BREAKING NEWS
UPDATED AFTER PRINT DEADLINE
Hillsboro’s Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market will close Jan. 28. It is one of 154 U.S. stores being shuttered by the retail giant.
Hillsboro mayor Delores Dallke said she received a call from company officials Friday morning.
Three of the five seats on Marion City Council will be up for grabs this spring, but voters may get to fill only two of them.
Vice Mayor Chad Adkins, whose term will not expire for two years, said this week that he would be resigning at the end of the current school year to seek work in Texas.
The county EMS service is without a permanent director, the state hasn’t been forthcoming about pending suspensions and possible investigations, and surveys of EMS personnel indicate they are concerned about leadership.
Uncertainties abound, and it’s no surprise what commissioner Dan Holub had to say about what he’s been hearing.
With a $1.3 billion jackpot for tonight’s Powerball drawing, lottery tickets are flying off the rolls at local convenience stores.
In anticipation, Ampride stores in Marion and Hillsboro will have a “lottery hostess” on hand today to expedite sales.
Randy Dallke, in his first act as new Marion County Commission chairman, resurrected an old issue involving a current commissioner.
Before outgoing chairman Dan Holub could make a motion to nominate Lori Lalouette, who was absent from Monday’s meeting, for vice-chair, Dallke interrupted him.
Music doesn’t just soothe the savage beast. Domesticated animals fall under its spell, too, but they might just be a touch more discerning.
Marion resident Jerry Kline leaves a radio playing for 50 chickens he keeps in a coop east of town.
Football season ended in October, too soon for Marion High School junior lineman Cade Harms and his Warriors teammates, as they missed the playoffs by the slimmest of margins.
But football wasn’t quite finished with Harms, who in December already was hard at work in the weight room preparing for next year.
Cooperative Grain and Supply’s Marion elevator stores millions of bushels of grain, creating grain dust with explosive potential if ignited. Anhydrous ammonia tanks and a fuel station present additional potential hazards if accidents occur.
Elevator employees regularly train and work to prevent mishaps and ensure safety, but Thursday’s fire gave emergency responders reason to test their capabilities.
The prospect of an explosion during Thursday’s fire at the Cooperative Grain and Supply grain elevator in Marion led to a precautionary evacuation of people within a two-block radius.
Marion fire chief Mike Regnier ordered the evacuation shortly after 11 a.m., about 30 minutes after arriving at the scene.
Where there’s smoke, there’s fire, right? Not necessarily at Marion County Jail.
Sheriff Robert Craft, undersheriff David Huntley, deputies, Marion and Hillsboro police, and Marion fire were called Sunday to a possible fire at the jail after a jailer discovered smoke around 4 a.m.
Stories of personal achievement often include epiphanies born of dramatic life-changing events.
Rob Scott found his epiphany in a bad kettle of beef noodle soup.
Ebenfeld Mennonite Brethren Church is in the middle of receiving a much needed “faith” lift to the sanctuary.
The church, located outside of Hillsboro on Kanza Rd., hasn’t been renovated since the ’70s, and hasn’t had this many renovations done at once since the building of the sanctuary in 1927.
Candidates seeking to fill open council positions in Aprl 1 elections in Burns, Hillsboro, and Marion have until noon Jan. 26 to file.
As of Monday, the only person to file was John Wheeler of Marion.
Anna Anita Madsen, 89, died Saturday at Peabody Health and Rehab.
A funeral service will be 1:30 p.m. Friday at Baker Funeral Home, Peabody, and internment will follow at Prairie Lawn Cemetery. Visitation will be 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday at the funeral home.
IN MEMORIAM:
Marshall Pierce
Of all the farms in Kansas, it’s possible that none smell like Jason Wiebe’s. The sour scent of whey coming from the small outbuilding on his property is different from earthier smells from pastures and manure.
But it’s what goes into Wiebe’s signature cheeses. The final product is a smooth bite with a creamy mouth-feel, and even a sliver can leave the consumer feeling as though they’ve just guzzled a glass of fresh milk.
He might sit atop an organization that has almost a quarter million members and affiliated members, but no one could be more grassroots than Tracy Brunner.
He already had spent three hours on horseback gathering cattle for market when he took the time to sit down in his office Friday morning to talk about his tenure as president and spokesman for the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association.
When veterinarian Jessica Laurin joined the Academy of Veterinary Consultants early in her practice in 1993, the group had 250 members who mainly served feedlots.
Laurin now is president of the organization, which has grown to more than 900 members and includes cow/calf operators and teaching veterinarians in the U.S., Canada, and Australia.
This week we bid farewell to one staff member, welcome another, and honor yet a third who, after more than four decades of dedicated service, is semi-retiring.
Leaving us is Eliot Sill, a talented young reporter, editor, and designer who has returned to his native Illinois to marry and eventually accompany his fiancée wherever she enters graduate school.
When a journalist is new in the community, it takes time for each to get to know the other.
To make the process easier for both of us, I want to tell the readers a few things about myself.
I’ve managed to wend my way through life without being tagged with a lasting nickname, and there’s been just one that I’ve actually embraced.
I ran around with guys in junior high who had cool nicknames like “Smoothy” and “Rocky,” however the only one I picked up at the time I was glad to lose. One week while attending church camp with four other Davids, someone decided we needed nicknames to tell us apart, and I was ingloriously dubbed “Daisy” for the week. When I came home, that one stayed at camp.
Since we are safely into the New Year, I suspect that my six regular readers and a few others out there all have made 2016 resolutions and have not forgotten them already. I hope everyone reading this column made a resolution or two to look after troublesome health issues. In fact, there are a couple I would like to mention.
First is smoking. Kick it. Yes, quitting is hard. It will make you edgy and cranky. So what? Most smokers are edgy and cranky anyway. I will say again — probably for the hundredth time in this space — if I could do it, you can do it. I was a 37½-year smoker, but it has been 12 years since I drew that junk into my lungs. One day at a time. Really, you can do it, you should, and you will be glad you did.
ANOTHER DAY IN THE COUNTRY:
Saving greetings isn't in the cards
Mr. and Mrs. Jay Pavlik of McPherson and Mr. and Mrs. Rodney Gerhardt, also of McPherson, announce the engagement of their children, Courtney DeAnne Pavlik and Levi Joshua Gerhardt.
The future bride is the granddaughter of former Marion residents Bruce and Sandra Hett of McPherson, and Karel Pavlik and the late Jackie Pavlik of Coldwater.
SENIOR CENTER:
Elvis impersonator visits senior center,
Senior Citizens board to meet,
Senior Center menuMEMORIES:
10,
25,
35,
50,
60,
100,
125 years ago
Two longtime teachers resigned their positions at Monday night’s Marion School Board meeting.
Chad and Michelle Adkins, both teachers with USD 408 for 17 years, submitted resignation letters to the board. Chad Adkins is a middle school social studies teacher and head wrestling coach. Michelle Adkins is a third-grade teacher.
Kansas Online Learning Program will have an advertising budget of $100,000 for the next year, unchanged from the previous year.
The board of education approved the expenditure Monday after a lengthy discussion. Superintendent Susan Beeson reported that the virtual program has maintained a consistent number of enrollees with that amount of money spent on advertising.
Centre scholars bowl team finished fourth Thursday in a competition at Southeast of Saline.
They finished 4-1 in pool play, defeating Hoisington, 40-30; Russell, 40-20; Herington, 30-10; and Wilson, 60-10. They lost to Abilene, 85-20.
4-H REPORTS:
Happy Hustlers,
Tampa Triple T's
It took one second in his second game as a Warrior for Tyler Zinn, a transfer student from Olathe South, to cement a place in Marion basketball lore with an improbable catch-and-shoot 3-pointer at the buzzer for a 64-62 win Friday at Hutchinson Trinity.
Marion trailed 62-61 when Zinn’s first game-winning attempt missed as time expired, but officials ruled that Marion coach Jeff McMillin had called for a timeout before the shot.
After losing to Norton 49-18 in a dual Friday, the Warriors returned to Norton on Saturday to take 7th out of 18 teams at a tournament.
Coach Chad Adkins said that despite Friday’s loss the team wrestled “pretty well.”
Centre boys and girls basketball teams both won home games Friday against Peabody-Burns.
After losing their first six games of the season, the Centre girls notched a second consecutive win by defeating Peabody-Burns 44-11.
St. Luke Hospital Auxiliary will celebrate the 10th anniversary of its thrift shop at its annual meeting and dinner at 6:30 p.m. Jan. 21 at Marion Community Center.
“The decorations will be celebrative and there will be a video shown of the grand opening of the store,” president Lenore Dieter said.