmas found many people willing to help.
Hillsboro resident Skye Kurtz asked whether anyone had toys or clothing for a 4-year-old girl and a 1-year-old boy.
Considering 624 Marion County residents have tested positive for COVID-19 since April, it’s likely at least 3,120 county residents — more than one in four — has been ordered to quarantine.
The number of quarantine orders could be as high as 15,600.
A female jailer fired days after the suicide of inmate Julie Starks appeared to have no connection to the incident, but another female jailer may have had a complicated history with Starks.
Tammy Whiteside was on duty when Starks committed suicide. She was the jailer who postponed Starks’s booking by nearly a day and a half, according to inmate Chris Wilson.
Eight fire departments were dispatched to battle a sweeping grass fire Tuesday that burned 960 acres north of K-150 and six miles east of Marion.
Marion fire chief Preston Williams said departments spent four hour battling the blaze in gusts of up to 40 miles an hour.
Marion city councilmen will consider Monday whether to extend a mask resolution set to expire Dec. 31.
The order was enacted in July and extended in August through the end of the year.
The signature of commissioner Dianne Novak was conspicuously absent from a letter county commissioners sent to a wind farm opponent who angrily confronted the planning and zoning director Nov. 12.
Florence resident Tom Britain confronted Sharon Omstead while she was in a Florence convenience store with her child. Omstead said one of the things Britain told her is that he “would take care of her,” that his words were “not a threat,” and “it’s going to happen.”
Trash and recycling pickup schedules in both Marion and Hillsboro were changed for the holiday weeks, but some Marion residents didn’t get the message.
On Monday, many residents whose trash is picked up that day set their trash on the curb.
A pool maintenance bill Marion city council members in November refused to pay in full will be addressed again at Monday’s city council meeting.
The invoice, for $17,221.62, was higher than the typical $14,977.51 the school district bills the city each year for pool maintenance.
The best gifts often come in a humble box.
At Pilsen’s St. John Nepomucene Catholic Church a locked, wooden coffer dedicated to Father Emil Kapaun holds the prayer requests of petitioners — many of whom are hoping for a miracle.
Marion County’s transfer station was finished Nov. 27 at a cost of $2,031,625.66, though another bill from the project engineer also might be coming.
County commissioners Monday reviewed the financial status of the transfer station, originally estimated at $1.875 million and financed at $1.78 million.
Hillsboro residents Laura Fowler Paulus, 43, and her daughter, Emily Paulus, 16, were both taken to Wesley Medical Center at 2:52 p.m. Dec. 15 after another car crossed the median of I-135 and collided head-on with their 2011 Ford Flex.
Emily Paulus was driving southbound near Park City when a 2000 Buick Century driven northbound by Travis Smith, 41, Newton, crossed into the median and was northbound in the southbound lane.
An attempt to find a foster placement for two dogs drew a rebuke from a state licensing agency Monday.
Victor Buckner, who is working to open a shelter called “Wags and Wiggles Furever,” posted a message seeking care for a friend’s two dachshunds.
Holy Family Parish will have three Christmas Eve services, 3 p.m. Thursday in Florence, 5 p.m. inPilsen, and 8 p.m. in Marion, as well as a Christmas Day service 9 a.m. Friday in Marion.
Florence United Methodist Church will have a Christmas Eve candlelight service at 6 p.m. Thursday, and Eastmoor UMC will live-stream a service at 7 p.m.
Lois Sklenar was shocked by the size of the turkey that showed up on her porch Tuesday afternoon.
The 22-pound bird one of many prizes Sklenar marveled over as the winner of this year’s Give-Back Giveaway, which was sponsored by the Marion County Record.
GOESSEL:
Kindergarten - Sheri Janzen,
Third grade - Aryana Archuleta,
Fourth grade - Andrea FishMARION:
Headstart,
Sunshine Country Preschool,
Kindergarten - Sarah Mason,
Kindergarten - Katie Rahe,
Kindergarten - Jessica Ensley,
Second grade - Staci Hanson,
Second grade - Suan Hall,
Third grade - Michelle Flaming,
LibraryPEABODY:
Preschool - Michele Gossen,
Kindergarten - Sarah Hagen,
First grade - Cierra Goodwin,
Second grade - Travis Schafer,
Third grade - Cindy Ziesemer,
Fourth grade - Jennifer Young
Burial for Wilmer Henry Thiessen, 89, who died Dec. 19 in Wichita, will be 1 p.m. Dec. 29 at Gnadenau Cemetery outside Hillsboro.
He is survived by his wife, Hildegard; daughters Charlene Thiessen, Vonda Kinser, and Lynette Roth; son Shaun Thiessen; seven grandchildren; four great-granchildren; and brother Virgil.
Terrie Lee Todd, 75, died Friday at her home at Marion County Lake.
She was born Aug. 19, 1945, to Robert Lee and Lola (Stratman) Washmon in Riverside, California.
IN MEMORIAM:
Violet RichmondIN MEMORIAM:
Dick Verschelden
You’d better watch out You’d better not cry. You’d better not pout. I’m telling you why. And it’s only tangentially related to Santa Claus coming to town.
One of the benefits of publishing a more- than-century-and-a-half-old newspaper is the we have archives — including copies of all those letters to Jolly Old St. Nicholas that little kids, now responsible adults, wrote way back when.
ANOTHER DAY IN THE COUNTRY:
Livening up Christmas
Gail Boaldin’s family has weathered a tough year, dealing with relatives’ health struggles and her daughter’s deployment overseas, but the holiday season has been especially hard.
“It’s extremely hard,” she said. “I have 15 grandchildren and I don’t get to see many of them at all. I haven’t for months, you know, but the holiday makes it worse. This was our weekend to have our family Christmas, so this has been a tough one.”
County school districts are in store for leadership shakeups, with three prominent figures move on or retire from their respective schools.
Combined, Hillsboro, Centre, and Peabody-Burns will say goodbye to two superintendents and a longtime secretary.
Forest Poulin’s days of trying to hit targets with a stone for a prize started when he was a child, when his stepfather would bring a flagpole to work in southern Florida and open the offer to all comers.
“Anybody that wanted to take a chance at getting closest to the pin or flagpole would win $25, so that’s the proposition,” he said.
A virtual tour of four Hillsboro homes created by Shari Sisk features the Morford, Huebert, Butler, and Sisk homes. It can be viewed at https://spark.adobe.com/video/WxXPTtbVcavIa.
The family of longtime Marion resident Peggy Blackman has requested a card shower to celebrate her 80th birthday on Dec. 31.
Her mailing address is 123 Eisenhower Dr, Marion, KS 66861.
MEMORIES:
10,
25,
55,
70,
100,
140 years ago
Local boys basketball teams didn’t win every game Thursday and Friday, but they played some of this season’s most exciting games.
Hillsboro played its second overtime game in two weeks grabbed a victory, this time besting Southeast of Saline 71-68 Thursday.
Marion wrestling tallied its first victory of the season Friday at Marion County Duals and later followed up with a second victory.
The Warriors had their best individual performances, too, with six athletes winning at least one match. Senior Todd Palic led the way for Marion, with wins in the 195- and 220-pound divisions, as well as two wins by default.
Marion County girls basketball teams netted mixed results early in the season, but Thursday and Friday games might have shown they were rounding a corner.
With Marion girls out of action because of COVID-19 quarantine, Hillsboro and Goessel both captured victory away from home.