Geary County rural firefighters responded to an Otter Creek area residence about six miles south of Junction City on Wednesday afternoon.
Rural Fire Chief Garry Berges says it occurred about 3 p.m. “Subject came home, found fire in his yard. Don’t know exactly how that started yet. We had five trucks respond with personnel, had it under control probably in about 30 mintues.”
There were no injuries or structure damage.
MANHATTAN, KAN. – Law enforcement authorities are investigating an armed robbery.
Just after noon Wednesday, police responded to Advance America Cash Exchange located at 610 Fort Riley Blvd., in Manhattan for the report of a business alarm, according to a media release.e
Prior to officers’ arrival, an employee alerted police that an armed robbery had taken place at the business and the suspect had since fled the area with an undisclosed amount of money. No one was injured during the incident.
The Riley County Police Department is asking for the public’s assistance in identifying the suspect in the armed robbery. Anyone who may recognize the individual pictured is asked to contact the Riley County Police Department at (785) 537-2112 or Crime Stoppers at (785) 539-7777. Using the Crime Stoppers service allows you to remain anonymous and could qualify you for a cash reward of up to $1,000.00.
JUNCTION CITY —The Cloud County Community College Board of Trustees accepted the resignation of college president Dr. Mark Smith at a special meeting Wednesday morning. Smith had been president since Feb. 1.
“I am deeply saddened that I have had to make the painful decision to respectfully resign as president of Cloud County Community College and return to Temple, Texas, due to some unforeseen personal family and medical concerns that have arisen,” Smith said in an email to employees.
His last day at Cloud will be Friday, April 13.
The board of trustees is exploring all options to find the next president of Cloud County Community College.
Founded in 1965, the College serves the educational needs of 12 counties in North Central Kansas. The first campus was located in Concordia, however, services are provided at 28 other sites, including the Geary County Campus in Junction City.
“It’s with deep regret that we accept Dr. Smith’s resignation,” said CCCC board chair Greg Askren. “The college will move on. Family comes first, and we absolutely understand that he needs to be back in Temple with his family.”
Smith said he has greatly enjoyed his time at Cloud County and in Concordia.
“The city of Concordia and surrounding communities are truly blessed to have Cloud County Community College within their community,” he said. “It is very clear each of you are very passionate about serving the learners and all work tirelessly to help each of them fulfill their educational aspirations. Cloud has an amazing leadership team that will continue to lead the college to bigger and better things.”
There were assemblies for Junction City Middle School students on Monday that followed the series of recent student arrests on suspicion of Criminal Threat stemming from alleged threats within the school or to the school.
Junction City Police Chief Dan Breci noted that the principal, Mary Wright, and Police Dare Officer Jay Wigton talked to all three classes of students emphasizing school safety and comments by students. Breci explained, “kids that make comments even though some may think they are jokes, people have been in fear and they have talked to their parents, their parents have called us or the school has called us.”
Breci felt the discussions with the students were a good start. “Hopefully it will be a good impact that this will stop.”
A total of nine students in USD 475 have been arrested on suspicion of Criminal Threat, including seven from Junction City Middle School.
The annual Fake Patty’s Day celebration is Saturday in Manhattan.
Centered in the Aggieville and surrounding areas, this typically attracts many to celebrate and party on the Saturday before Saint Patrick’s Day.
Riley County police have announced that will establish and maintain an Operations Center in the Manhattan City Park Pavilion for the celebration. They will release information through periodic news briefings, and will be active on Twitter and Facebook throughout the day and this week prior to Fake Patty’s Day. RCPD is encouraging patrons of this fake holiday to follow them for updates.
Police are reminding those who plan to attend this event to celebrate responsibly and not drink past a safe limit, or get behind the wheel after consuming any alcohol. Officers will be out in significant numbers attempting to reduce crime and improve the quality of life for the community members of Manhattan who choose to participate, and for those who do not.
Moro Street from North Manhattan Avenue to 11th Street in Aggieville will be closed to vehicle traffic starting at 7 a.m. on Saturday. Any vehicles parked in that roadway after that time will be towed. The area will still be open to pedestrian and street vending traffic.
Junction City Police Chief Dan Breci has confirmed that a Junction City High School student was arrested on suspicion of Criminal Threat at the JCHS career campus late on Friday afternoon.
That arrest comes in addition to the recent arrests of six Junction City Middle School students and one Freshman Success Academy student in recent days on suspicion of Criminal Threat in connection with alleged threats within the schools or at a school.
Breci stated Tuesday night that he hoped that was the end of it, in terms of number of arrests. But a check of the JCPD Tour Log report Wednesday morning has revealed that another Junction City Middle School student has been arrested on suspicion of Criminal Threat. That arrest was reported at 9:38 a.m. on Tuesday.
Submitted
Mike Wolfe, Frank Fritz and their team are excited to return to Kansas. They plan to film episodes of the hit series “American Pickers” throughout the area this May.
“American Pickers” is a documentary series that explores the fascinating world of antique “picking” on history. The hit show follows Mike and Frank, two of the most skilled pickers in the business, as they hunt for America’s most valuable antiques. They are always excited to find sizable, unique collections or accumulations and learn the interesting stories behind them.
As they hit the back roads from coast to coast, Mike and Frank are on a mission to recycle and rescue forgotten relics. Along the way, the Pickers want to meet characters with remarkable and exceptional items. The pair hopes to give historically significant objects a new lease on life, while learning a thing or two about America’s past along the way.
Mike and Frank have seen a lot of rusty gold over the years and are always looking to discover something they’ve never seen before. They are ready to find extraordinary items and hear fascinating tales about them.
“American Pickers” is looking for leads and would love to explore your hidden treasure. If you or someone you know has a large, private collection or accumulation of antiques that the Pickers can spend the better part of the day looking through, send us your name, phone number, location and description of the collection with photos to americanpickers@cineflix.com or call 855-OLD-RUST.
Geary USD 475 officials have reported that they are working on a new notification system for threat assessments. That comes in the wake of the recent arrest of seven students in the district in connection with alleged threats at a school or within a school. Six of the seven arrests occurred at Junction City Middle School.
Matt Droge, Executive Director of Communication for USD 475, is working on the process. “When we release this expanded threat assessment program we’re going to do that simultanously with a notification system.” That system has already been established on usd475.org. in the emergency management threat assessment page on the district’s web site. ”
Droge stated the page will allow parents to obtain the district’s assessed feed notification which provides them with an email whenever something new is posted to the district’s web site. “So they can see the result of these threat assessments. It’s not going to be in great detail because there’s a lot of information we can’t release because it’s information that’s held by the police department. But we’ll do our best to keep the parents informed about everything that we’re doing as far as threat assessment.”
Droge provided details on the effort at the Board of Education meeting this week.
JUNCTION CITY — Another Kansas high school student has been arrested after bringing a handgun to school.
In addition to the arrest in USD 266 Derby Monday, police arrested a Dodge City student and 6 students in USD 475 Junction City over the past two weeks.
On Monday night, police public information officer Capt. Trish Giordano issued a statement on the student arrests.
In Derby on Monday, High school administrators brought a student in for questioning after receiving a tip, and the gun was found.
The school resource officer arrested the sophomore without incident. No threat was made to students or staff, according to the alert sent by the district.
Derby spokeswoman Katie Carlson didn’t say if the student was in class with the weapon, or what time the student was arrested.
If you thought that February felt a lot like January, well they were both cold! Both months were below normal precipitation and we ended with similar monthly average temperatures for both months. The difference is that the temperature was above average for January but below average for February.
The average daily high for February was 40.1 degrees, 4.2 degrees below normal. The average overnight low was 21.1, 0.8 degrees below normal. This gave us a monthly mean temperature of 30.6, 2.5 degrees below normal. 29.7 was the monthly mean temperature for January. The highest temperature for February was 70 degrees on the 27th. The lowest temperature was -1 the morning of the 3rd. There was one temperature record set during February. The overnight low of 51 on the 14th set a new record high low for that
date. The old record was 49 set in 1954. February 2017 was our second warmest February on record and was over 14 degrees warmer than this February, which may have contributed to it feeling so cold this February. The warmest February on record was 1954 with a monthly mean temperature of 46.3 degrees. The coldest February on record was in 1979 with a monthly mean temperature of 17.6, 13 degrees colder than this year!
Once again, monthly precipitation in February fell below the long term average. This is the fourth consecutive month that precipitation was below average and 8 out of the last ten months have had below average precipitation. Average precipitation for February is 1.12 inches. Milford Lake received 0.64 inches and Junction City 0.54 inches. Average precipitation for January and February is 1.77 inches. 2018, through the end of February, has seen 1.07 inches in Junction City and 0.92 inches at Milford Lake. The wettest February on record was in 2001 when 2.99 inches of precipitation was recorded. The driest February is an honor held by 1963, 1991, and 2006 when no measurable precipitation was recorded.
While we had enough snow and other frozen precipitation to make driving and walking treacherous, we were still well below long term average February snowfall. Average snowfall for February is 4.7 inches. The Junction City area recorded 2.3 inches during the month. Year to date
we´ve seen 7.7 inches of snow in the Junction City area which is roughly half of the long term seasonal average through February of 14.1 inches.
March can be a cruel month with weather taking extreme mood swings on a regular basis. It also brings us the official start of spring along with hopes of warmer weather to come! With lengthening hours of daylight the temperatures respond favorably. Average daily high on the first of March is 49 and by the end of the month we are up to 61 degrees. Average overnight lows range from 25 on the 1st to 37 on the 31st. Early March has certainly been acting lion like so we´ll see if we can exit the month on a more lamb like basis! As we head into our normally wetter part of the year March traditionally shows us a noticeable increase in precipitation. Long term average March precipitation is 2.34 inches with much of that coming as rain. Average March snowfall is only 3.1 inches.
Chuck Otte
County Extension Agent, Ag & Natural Resources
