BREAKING NEWS
UPDATED AFTER PRINT DEADLINE
A series of suddenly developing thunderstorms packing hurricane-force winds and hail up to 2 inches in diameter blasted through Marion County shortly after 10 p.m. Friday. No injuries were reported. However, the storms uprooted at least three large trees, split many others and blocked nearly a dozen streets with downed limbs and power lines in Marion and elsewhere in the county.
A 12-year-old boy from Newton was clinging to life Tuesday after a valiant 20-minute effort by Marion County Lake residents and staff rescued him from 8 to 10 feet of water Saturday at the lake’s swimming beach. Volunteers and emergency workers involved in the rescue said the boy did not initially respond to resuscitation from emergency medical technicians at the scene.
A 3-year-old girl went home from the hospital Monday night after nearly drowning Sunday at Hillsboro Family Aquatic Center. Kayla McPhail, Marion, was at the pool with her grandmother, Sheila Thouvenell, Sunday afternoon.
Faced with deciding whether to approve or deny a controversial truck route through Jex Addition, Marion City Council voted unanimously Monday to eliminate all designated truck routes in the city. Commercial trucks as large as 80,000 pounds may now drive legally on any street in Marion.
At new principal Tod Gordon’s request, the Marion school board accepted a proposal Monday that would overturn the previous principal’s policy of mandatory study periods for failing students. The policy, instituted under Brenda Odgers, required students failing one class to attend supervised study sessions an hour before or after school. If a student was failing multiple classes, the required study period was two hours.
A day of near-100-degree temperatures and 20 percent humidity sent farmers into the fields Monday to do some test cutting of wheat, and some of it was dry and ready for harvest. The Cooperative Grain and Supply elevator at Hillsboro took in its first load on Saturday. By Monday evening, it had received 37,000 bushels. According to grain coordinator Dick Tippin, moisture was in the 12 to 13 percent range. Anything above 14.5 percent is considered wet.
Art in the Park, welcome bags for visitors and new residents, flags on Main Street, updating the community sign at Main and Elm streets, the annual farm-city banquet, Santa Claus on Main Street, overall promotion of the community. These things don’t just happen.
Rich Vogt’s favorite pastime Friday morning was to watch drivers conspicuously slow down in front of the Downtown Eatery at 211 E. Main St., Marion, and peer into the window. They needed to check that the illuminated open sign was not a ruse. Vogt opened his restaurant for the first time 6 a.m. Friday. Breakfast hours were expectedly slow. Vogt did not tell anyone, except his employees, that he was opening. He wanted to allow his servers and cooks to work in a lower-pressure environment. He hired a group that featured many new local employees; none of them had worked together.
In a letter, Kansas Historical Society has told Marion County that a proposal by Chris, Heather, Molly, and Tamra Holub to build rental cabins at Marion County Park and Lake would not interfere with the lake’s designation as a historic place. The Society’s Standards and Guidelines for Evaluating the Effects of Projects on Environs are not meant to discourage new development, but rather to ensure compatibility, the letter says.
Richard A. Brenzikofer, 77, of Marion, passed away suddenly June 4, at his homenear Marion. He was born June 6, 1933, at Newton, the son of William and Demelia Belle (Pierce) Brenzikofer. He grew to adulthood in Burns, graduating from Burns High School in 1951. He served his country with the United States Army during the Korean War.
Retired elementary school teacher Barbara R. Wohlgemuth Franz, 85, died June 10 at Parkside Homes, Hillsboro. Burial will be at 10 a.m. today at Hillsboro Mennonite Brethren Cemetery. Services will follow at 2 p.m. at First Mennonite Brethren Church, Wichita. Pastor Brent Warkentin will preside.
Retired construction worker Harvey Peters, 87, died Saturday at Salem Home, Hillsboro. Services will be at 10 a.m. Thursday at Trinity Mennonite Church, Hillsboro. Pastor Jeff Wintermote will officiate.
Edwin Winter, 91, of Hillsboro, died June 7 at Salem Home, Hillsboro. He was a farmer and a member of Zion Lutheran Church. He was born April 12, 1920, in rural Durham, to Jacob and Eva (Wasemiller) Winter.
Marion City Administrator Doug Kjellin and Public Works Director Marty Fredrickson will give testimony in a lawsuit against Syngenta Crop Protection Inc. and Syngenta AG, makers of the herbicide, atrazine. Kjellin and Fredrickson will travel June 23 and 24 to St. Louis to give depositions in the lawsuit, in which the City of Marion is a plaintiff. A deposition is a transcript of testimony given outside of court.
The Marion City Council approved payment of $15,740 to APAC Kansas Inc. Shears division to replace water lines on Roosevelt, Thorp, and Freeborn. The project was funded through community development block grants. A payment of $3,800 was approved for Ranson Financial to process the city’s CDBG fund worth $26,700. A payment of $727 was approved to Lochner financial for surveying and administrative services for the project.
Marion County Emergency Medical Services were called 109 times in May, an increase of 36 percent from the same period in 2010. Medical emergenciesaccounted for 30 calls; no-transports, 21; transfers, 20; falls, 12; standbys, 10; canceled calls, 6; cardiac emergencies, 5; and motor-vehicle accidents, 5.
Marion County Commission set dates and times Monday for holiday fireworks displays in rural portions of the county. June 27 through 30, fireworks will be permissible from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Hours will increase to 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. July 1 through 3, and from 8 a.m. to midnight July 4. Hours will be reduced to 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. July 5.
Heroes don’t swish 3-point shots at the buzzer, intercept passes for pick-six touchdowns in overtime games or headline pay-per-view cage matches. Some run into burning skyscrapers or defuse improvised explosive devices halfway around the world, but most are ordinary people — the type of people who volunteer to assemble stages for community concerts.
Rhino Capital of Kansas”? “The Town Between Two Lakes”? Try “Semi Capital of Kansas” and “The Town Between Two Tractor-Trailers” instead. Facing a tough choice between neighbors’ rights and a landowner’s rights — a dispute that the city itself contributed to with ill-advised past statements and actions — the City of Marion bizarrely chose Monday to take a mess that had been confined to one area of town and inflict it on the entire community.
Don’t you just hate it when you want to remember something, word for word, and you don’t have a pencil and paper to write it all down? Doesn’t happen to you that often? All the time, for me. This weekend I was in Salina enjoying the River Festival, sitting under a tent, listening to wonderful music, watching people, when suddenly a whole column for the Marion County Record began forming itself in my mind.
He was hot and exhausted, confused and discouraged. Furthermore, he was tired of running; sick of being hunted like an animal. And now his hiding place in the dank recesses of the cave had been compromised. He watched in wide-eyed surprise as the leader of the army that was tracking him walked closer to the cave’s opening. A fellow fugitive whispered into his ear.
LETTERS:
Slow down for safety's sake
Brightwater Junction and KBA Treblemakers will perform at a free bluegrass concert Saturday at Marion County Park and Lake. KBA Treblemakers will play at 6:15 and 8:45 p.m., and Brightwater Junction will play at 7:10 and 9:40 p.m.
On Friday afternoon, City of Marion employees Rick Burcky and Rocky Lindgren were filling potholes in alleys — alleys that earlier in the week they were driving along to pick up residents’ trash. Marion City Council’s decision in April to reduce trash pickup to one time per week did not reduce the city payroll, but it did free up time for Burcky and Lindgren to work on other city projects.
Quilted wall décor and vintage cars and trucks will be the focus of two events this weekend at Mennonite Heritage and Agricultural Museum, 200 N. Poplar St., Goessel. “Once upon a wall…” will feature quilted wall hangings displayed in fairy tale settings in the Preparatory School, Immigrant House, and Goessel State Bank building. Wall hanging owners loaning their pieces for the show are from south central Kansas and Nebraska.
A Peabody police officer’s badge, two handguns, and other items were stolen from his house the evening of June 6. Peabody Police Chief Bruce Burke said he wasn’t concerned about the possibility of someone using the badge to impersonate a police officer.
Judge Carl B. Anderson signed a gag order June 6 in the first-degree premeditated murder case against Dustin Tyler Smith. Smith, 24, is charged with killing Justin John Milne on May 29. Smith was apprehended near Milne’s burned vehicle, a mile and a half from Milne’s body near Marion Reservoir.
They came in all shapes, sizes, and ages — the youngest 9, the oldest 85. Some were seasoned veterans with tanned skin and toned legs. Others were weekend warriors. Bike riders — more than 900 in all — rode into Marion last Wednesday as part of Bike Across Kansas. Many planned to make the entire 450-mile west-to-east trek across the state.
Kids love sweets. Anything with sugar and frosting they are typically quick to eat. But serving pieces of cake or even cupcakes to youngsters can be messy. If only cake could be a smaller serving and on a stick. Now it is.
Steven Beneke, 25, and Danielle Dorland, 22, of Lincolnville are steeped in Civil War history. For the past three years, they have been involved in scripted re-enactments of Civil War conflicts, mostly in Missouri. The re-enactments generally occur during weekends and often attract thousands of participants and thousands of spectators.
The 18th annual Collett cousins’ campout was Memorial Day weekend at the Collett farm. More than 70 relatives and friends and six dogs attended the weekend event, eating around a campfire, roasting marshmallows, and playing in the creek.
Forty-eight descendents of Christopher C. Williams, James K. Williams, and Lucy E. Williams Crawford from six states met Sunday at the Marion County Park and Lake Hall for an annual reunion. Pictures and memorabilia were displayed. Special attention was given to the memory of cousin James S. Kline, who died in March.
Marion Senior Center will have a cookout Saturday with hamburgers and hotdogs on the menu. As with daily meals, call (620) 382-2942 to make reservations.
CORRESPONDENTS:
BurdickENGAGEMENTS:
Morgan-Topham,
Skiles-BrunaMEMORIES:
10,
25,
35,
50,
60,
100,
125 years ago
The following students were named to the Marion High School honor rolls for the fourth quarter of the 2010-11 school year. high honors (4.00 to 3.75 GPA)
seniors Donna Cady 4.0000 Alexis Cain 4.0000 Tristen Snelling 4.0000 Derek Stuchlik 4.0000 Colin Eurit 3.8571 Patrick Hodson 3.8571 Adam Molleker 3.8571 Dane Purkeypile 3.8333 Raelene Allen 3.8000 Heather Fine 3.8000 Landon Leiker 3.8000 juniors Taylor Harms 4.0000 Elizabeth Nesser 4.0000 Alicen Whitaker 4.0000 Colten Johnson 3.8571 Jessie Taylor 3.8571 sophomores Isaac Baldwin 4.0000 Nicholas Davies 4.0000 Elizabeth Goentzel 4.0000 Erin Meierhoff 4.0000 Spencer Fugitt 3.8889 Aaron Molleker 3.8571 Ryan Nelson 3.8751 freshmen Josh Britton 4.0000 Katey Ehrlich 4.0000 Kaitlyn Frese 4.0000 Kelli Hess 4.0000 Cheyenne Jeffrey 4.0000 Alicia Maloney 4.0000 Caitlyn Maloney 4.0000 Lauren McLinden 4.0000 Nicholas Meyer 4.0000 Megan Richmond 4.0000 Zachary Robson 4.0000 Abigail Smith 4.0000 Amanda Stuchlik 4.0000 Kaelyn Thierolf 4.0000 Clinton Kroupa 3.8571 Jordan Laurin 3.8571 Jared Hague 3.7500 James Jones 3.7500 honors (3.7499 to 3.5)
seniors Adam Cope 3.7143 Olivia Kinkaid 3.7143 Vu Nguyen 3.7143 Melissa Carlson 3.6667 Galen Funk 3.6667 Sarah Guetersloh 3.6667 Emily Hett 3.6000 Melissa Tajchman 3.5714 Jordan Versch 3.5714 Madison Chamberland 3.5000 sophomores Jennifer Fruechting 3.7143 Jordan Hett 3.7143 Dylan Goebel 3.6250 Marcus Buller 3.6000 Julio Vizcarra 3.6000 Clark Kroupa 3.5714 James Svoboda 3.5714 freshmen Megan Davies 3.7143 Timothy Knolla 3.7143 Griffin Case 3.6250 Zachary Lewman 3.5000 honorable mention (3.4999 to 3.0)
seniors Ariel Depler 3.4286 Chassidy Carlson 3.4000 Michael Kirkpatrick 3.3333 Mitchell Ragland 3.3333 Tommy Tajchman 3.3333 Connor Thierolf 3.3333 Matthew Sprowls 3.2857 Leslie Riggs 3.2381 Blake Crawford 3.2000 Jordan Harper 3.1667 Shayla Rahe 3.1667 Tim Costello 3.1429 Zachary Robinson 3.1429 Wei Tang 3.1429 Mary Britton 3.0000 Erin Brown 3.0000 Brandon Meierhoff 3.0000 Edward Obermeyer 3.0000 Shelby Percell 3.0000 Dillon Richmond 3.0000 juniors Whitney Gordon 3.4286 Cole Lewman 3.4286 Nichole Stukey 3.4286 Caroline Collett 3.3333 Cory Hiebert 3.2857 Scott Jones 3.2857 Joshua Hiebert 3.1429 Jeffrey Silhan 3.1429 Andrew Kjellin 3.0000 Megan Overton 3.0000 Sindi Paul 3.0000 Justin Rahe 3.0000 sophomores Jenevieve Corona 3.4286 Heather Jacobson 3.4286 Patrick McCarty 3.4286 Chelsea Voth 3.4286 Justin Barr 3.2857 Brody Carroll 3.2857 Briana Hall 3.2857 Karly Hess 3.2857 Mikayla Antoszyk 3.1429 Jacob Cope 3.1429 Montana Percell 3.1429 Jay Dee Schafers 3.1429 Rebecca Williams 3.1429 Cody Carr 3.0000 Jacob Harper 3.0000 Ericka Herzet 3.0000 Wiley Lundy 3.0000 Austin Pedersen 3.0000 freshmen Taylor Heidebrecht 3.3750 Alyssa Edwards 3.2857 Rachel Neil 3.2857 Dylan Seacat 3.2857 Caleb Williams 3.2500 Seth Crawford 3.1429 Brandy Ludwig 3.0000
Marion Middle School has recognized students for their accomplishments in the 2010-11 school year. High Honor roll (4.00 to 3.75) 8th Grade — Jacob Baldwin, Samantha Davies, Julia Hall, Quinton Hett, Shayla Kline, Kaylie Waner, and Betsy Williams. 7th Grade — Sydnee Baldwin, Alli Boyd, Connor Embree, Reann Hamm, Kirsten Hansen, Shyla Harris, Monica Harrision, Kristen Herzet, Erika Hess, Kayla Kroupa, Elizabeth Meyer, McKenzee Remmers, Bailey Robson, Emily Schneider, and Nicholas Stuchlik. regular honor roll (3.74 to 3.50) 8th Grade — Braden Fahey, Raleigh Kroupa, Seth Snelling, and Bret Voth. 7th Grade — Marshelle Mermis, John Lind, Katie Nordquist, Erin Steward, Emily Timmermeyer, and Courtney Williams. honorable mention ((3.49 to 3.00) 8th Grade — Amber Austin, Nathan Cyr, Breanna Doyle, Trevor Kruse, Josiah Meador, Alli Munns, Tyler Neufeld, and Kyle Palic. 7th Grade — William Adame, Jade Corona, Sabrina Estey, Zach Fruechting, Brittany Hett, Adam Kjellin, Abby Kuster, Austin Molleker, Wyatt Monasmith, Bobby Paul, Dylan Pippin, Remington Putter, Morgan Radtke, Samantha Ratzloff, and Kayle Stapleford. spelling bee Champion: Elizabeth Meyer. Second-place: Bailey Robson presidential academic fitness Jacob Baldwin, Samantha Davies, Breanna Doyle, Braden Fahey, Julia Hall, Quinton Hett, Shayla Kline, Raleigh Kroupa, Tyler Neufeld, Seth Snelling, Bret Voth, Kaylie Waner, and Betsy Williams. k-fit healthy fitness McKenzee Remmers, Kristen Herzet, Kirsten Hansen, Marshelle Mermis, Kayla Kroupa, Erika Hess, Emily Schneider, Nicholas Stuchlik, Remington Putter, Dylan Pippin, Bobby Paul, Cody Parmley, Austin Molleker, Kaylie Waner, Julia Hall, Samantha Davies, Alli Munns, Brayden Fahey, Tyler Neufeld, Kyle Palic, Bret Voth, Seth Snelling, Tevor Kruse, Beretta Janzen, Adam Janzen, Zach Dvorak, Jacob Baldwin, and Raleigh Kroupa. citizenship Braden Fahey and Alli Munns. academic excellence Jacob Baldwin and Kaylie Waner. Student council members Bailey Robson, Sydnee Baldwin, Kristen Hansen, Erika Hess, Adam Kjellin, Nicholas Stuchlik, Kayla Kroupa, Emily Schneider, Brittany Hett, Betsy Williams, Kaylie Waner, Shayla Kline, Julia Hall, Samantha Davies, Tyler Neufeld, Bret Voth, Jacob Baldwin, Quinton Hett, Braden Fahey, and Landon Pedersen.
Tabor and McPherson Colleges have announced their spring semester honor rolls: TABOR COLLEGE
highest honors (4.00 to 3.85 GPA) Seniors — DURHAM: Tina Frick. HILLSBORO: Spencer Brown, Ciara Cox, Amanda Faber, Diedre Funk, Elizabeth Harms, Benjamin Heyen, Lauren Just, Jenesa Klose, Jessica Klose, Hannah Lacy, and Justin Moore. PEABODY: Bethany Regier. Juniors — HILLSBORO: Corissa Bertel, Amanda Brown, Nolan Dirks, and Clayton Shewey. Sophomores — HILLSBORO: Cassie Kroeker, David Loewen, Nathan Vogel, and Candace Weinbrenner. high honors (3.849 to 3.70 GPA) Seniors — HILLSBORO: Adam Dirks, Katie Mount, Elissa Richert, and David Vogel. MARION: Jason Hett. Juniors — HILLSBORO: Daniel Jost and Audrey Weinbrenner. Sophomores — HILLSBORO: Michael Klaassen. Freshmen — HILLSBORO: Daniel Dick. HONors (3.699 to 3.50 GPA) Seniors — HILLSBORO: Darren Enns, Tanner Lacy, Megan McCarty, Aaron Phillips, and Jaimie Williams. Juniors — HILLSBORO: Shelby Koons. Freshmen — FLORENCE: Kaylyn Spencer. McPHERSON COLLEGE (4.00 to 3.55 GPA) Junior — GOESSEL: Kory Hiebert. Sophomores — GOESSEL: Cody Winblad. MARION: Mitchell Leppke Freshman — GOESSEL: Evan Hiebert. HILLSBORO: Karis Janzen.
Wencel and Loretta Holub of Marion recently attended their two grandsons’ graduations in Texas. Chase Holub graduated with honors from Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas, on May 13 with a Bachelor of Science degree in ocean engineering. He is a member of the Marine Technology Organization, Omega Epsilon National Honor Society for Engineers, and the Society of Petroleum Engineers.
Most people don’t expect recognition for a job well done, but it sure is nice when it happens. That’s the way Marion High School math and science teacher Gary Stuchlik feels.
Marion County Commissioners approved an emergency distribution of $623,735 to the five county school districts Thursday. The funds were from taxes levied by each of the districts, but the county collected the taxes.
With the purchase of personal laptops for each high school student, the Centre board of education approved policies and procedures Monday regarding their use. Each high school student will be assigned a numbered computer for use at school and at home and will be responsible for its care and safety.
A pair of banners celebrating Marion swim team’s 2009 and 2010 Mid Kansas Swim League championships hang in USD 408 Sports and Aquatics Center. “It’s a good, healthy activity, and the kids like it,” co-head-coach Susan Hall said. “That’s why they keep coming back.”