Author: Brandon Peoples

City officials are planning the next phase of construction to widen Kimball Avenue in Manhattan’s North Campus Corridor. Public Works crews will close Kimball just west of the Denison Ave. intersection to near the Grain Science Center on Feb. 19. Then, after K-State commencement ceremonies in May, the intersection itself will close, according to City Engineer Brian Johnson. This will result in traffic adjustments along Kimball through the summer. The southern and eastern legs of the intersection will remain open through the remainder of the semester. City Manager Ron Fehr says most traffic will shift to Anderson and Marlatt during construction. The…

The Manhattan City Commission approved the first reading of an ordinance Tuesday amending a section of code establishing regulations and penalties for violations within the downtown parking garage. Parking Services Manager Adrienne Tucker says the clarification will give law enforcement more authority to cite folks who loiter in the garage. The commission will revisit discussions at a later date regarding a potential future contract for license plate recognition technology and paid parking in the garage. In addition, commissioners chose not to alter any of the current ordinance impacting the Aggieville garage and its fee structure. Mayor Wynn Butler weighed in. Commissioner…

Riley County USD 378 School Board members met for an hour behind closed doors Tuesday night, but took no action regarding the status of its superintendent, who remains on administrative leave. Coming out of executive session, Board President Samantha Brown moved to authorize Hoover Law Firm of Junction City, to carry out negotiations with Cliff Williams and report back to the board in two weeks. The motion passed 4-3, with board members Jeff Hancock, Nathan Mead and Justin Ricketts opposed. Mead stated he believes the motion forward is not responsible for the district. Brown, who voted in favor, responded. The…

Pottawatomie County commissioners moved Monday to send out bids for dust control on some of the county’s more well-traveled dirt gravel roads. Public Works Engineering Aide Janell Ralph says the county has three interested bidders for the annual sprays this year. A number of rural routes have had more traffic amid the closure of the Louisville Road Bridge over Rock Creek, which remains closed after a sinkhole developed on the deck last year. Project Coordinator Steve Roggenkamp presented a funding agreement from the Kansas Department of Transportation, which approved a cost share grant for upcoming bridge repairs last fall. Pottawatomie…

Manhattan Public Works crews continue to patch potholes across the city, following January’s frigid and wet conditions. City Engineer Brian Johnson says work is continuing on a stretch of Fort Riley Blvd. near Westwood Road, where traffic backed up for Tuesday morning’s commute. City Manager Ron Fehr joined KMAN’s In Focus Tuesday and says the city is essentially in triage mode trying to fix issues as they arise. City crews patched 529 potholes on Monday alone. Fehr says it’s been especially challenging, given the extreme cold spell that the area experienced in January, followed by an almost immediate warmup. Residents…

Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly will deliver this year’s Landon Lecture at Kansas State University. The lecture will take place at 11:30 a.m. Feb. 16 in Forum Hall at the K-State Student Union. Kelly’s lecture will center around the health of the state of Kansas, its residents and its politics. The lecture is free and open to students, faculty, staff and the public. Her speech will help celebrate the 161st anniversary of the founding of the university. Doors will open at 11 a.m. “As the first university in Kansas to embrace the health promoting university charter, K-State is deeply committed to the…

The Senate has come out with a $118 billion compromise that pairs tens of billions of dollars in wartime aid for Ukraine with new border laws aimed at shrinking the historic number of people coming to the U.S. border with Mexico seeking asylum. The legislation faced almost immediate criticism from Republicans in both chambers, including Kansas Sen. Roger Marshall, who says it doesn’t go far enough on securing the border. Under the proposal, migrants would not be able to apply for asylum at all if illegal border crossings reach certain thresholds. It requires a similar expulsion authority if the number…

Two people were injured in a weekend crash on the north side of Manhattan. RCPD says the injury crash occurred Friday evening near the intersection of Marlatt and North Seth Child Road, involving a minivan driven by 20-year-old Gabriel Ramos-Calleja, of Manhattan and a passenger car driven by 47-year-old Whitney Francis, also of Manhattan. Francis was transported to Ascension Via Christi for treatment of undisclosed injuries. A 19-year-old passenger in the other vehicle was also transported. Police cited Francis for failure to stop or yield at a stop sign.

Crews will be replacing utility poles this week along US 24, in the vicinity of the McCall Road intersection. The City of Manhattan says work will result in lane restrictions on the well-traveled corridor starting at 9 a.m. Tuesday and continuing through Thursday. The outside lanes will be closed in both directions approaching the intersection. This will also impact the leftmost left-turn lane onto U.S. 24 from McCall Road. City officials says the temporary closures will not affect access to any nearby streets, including Levee Drive.

A Manhattan man was arrested Saturday on a number of charges, including assault and battery. The Riley County Police Department says 27-year-old Michael Lee Williamsen is charged with single counts of aggravated assault, criminal threat, domestic battery and attempted possession of a firearm while under the influence of alcohol or drugs. He’s also charged with two counts of aggravated child endangerment. The victims in the case were a 26-year-old woman and two children, according to a Monday police report. Williamsen was arrested just before 1:30 p.m. Saturday in the 200 block of Hackberry Ave. He remains jailed on a $25,000…