Author: Brandon Peoples

Pottawatomie County commissioners this week unanimously approved a $36.2 million overall budget for fiscal year 2022. The mill levy is up a whole mill from last year. Commissioner Dee McKee explained on KMAN’s In Focus Tuesday, that it’s primarily attributed to increased personnel wages and a $1.4 million increase into the county’s Special Highway fund for future road and bridge improvements. At Monday’s meeting commissioner Pat Weixelman voiced his support for the budget. Commission Chair Greg Riat also supported the budget. The full published budget is available below.

USD 383’s Child Nutrition department has resolved its food supply chain concerns for the time being. The district said Monday that Ben E. Keith Co. and F&A Food Sales, Inc., along with Hiland Dairy Foods and Liberty Fruit Company have increased services to meet the food supply need for students. The announcement comes nearly a week after district officials reported their primary food supplier Sysco had cancelled its contract with USD 383 earlier this month. Sysco has cancelled contracts with several Kansas school districts stemming from staffing shortages. As a result, USD 383 says it has high confidence that all…

The superintendents at USD 323 Rock Creek and USD 320 Wamego both say they’re exploring the concept of utilizing a supervised quarantine room in school buildings if necessary. The idea for quarantine rooms comes amid severe limitations on the use of remote learning instituted by the Kansas Legislature and schools trying to keep their state funding by having students in the classroom. Students who are quarantined could be forced out of the classroom for up to eight days. In Rock Creek Schools, no active quarantine room exists right now, but Superintendent Kevin Logan tells KMAN that his district utilized the…

Pottawatomie County commissioners agreed Monday to use $100,000 in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds to support up to four additional positions for its overwhelmed health department. Health Department Director Leslie Campbell says her nursing staff, which includes she, the local health officer and two nurses, have been fielding a growing number of concerns and questions from school officials daily. Many, she says, are trying to navigate uncertainty as transmission rates and quarantines increase. Campbell says her department has fielded numerous phone calls the past few weeks from school officials, including superintendents about what protocols they should be following. In…

Severe storms moved through Riley and Pottawatomie counties Friday night, packing strong winds along the way. In Manhattan, the storm pushed through the city around 7:30 p.m. with wind gusts ranging from 50 to 70 mph according to the National Weather Service. A large tree limb fell into the road along Marlatt Ave. between Browning Ave. and Tatarrax Drive. This resulted in a nearly two hour power outage for residents in the northwest part of town, including the traffic signal at Browning Ave. and Kimball Ave. According to Evergy, some 1,300 residents were left in the dark Friday evening, with…

The City of Manhattan is preparing to conduct its upcoming Housing Market Analysis and Policy Strategy Study. Commissioners, at their Aug. 17 meeting, approved a process to form a steering committee tasked with developing policies and project recommendations based on data trends identified in the study. City Manager Ron Fehr explains what the make up of that committee will look like. Fehr anticipates the study will take about a year. Mayor Wynn Butler says the housing study will be a data point for the city to have an affordable housing group as well as a workforce housing group. The city…

Kansas State University has received a five-year, $3.7 million grant from the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to research a new treatment method for COVID-19. According to a release from the university Friday, the principal investigator for the project is Virologist with the K-State College of Veterinary Medicine Kyeon-OK Chang. The project aims to complete development of a drug for pre-clinical studies, ultimately leading to a COVID-19 specific antiviral therapeutic treatment. Chang says “there is currently an urgent and unmet need for the discovery and development of antiviral therapeutics for the treatment of SARS-CoV-2.…

One of the first steps in the search for a new president at Kansas State University was completed this week by the Kansas Board of Regents. At a special meeting Wednesday, the board approved a presidential profile, developed by the 25-member Presidential Search Committee which was formed earlier this summer. Within the executive summary, obtained by News Radio KMAN Thursday, the profile seeks an incoming president that “should possess a demonstrated track record of successful leadership with significant administrative and leadership experience at an institution or organization of comparable size, scope and complexity.” The profile asks potential candidates to submit…

Two new deputy fire chiefs have been named to fill vacancies with Riley County Fire District No. 1. John Martens and Doug Russell will fill an open deputy chief position and replace the position vacated earlier this summer by former Fire Chief Michael Regal, who resigned for a position in South Carolina. According to current Director Russel Stukey, the move creates more efficiency in Fire District No. 1, while also trimming more than $25,000 from the annual payroll. The department was restructured after the retirement of longtime Emergency Management Director Pat Collins in 2020, who also served as the county’s…

A Manhattan man was injured Wednesday evening following a motorcycle crash near the Manhattan Regional Airport. The Kansas Highway Patrol reports that shortly before 6 p.m., 43-year-old Joshua Campbell was eastbound in the left lane of K-18 near mile marker 182. He was driving at a high rate of speed and, as a result, failed to negotiate a curve and entered the median. The crash report says the bike rolled several times and ejected the driver. Campbell was transported to Stormont Vail Hospital with serious injuries. The crash report indicates he was not wearing a helmet.