Kansas Klips

Father of Kansas family struck by car in Kentucky dies

LOUISVILLE, KY. — The father of four family members from Nickerson, Kansas hit by an alleged impaired driver in Louisville, Kentucky, last week has died. The Jefferson County Coroner’s Office says Trey Jones, teacher and track coach at Nickerson USD 309, succumbed to his injuries Thursday night, July 7th. Jones, his wife Amy, and daughter Ava, along with the family’s youngest child were all hit by a motorist who drove up onto the sidewalk in the downtown area of Louisville last Tuesday evening. Ava, who just signed a letter of intent to play basketball at Iowa, was improving, according to Nickerson USD 309 Superintendent Curtis Nightingale. Ava’s team, Wheat State Elite, was in Louisville, playing in the Run 4 The Roses club basketball tournament. Police arrested the suspect, 33-year-old Michael Hurley of Lexington, Indiana. Hurley admitted he had just taken Oxycodone before the accident and failed a field test for narcotics at the scene. According to the Jefferson County Commonwealth Attorney’s Office, Hurley is now facing an amended charge of murder. (HutchPost.com)

Electrical outage hits area towns

OBERLIN — A bolt of lightning hit the main power line between Oberlin and Norcatur about 7:40 p.m., Sunday, July 3rd, and blew up some of the insulators holding the wire, leaving about 2,300 homes and businesses without electricity about four hours. Dean Wiseman, manager of operations at Prairie Land Electric Cooperative in Norton, said the outage stretched from Atwood to south of Norton. Wiseman said the insulators that were destroyed had to be changed by hand, a slow and careful process that requires extra time and special equipment. Crews used special bucket trucks with insulated interiors that had to be brought up from either Garden City or Colby. The insulators and attachments, called jumpers, had to be pulled down by hand by linemen while wearing special gear, he said. It was a long and intense process, especially with the storms still going on. Wiseman added that the lines had to be turned back on carefully after the crews isolated the part that needed fixing the most, so some areas regained power sooner than others. The end result was that Oberlin and most of Decatur County were without electricity for about four hours. (The Oberlin Herald)

Valley Center company hoping to build state’s first 3D-printed community

VALLEY CENTER — The City of Valley Center is making plans to build Kansas’s first-ever community of 3D-printed homes. The development would include at least 100 multifamily homes, with a focus on duplexes, for rent. City Administrator Brent Clark said the speed at which these homes could be built would help address the city’s housing issue. The project is in partnership with the Crain Company 3D, or CC3D. The city recently sold the land, near Ford and Dexter Avenue in Valley Center, to CC3D. Valley Center is expecting a 35% population increase in the next three to five years. Clark said, especially after Amazon opened its plant in Park City, families are flocking to Valley Center. “What [usually] happens in a few months can be done in a few days through this new technology,” Adrienne Korson, vice president of business development for CC3D, said. Korson said the homes are printed using a concrete base. She said building them is faster and more cost efficient because the company uses less equipment, machinery and people than a normal build. Besides that, concrete homes can last for 175 years, Korson says. And because they are hardened surfaces, they are going to be more tornado resistant as well. The project still needs to be fully approved, including zoning and construction measures. But if approved, Korson said the company hopes to be on site by the end of the year. (KAKE-TV)

Stolen license plate leads to multi county chase in Western Kansas

SYRACUSE — The Hamilton County Sheriff’s Department says three individuals are in custody after a police pursuit late last Wednesday morning. According to scanner feeds, at 10:24 a.m. a white Chevrolet Silverado pickup with a stolen Colorado tag was located at the Syracuse Food Center. The driver, who was identified as Dylan Wayne Schneider, 27, of Scott City, sped out of the parking lot after seeing a patrol vehicle, sideswiping a FedEx truck. The pickup was located west of town on US-50 Hwy and pursued south on K-27 into rural Hamilton County for quite some time. Spike strips were deployed at one time, but the vehicle continued into town on Main Street and eventually went east on US-50. Stolen items were being tossed out of the vehicle during the pursuit. Spike strips were again deployed on US-50 east of Kendall by the Kearny County Sheriff’s Office and the Kansas Highway Patrol. The vehicle continued north into rural Kearney County where it became disabled. Schneider, Tia Marie Solze, and Cheyenne Rushell McGahan were all taken into custody. Schneider and Solze both had several outstanding felony warrants. The vehicle was stolen out of Colby. (WesternKansasNews.com)

Emporia State football player killed in cliff diving accident

EMPORIA — Emporia State University says redshirt sophomore football player Brexten Green died following a cliff diving accident at Grand Lake in Oklahoma. According to Emporia State, Green was set to begin his second year at Emporia State after red-shirting last season. He was a 5 foot 10 inch, 190-pound receiver from Cashion High School in Cashion, Okla. Around 6:30 p.m. on Saturday, July 2nd, the Grand River Dam Authority received an emergency call about a man who jumped from the cliffs in the Dripping Springs area of Grand Lake. Rescue crews rushed to the scene and found Green in about 31 feet of water. (Fox News KC)

Sherman County Clerk asked to pay back thousands in lost COVID-19 money

TOPEKA — An elected Kansas county official, who received tens of thousands of dollars in federal relief money during the pandemic, was asked to pay the money back at a county meeting last week. Commissioner Rod Blake led a session of questioning at the board meeting with Sherman County Clerk Ashley Mannis, who split more than $67,000 in leftover federal relief money with her deputy. Kansas Capitol Bureau first broke the story of Mannis and Sherman County Deputy Clerk, Maria Parish, receiving a combined total of $67,109.18 for administering Coronavirus Relief Funds (CRF) between 2020 and 2021. The money was received through payroll, and paid on top of their paychecks. Three lump sums adding up to more than $56,000 were paid in just 2021 alone. Commissioners say that Mannis and her deputy were put in charge of how the money was dispersed after contracted workers from a private firm fell through. The county attorney has been directed to look into how the money can be recovered, but the Commission is still waiting to hear back. Kansas Capitol Bureau also broke that the FBI is investigating the situation. (KSNT News)