Author: Brandon Peoples

Pottawatomie County commissioners gave consensus Monday to extend its ongoing moratorium on solar farms until January 1, 2023. Doing so doesn’t mean the board and the county planning commission can’t still meet to draft zoning regulations. Commissioner Greg Riat says without it, a resident could in theory start building a solar farm operation on their property. “Just say we’re not going to do any solar farms in our county until January 1 of 2023 and for some reason we get our planning and zoning done in August we take it off.” The current moratorium is set to expire in March.…

A mid-week snow storm appears likely this week across much of Kansas. Up to a foot of snow could dump on some locations between Tuesday night and Wednesday, as an upper level storm system brings a band of heavy snowfall across portions of east central Kansas. Most areas will see between 5 to 12 inches of snow, according to the National Weather Service in Topeka, with the Manhattan area on track to receive about 3 to 4 inches. The greatest amounts of snow are forecast along and southeast of Interstate 35. There is some uncertainty to that and forecasters say…

A virtual meeting Saturday will be the second in a series of ongoing community conversations aimed at generating ideas for potential use of kitchen and cafeteria space within the Manhattan High East Campus. The facilitated conversations are being led by the Kansas State University Institute for Civic Discourse and Democracy (ICDD). An in-person discussion was held Tuesday, the first in the series of four discussions, with close to 30 residents participating. Institute Director Dr. Tim Shaffer says Saturday’s conversation will be similar, but in a virtual format, ahead of more in-depth conversations planned for February. “Saturday will be basically a…

A double homicide investigation is underway in Junction City. The Junction City Police Department says two men were found dead Wednesday afternoon at a residence in the 600 block of West Vine Street. Both had sustained gunshot wounds. Police say the victims include 26-year-old Blake McCoy, of Junction City, and 42-year-old Jeremy John Brown, of Pottawatomie County. Police say a preliminary investigation suggests the two knew each other and that there is no ongoing threat to the community. Anyone with information is urged to contact JCPD at 785-762-5912 or Geary County Crime Stoppers at 785-762-8477.

Nearly 900 new COVID cases and two COVID-related deaths were recorded this week by the Riley County Health Department. The latest deaths involved two men, aged 75 and 70 who tested positive earlier this month and died this week. The older patient was fully vaccinated, while the younger patient was not. Ascension Via Christi is caring for 11 COVID-19 patients, including four in the Intensive Care Unit. One of the patients is on a ventilator. Active cases are under 1,000 for the first time in three weeks. The two-week rolling percent positivity rate climbed to just over 24 percent, from…

The Ad-Astra map shows the new boundaries for the state’s four congressional districts. (Source: Kansas Legislative Research Department – Jan. 20, 2022)The Kansas House voted Wednesday to send a new map, which slightly alters the makeup of the four Kansas congressional districts, to Gov. Laura Kelly’s desk. If signed into law, the “Ad-Astra” map would move part of Wyandotte County from the 3rd District into the 2nd. As a result, Lawrence would move from the 2nd District, into the Big 1st, which includes Manhattan, and stretches to the Colorado border. That move drew sharp criticism from Democrats, who called the…

Pottawatomie County planning officials are slowly working toward developing a publicly available draft for solar farm regulations. A joint meeting was held last Thursday between the three Pottawatomie County commissioners and the 10-member Planning Commission. County Planner Stephan Metzger tells KMAN that coming to consensus on a plan has not been easy. “The one thing that they all agree on is that they don’t really have a consensus on just about anything yet on this, not because of individual disagreements, just because it’s a complicated issue and we’re all trying to learn basically from the ground up,” he said. Because…

School board members at USD 320 Wamego Public Schools have begun a series of interviews with  candidates for its vacant superintendent position. Current Lansing High School Principal Rob McKim is visiting Wamego Tuesday. He’s one of four candidates the school board is hosting this week. McKim has 28 years of education experience, including 15 years as a high school math teacher, working in El Dorado and also Fort Scott, where he served as assistant principal. He was also principal at Baldwin High School and named Principal of the Year in 2013. The board Monday hosted current USD 208 Trego Superintendent…

A Pottawatomie County commissioner has suggested that Riley County hasn’t done its homework on the benefits it has received from being a member of the Flint Hills Regional Council. During commissioner comments Monday, Dee McKee, who serves as Pottawatomie County’s representative on the Regional Council board, stated the primary mission is to support Fort Riley from being shut down. She says Riley County’s decision to not pay the increased dues, which amount to about $4,000 more annually, has left other government members within the 24-member council feeling somewhat slighted. “All of the small counties that joined to support Riley and…

A Riley County judge has sentenced one of the four co-defendants in a 2019 Manhattan murder case to 15 years in prison. At a hearing Monday, Judge Grant Bannister accepted a plea agreement from 21-year-old Jaylon Hitsman to charges of second degree murder, attempted aggravated robbery and aggravated battery in the death of Tanner Zamecnik on Nov. 1, 2019 outside the Park Place Apartments. Hitsman was sentenced to 181 months, including 117 months on the murder charge and 32 months each on the lesser charges. He was also ordered to pay more than $17,000 in restitution to the victim’s family.…