Marion has hired a new city administrator — Brogan Jones, a Lyons building and code inspector ... City council members voted unanimously Monday to approve a contract that Jones signed ahead of the meeting. His signature was on a copy of the contract included in agenda packets. Jones, who grew up in Sterling, will start May 1. “I’m just excited to get going,” he said after the council meeting. He expects his first week to be filled with meetings — staff, community leaders, business owners, and others. “It’ll be a busy week,” he said. Council member Zach Collett said he and [...]

Parrots, pink flamingos and pirates, oh my! My mother, Virginia, and I are part of a contingency of 95 Tampa, Kansas residents invited to enjoy Tampa, Florida, on that city’s and Southwest Airlines’s dime. Our group was up at 3 a.m. Monday to meet buses that would take us to Kansas City for our flights to the other Tampa. Source: Marion County RECORD

Marion County commissioners are poised to vote Monday to create a county administrator position. At their meeting last week, commissioners heard from the public in support of the idea, reviewed a proposed resolution to create the position, and set the matter to be discussed Monday. Among those speaking in favor of hiring an administrator was retired judge Michael Powers. Source: Marion County RECORD

With nine licensed lawyers in the county, several of them not actually practicing, and only two offices where a customer could hire a lawyer, Marion County is among the least-served counties for legal services. The Rural Justice Initiative, a committee to examine unmet legal needs in rural Kansas, will study the issue for 18 months and submit recommendations to the state Supreme Court. Although only half the state’s population lives in Douglas, Johnson, Leavenworth, Sedgwick, Shawnee, and Wyandotte counties, 80% of the state’s lawyers do. Source: Marion County RECORD

A Marion drug dog that cost $7,600 in 2019, $2,500 for a kennel in a police car, $2,357.67 for emergency surgery after she ate an extension cord in 2021, and about $7,000 a year to house, feed, and recertify, is now in the possession of the sheriff’s office because officer Aaron Slater, the dog’s handler, changed jobs. For now, the dog remains the property of the city of Marion. The sheriff’s office is expected to purchase the dog, named Blue, but a price has not been negotiated. Slater’s last day with Marion police was Saturday. He worked his first shift with [...]

Ten members of the public, half of them downtown business owners, spoke Tuesday with Marion city planners about downtown signs. Discussion of downtown signs began in August after Chelsea Mackey opened Dawn’s Day Spa at 331 E. Main St. and soon afterward had a perpendicular sign mounted over the sidewalk. Perpendicular signs violate zoning regulations downtown area. Source: Marion County RECORD

Marion’s streets aren’t parking lots. That’s what city council members decided Monday when they unanimously passed an ordinance to make it illegal to “park, store, or leave standing” any motor vehicle on public streets, parking areas, sidewalks, parks, and other city-owned property for more than seven continuous days. “I don’t think that’s unreasonable,” council member Zach Collett said. Source: Marion County RECORD

A new mural in Peabody will highlight the town’s history. Kansas Creative Arts Industries Commission gave Sunflower Theatre a $7,500 grant to create a mural at Peabody Market. Susan Mayo, chairman of the Sunflower board, said the mural would celebrate the “rich history of Peabody and transform the south wall of the Peabody Market into a work of art.” Source: Marion County RECORD

As it was when Rob Craft’s body was returned to Marion after his death, a large crowd of emergency responders lined streets Saturday and attended his Saturday funeral to bid him farewell. More than a dozen fire trucks from all Marion County lined E. Denver St. at the entrance to the cemetery. Trucks from Butler, Chase, and Morris County also parked along the street. A large flag dangled from a boom on a Hillsboro truck. Source: Marion County RECORD

A Peabody woman who three times has been accused of letting her dogs run free is appealing a ruling that she pick her dogs up from boarding and not return them to Peabody or else they will be adopted out. Terri Tucker was ordered Jan. 12 to pay $265 for having two dogs at large. She pleaded no contest in exchange for dismissal of two charges of no proof of vaccination and two charges of having dogs with no city tags. Source: Marion County RECORD