BREAKING NEWS
UPDATED AFTER PRINT DEADLINE
A 12-year-old boy was hospitalized Saturday after a valiant 20-minute effort by Marion County Lake residents and staff to rescue him from 8 to 10 feet of water at the lake’s swimming beach. Residents involved in the rescue said the boy did not initially respond to resuscitation from emergency medical technicians at the scene.
Peabody City Council granted a 30-day extension May 31 to rectify problems on a nuisance property at 509 N. Locust St. owned by Marvin Schmidt. City Administrator Mac Manning had been in touch with Schmidt’s son, Kevin, that day. Kevin Schmidt said he had been to Peabody several times and had made some progress on his father’s property, but that weather and his work schedule had prevented him from doing as much as he had hoped.
Marion County Commission approved and Commission Chairman Roger Fleming signed a contract with Treanor Architects P.A. on Tuesday for work on a new county jail. The architecture firm from Topeka will be paid $250,000 for design and professional services. They will also be paid 110 percent of cost for surveying, geotechnical work, printing, and some travel. Architect Andy Pitts estimated those expenses will total $6,000 to $8,000.
U.S. Senator Jerry Moran walked Thursday into the basement of Doyle Creek Mercantile in Florence to a room of people anxiously awaiting his arrival. Moran wasted no time in engaging the crowd, immediately introducing himself and his views to 28 people in attendance. It was the last of Moran’s 60 planned Kansas town hall meetings.
Having a vehicle accident in Marion County is expensive … even more than drivers may realize. Fees for fire, ambulance, and rescue truck services vary throughout Marion County.
Marion County Commission voted Monday to end the county’s monthly recycling trailer route and to replace it by putting a large recycling bin in each community on the route. The county will pay Stutzman Refuse Disposal Inc. of South Hutchinson $125 per bin per month for 10 large Dumpster-like recycling bins, which will be emptied every two weeks.
Burns resident Shawn Ridder talked to the Florence City Council on Monday about his plan to start a business in Florence. Ridder wants to build hydrogen generators that produce H and HHO gases; he said the building at 2505 U.S. 50, owned by Joel Hayes, would be ideal for the operation.
The weather was merciless this weekend as a band of walkers made their way across more than 60 miles of county roads. Catholics and protestants, men and women, young and old, came from all walks of life to walk for a priest who died helping others.
Richard A. Brenzikofer, 77, died June 4 at his home near Marion. He was born June 6, 1933, at Newton, to William and Demelia Belle (Pierce) Brenzikofer.
Robert “Dale” Hague, 63, died May 31 at Via Christi Hospital on St. Francis St., Wichita. Born March 6, 1948, in Newton, to Lyle and Roberta “Bobbie” (Reld) Hague, he graduated from Peabody High School in 1966. He graduated from the University of Kansas and the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Dentistry.
I hope all of you read the letters to the editor on this page when they appear. This week you should take note of the letter about the Peabody-Burns football coach and team members helping to install the Avenue of Flags at Prairie Lawn Cemetery for this Memorial Day weekend. Highlighted are quite a different bunch of kids than those in the headlines about the Avenue of Flags in 2010, huh? As is typical of this type of story, no cameras or print media were here this year to record the efforts made by our kids in honor of our veterans and their service. Rockin’ Rick Regan from Kissin’ whatever has not bothered to check in with us to see what is going on in 2011. But he was all about it in 2010, wasn’t he? At least for awhile … until it wasn’t news anymore. But of course, by then the damage was done. Peabody was smeared across the country as the community that turned a blind eye to the “children of influential citizens” who desecrated nine casket flags and got away with it.
The board of directors and employees of Peabody State Bank celebrated Shreves Avery’s 25th anniversary with the bank May 24. The 1880s Main Street sign has been installed on the south side of U.S. 50 east of Coach Light carwash.
My time in jail was brief but meaningful. I have a picture that captures the experience in freeze-frame reality. My left hand is clutching one of the black iron bars as I stare out at the camera. In my right arm, I am holding my little son and standing next to me on my left side is my daughter. It was quite a family moment — the three of us peering out from between bars — and my wife on the outside taking the picture. After that photo was taken, I nonchalantly strolled right out of the jail and into sunshine splashing through the canopy of leafy tree branches above the tiny house of detention. Don’t worry, there was no bloodhound assisted manhunt that followed, nor were there posters that declared “Baby face Larry” to be the FBI’s most wanted fugitive.
June 1 was Sine Die. The Governor had signed the budget with a few line items vetoed and we had one last look at those matters. The one that gave me concern was related to the Arts Commission. The Governor’s veto of the roughly $680,000 budget completely unfunded it; like many of you who contacted me throughout the session, I disagreed with cutting out the Arts Commission, and I voted to override the Governor’s veto. While I knew we didn’t have the votes to override it, I thought I ought to stay true to my advocacy during the session. We mustered a majority of those representatives who came to Sine Die (50 of us voted to override), but that was short of the constitutional two-thirds majority needed to override a veto. I hope the arts flourish; I guess we’ll do it without funding from our state. The Governor did appoint a new commissioner and he pledged some of the funds remaining from his inauguration to the Arts Commission, about $150,000.
LETTERS:
Football players help place flags at cemetery
A brotherly bond that inspired mischief when they were children inspired Florence residents Larry, Clint, and Andrew Weber to join the National Guard and serve their country. The three Weber boys were always close, mother Mashawn Weber said. They kept a rotation of their bedrooms. Two boys would be roommates while the other would be temporarily exiled in the smaller room. Eventually, the oldest brother, Andrew, was permanently stationed in the big room and decided which one of his brothers he could stand that week.
During the summer, Marion County Lake is alive with sounds of boats, children playing in the water, and people visiting at campgrounds. On June 18, the air will be filled with sounds of banjos, mandolins, fiddles, and guitars with Bluegrass at the Lake.
CORRESPONDENTS:
Ammeter,
Burns,
Wonsevu
Derek Schmidt, 2011 graduate of Peabody-Burns High School, was recently selected to perform with the 71-member State Convention Band and Chorus on the Kansas State University campus this past weekend. In order to participate in the selected ensembles, members were required to submit audition tapes and recommendations from their local music instructors.
When a woman celebrates her 50th wedding anniversary and anticipates her 70th birthday in the coming weeks, she may look forward to slowing down and taking time to smell the roses. Rose Mary Neuwirth of rural Lincolnville knows some of her work is finished but another chapter in her life is about to begin.
Many people look forward to the warm weather, particularly senior citizens. Spending time outdoors can be healthy and refreshing, but seniors exposed to too much sun and heat could be at risk medically. One of the factors contributing to seniors’ risk of health implications from hot weather is their loss of the sensation of thirst as they age. Without the desire to drink regularly, individuals could become dehydrated very easily. This, factored in with changes in body temperature regulation, can result in confusion, falls, and other preventable adverse effects.