TOPEKA, Kan. — Police in Topeka say two people have been hit by at least one vehicle along Interstate 70, and one of them has died. Police say in a news release that officers were called to the area late Thursday night and found two people in the eastbound lanes of the interstate. Police say one of the victims was pronounced dead at the scene and the other was taken to an area hospital with life-threatening injuries. Police say it appeared several vehicles were involved in the crash. Police have not released the names of the victims or said whether…
Author: KMAN Staff
The following summary of calls for service/reports filed by the Riley County Police Department is a portion of those received by police. Some names, addresses, and case details are withheld to follow local, state, and federal law as well as in an attempt to protect community members from being victimized further. Those arrested are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. MANHATTAN, KAN. – Officers filed a report for criminal damage to property in the 1100 block of Laramie St. in Manhattan on April 8, 2021, at approximately 4:28 p.m. Officers listed a 54-year-old male as the victim…
Ascension Via Christi President and CEO Bob Copple joined us Friday morning. We also spoke with Wamego Area Chamber of Commerce Tourism and Events Coordinator Kara Holle about the upcoming Tulip Festival next weekend. Members of the Riley County Health Department’s RADxUp team spoke about two free COVID-19 vaccine clinics in Manhattan, scheduled for Friday at the Douglass Center from 3 to 5 p.m. and Monday at the First Free United Methodist Church from 3 to 5 p.m.
Among the many topics discussed during Wednesday’s USD 383 Manhattan/Ogden school board meeting, Superintendent Marvin Wade called to attention the district’s outstanding gas bill procured during February’s Polar Vortex. Treasurer Lew Faust explained that through their provider, Symmetry Energy Solutions, their January bill amounted to ~$22,000, a normal rate expected for that time of year, and during the polar vortex saw an increase in usage of about 51%, and a bill totaling $128,363. “Something seems a little out of whack there, if it would have been 35,000 or 40,000, that would have seemed to been in line but it was…
Unlike the CARES Act, the American Rescue Plan Act, the most recent pandemic-related stimulus bill, will bring funds directly to local governments. Here is Manhattan assistant city manager Dennis Marstall on how much money Manhattan and Riley County can expect to receive. “We don’t have the final numbers now, but roughly $14 million will come to the City of Manhattan {and} $14 million will come to Riley County,” Marstall said during the Manhattan Area Recovery Task Force meeting Thursday. “We should see about half of that, $7 million each, by the end of May. We will get the final distribution…
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The Kansas Senate has advanced a bill that would lower the legal age to carry concealed firearms in Kansas from 21 to 18. The Republican-controlled Senate on Thursday voted 30-8 for the bill, which would require permit holders to complete a background check and undergo gun safety training. People as young as 18 can already carry firearms in the open in Kansas. The measure would increase the number of university and college students eligible to carry concealed firearms on campus, but education groups say it wouldn’t change current laws that allow high schools to prohibit guns…
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — LGBTQ-rights advocates in Kansas are relying on the state’s Democratic governor or the courts to block a ban on transgender athletes in girls’ or women’s school sports after conservatives on Thursday moved to push it through the GOP-controlled Legislature. Republican negotiators for the state House and Senate on education issues agreed to strip an unrelated bill of its contents, drop in the proposed ban and send the measure to both chambers for an up-or-down vote by the end of the week. The resulting measure is all but certain to pass, given both chambers’ GOP supermajorities and…
WAKEENEY, Kan. (AP) — A former official with a western Kansas sheriff’s office has been arrested on charges of trafficking in child pornography and sex crimes involving children. Blaine Dryden, 62, of WaKeeney, was arrested Wednesday on a warrant charging him with aggravated internet trading of child pornography and several counts of sexual exploitation of a child, according to the Kansas Bureau of Investigation. The alleged crimes occurred between November 2019 and last June, while Dryden was a lieutenant with the Ellis County Sheriff’s Office, investigators said. Dryden was placed on administrative leave by the Ellis County sheriff when the…
The Riley County Health Department is putting on two COVID-19 vaccine clinics over the next few days. RCHD official Jenny Yuen says the first will take place at the Douglass Center at 900 Yuma St. this Friday from 3 to 5 p.m.. “We are trying to vaccinate those that live around that area – those people that may not be able to make it to CiCo Park where we do our mass clinics,” Yuen said. “We want people to be able to come and get access easily from us in those two hours.” The second clinic will be at the…
Construction has been the name of the game around Manhattan over the past few months. Ryan Courtright, Manhattan Fire Department Assistant Chief of Risk Reduction, tells KMAN that road construction isn’t the only construction taking place around MHK. He says many new buildings are going up as well. Courtright says in the month of March out of 50 applicants, they issued 32 building permits. “The valuation total that we issued for permits in March was just shy of $13-million, and we actually permitted ten new single-family homes in Manhattan in the month of March,” Courtright says. Courtright says the workflow…