BOOKED: Ryan Kleweno of Mullenville on Barton County District Court warrant for failure to appear, bond set at $1,000 cash only.

BOOKED: Amanda Bruce of Ellinwood on Barton County District Court warrant for failure to appear, bond is set at $403 cash only.

BOOKED: Charles Rowe Jr. of Great Bend on Barton County District Court warrant for probation violation, no bond.

BOOKED: Stacey Henderson of Great Bend on Central Kansas Community Corrections order for incarceration.

RELEASED: Sierra Flax on BTDC warrant for FTA, released by order of the court.

RELEASED: Garrett Buckbee of Ellinwood on EPD case for battery DV on 18-hour OR bond.

RELEASED: Morgan C. McHenry to Rice County for their warrant.

RELEASED: Amanda Bruce of Ellinwood on BCDC warrant for failure to appear, posted a cash only bond of $403.

WICHITA, KAN. – A Kansas man was sentenced Tuesday to 165 months in federal prison for distributing child pornography, according to U.S. Attorney Stephen McAllister.

Charles A. Gann, 49, Great Bend, pleaded guilty to one count of distributing child pornography. In his plea, he admitted that an investigator with the Kansas Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force was able to use a file-sharing program to download child pornography from Gann’s computer. At sentencing, a prosecutor argued Gann used the internet to seek out and communicate with other people who shared Gann’s desire to have sex with children as young as infants.

Although the Great Bend Police Department is expected to lose one of their officers soon, they are currently fully staffed. A full staff in Great Bend includes 33 officers, four civilian positions, and eight crossing guards. The staff is even more complete with a handler in place with the department’s K-9 officer, Lazar.

After trading a K-9 officer in March to the Barton County Sheriff’s Office and Lazar’s old handler resigning, the Police Department went from two operating K-9 officers to essentially none.

Captain Scott Bieberle says that changed when they sent Officer Amber Allen and Lazar to Louisiana to complete the K-9 Certification Training.

Scott Bieberle Audio

Allen and Lazar graduated from the training on November 15. The four-week training included vehicle sniffs, traffic stop searches, luggage sweeps, and more. Allen and Lazar have returned to Great Bend to their regular patrol duties.

Bieberle mentioned Allen and Lazar are subject to call back when the two are off duty if a K-9 officer is needed.

Barton County Commissioners had plenty of questions but in the end voted 5-0 Monday to pay for the overage on a roofing project at the Barton County Historical Society.

In 2017, the board authorized paying Steel Builders Construction $12,800 for the roof ,but when the final bill came in to County Administrator Phil Hathcock, it was more than $2,700 what the county had originally agreed to pay.

Phil Hathcock Audio

Commissioners including Jennifer Schartz stated that while they appreciate the efforts of the historical society, they wondered why it took so long to get the project completed.

Jennifer Schartz Audio

Hathcock told the board that in his discussions with the Historical Society, they had indicated that if the county did not pay the difference, the Historical Society would find a way to get the total bill paid. With the 5-0 voted Monday the Historical Society will not have to worry about that.

BUSINESS NEWS

The Great Bend Recreation Commission will be hosting a free Stop ‘N Learn Session titled “Secrets of a Good Lawn” on Wednesday, November 28^th, from 12:00 – 1:00 pm at the Great Bend Activity Center (2715 18^th).  The mower may be put away for the winter, but that doesn’t mean you need to forget about your lawn.  Join us and learn about the biology, ecology and culture of good lawn management year-round during this educational program.  Alicia Boor, Cottonwood Extension District Agriculture and Natural Resources Agent, will be the presenter for this program.  For more information about this program and other programs the Great Bend Rec offers, please go to our web site at www.greatbendrec.com or call the Recreation Commission office at 793-3755 ext. 110.

BOOKED: Eliaser Leyva of Great Bend on Great Bend Municipal Court case for no driver’s license, no proof of insurance, improper turn with a bond set at $500 C/S.

BOOKED: Michael Philbern on arrest and detain for KDOC case for parole violation, no bond.

BOOKED: Garrett Buckbee of Ellinwood on EPD case for battery DV, bond set at $2,500 C/S or 18-hour OR bond.

BOOKED: Morgan McHenry on Rice County District Court warrant for failure to appear, bond set at $398 cash only.

RELEASED: Christopher Hughes on GBMC warrant by order of the court.

RELEASED: Jason Ryan Stapp on Great Bend Municipal Court warrant by order of the court.

ELLSWORTH COUNTY— One person was injured in an accident just after 11a.m. Monday in Ellsworth County.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2002 Chevy Impala driven by Summer R. Reece, 18, Derby, was westbound on Interstate 70 one mile northeast of Wilson.

The driver lost control of the vehicle. It traveled off the right side of the roadway, entered the north ditch where it rolled.

Reece was transported to the hospital in Russell. She was properly restrained at the time of the accident, according to the KHP.

As an electricity provider to the city of Great Bend, Wheatland Electric never wants the power to go off for any of their customers but they also know it is going to happen at some point. Once it does, the challenge is to get it back on as quickly as possible. That was what crews faced early Sunday morning when the winds picked up and the snow started flying sideways.

Chris Huber is Wheatland’s District Supervisor based in Great Bend.

Chris Huber Audio

When the snow began to fall and the wind started to blow on Sunday Huber didn’t really know what the day would bring, but says when the storm began to weaken, his crews got to work.

Chris Huber Audio

Huber says something that has really made a difference in finding and identifying problems quickly is Wheatland’s automated metering system. As soon as power to a meter on a home or business is interrupted, the company is automatically notified where the outage has occurred.

Huber still encourages anyone who has experienced and outage to call the after hours number to report the power interruption as well. That number is 1-800-ON-AGAIN which is 1-800-662-4246.

Early Sunday morning Barton County Sheriff Brian Bellendir urged the public to just stay home as the season’s first major winter storm rolled through the area. Not all heeded that warning.

Barton County Sheriff’s deputies worked no fewer than 12 accidents during and after the storm but thankfully all the accidents reported turned out to be non-injury accidents.

The first accident occurred just after the storm, packing high winds and blinding snow, started to affect the area. Officers were dispatched at 5:59 a.m. to 905 E. Barton County road for the first of the 12 non-injury accidents. Three accidents were reported during the height of the storm between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. Sunday morning and took place on on East Barton County Road, 80th Avenue and East US Highway 56 and US 56 and NE 40th Avenue.

The final non-injury accident that could be attributed to the storm took place at 6:51 a.m. Monday morning at NE K-156 and NE 130th avenue near Claflin.

In comparison, Great Bend Police worked only two accidents, the first at 9:31 a.m. Sunday morning at 10th and Washington with the second occurring at 8:51 p.m. Sunday night. That accident was not attributed to the weather. A vehicle was backing from a private drive and struck another vehicle which was parked legally.