Author: Brandon Peoples

Firefighters are responding to a brush fire in extreme northeastern Riley County. According to Riley County officials, firefighters were dispatched around 3:30 pm to a prescribed burn that got out of control. As of 6:45 pm a large area was still burning in a mostly rural area of northeast Riley County, near the borders of Marshall and Pottawatomie counties. The State of Kansas has dispatched the Dickinson County Task Force and the county is receiving mutual aid from Marshall, Nemaha and Pottawatomie counties. An aircraft is also dropping water on the fire, according to county PIO Vivienne Leyva. About 50…

One person was injured Friday in work zone crash on I-70 in Geary County. According to the Kansas Highway Patrol crash, a Toyota Highlander was traveling eastbound around 9:15 pm near mile post 301, when the driver swerved to avoid an animal in the road. That caused a trailing semi truck to strike the Highlander from behind. The roadway was down to a single lane of traffic due to construction. The 24-year-old semi driver from Mississippi, was transported to a local hospital with only a minor injury. The other driver, 64-year-old Jeffrey Tanner, of Manhattan, was not injured.

City officials on Tuesday will receive an update on Anderson Avenue reconstruction and a proposed intersection improvement project near K-State’s Unger Complex. The Manhattan City Commission meets for its bi-monthly work session at 6 pm on Tuesday at City Hall. The Anderson project will get underway in June and includes new sidewalks, water, sewer and stormwater improvements between Connecticut Ave. to Harris Ave. The project will be done in three phases and is expected to last two years, concluding in summer 2027. City staff will present potential options to improve safety between at Anderson and Bellehaven Road, on the east…

Commissioners on Tuesday approved the purchase of cloud service software and design implementation services with Oracle Permitting and Licensing (OPAL). “The idea here is that we’re trying to create a customer portal where all of that is in one place,” said Assistant City Manager Jared Wasinger. “So the members of the development community or an individual who’s trying to do a small improvement at their home, they don’t need to know where to go, they just need to go to this one place.” The new system will include an online portal that guides users through permit requirements or obtaining licenses.…

Geary County officials on Monday unanimously approved a request from the Convention and Visitors Bureau to fund repairs at the Milford Nature Center’s butterfly house. The attraction, which draws visitors from across the region, sustained significant roof damage from a recent snowstorm. Assistant CVB director Rick Dykstra informed the Geary County Commission that the nature center is receiving no other public funding to make the necessary repairs. “I think it’s very important we get it back up, hopefully before spring (ends),” he said. “It’s an investment in Geary County’s tourism, educational resources and just our well-being to have that re-established.”…

Heavy rain fell overnight in portions of northern Riley County, leading to some Wednesday morning road closures, according to officials with Riley County Emergency Management. A bridge on Kansas Avenue, west of the City of Riley, remains closed until further notice after sustaining some asphalt damage from overnight storms. Officials said Public Works is assessing the damage, but hasn’t determined how long the closure could be in place. Blue River Hills Road is also closed at the low water crossing. County officials said Wednesday that closure would remain closed until flood waters recede. Elsewhere, in Clay County, Emergency Management officials…

A Topeka-based manufacturing company cleared the first hurdles on Tuesday, as it looks to expand into Manhattan. City commissioners unanimously advanced an economic development application and incentives package for PTMW, Inc., which plans to lease a speculative industrial warehouse facility in east Manhattan. Morgan Padgett, PTMW’s senior vice president of accounting, told commissioners Tuesday, the company builds pre-fabricated metal enclosures, used in critical infrastructure, such as power delivery or generation and energy storage. To view the full article visit theMercury.com. Click here for more local news.

All modes of severe weather will be possible across the region Tuesday evening into early Wednesday. The National Weather Service Storm Prediction Center has placed the Manhattan area in an enhanced (level 3) risk for storm development. Large hail and damaging wind gusts will be the primary hazards, but tornadoes cannot be ruled out in some of the strongest storms. There is higher confidence for large hail and tornadoes for areas south of I-70. Any isolated storms that develop in the enhanced risk area will have the greatest severe threat during the evening hours. The National Weather Service in Wichita…

No injuries were reported Monday morning after a car fire north of Manhattan. Firefighters from Riley County Fire District No. 1 were dispatched around 7:20 am to the 7400 block of Tuttle Creek Blvd, less than a mile south of the four mile corner. According to Deputy Chief Jake Konrardy, the Ford SUV had heavy fire throughout but an initial cause has not been determined. The fire caused a brief closure of the highway and reduced traffic to one lane during the morning commute as crews cleared the scene and began their investigation. The scene was turned over to the…

Three people were injured in a fiery crash Saturday afternoon on Interstate 70, near Junction City. According to the Kansas Highway Patrol, a pickup rear-ended an SUV that had stopped in traffic in the outside westbound lane, about a mile west of the K-18 interchange, due to a bottleneck caused by road construction. The crash caused both vehicles to spin out and into the north ditch. Two of the three people involved in the crash sustained serious injuries, according to the online crash report. They included 43-year-old Thomas Little, of Idaho Falls, the driver of the SUV; and 22-year-old Rayce…