Author: Brandon Peoples

Some local veterans have submitted open letters to the Riley County Commission demanding the meetings be streamed online. The letters were made public Wednesday by Manhattan Alliance for Peace and Justice. (They are attached below.) The group of active and retired veterans argue that due to the ongoing health crisis, activity conducted during the two weekly meetings is being done in secret, heightened by the fact that the county commission also acts as the Board of Health, in charge of the health department and essentially public health policy. They argue the meetings are poorly publicized, never televised and held during…

Boomtown will be silenced on the 4th of July. The Wamego City Commission unanimously adopted a motion Tuesday to postpone the annual freedom celebration, carnival, parade and fireworks show, which typically draws in over 50,000 people. A makeup date has not been determined. A chief concern was the uncertainty of when Kansas and county health officials will be able to lift the ban on large group gatherings. Phase 4 of Governor Laura Kelly’s reopening is set to begin around June 15, but would only raise the limit on public gatherings to 90 people. Nothing has been stated beyond late June…

One of the larger retail operations in Manhattan will reopen Wednesday. Manhattan Town Center shifted its hours in mid-March only to shut down when stay-at-home orders went into place. Marketing Manager Jeff Sutton says reopening will happen with a cautious approach. “We’re taking a definitely good, phased approach which we’re currently working on,” he told News Radio KMAN Tuesday morning, when the mall was still working out final details of its reopening plans. The mall will be open 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday beginning Wednesday. Sunday hours will be noon to 6 p.m. Hand sanitizer stations have…

No new cases of coronavirus were presented in Riley County Monday as two more people were moved from active to recovered. In total, 23 of the 55 positive testing patients are active and 32 people have recovered. Perhaps the most significant statistic of the day Monday, was 43 test results coming back negative. The Riley County Health Department now has 28 pending test results and 523 negative tests. The newest to test positive were a 38-year-old male, a 28-year-old male and a 41-year-old female, all who tested positive over the weekend. Ascension Via Christi currently has one positive patient and…

From the Little Apple to the Big Apple, a local doctor answered the call recently to help fill a need on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic. Dr. Steve Short left his practice at Inspire ENT & Pulmonology for two weeks in April to join a team of specialists at Woodhull Hospital in Brooklyn. From the time he arrived, Short says he saw the unthinkable. “It was just constant code blue, people were dying left and right. The hardest part was seeing how many people died and how many died without any way to make it different. We had…

Photo courtesy Kansas Highway PatrolThe Flint Hills region experienced some of its first tastes of severe weather Monday. Storms packed quite a punch, knocking down power lines along parts of I-70 from the Manhattan to Wamego exits, closing down that chunk of interstate for several hours as motorists had to find alternate routes through the state. K-177 also saw some downed power lines south of Manhattan. Evergy reported some of the repairs likely would not be completed until Tuesday. One lane of traffic was reopened late Monday. Both lanes are now completely open. Elsewhere, street flooding was an issue in…

A body emergency crews pulled from from the water at Tuttle Creek ORV Park Saturday night has been identified as 21-year-old Jose Francisco Ramos of Fort Riley. The Riley County Police Department emergency dispatch center received a call around 2 p.m. after Ramos went missing from a group of kayakers. Around 9:30 p.m. a body was recovered, believed to be the missing man. RCPD, the Kansas Highway Patrol, the Pottawatomie County Water Rescue Team, the Manhattan Fire Department, Riley County Rural Fire District, Kansas Wildlife and Parks and the Army Corps of Engineers Rangers responded to the scene.

Five new cases of coronavirus were reported over the weekend in Riley and Pottawatomie County. Two of them were in Riley County. The health department is reporting 25 active cases among the 55 total coronavirus patients that have tested positive since mid-March. Updated numbers will be presented to the Riley County Commission on Monday. Pottawatomie County saw three more cases over the weekend and currently has seven active cases and 15 total positives. Geary County had four active cases and 11 total confirmed cases as of Saturday. The Kansas Department of Health and Environment reported Sunday 13 total cases. Positive…

Officials at Fort Riley have confirmed that Brigadier General Douglas A. Sims II will be the next commanding general of the 1st Infantry Division and Fort Riley. The announcement became official April 30. Sims is currently the Deputy Director for Regional Operations and Force Management, with the Joint Staff. He is a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy and also has a Master’s Degree from Webster University. His career has included multiple deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq. A change of command date for the Big Red One has not been set.

The first phase for reopening businesses in Riley, Geary and Pottawatomie County includes limited dine-in seating at restaurants, reopening of retail stores and libraries. Four-phased plans were unveiled Friday evening by health officers Julie Gibbs (Riley Co.) and Lisa Kenworthy (Pottawatomie Co.) and Tammy A Von Busch (Geary Co.). Phase one begins Monday and allows restaurants in both counties to reopen their dining rooms with a maximum 50 percent capacity, based on fire code and tables must be set six feet apart. No buffet, salad bar, or self-serve, unpackaged food is allowed. No waiting areas within the facilities are permitted…