Author: Brandon Peoples

The Pottawatomie County Fair will go on, but with some adjustments due to COVID-19. The Fair Board, in consultation with the County Extension Office and recommendations with the Pottawatomie County Health Department announced plans Tuesday with some modifications. It will be open to the public July 30 through August 2. Some activities will be reduced to maintain safe social interaction. The fair board is asking attendees to check schedules carefully as some events have changed. Among them, the open class is restricted to just Pottawatomie County residents. All rabbit competitions have been canceled due to a rabbit disease outbreak. Additional…

Riley County’s top election official says the coronavirus pandemic is impacting the number of poll workers that will be available to assist in the Aug. 4 primary. “We’ve had 81 poll workers for the general election tell us they won’t work this (primary) election. The good news is our community has been responsive and have gotten a lot of new poll workers to sign up,” he said. Many of those long-time poll workers are senior citizens and at greater health risk for infection from the virus. He’s hoping some of them can come back for the general election Nov. 3,…

With less than a month until the official start date for school, members of the USD 383 Manhattan/Ogden School board Wednesday will be presented a first draft of the district’s reopening plan. In a letter to USD 383 families and staff sent Tuesday, the district announced it plans to move forward with both remote and onsite learning for the 2020-2021 school year. An official determination about which option will be in effect when school begins Aug. 12 will be made closer to that date. When selecting the remote learning option, parents would be indicating a desire to have all learning…

Fort Riley today is conducting a required, annual Full-Scale exercise to test the installation’s electrical grid and backup power generation. During the exercise, short term, rolling power outages will occur. Housing areas may be affected for short time periods. In addition, Saddle Horn Road, between Trooper Drive and Steeplechase will be closed to accommodate today’s exercise. Those living in the vicinity may notice an increase in emergency vehicle traffic and are asked to avoid that area. Fort Riley officials say the annual exercise tests and improves the installation’s emergency preparedness.

More people are expected to vote by mail this year, due to concerns surrounding the coronavirus pandemic. Requests for mail ballots is up significantly in both Riley and Pottawatomie counties ahead of the August primary and voter participation is also likely to be high, especially with the presidential election coming. Riley County Clerk Rich Vargo tells KMAN his office had received 6,183 requests as of Friday. Compared to August 2016, there were 355 votes by mail with a total voter turnout that year of 6,337. Vargo will join Riley County Commissioner Ron Wells Tuesday for an elections update on KMAN’s…

There will be no Kansas State Fair in 2020. The state fair board voted to cancel this year’s event amid concerns surrounding the coronavirus pandemic. The reversal comes just a week after the board had initially voted to continue with the fair. However, concerns from vendors and the community led them to adjust plans, with nearly half of the vendors cancelling amid worries about delays with travel quarantines, difficulties in putting crews together and the cancellations of other fairs, including Texas, Oklahoma and Nebraska. The board says it is still interested in finding a way to safely hold its livestock…

Riley County currently is monitoring 153 active cases of COVID-19 with 195 people now listed as recovered. Pottawatomie County was monitoring six active cases Friday, with 83 listed recoveries. As of Friday, Ascension Via Christi was monitoring zero patients. One person who previously was on a ventilator has now tested negative and is now recovering at the hospital. That patient reportedly had been in the hospital since May. Riley County Health Officer Julie Gibbs says the health department is meeting almost daily with local school officials as they prepare reopening plans for the fall, based on guidance now out from…

Riley County Police arrested an Ogden man Friday evening on a warrant for numerous charges of sexual exploitation of a child. Online court records show 27-year-old Charles Eugene Connell III was booked into Riley County Jail on 10 total counts saying he possessed visual depictions of a child shown to be engaged in sexually explicit conduct. The charges stem from an incident alleged to have occurred in September 2019. Connell remains jailed on a $100,000 bond. He is awaiting a first appearance in Riley County District Court..

Ascension Via Christi continues to pre-screen for all surgical or planned interventional procedures for the coronavirus. So far two patients have tested positive at Via Christi and had to have their procedures postponed. Manhattan Surgical Center has postponed one due to a positive test. Via Christi President and CEO Bob Copple explains how different aspects of a procedure can complicate things for a COVID patient. “We don’t always understand all the science but there are documented incidents where patients who had some kind of anesthesia and were positive with COVID tended to have all kinds of different complications after the…

The Kansas Supreme Court has affirmed drug-related convictions for a Riley County man stemming from a 2015 sting operation at a Manhattan motel. The high court ruled Friday the Riley County District Court did not err by allowing the State to present evidence that Anthony Brazzle sold methamphetamine to undercover detectives roughly a week prior to a traffic stop leading to his convictions. In its opinion, the court said the evidence was material to the disputed question of whether Brazzle intended to personally use or distribute the drugs found in the car. Also affirmed was the Court of Appeals’ holding…