Event will extend Peabody man’s vision for city youth

Written by Don Ratzlaff Tuesday, 22 May 2012 14:01

Dale Hague Peabody-area residents will have an opportunity Friday to honor the contributions of one of the community’s biggest fans by supporting a cause he devoted himself to in the final years of his life.

The first Dale Hague Memorial Hub Benefit Dinner & Concert will begin at 5 p.m. with a sloppy-joe meal followed by a reunion concert by the local band On the Blacktop starting at 9 p.m.

All donations during the evening will go to support The Hub, the downtown center that Hague was instrumental in starting and maintaining over its six years of service to local youth.

The inaugural fundraiser comes five days before the one-year anniversary of the unexpected death of the community’s long-time dentist and volunteer at age 63.

“We want to keep going what he started,” said Doe Ann Hague, Dale’s widow and equally passionate partner with The Hub. “Dale grew up in this area. He went to school here, we moved here specifically to have our kids in school here. His dental practice was here for 38 years.

Read more: Event will extend Peabody man’s vision for city youth

First oil rig rises near lake; driller says more to come

Written by Jerry Engler Tuesday, 15 May 2012 13:25

This oil rig was erected last week near the Strassburg Baptist Church along Pawnee Road north of Marion Reservoir’s Cottonwood Point. Leo Kremeier of Herington, owner of Kremeier Oil & Gas, is drilling the well on land owned by M.E. Meisinger.

The new oil rig going up just north of Strassburg Baptist Church near Marion Reservoir seems to symbolize what’s coming to Marion County.

Leo Kremeier of Herington, owner of Kremeier Oil & Gas, is drilling the well on land owned by M.E. Meisinger for Ventex Operating Corp. of Dallas, Texas. He said the well is conventional rather than the new horizontal “fracking” variety that goes through rock at great depths to bring up oil.

But the horizontal drilling will begin here in about two months, he said, with even side lines from wells going under the reservoir if negotiations with the Corps of Engineers are successful.

He said the fracking would be so deep that it would have no effect on the reservoir.

Kremeier expects to be drilling another conventional well a mile and a half north of the Strassburg well soon.

He said he has recently drilled four new wells in Morris County with 16 new wells total. In the near future, he expects this area to have about 100 new wells––70 horizontal drills and 30 conventional.

Both Marion County Register of Deeds Jo Ottensmeier and Appraiser Cindy Magill said the activities coming into their offices generated by oil companies are unprecedented in the county’s modern history.

Magill said in the Marion County Commission meeting Monday that her office is under a shriveling April-May timeline to make sure they get new oil leases by companies with Marion County landowners on the tax rolls for the coming year.

According to what she has heard from the public, Magill said, “We’re laying on a prime oil belt in Marion and McPher­son counties.”

Read more: First oil rig rises near lake; driller says more to come

Officials say weather will determine extent of algae blooms

Written by Don Ratzlaff Tuesday, 15 May 2012 13:28

Blue green algae was plainly visible last summer in the pump strainers at the intake station at Marion Reservoir used by the cities of Hillsboro and Marion as their source for raw water.

State officials from several agencies said at a media briefing last week in Topeka that it’s hard to predict what kind of blue-green algae season lies ahead for public lakes in Kansas this summer, including the two lakes in Marion County.

The officials characterized last year’s outbreaks of toxic blooms as likely worse than they’ve ever been.

Between March 18 and Oct. 31, KDHE received 42 requests for testing at different lakes, according to Tom Langer, director of KDHE’s Bureau of Environmental Health.

He said the agency tested 38 bodies of water affecting 39 counties. Six lakes were under a warning or advisory for 27 days or more in 2011. Logan State Fishing Lake topped the list at 111 days; Marion and Milford lakes were next at 91 days.

Memorial Park Lake in Great Bend is the only lake currently under a warning.

Last year’s blooms affected lake visits, said Steve Adams of the Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism. About 6 million visits were made to state parks last year, down nearly 1 million from the year before.

“Some of that could be because of the excessive heat last summer, too,” Adams said. “It’s hard to say.”

Officials said they will continue to monitor public lakes in the state and will issue advisories and warnings when problems are discovered.

As for 2012, “I don’t think any of us really know because the factors that work into whether or not we have blooms tend to be the weather and what’s going on in the watershed,” said Mike Tate, director of the Bureau of Water at the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.

Read more: Officials say weather will determine extent of algae blooms

Postal-closing reprieve prompts mixed feelings

Written by Patty Decker Tuesday, 15 May 2012 13:26

Lehigh’s post office was one of six post in Marion County that had been targeted for closure before last week’s announcement.

The self-imposed moratorium set to end Tuesday that could have seen the closure or consolidation of 134 U.S. Postal Service offices in Kansas ended when a plan to keep them open was put into motion last week.

According to information from Postmaster General and Chief Executive Officer Patrick R. Donahoe, a decision was reached to cancel plans to close almost 4,000 offices nationwide because of community and congressional pressure.

“This news is a win for communities across Kansas,” said U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran, who is also a member of the U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Govern­mental Affairs Committee.

“For the last year, we have been asking the postal service what Kansans need to do to save their post offices—and USPS listened.”

However, the flip side is many of those facilities will face drastically reduced service hours and minimal staffing.

Yet, for the majority of rural communities, drastic cutbacks to remain open are better than closure.

Read more: Postal-closing reprieve prompts mixed feelings