Dan Breci took over duties as Interim Police Chief for the Junction City Police Department on June 9th and now after a months long process, Breci has formally been named the new Police Chief.

“I feel very honored and proud to be a member of the Junction City Police Department,” said Breci. “Our men and women here are a group of great people and I look forward to being their cheerleader; and I look forward to working with all the citizens of Junction City and our surrounding communities and our law enforcement community – we have a great group of people that really truly care about the citizens of Junction City and Geary county and I’m just fortunate to be a part of it.”

Breci began his work in law enforcement in 1976 in Mitchell, South Dakota before joining that military.  Breci came to Junction City in 1986 as a part of the military; after leaving the armed forces in 1989 Breci began working for the Junction City Police Department.

Breci worked in community involvement as the first full time DARE officer, crime prevention and community police officer before becoming a detective and then relocating to the Topeka Police Department for a period of six years. In September of 2005 Breci returned to the JCPD as the Captain of Operations where he’s worked for the past 11 years.

Allen Dinkel, City Manager, made the decision to hire Breci as the “full-time chief for the city” after “a search and some phone interviews.”

“I’m real fortunate that I had somebody of the caliber of Dan Breci to choose from and to select as police chief,” said Dinkel. “He has shown a long term dedication to not only law enforcement but also to the city of Junction City; and I believe he will be a very successful chief for us and one that will be able to continue with the legacy – going back to Tim Brown and the chief before that – in offering the citizens of Junction City the quality police department that they deserve.”

Breci has an impressive resume including jobs like:  the Military Police Investigations Unit at Fort Riley, Detective in charge of Internal Affairs and Human Resources in Topeka, Undersheriff of Shawnee county, KS, instructor for police for the University of Kansas at the Kansas Law Enforcement Training Center in Hutchinson, currently teaching police and sheriff’s administrators around the state on conducting internal affairs investigations, past President and Secretary of the Kansas Internal Affairs Investigators Association, Kansas Association of Chiefs of Police, and Internal Association of Chiefs of Police.

Breci has a Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources from Friends University and a Master’s in Criminal Justice from Fort Hays State University.

Chief Breci is married to Carolyn and has four children and eleven grandchildren.

“There is no ceremony I need; the city manager [Allen Dinkel] told me to go put on my new badge and that was the ceremony, and I know that the people that I work with are happy that we now know who is at the helm and they can start planning for what is going to happen next,” said Breci.

The Geary County Sheriff’s office has reported the arrest of four people in connection with an incident on July 19 near Old Highway 13 in the rural southeast portion of the county where a man was found severely injured at the edge of a field.

The victim alleged he had been beaten and kidnapped from his residence in rural Wabaunsee County near Alta Vista and was transported to a residence in rural Geary County.

The Sheriff’s Department initiated an investigation and requested assistance from the United States Marshal’s Service in locating and apprehending the suspects.

Geary County Sheriff Tony Wolf reported that Mark Daniel Lee, 33, Herington was already in the custody of the US Marshal’s Service on unrelated charges. On August 11 the Geary County Sheriff’s Office apprehended Justin David Spiker, 26, Alta Vista. On August 16 the Kansas Apprehension Task Force apprehended Randy Carroll Fetters Jr., 36, Herington, and Story Lee Blocker, 36, Herington. Wolf confirmed all of the suspects were charged in Geary County District Court warrants with Aggravated Kidnapping, Conspiracy to Commit Aggravated Kidnapping and Aggravated Battery. The identity of the victim has not been released by authorities.

According to Wolf the incident allegedly revolved around illegal drugs and stolen property.

The Kansas Apprehension Task force is a multi-jurisdictional fugitive task force comprised of the United States Marshals Service, Topeka Police Department, Shawnee County Sheriff’s Office, and the Kansas Department of Corrections.

Geary County ranks among the worst in the state when it comes to health.

Deb Andres, Geary County Family and Consumer Science Agent, was a guest on JC Now on 1420 AM

– The Talk of JC where she revealed some troubling numbers.

“On the health indicators, we rank 100 out of 101 and on health behaviors we rank 101 out of 101 – now we have 105 counties [in Kansas] but there were four counties that didn’t have the right combination of data sources for it those to be included,” said Andres.

These shocking numbers come from a research document on county health rankings in Kansas, published by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

“We’re struggling a little bit in some areas and we’re exceeding in others…although there’s some areas we’re doing much better in, overall in health we’re struggling,” said Andres.

Last. Literally last is where Geary County ranks in those two major categories – but what exactly do they mean?

According to Andres, health indicators are things like physical activity and rates of obesity; health behaviors are smoking, alcohol use, food consumption, and access to healthy foods – are they readily available/affordable?

“We have one of the highest fast food per capita rates in Kansas,” said Andres. “You think about Wichita and Kansas City and Topeka and all those other urban areas and you think ‘Oh well..’ but – per capita we rank very high.”

Andres notes that many in the community are busy and often it’s easier to grab fast food, which isn’t bad – but she cautions the frequency in which we turn to those “fast” options.

Changing your eating and lifestyle habits can be difficult, but Andres says it is necessary for survival.

“The analogy I draw to that is kind of like a root bound plant, at some point you have to change pots and you have to replant or else the plant dies – so change is a necessary part of life in order to continue to grow,” said Andres.

Andres says that the overall health of Geary County residents extends far beyond just healthy eating, but healthy lifestyle choices as well.

“Having a beer every once in a while,” Andres uses an example, “that’s all okay, but the frequency in it is the issue.”

As a part of Live Well – Geary County Andres wants the community to know that there are resources available to get healthy.

“It isn’t just specifically one area, it isn’t just your diet or exercise, it’s wellness across the spectrum from physical activity, to emotional health, to social interaction – the whole gambit,” said Andres.

“We have amazing access to physical activity facilities, we just don’t choose to access them; so we have like, the Junction City YMCA, we have 8 or 10 wonderful walking trails, we just have a lot of good places to go and get physical exercise we just aren’t at the rate that we need to be in utilizing those,” said Andres.

For more information and tips on how to improve your health visit https://www.livewellgearycounty.org/.

The health rankings research can be found here:  https://www.countyhealthrankings.org/app/kansas/2016/rankings/geary/county/outcomes/overall/snapshot.