Robert Crawford has had enough of running railroad engines and tanker cars full of hazardous chemicals parked on the tracks just yards from his house. The Marion man spoke to city council members about it Monday, asking for a city ordinance to be passed. “We are asking that the city of Marion impose a 72 hour limit on parking and leaving a setting diesel engine to run and at the end of 72 hours move it elsewhere,” Crawford said. (Read more: Marion County RECORD)

County commissioners compromised with Hillsboro Monday by agreeing to build a new ambulance station in return for land and water and sewer services from the city. Emergency Medical Service director Travis Parmley suggested a month ago that the county purchase a former gun shop in north Hillsboro and build a two-bay garage for the ambulances. The following week, Hillsboro city administrator Larry Paine spoke to commissioners about the city’s plan to build a public safety center at the north end of the city to house police, fire, and emergency medical services. (Read more: Marion County RECORD)

Florence city council reestablished a standards board Monday to combat nuisance vehicles and houses, with councilman Mary Shipman serving as the city’s representative. The board will include Shipman, resident Darla Spencer, who was the driving force, and two additional community members. “Whatever we decide we’re going to do to get this town cleaned up, we’re backed by everything,” Spencer said. “Once we get the standards board enacted, the team I put together is ready to start.” (Read more: Marion County RECORD)

For the second time in two weeks, a Hillsboro ambulance crew got stuck on muddy roads while on a call. The crew was transporting a patient home from Newton Medical Center at 12:53 a.m. Saturday when the vehicle became mired in mud on Falcon Rd. between 140th and 150th Rds. “It appeared to be a good road, and they stayed on the blacktop as long as they could,” EMS director Travis Parmley said. “It just didn’t work out well.” (Read more: Marion County RECORD)

Florence Council needs to crack down on the number of decrepit vehicles in the city, community member Phil Baldwin said during Monday’s council meeting. “Just going from the restaurant to my house, I bet I drive by 10 or more cars that haven’t been moved for a long time,” he said. “Some of them are jacked up without tires and they don’t run. For some reason we’ve given them the ability that by paying money, they can keep them there.” City ordinance allows one non-running vehicle per property with a $50 permit, as long as the vehicle is in respectable condition [...]

Marion County Park and Lake is the newest proposed site of a dog park Marion’s girl scouts have been working on for months. The original proposed site was south of the Marion High School football stadium. When that didn’t work, the girl scout troop got permission to install it across the street from Ann’s Park on N. Roosevelt St. The troop’s fence installer said water drainage would cause a problem there, so the troop asked Marion council members if the dog park could be installed at Ann’s Park. (Read more: Marion County RECORD)

Kansas counties are on their own when negotiating payment in lieu of taxes agreements with wind farm companies looking to install turbines in their counties, and payments vary widely from one wind farm to another. The most recent figures available, from a 2017 study by Flatland, a Kansas City-based public broadcasting system, show payments to counties range from $1,000 to $6,500 per megawatt produced. Marion County’s agreements place it near the bottom for payments for wind farms in the state. A recently-completed wind farm in the northern portion of the county, Diamond Vista, pays the county $900 per megawatt produced. Diamond [...]

Marion County received its first payment in lieu of taxes check for $269,325 from Diamond Vista wind farm Dec. 16, county clerk Tina Spencer said. It appears that no money was withheld from the county for consulting fees of more than $686,000 despite a clause in the agreement with Enel Green Power that would have allowed it to deduct from its payments any amount that exceeded $250,000. “It appears to be the full PILOT payment, but I would have to verify by looking back at our agreement,” Spencer said. (Read more: Marion County RECORD)

Marion city council Monday voted unanimously to approve a $7,492 high-speed broadband fiber network design and study to be paid in conjunction with TCT, the broadband division of Tri-County Telephone. The city and TCT will each pay half the cost. A plan to install Internet fiber capable of delivering 1 gigabyte speeds for both business and residential customers will be developed and a study will be done to determine how many businesses and residents would use high speed broadband Internet, and what speed would serve their needs. (Read more: Marion County RECORD)

Although commissioner Dianne Novak is still sticking to her guns, a moratorium on wind farm development failed Monday on a vote of three to one, with commissioner Jonah Gehring not casting a vote in favor or against. County counsel Brad Jantz presented a proposed 120-day moratorium resolution at Monday’s meeting. Novak questioned the resolution having that short of a time frame. Jantz said the time frame could be longer if commissioners wanted. “There’s nothing magic about that 120,” Jantz said. (Read more: Marion County RECORD)