By ALEXANDER SIMONE

Staff writer

A trio of burglaries reported April 5 at Pawnee and 220th Rds. near Marion Reservoir has raised concerns about having out-of-town residents unable to access their property.

Marion County Lake resident Roger Kaiser said break-ins shouldn’t be a concern for most owners as long as they have alarm systems at their properties.

“We’ve never had any problems out here like that,” he said.

In addition to alarms and keeping doors locked, a watchful neighbor can be helpful.

The county lake hasn’t had any issues yet, but county lake employees and deputies have increased the frequency of their patrols, lake superintendent Isaac Hett said.

Some residents expressed concerns on social media about not having access to their homes, and Kaiser said allowing access to out-of-town residents didn’t worry him.

“As long as they don’t go into town shopping, I don’t know why they come here to their houses and be by themselves,” he said. “They own the place; they have to take care of it. As long as they don’t associate with anybody, but take care of their business, I don’t see anything wrong with it.”

Residents at Marion Reservoir already keep an eye out when they know fellow home-owners will be away, Judy Christensen said.

“Our house was the second house built out here,” she said. Of all the years we’ve been here, we’ve maybe heard one or two times where somebody had something stolen. It’s not very often. I don’t know if that’s because the houses are close together, and as neighbors you kind of keep track of whether they’re gone.”

The burglaries occurred at campers housed in storage facilities, and not permanent residences.

While Christensen hasn’t seen many break-ins at the reservoir, she said how a camper is stored could make a difference.

“Where the units are just sitting outside, I could see that with more potential to have something done than if it was locked inside,” she said.

The items taken were fishing poles and camping gear, Marion County Sheriff Rob Craft said.

Craft said he doesn’t want to assume whether Kansas’ stay order will make work more difficult.

“That’s all speculation, and I’m not speculating on anything,” he said.