Author: Brandon Peoples

Manhattan Mayor Wynn Butler was arrested Wednesday night on suspicion of DUI after crashing his vehicle into a storefront. The incident happened around 8 p.m. at the Candlewood Liquor Store, in the Candlewood Shopping Center. Butler confirmed overnight to KMAN that his brakes failed, but also admitted to having had four beers earlier in the evening. He has submitted his resignation from the city commission, effective immediately. Interim City Manager Jason Hilgers provided the following statement to News Radio KMAN Thursday morning. No injuries have been reported. Store owner Mike Irvin says he and his wife Lisa were not present…

The National Weather Service has now confirmed that an EF-0 tornado impacted southern Riley County during Monday night’s severe weather event. Meteorologists were out surveying damage Tuesday in the Hunter’s Island area, south of Fort Riley Blvd. and noted the tornado was on the ground from about 7:39 p.m. to 7:44 p.m. Monday, with an estimated peak wind gust of 85 mph, carving a path length of 1.6 miles with a width of 75 yards. No injuries were reported with this storm and the only damage reported was to an irrigation pivot and some nearby trees. It’s the second confirmed…

The next phase of construction along Kimball and Denison is expected to get underway soon . Interim Manhattan City Manager Jason Hilgers says the intersection, which is currently only accessible from East Kimball Ave. and south Denison Ave., will soon be closing to all traffic. The intersection reconstruction won’t be completed by that point, but should be done enough to handle traffic for K-State football this fall. When finished, the intersection will be able to handle seven lanes of traffic, including double left turn lanes for both east and westbound traffic, along with controlled access at K-State Rowing and at…

A Manhattan man was jailed Monday on a host of charges stemming from a past Riley County warrant. RCPD says the warrant for 27-year-old Malik Peters includes three counts of forgery, as well as single counts of unlawful computer acts, and theft. Bond was set at $15,000. Peters was no longer confined at the time of Tuesday’s arrest report.

Severe storms pushed through the area Monday night, though mostly spared the region of any significant damage. Tornado warnings were issued from Abilene to Manhattan and rur al areas of Clay and Pottawatomie counties, though they never really materialized. National Weather Service meteorologist Adam Jones says there were still some impressive storm reports that came out of Monday’s system. A brief power outage was noted in Junction City due to a tree blown over onto Jackson Street. Elsewhere there were reports of tree limbs onto houses in the Candlewood area and up to baseball sized hail north of Riley. As…

8 a.m. Monday update Severe weather appears to be likely for Monday with showers and thunderstorms expected to pop up this afternoon and evening. The Storm Prediction Center has placed the Manhattan area in an enhanced (level 3) risk for storm development, noting the potential for large hail, damaging winds and tornadoes. National Weather Service meteorologist Sarah Teefey… Teefey says having low clouds this morning should help somewhat but warns there is still plenty of instability. Timing for storm activity in the Manhattan area appears to be in the evening from about 6 to 9 pm. Areas further to the…

U.S. Senators Jerry Moran and Roger Marshall as well as Congressman Tracey Mann visited Westmoreland on Friday, touring the devastated neighborhoods ravaged by the April 30 tornado. The three Congressional members were bussed around the community to see firsthand the damage. Tuesday’s storm destroyed 22 homes and damaged 13 others. Sen. Moran says part of their visit was to determine whether the community may qualify for federal disaster assistance. “In this case, it appears, and even the community officials admit that the threshold is not met for the Federal Emergency Management Agency to come in. It’s still unknown about the…

A new MRI scanner suite was officially unveiled to the public Friday at Wamego Health Center. The permanent facility replaces a mobile MRI unit that came to the hospital twice a week. Hospital Administrator Brian Howells says construction on the roughly $3 million project took less than a year and came in under budget. “It’s been really about the last 9 to 10 months we’ve started from ground zero to up and running which has been terrific for us,” Howells said. The idea to bring an MRI suite to Wamego was born from conversations between the city and hospital over the…

Pottawatomie County officials say significant progress has been made on the cleanup effort in Westmoreland following Tuesday’s devastating tornado. “There’s still a lot to do but we kind of considered we’ve made it to the next phase of operations. We were able to send volunteers home this (Thursday) afternoon and we will not need volunteers tomorrow (Friday),” said Riley County Public Information Officer Vivienne Leyva, speaking on behalf of Pottawatomie County Thursday. Because heavy equipment will be hauling debris away, she says it’s not safe for volunteers to be out and about. The county plans to put out a notice…

The third phase of a pavement improvement project along K-18 and K-177 is scheduled to begin Friday, weather permitting. Traffic will be head-to-head on the southbound/eastbound lanes while the northbound/westbound lanes are reconstructed. The section of Zeandale Road/K-18 between K-177 and the local access road will also be reconstructed. Work will be done in subphases in order to keep two lanes of traffic open. This area will have a 10-foot width restriction. Turning restrictions at McDowell Creek, Stadel and Zeandale Road will remain in place, as well as at the intersections of Pride Drive, Johnson Road and Acorn Lane. KDOT…