BREAKING NEWS
UPDATED AFTER PRINT DEADLINE
Classes and activities for all county school districts resumed as usual Friday after four out of five districts closed Thursday out of fear someone would bring a gun to school.
A Kansas City, Missouri, caller’s fear that he might be shot at a school in a county named Marion — not necessarily in Kansas — caused cancellation Thursday of classes and activities in all Marion County, Kansas, schools except Goessel, where superintendent Mark Crawford defended his decision to keep schools open.
NASA astronaut Tyler “Nick” Hague has a message for students at Peabody-Burns Elementary School.
“I’m tickled at going back to Peabody,” Hague said Monday. “I could look kids in the eye and go, ‘Hey, I was sitting in that chair, and if I can do it, so can you.’”
The entire Florence fire department was fired Monday, and a list of volunteers willing to step into the department was approved.
The city council decided it was going be easier to restructure the department than it would be to “keep going through this,” acting fire chief Terry Britton said.
A determined investigation of a suspicious late-night traveler on Indigo Rd. resulted in the arrest of a Wichita man accused of trying to deliver heroin and marijuana to a Hillsboro buyer.
Marques D. Morris, 36, Wichita, was booked into jail at 2:44 a.m. Sunday on suspicion of distributing heroin and marijuana, using a communications facility in a felony drug violation, and driving without a valid driver’s license.
A housing developer who wants to put container homes north of 3rd St. in Hillsboro will face a longer moratorium than the 60 days announced Feb. 1 by city council members.
The city’s planning and zoning commission isn’t finished developing an overlay district for alternative housing.
After disagreeing with Marion planners over whether land in the city industrial park should be rezoned for retail sales and whether a dollar store developer should receive a conditional use permit to build a store on N. Roosevelt St., city council members Monday passed without comment two resolutions proposed by the planning commission.
Council members took zoning matters into their own hands in late February and rezoned a strip of the industrial park bordering Roosevelt St.
County commissioners granted a special event permit Monday to Flint Hills Bent Rims to hold its Florence Grand Prix and lent the organization radios to boot.
Race organizer Duane McCarty asked for the permit because the race will be partly inside Florence and partly in the county.
Emphasizing the word “will,” Hillsboro Community Child Care Committee chairman Tristen Cope said a committee was moving forward with obtaining the Trinity Mennonite Church building in Hillsboro for a child-care facility.
“We have been working for this since January 2019,” Cope said. “We’ve done surveys, conducted training sessions, and acquired community partners. We meet at least once a month.”
Lifelong woodcarver John Fredrickson bought Gallery 101 in Marion last week and plans to use it to display and sell some of the hundreds of completed projects stored in his basement.
He started carving when he was a teenager.
State and federal regulators have approved acquisition of Hillsboro State Bank by Vintage Bank Kansas, the banks announced Monday.
Vintage’s president, Steve Worrell, said in a release that the merger should be completed by mid-April.
Country singer Tyler Farr will headline Chingawassa Days on this year. Stoney Larue was meant to perform in 2020, but the festival was canceled that year and in 2021 because of pandemic concerns.
Farr’s top hits include “Redneck Crazy,” “Hello Goodbye,” and “A Guy Walks into a Bar,” the last of which placed first on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs in 2012.
A Marion apartment building converted in 2015 from a historic elementary school is now up for sale for $550,000.
Bown-Corby, 412 N. 2nd St., which retains the name of the school it used to be, was listed for sale March 29 with Pinnacle Realty Group in Wichita.
Musicians from near and far are set to appear April 16 at Flint Hills Counterpoint’s second Musical Bike Adventure.
The first tour attracted 40 bikers last April.
Kaw Mission administrator Mark Brooks will portray pioneer trader Seth Hays at a meeting April 21 of the Cottonwood Crossing chapter of the Santa Fe Trail Association.
The 7 p.m. presentation at Goessel’s city building will be open to the public.
Marion County still will be split into two legislative districts under reapportionment, but the precise boundaries will change.
House District 70, represented by John Barker, will lose the Lehigh area but expand to include the Florence and Burns areas.
A Junction City man who allegedly had 118 grams of crack cocaine in his car was arrested late March 30.
Deputy Josh Meliza pulled over Christopher M. Thomas, 23, at US-77 and 170th Rd. After smelling what he characterized as burned marijuana, Meliza summoned deputy Kaylan Miles to help search Thomas’s car.
Orders for red and pink geraniums, Boston ferns, and flowering baskets offered in Marion City Library’s annual plant sale are due April 20.
Profits benefit the library. Plants cost $15 each and will be delivered to the library May 5 for pickup between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m.
Free government commodities will be distributed next month instead of this month.
Residents qualify if they have monthly household income of less than $1,396 plus $492 for each additional household member after the first.
Graveside services for Ryan Scott Schierling, 32, who died March 27 at his home in Lehigh, were Tuesday at Gnadenau Cemetery south of Hillsboro.
He was born April 5, 1989, in Newton, to Duane and Jill (Westbrook) Schierling.
IN MEMORIAM:
Hiro Takahashi
Pam and Richard Idleman started their own business in 1993 when Pam was only 19 years old.
They operated a Servicemaster franchise for 10 years, then launched an independent corporation called I-Serve Facilities.
At age 75, Ken Koslowsky has no plans to stop preparing income tax returns for people.
“I view it as a community service,” he said. “Most people could do their own if they really wanted to, but I’m happy to do it for them.”
What’s more surprising than a team coming from a record 16 points down to win March Madness?
Proud as we are of Monday night’s thrilling victory by the Kansas Jayhawks in the NCAA basketball tournament, we’re equally puzzled by what might be considered delayed April Fools jokes locally:
An announced candidate’s complaint notwithstanding, proposed redistricting of Marion County’s two legislative districts seems to be an improvement if not what should be done.
The entirety of Marion, Chase, and Morris Counties, with just a tiny bit of some other, larger county added, would give us a district that wouldn’t cut Marion County in half, leaving both halves as ignorable minorities in districts dominated by communities outside the county.
LETTERS:
GerrymanderedCORRECTIONS:
Collegiate signing,
Old-style mechanic
A plan to get together regularly with a group of scouting friends to try out new eating establishments in Kansas City led 1969 Marion High School graduate Doug Westerhaus to suggest meeting at Harvey House in Florence.
The group met Saturday to view the museum and share a meal served by Harvey Girls Judy Mills and Sara Dawson. Mills gave a history of Fred Harvey.
Sherie Moody has retired from Marion County Health Department after 32 years of administering the federal Women, Infants, and Children program. Her last day was Thursday.
In addition to distributing checks and now electronic cards for food assistance, Moody assessed the health and nutrition of clients and gave advice on how they could move forward on a healthy path.
Marion City Library will hide 1,500 eggs filled with candy for kids ages 8 and younger to find at its Easter egg hunt at 10:30 a.m. April 16.
The Easter bunny will be available for photos.
MEMORIES:
15,
30,
45,
60,
75,
105,
135 years ago
For an eighth year, Marion High ag teacher Mark Meyer will be among 80 ag educators nationwide helping train other ag teachers how to present a new science-based curriculum.
Meyer attended a three-day program last month in Nashville preparing lead teachers to present the curriculum about ag power and technology.
Hillsboro High School’s state-champion basketball team received additional honors this past week.
Two Trojans were named first-team all-state for Class 2A by the Kansas Basketball Coaches Association. A third was an honorable mention.