Marion County RECORD

Meth bust spans area

A multi-county drug investigation that stretched from Geary County through Dickinson County to Marion County led to the arrest Saturday of two people in Peabody on suspicion of distributing large quantities of stimulants. Shannon L. DeNardi, 51, and Michael D. DeNardi, 57, were arrested by a Marion County deputy after search warrants were served across the three counties, Undersheriff Larry Starkey said.

Illegal appointment rescinded

The Marion school board is scheduled May 11 to rescind its premature — and illegal — appointment of former board member Doug Regnier to an empty board seat. State law requires published notice of a vacancy at least 15 days before it is filled.

Iconic ride's repair delayed

A long-promised repair of Marion’s landmark Central Park merry-go-round remains unfinished eight months after the city said it would be restored and reinstalled. The structure still sits in a heap at city shops, where it has remained since at least September.

Centre day care director fired

The board of education of the Centre school district abruptly fired day care director Janine Foth for undisclosed reasons last week. The board called a special meeting with two closed-door sessions – the first to discuss “employee performance,” the second “relating to actions adversely or favorably affecting a student.”

Boy, 4, impaled by stick

A 4-year-old boy was taken Friday night to a Wichita pediatric trauma center after a stick became lodged in his chest while he was playing outside. The child’s parents drove him to St. Luke Hospital, where paramedics and firefighters were called to help with treatment and prepare him for transfer.

Dike gate no problem, Marion says

City officials are confident residents and businesses in Marion’s valley are not in any danger because of the nonfunctional upstream flood control gate at the convergence of Mud and Clear creeks. “Whether that gate is closed or not will make zero difference during a flood event inside the levee,” the city’s contract engineer, Darin Neufeld, told the city council Monday. “Everything that we’re going to see collected inside the levee during a big, huge, heavy rain is stuff that lands here inside the city. It’s not stuff coming from outside. So if there’s a huge rain north of town where Mud and Clear Creek come from, and that water was clear up to the top of the levee, hydraulically, no water, gallons per minute-wise, is going to come through that tube when that gate is fully open.”

Raid documentary to have Kansas premiere

“Seized,” Emmy-winning director Sharon Liese’s documentary about the now-disavowed police raid on the The main showing of the critically acclaimed 1½-hour movie will be at 2:30 p.m. June 28 at historic Liberty Hall, 644 Massachusetts St.

County to pay abused dogs' boarding

Marion County will pay thousands of dollars in veterinary boarding costs for dogs seized by the City of Marion in an animal cruelty case. The county will pay $3,756.96 billed by Animal Health Center to the city, county administrator Tina Spencer said. It also will pay a final invoice yet to be provided in the case.

Marion restores budget schedule

After two years without a structured budgeting process, the City of Marion is attempting to return to a formal schedule this year, with the first phase already underway. Department heads submitted initial 2027 budget requests April 24, and council members began reviewing those figures this week.

Marion hopes to resume online utility payment by July

Marion aims to restore online utility payments by July 1. The system has been down since late last summer. Computer consultant Lloyd Davies said the city’s Works billing system stopped allowing online payments around August or September because of software issues.

City workers save Hillsboro money

Hillsboro’s water and wastewater department saved the city hundreds of thousands of dollars by handling major infrastructure repairs internally while continuing to battle worsening algae and mineral contamination issues tied to Marion Reservoir, superintendent Morgan Marler told city council members Tuesday. Among the projects highlighted were replacement of two sewer lift stations, including the city’s primary lift station south of Tabor College. An Industrial Rd. project saved about $130,000 compared with contractor estimates, Marler said, while overhaul of the main lift station near South Wilson St. saved about $180,000 despite unexpected equipment costs.

Waste, weed unit is short-staffed

Marion County’s noxious weed, household hazardous waste, and transfer station department is operating short-staffed and dealing with equipment problems, director Josh Housman told county commissioners Monday. “We’re down two people,” he said. One employee quit, and another was injured.

Geren accused of tire theft, trespassing

Marion resident Kevin W. Geren, 64, was arrested April 28 on suspicion of theft stemming from a March incident involving used tires. Geren was taken into custody by a sheriff’s deputy on a Marion police warrant.

Parts of county added to drought watch

The extreme western portion of Marion County last week was reclassified by the U.S. Department of Agriculture as being abnormally dry. The classification indicates short-term dryness slowing planting and growth of crops and pastures. It is the lowest of five levels of drought reported by the department.

Jim Delk

Visitation for James “Jim” Delk, 79, who died Saturday at Salem Home in Hillsboro, will be 5 to 7 tonight at Jost Funeral Home in Hillsboro. Burial will be at Elm Grove Cemetery, Edna. At his request, no other services will be conducted.

IN MEMORIAM:

Accidents reported

County jail arrests and bookings

Deeds recorded

Emergency dispatches

Offenses reported

Police activity reports

Traffic Division cases

Off to see the world and maybe come home afterward

Commencement season begins this weekend with Marion’s graduation and Peabody-Burns’ at 4 p.m. Saturday. The annual rite of passage will continue next weekend at 4 p.m. May 16 at Goessel, and Hillsboro and at 2 p.m. May 17 at Centre. At a time when national polls show most Americans question the value of a college education, dozens of Marion County’s traditional students will head out to community colleges and state universities. One, Centre’s Anna Godinez Vinduska, will even head to MIT.

Dynamic duo

They’ve read the same books, learned the same lessons, and matched each other perfect grade for perfect grade since kindergarten, so it’s not that surprising that Goessel High School fast friends and co-valedictorians Hailey Rosfeld and Aida Hartvickson will stand at the graduation podium with a speech they wrote together and deliver in turns. They even asked to do their interview with the Record together, finishing one another’s sentences and stifling inside-joke giggles.

Crafting a career

Eli Klenda gets called out by his Marion High School classmates when he says he’s never really designed anything even though his college major at Kansas State University will be biomedical engineering. “He’s lying to you,” said one of four top Marion graduates interviewed by the Record. “He really is crafty in the woodshop.”

Finding her vision

Hillsboro High School senior Addison Jost remembers exactly when she understood a class was not just a class, but her future taking shape. “My ‘ah-ha’ moment was when I joined our AV class my sophomore year, and I got to actually see what the class looks like as a career, and I was like, ‘Wait, I love this. This is what I want to do.’ ”

Education can lead back home

You might think that Peabody-Burns High School senior Kate Huls is all serious business: She’s a prestigious Governor’s Scholar, she earned a 4.0 GPA, she completed college algebra during her junior year, and has a laser-like fix on starting a business of her own. But for all the drive that got her straight A’s for four years, Kate is a study in teen balance. Asked what memories she’ll tell her kids about someday, it’s for sure going to be random scraps of humor from school band antics, she said — like the time she stuffed her tiny 5-foot, 2-inch frame into a band room file cabinet drawer, egged on by a trombone-playing German exchange student nicknamed “Frito.”

Still rooted in the land

Though he’s headed to Kansas State University to study environmental engineering this fall, Marion High School co-salutatorian Kadon Mercer remains deeply grounded here in what matters most to him – his family and love of the creeks and landscape he’s fished, swum, and hunted his whole life. “I’ve just always enjoyed being outside in the environment, and I feel like improving it with engineering is my best possibility,” he said.

Already well ahead of the game

Sydney Smith may only now be graduating as the No. 2 student in her class at Centre High School, but she’s already well on her way to a career she’s dreamed of in nursing because she’s worked two years as a nursing aid at St. Luke Living Center. “I’ve worked and worked and worked,” she said, and saved to go to college.

Rural areas still offer opportunity

Levi Schrag is unconvinced that rural Kansas lacks opportunity for young people if they look for it. That’s because he’s found his own opportunity in a most unconventional field for a farm town: golf. “I’m a big golfer,” said the Goessel High co-valedictorian, who has finished in the top 20 in state high school championship tournaments for the past three years and has done maintenance during summers at Hesston Golf Course.

Returning favor, becoming a teacher

Maria Carlson ticks every box of success in academic and social success in her Marion High School career. Her perfect grades earned her the Governor’s Scholar award and the role of class valedictorian, and she was elected homecoming queen. Homecoming queen may “seem like a popularity contest,” she said, but what it symbolized for Maria was recognition that “I’ve gone out of my way to treat others kindly.” And she’s as proud of that as her grades.

Helping become 'socially apparent'

Jaxon Salsbury sang and danced his way out of his childhood shell at Marion High School, transforming from what he calls “not socially apparent” to appearing in seven school productions and even sometimes building and painting backdrops for his performances. Yet finance calls him. The 3.98-GPA co-salutatorian is headed to Kansas State University to major in raising, managing, and investing money.

Democrats: Don't read this

As ever-present reminders of the success of our ongoing war with Iran edge just a tenth of a no-longer-minted cent away from a frightening number, we aren’t looking to 4.00, as we do at commencement time, as a sign of perfection. Rather, it’s a sign of failure. A war that started out with free passage of oil out of the Gulf of Hormuz has ended in supposedly overwhelming victory that actually has turned into monumental defeat.

ANOTHER DAY IN THE COUNTRY:

LETTER:

AMERICA AT 250:

Senior Center menus

MEMORIES:

Marion bats power doubleheader sweep

Marion baseball swept Sedgwick 10-9 and 21-14 Friday The girls’ softball team didn’t have the same luck, losing both games 16-1 and 23-1.

Trojans middle of pack at home invitational

Hlllsboro’s girls placed sixth and boys eighth out of 17 teams at Hillsboro’s competing schools Trojans hosted their annual James Thomas Invitational on Friday. Individually, Emily Gilkey placed second in the girls’ high jump and Nathan Byford placed fourth for boys’.

Swim team finishes 3rd at Maize

Students honored

Marion High School has named Tandice Tajchman and Keenan Lange its April Champions of Character student-athletes of the month. Tajchman was recognized for leadership, perseverance, and supporting teammates, while Lange was honored for teamwork, dependability, and respect toward teammates, coaches, and opponents.

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