BREAKING NEWS
UPDATED AFTER PRINT DEADLINE
Republican Lori Lalouette-Crawford won the 1st District Marion County Commission seat by one vote over independent Craig Dodd, 676 to 675.
Provisional ballots were counted and results certified this morning (Monday) at the county commission meeting.
Marion County voters stood in line at polling places for upwards of two hours Tuesday to cast their ballots. At the end of the night, 58 percent of Marion County’s 7,760 registered voters cast ballots.
“That is very good for us in Marion County,” said Tina Spencer, Marion County Clerk and election officer. “I’m very excited, but I’m upset that people had to wait. I know that’s made it difficult.”
Charges are pending after one Tabor athlete was hospitalized and another suffered minor injuries in incidents 30 minutes apart in and around Hillsboro last week.
Manuel Michael Pineda, 23, a 5-foot-10, 225-pound senior linebacker on the Tabor football team, suffered a severe laceration and loss of consciousness in an altercation shortly after 3 a.m. Oct. 26 at a rental home at 406 S. Ash St. in Hillsboro, according to a police report.
The Hillsboro City Council moved to condemn four private properties Tuesday. The three single-family residences and former gas station remain in various states of disrepair and are unsafe, officials said.
The city council unanimously passed resolutions for each of the blighted properties that set a public hearing in January to determine whether the structures ought to be repaired or demolished. The property owners did not attend Tuesday’s city council meeting and could not be reached for comment.
Faced with a difficult decision at their Halloween meeting, County Commissioners Dan Holub, Roger Fleming, and Randy Dallke were unable to choose between various decorative pumpkins and deferred declaration of a winner to a democratic vote of county employees.
It came in the midst of a three-hour commission meeting Friday, providing for some good fun for county offices and a reprieve from more serious business for the commissioners.
The way USD 410 board of education members are elected will change with the passage Tuesday of a proposition creating seven “at large” positions for the board.
The move away from three districts each with two board members and one at-large position had 801 votes in favor of the change, while 447 people voted to keep the current system.
Norma Lee Riggs is 88 and plays the organ at Marion Christian Church two Sundays a month, sometimes three. Riggs, who is unable to use all her fingers when she plays, hopes another, younger organist takes over for her. However, like other organists in the community, she has been waiting for a replacement but none has come.
“If we could find someone, that would be great,” Riggs said. “But that’s the problem. Being 88-years-old, I’m not going to be able to do it much longer. I love to play, though.”
At least 60 participants attended the No-till on the Plains whirlwind exposition Monday in Marion County. The 501c3 non-profit educational organization promotes the benefits of no-till, a process in which seed is planted directly into soil that has not been disturbed through plowing or disking.
This was the first time No-till on the Plains has been in Marion County. Many national conservation service employees from throughout the state attended the event as a training seminar.
The public is invited to attend a Veterans Day service Tuesday at St. John’s Nepomucene Catholic Church in Pilsen.
A new woodcarving honoring Father Emil Kapaun will be unveiled and dedicated in the church following the 11 a.m. Mass. The woodcarving is sponsored by John Moore of Gallup, New Mexico, and carved by his friend, Mark Chavez. Both men will be present for the ceremony.
Though it wasn’t the biggest Toy Run in Marion County’s history, 76 motorcycle riders and nine classic cars filled with passengers braved the cold temperature of the open road Saturday to amass over 150 toys for underprivileged children.
One organizer, Mike Sechler, said that in his 21 years helping the event, 120 riders was the largest Toy Run Marion County has ever seen.
The city of Marion drew praise from the county commissioners at a meeting Friday for the city’s implementation of a curbside recycling program, set to begin in January.
“I’m tickled to death,” Commissioner Randy Dallke said. “I’m gonna make a prediction that the city of Marion people will enjoy it, after they get used to it.”
Alice Meysing, 84, of Lincolnville died Monday in Hillsboro.
A funeral mass will be 10 a.m. Saturday, with the Rosary preceding the Mass at 9:30 a.m. Interment at Pilsen Cemetery will follow the Mass.
The chickens arrived in early May. They were three weeks old. They had their own chicken coop that they stayed in at night while the skunk slinked by and the coyotes howled.
Ken and Malinda Stuchlik bought the 14 chickens to make eggs. They knew it was a 16- to 18-week cycle before any chickens produced. So for the first few months there was not any expectation of finding eggs.
Marion County farmers — and farmers across the country — are going to have some choices to make before enrolling their various commodities in protection plans.
Farm Service Agency executive director Sara Morrey recently attended a weekend training program to learn about provisions of the 2014 farm bill, which covers American farmers from this year until 2018.
Dennis Klenda of Pilsen has raised hogs since 1970. The 70-year-old is preparing to leave the business by the end of the year.
“I cried when I moved the last batch of weaning pigs from the little concrete floor to the finishing floor,” he said.
Imagine a high school student walking for the first time into a convention center where the population of your entire town could sit in one small section of the arena.
What would you expect from an event in its 87th year, an event that drew 60,000 likeminded strangers to Louisville, Kentucky, from all over the United States into a nexus of agricultural related activities known as the National FFA Convention?
Marion County extension agent Ricky Roberts characterized next year’s wheat crop as “coming up good” and the soybeans as “OK.”
“That’s what we can tell right now,” Roberts said. “For the most part we have enough moisture and the wheat is coming up real good.”
Retired professor Max Terman will present his research about the Civil War and his family’s connection to it at Tabor College’s second Lifelong Learning session at 9:45 a.m. Friday in Wohlgemuth Music Education Center.
Terman will mark the war’s 150th anniversary by discussing his two Civil War books, “Hiram’s Honor” and its new sequel, “Hiram’s Hope,” along with images and songs from the era.
The family of Douglas Fisher requests a card shower to honor him on his 60th birthday Nov. 16.
Fisher lived in rural Marion for 30 years and in Hillsboro for 25 years before moving to Newton.
BIRTHS:
Claire Good'ROUND THE TOWN:
Many attend Harvest Mission FestivalNORTHWEST OF DURHAM:
Senior Citizens meet for potluck
Hillsboro Elementary School volunteer Jamie Peters believes it is imperative that children know food doesn’t just manifest itself on grocery store shelves in a poof of magic smoke.
“I have always wanted kids to be more educated as to where food really comes from,” Peters said. “I only recently came across the resources to do that.”
Hillsboro Trojans head coach Sandy Arnold told her team throughout the season to believe that a fourth-consecutive state championship could be theirs, and a team with question marks entering the season coalesced around that belief.
Their dream fell short by one match, as the Trojans fell to perennial powerhouse Silver Lake in the championship Saturday.
Having already put in the miles and trained as best as she could, Hillsboro High School senior and runner Emily Sechrist went into the state 3A cross-country meet hoping to win.
After winning the state 2A race as a junior, coming in second in 3A as sophomore, and becoming 3A state champion as freshman, Emily had good reason not only to hope, but also to believe in her ability to win it all one more time.
After every home football game, the Hillsboro Trojans kneel in a circle in the north end zone of Reimer Field, listening to coach Lance Sawyer recap game points and set the table for the next game.
The gathering after Thursday’s 12-7 loss to Council Grove was different. There was no need to belabor the loss, for there was no next game. Instead, the circle became an emotional passing of the guard as Sawyer was joined by senior captains while addressing the team.
Goessel advanced to the Class 1A Division I state volleyball championship match Saturday in Hays, but finished second as Centralia handed the Bluebirds their only loss of the season.
Goessel last appeared in a state final in 1996. The Bluebirds finished fourth last year, and with no seniors on the 2013 team, had hopes of making it further this year.
Goessel qualified for the Class 1A girls state cross-country meet as a team, and Saturday the Bluebirds medaled as a team, placing fourth at Wamego.
Five of Goessel’s seven runners set their best times of the season, with the four best times counting toward the team score. Jen Meysing came in with the Bluebirds’ fastest time in the 4-kilometer race, covering the circuit at Wamego Country Club in 17 minutes, 55.4 seconds to place 22nd. Rachel Manis finished in 18:13.40 for 26th place. Freshman Julia Nightengale ran her fastest time of the year, 19:17.70, to place 46th. Lauren Rymill came in 58th with a time of 20:05.60. Other Bluebirds runners were Laura Volze, 20:42.50, 62nd; Maxine Keyse, 20:44.40, 63rd; and Madeline Meier, 22:43.90, 69th.
Central Plains, ranked second in 8-man Division I by The Wichita Eagle, displayed its running and passing balance Thursday in a 60-6 win over Goessel.
Goessel trailed 44-6 at the end of the first quarter and the game ended at halftime.