Thieves take copper
GARDEN CITY — Garden City police are investigating to separate copper thefts that maybe related, police said this morning.
According to the investigation, between 9 p.m. June 12 and 6 p.m. Friday at 1209 E. Fulton St., someone stole copper wiring from a condensing unit.
Garden City police Capt. Mike Utz said the unit had been removed from the roof in order for the roof to be repaired.
Utz said the estimated value of the copper wiring is $7,000.
In a separate incident, according to the investigation, at 11 a.m. at 3G Electric, 905 W. Mary St., someone cut out a section of chain-link fencing behind the business and stole two wooden spools each containing 100 feet of copper wire.
The estimated value of the wire is $3,000.
Utz said officers are following leads to determine if the two incidents are connected.
— The Garden City Telegram
www.gctelegram.com
Appraiser is fired
GREAT BEND — Repeated executive sessions by the Barton County Commission came to a close Monday morning when, following three of the closed sessions, the commissioners voted unanimously to terminate County Appraiser Kyle Radenberg.
Monday’s sessions were the most recent of closed executive sessions that the commission held at the end of several recent Monday morning meetings.
The three executive sessions on Monday were called to discuss nonelected personnel, and it was announced at the beginning of the closed sessions that they could include County Administrator Richard Boeckman and the appraiser. The closed sessions concluded, less than an hour later, with the announcement that Radenberg was being terminated immediately.
Commissioner Betty Chlumsky said, “I move to terminate the Barton County appraiser, effective immediately.”
There was no public discussion before the commissioners all voted for the termination.
— The Great Bend Tribune
www.gbtribune.com
Two die in wreck
IOLA — Two local citizens were killed and three others injured in a crash on U.S. 169 about three miles south of Humboldt Saturday morning.
Dead are Terry L. Higginbotham, 60, and Jeanie Larson, 64, husband and wife, of Carlyle. They were in a pickup truck driven by Ronald Stranghoner, 64, also of Carlyle. Stranghoner, his wife, Rosy Stranghoner, 67, and the driver of the other vehicle, Valorie Graham, 38, Coffeyville, were injured.
The Stranghoners were flown by helicopter to Wesley Medical Center in Wichita, where they are being treated for multiple injuries, including broken bones. Graham was taken by ambulance to Neosho Memorial Regional Medical Center in Chanute.
Higginbotham was riding in the front seat of the four-door pickup truck and Larson and Rosy Stranghoner were in the back seat, the Kansas Highway Patrol report said.
The accident occurred shortly after 8 a.m. According to KHP, Graham was northbound, went off the east shoulder, overcorrected when she drove back onto the highway and then crossed the center line, leading to a head-on collision. The Stranghoner truck, pulling a trailer with two horses in it, went into the east ditch and overturned onto its side. Graham’s BMW utility vehicle ended up eastbound in the southbound lane.
The two horses survived without injuries of consequence, officers said.
— The Iola Register
www.iolaregister.com