News

WILSON — The City of Wilson may soon have a new full-time chief of police.At the Jan. 17 meeting of the Wilson City Council, the council voted to offer the job to Jonathan Lawrence who currently serves as the city’s part-time police officer.

KANOPOLIS — While the heat and sun of Fort Harker Days in July seem like a world away, plans are already in the works for the annual festival.“We’re starting to work on the poker run for this year,” Josh Kempke with the Kanopolis Fire Department told the city council during the Jan. 17 meeting.

Busy, busy, busy! But never too busy to wish you all a Happy New Year!This time of year, is busy, busy, busy. End-of-year annual reports, getting paperwork finished and getting everything else ready for the new year is just so fun.

Members of the USD 327 Ellsworth-Kanopolis-Geneseo board of education met Jan. 11 to start the process of reviewing information gathered during several recent listening sessions.The district’s ultimate goal is to create a strategic plan which will carry it into the future.

HOLYROOD — Polka music will once again return to the American Legion Hall in Holyrood.Barefoot Becky and the Ivanhoe Dutchmen will play at the first dance in the new legion hall from 2-5 p.m.Sunday, Jan. 22.

The cold snap around Christmas weekend translated into a flooded business for Nemnich True Value owner Shawn Nemnich.He swung by the store the day after Christmas, and found water.“I came around the corner and water was pouring from the ceiling,” Nemnich said.

LORRAINE — For Genifer Wesseler, music is more than a pastime or even a passion — it is a legacy.Originally from Bay City, Mich., her father was a high school music teacher and her mother a secretary for Franklin Community Church, who also sang.

City Administrator Dustin Stambaugh got city councilors and residents thinking with a presentation at the Elsworth City Council meeting Monday evening.Stambaugh brought in Brian Bascue and Tom McEvoy to speak about the possible creation of a recreation commission for Ellsworth.

WILSON — The Wilson City Council welcomed a new council member at the Jan. 3 meeting at city hall.Jeremy Hlad, along with incumbent council member Darcy Hubka-Vopat, were sworn-in by City Clerk Susan Kriley.Hlad succeeds council member Chuck Crawford, who did not run for re-election in November.

MANHATTAN — Sedgwick County farmer Mick Rausch’s struggle with depression coincided with his brother’s cancer diagnosis and a freeze that thwarted the harvest of a wheat crop.Rausch had promised his fatherin- law that he would not let the family’s century-old farm go under.