Thursday, June 11, just after 5 p.m., an ambulance was dispatched to the 400 block of S. Walnut for a report of a male hit by a vehicle. Kingston Ray, 10, was transported to Rooks County Health Center where he was checked for injuries. He was released a short while later, having checked out okay. A complete story will follow after the accident report is released.

THE TWELVE NEW POWDER-COATED MAIN STREET BENCHES, constructed by Leon’s Welding of Hays, arrived and are now a wonderful addition to Stockton’s downtown. The design of the benches has places for the tree plaques to be installed on them at a later date.

Rooks County Health Nurse Lori Eichman was at the regular meeting of the Rooks County Commission on Tuesday, June 2nd to give them an update on the COVID-19 pandemic. Eichman reported nothing new in the county. She went over the Kansas numbers, which show 10,011 cases of COVID to date. Of those cases there were 862 hospitalized and 217 deaths. At this time 88 of the 105 counties still have positive cases. Eichman stated that if there are no new positive cases reported in Rooks County by Thursday, June 11th, the County can open with no restrictions. The commissioners felt that the guidelines for the reopening of the County they set and posted on the Rooks County Health Department Facebook page are going well.

The Stockton Fire Department was called out on Friday, June 5th at 5:26 p.m. to the Tyler Muir farm at 2010 D Road to help put out a fire in a 30x40-foot shed. The cause of the fire was electrical. Fire Chief Jon Voss commended Tyler for seeing the smoke and keeping the doors shut to the shed, which helped choke the fire until the fire department arrived on the scene. Stockton, along with mutual aid from the Woodston and Plainville Fire Departments worked for about an hour and a half to two hours. The majority of the shed was saved with only about a third of it needing repairs and reconstruction.

This week Rooks County Health Center (RCH) will begin a new phase of easing restrictions on visitors and staff that were put in place to counter the spread of COVID-19. In addition to relaxed restrictions, many visitors and patients will have the first chance to see RCH’s new Outpatient Center located in the main campus of the hospital at 1210 N. Washington, Plainville.