Hillsboro Free Press

Following a two-year wait, Marion’s Wyatt Helmer, 21⁄2, has a new liver.

With parents Aaron and Traci Helmer waiting nearby, Wyatt received the transplant during an eight-hour surgery last Tuesday afternoon at a hospital in Kansas City.

As an infant, Wyatt was diagnosed with biliary atresia, a serious disease of the young infant that results in inflammation and obstruction of the bile ducts carrying bile from the liver into the intestine.

Hillsboro City Council members were told at the March 6 meeting that the city’s 2007 operating budget had been declared out of compliance by the state.

Without an approved budget, the city is not allowed to spend the funds it has budgeted for.

Mayor Delores Dalke said work was already under way to correct the problems identified by the Kansas Department of Administration.