Marion County RECORD

Sale of reserved land to dollar store protested

More than a dozen citizens arrived with a petition signed by 63 residents at Monday night’s Marion City Council meeting to protest an agreement signed two weeks ago to sell property at the southwest corner of the industrial park for development of a dollar store. Ruth Lange, who lives near property that Dollar Tree wants to purchase, told council members traffic at the intersection already was congested.

Crews gash mislocated water line

A gas pipe replacement took an unexpected turn Tuesday morning when water came gushing up from a main at 3rd and Williams St. on the northwest corner of Marion’s courthouse square. The water from a ruptured main that turned out being 10 feet from where it was listed as being drained into a storm sewer so fast it blew off its grate.

Schools reject masks

Despite detection of the county’s first case of delta variant COVID-19, only one of its five school districts will mandate masks in its buildings when classes begin this week and next. None will require students or staff to be vaccinated against the virus to attend school.

Archer makes amends

An archer owned his mistake when his arrow missed the mark and damaged a neighbor’s house. Marion police officer Duane McCarty was hunting on foot near Birch and Lincoln Sts. for whoever shot an arrow into a nearby home’s siding.

County seeks another bite at administrator apple

Admitting that they made mistakes by not thoroughly planning their own expansion from three members to five, county commissioners took the first steps Monday to try to convince skeptical voters that hiring a county administrator wouldn’t waste taxpayer money. Voters rejected the idea 1,192 to 962 in a non-binding referendum less than four years ago, but two commissioners who took office since then have been pushing to reconsider. After a lengthy work session led by commissioners David Mueller and Jonah Goering, other commissioners seemed at least somewhat receptive. But most cautioned that injecting a new level of administration between commissioners and appointed department heads might be a slow process. “This is a step for the future,” chairman Randy Dallke said. “That’s how I feel about it. I’ve been somewhat against it, but the biggest thing we need to do is be prepared. Going to five commissioners, we didn’t prepare for that. We want to be onboard with preparation to do this.”

Faulty line clamp triggers weekend power failure

Three power failures on Marion’s Circuit No. 2 during a Saturday night storm began when a transmission line grounded on a rain-soaked pole. City administrator Roger Holter said clamps that hold lines in place to prevent grounding had to be replaced to solve the problem.

Firm hired to seek millions in grants

The county’s McPherson-based accounting firm was hired Monday to help the county seek and administer up to $2.038 million in new American Rescue Plan federal pandemic grants in the county. Swindoll, Janzen, Hawk, and Loyd, which also handles county budgeting, will take 5% of each grant as compensation for helping with application, evaluation, and enforcement procedures.

$433,720 sought from wind farm

A new offer approved Monday seeks to resolve months of dispute over road damage in and around the Diamond Vista wind farm in northern Marion County. After a 15-minute closed-door session with counselor Brad Jantz, county commissioners voted to send the wind farm’s owner, Enel Green Power of North America, a letter demanding payment of $433,720 to settle all claims relative to the wind farm’s road maintenance agreement.

Delivery boom leads to new postal vehicles

New vehicles at Marion and Hillsboro post offices are not meant to stay for long. “We’re just supplementing to make sure people have adequate vehicles to get through the rest of the year,” field contact Mark Inglett said.

Interim chief judge assigned to court district

Judge Benjamin Sexton will serve as chief judge for the 8th Judicial District Aug. 22 to Dec. 31 in the wake of judge Michael Powers’ Aug. 20 retirement. Sexton’s term ends at the end of the year because his will finish the remainder of Powers’ current term. Powers is chief judge for the district, which includes Dickinson, Geary, Marion, and Morris counties.

Steel Skarecrow performs at Threshing Days

Almost every time Kurt Shobe and his band take the stage, he asks the crowd, “Who knows what a steel scarecrow is?” “When I was growing up — you know, farm boy — we referred to windmills as steel scarecrows,” Shobe said. “I didn’t know that people outside of southeast Kansas didn’t know about that. In my part of the woods, everybody knew a windmill was a steel scarecrow.”

TEEN meeting set for Aug. 18

The Technology Excellence in Education Network will meet 6 p.m. Aug. 18 at the USD 408 District Office, 101 N. Thorp St.

Keith Kelsey

Graveside services for M. Keith Kelsey, 93, who died Feb. 3 in Colorado, will be 11 a.m. Thursday at Marion Cemetery. He was formerly Marion city clerk.

IN MEMORIAM:

IN MEMORIAM:

IN MEMORIAM:

Accidents reported

Civil division cases

County jail arrests and bookings

Criminal Division cases

Deeds recorded

Emergency dispatches

Police activity reports

Offenses reported

Festival draws record crowd to lake

A gamble on two nights of professional music paid off as record crowds flocked over the weekend to Bluegrass at the Lake. All 52 campsites at Marion County Lake were booked, and campers tented on any available patch of grass as visitors took in a weekend of music.

COVID helps greenhouse grow

Scott Zogelman nearly closed the doors of his greenhouse, Zogie’s on Main, years ago. “Just not being on the main path, I didn’t get a lot of business,” he said. “And having a job made it hard to be here when customers came.”

Community garden gears up for fall

Despite the heat, it’s time to work on a fall garden. Marion’s community garden is being — for the first time — planted for a fall harvest.

Hornworms hound apartment tomatoes

Shortly after taking her tomato, pepper, and lettuce plants outside, Bown Corby Apartment resident Brook Witty had to line them up in the parking lot and trim off a hoard of tobacco hornworms. She grew all the plants save for one from seed in her apartment. Hornworms attacked after she put them in an outdoor garden. When they refused to let go of her plants, she had to cut away nearly ripe fruit and healthy branches Tuesday in the apartment’s parking lot.

Selling our community short

We’d love to write about successes this week, but Marion’s week has been dominated by failures. Our water failed. Our power failed — again. Most important, our city council failed. Are we going to learn from these failures or will we be doomed to repeat them?

Administering a cure

County commissioners are right that administration of county government needs to be improved, but hiring yet another official would be throwing money at a problem without addressing its underlying causes: Department heads need to be open, trustworthy, knowledgeable, and the complete opposite of territorial.

Devilishly poor judgment

The honor roll for Marion County school officials got a lot shorter this week with all but Goessel failing to require masks when classes begin this week or next. What do local school districts know that virtually every expert who isn’t some ultraconservative crackpot doesn’t? Are our local schools somehow more educated than six of the seven public universities in the state?

ANOTHER DAY IN THE COUNTRY:

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR:

Samples of sounds become a piece of music

A dozen people have signed on as guinea pigs in a community effort to turn the county’s sounds into song. Residents who sampled tea and scones Saturday helped Flint Hills Counterpoint kick off its Sound Tasting tour.

Classens to celebrate 65th anniversary

Matthew Classen and Mary Kay Warren were united in marriage Aug. 26, 1956 at St. Mary’s Catholic Church, Moline. Father Vincent Hoga officiated the double-ring ceremony. They lived most of their adult lives in Marion. Matt was president of Marion National Bank for 40 years until retiring in 2002.

Couple marries at New Mexico ranch

Billy Dean Rogers and Susana Maria Morton were married July 21 at N Bar Ranch near Reserve, New Mexico. Parents of the groom are Cora and the late Don Rogers of Antelope. The bride’s parents are Duane and Zara Gano, both deceased.

4-H offers online seminar

Kansas 4-H is offering two online workshops to teach positive youth development.The first session, from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Aug. 24, will feature motivational speaker James Conway of Search Institute, a non-profit organization that researches relationships that influence positive youth development. “We’re just trying to get volunteers re-energized,” county extension agent Tristen Cope said. “We know it’s been a tough past 18 months.”

Teacher earns ag certification

Senior center profits on pies

Bob and the Boys provided live music for a pie and ice cream fundraiser Friday at Hillsboro Senior Center. Center director Brenda Moss reported 106 people were served. Pies, which were donated by center patrons, and were homemade or Take and Bake from Mama C’s. Ice cream donated by Schwan’s made pie à la mode possible.

Senior center menus

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