BREAKING NEWS
UPDATED AFTER PRINT DEADLINE
At least 10 and possibly 12 people were injured Friday when a violent thunderstorm packing 60 mph winds swept across Marion Reservoir and flipped over three recreational vehicles in a campground at Cottonwood Point II. All were treated at area hospitals and had been released by Saturday. “The wind came up all of a sudden — then boom!” recounted camper Ron Kaufman of Hutchinson, whose recreational vehicle was adjacent to the overturned ones.
USD 410 Board of Education unanimously voted Monday to withdraw from Schools for Fair Funding, a group of school districts suing the state over school funding. Superintendent Steve Noble reiterated his stance that the state legislature is responsible for continued improvement in education. The 1-percent state sales tax increase only prevented more cuts to school funding, he said.
Faced with a Monday deadline, Marion County has applied for an extension to decide how to relieve overcrowding at its jail. Until overcrowding is alleviated, officials must designate an employee with no other duties than to watch for fires 24 hours a day. The fire watchers are in addition to two full-time and several part-time jailers.
Marion County will have a total budget of $6,980,217 in 2011, which will increase property taxes 1.76 percent. Commissioners approved the budget, which is an increase of $416,250 from 2010, for publication. That amounts to a 1.127 mill increase, to 65.215 mills. The county’s legal notice of the budget can be found on page 13 in this newspaper. A public hearing on the budget will be Aug. 23.
Property owners may see increases in taxes this next year if the county and some cities get their way. Published budgets indicated increases for most government entities.
Recession continues to affect county taxpayers with more than $400,000 in unpaid taxes. With a less-than-10-percent increase from last year, a total of $401,827 in property taxes were unpaid July 31, the deadline for avoiding inclusion on the list beginning on page 11 in this newspaper. Last year, $366,198 was unpaid by that time.
Advance voting is a growing trend, county clerk Carol Maggard said Friday. In the Aug. 3 primary, 295 of 2,706 total ballots were cast in advance — more than 10 percent.
Glenn Murphy, of Derby, slowly attracted a crowd at Threshing Days Saturday in Goessel by playing a mountain dulcimer, a sit-down wooden instrument, which sounds like a cross between a banjo and a mandolin. Murphy started playing Saturday afternoon by himself but was joined by Jean Wiens, of Mead, who jammed with Murphy on piano for a few songs.
Marion County native Lucille Verena Meirowsky, 92, died Aug. 7 at Parkside Homes, Hillsboro. She was born Sept. 27, 1917, in Marion County, to Leo Charles and Josephine Mary (Wegerer) Winkley. She graduated from Marion High School in 1935. She also graduated from Kansas State Teachers College.
The body of Kandi Lee Thouvenell-Sprague, 28, was discovered Aug. 2 in rural Saline County. She was born June 9, 1982, in Marion, to Jerry Thouvenell and Anna Dennis and graduated from Hillsboro High School in 2000.
Spurred by drought in Russia and market speculation, wheat prices have surged after harvest by more than $2 per bushel. Prices for farmers were $5.85 per bushel Monday at Cooperative Grain and Supply in Hillsboro, grain coordinator Dick Tippin said.
Jeff Methvin of rural Peabody has sweaters, coats, and even stuffed animals made with alpaca fiber. “It’s softer than cashmere and warmer than wool. It doesn’t itch at all,” he said.
Cool, wet May causes farmer to turn to soybeans By ADAM STEWART Staff writer Farmer Lewis Unruh of rural Peabody skipped planting cotton this spring, and he doesn’t know of any other farmers in Marion County with cotton fields this year. It marks the first time since his father, Charles, planted cotton in 1983 that the family hasn’t grown any cotton.
Steve Bartel of rural Lehigh classifies himself as a farmer, but he is also a businessman. Bartel started custom farming — harvesting and planting crops for other farmers — in 1994 when he came back to his family farm. He wanted something to supplement his income to pay for bigger and better machinery.
Some county officials may be ready to throw rocks across the street at the Record office for drawing attention to jail overcrowding. The 1930s jail is designed to hold no more than 11 inmates. Therefore, when we noticed there were 18 inmates on the sheriff’s roster, we wanted to know how the sheriff’s department was handling the overflow.
If you voted in the August primary, I hope you noticed that nowhere on the ballot was a box marked “Against Candidate A.” Now is a good time to put down mud balls and poison arrows. Take the target off the other person’s heart and tell me why I should vote for you not against your opponent. Tell me where you stand on the issues, what you believe, what changes you want to see, and the direction our state and country are heading.
Mick Coster described Hillsboro Community Hospital’s new cardiac monitoring system as “Jetson’s technology.” Coster, an ICU nurse in Denver, presented the hospital’s new Mindray monitoring system to nurses at Hillsboro Hospital Monday.
Anna Woods was working out too much; she was exercising twice a day, constantly in training for her next event — a triathlon or marathon always around the corner. She was trying to conceive but was taxing her body too much. Her pituitary gland was rendered unable to produce the necessary hormones.
CORRESPONDENTS:
Northwest of Durham,
Round the town
On his last day of summer workouts, former Goessel High School standout and KSU walk-on Weston Hiebert walked into his coach’s office and learned that he had made the 120-man roster for the Kansas State University football team. However, he did not make the camp team that was going to continue to practice July 28 through Aug. 21 when school starts.
Two Marion County athletes have been awarded Kansas Collegiate Athlete Conference Champion of Character Student Athlete of the Year for 2009-10. Tabor College volleyball player Jordan Crosson was named female student athlete of the year and Bethel College student and former Goessel High School graduate Cameron Voth was named male student athlete of the year.
Goessel High School graduates Donna Spoonemore of Hillsboro and Kevin Nickel of rural Newton had good showings in two Kansas triathlons — Lake Afton near Wichita on July 10 and Aug. 1 at Derby. Spoonemore finished first in her age group with a total time of 1 hour 22 minutes 48 seconds, placing seventh overall. There were 78 competitors in the women’s division. Athletes began the race with a 400-meter pool swim, rode 14 miles on bicycles, and completed the race with a 3.1-mile run.