By JCpost.com

Recovery efforts to locate the victim of a drowning that occurred at Milford Lake on Christmas Eve will reconvene Tuesday.

Two Fort Riley soldiers were duck hunting around Charley’s Point on the lake in the early morning hours of Dec. 24 when one of them, Thomas Hedrick, 31, Fort Riley,  got into a boat and went to retrieve a duck they had shot. The boat began to take on water, and the wind blew the boat toward an ice sheet. Hedrick tried to get out of the boat onto the ice sheet, and the ice sheet would not support his weight.

The search for Hedrick was called off Dec. 24 due to poor weather conditions.

Geary County Sheriff Tony Wolf said 35 to 40 people will continue the search Tuesday morning.

“I have numerous boats coming in from across the state,” Wolf said. “I have boats that are equipped with enhanced side scan sonar. I have two dive teams that will be in here tomorrow and a whole bunch of personnel coming in to assist with this.”

Wolf said the cold weather has been the factor for holding off the search.

“I don’t want one tragedy to turn into two or three others,” he said. “Safety of the personnel out there trying to recover this individual is one of those things where we’ve got to get this done, but safety’s first and foremost in everybody’s mind.”

Multiple agencies will assist with the search, including officers from Geary County Sheriff’s Department, Geary County Emergency Management, Kansas Department of Emergency Management, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism, and Fort Riley.

Wolf told JCpost.com he is feeling confident about tomorrow’s search.

“The weather conditions are looking favorable, and the manpower and equipment are going to be here ready to go,” he said.

CONCORDIA, Kan. (AP) — Authorities say four people escaped injury in the crash of a small plane in north-central Kansas.

The single-propeller aircraft overturned shortly Monday afternoon in a field off a runway at the airport in Concordia.

Kansas Highway Patrol Trooper Ben Gardner says two children, ages 5 and 7, were on board along with their father and grandfather. The grandfather was piloting the plane and coming in for a landing after a pleasure flight.

Gardner says the two adults were walking around and talking to troopers at the scene, but were taken to a hospital to be checked as a precaution.

HERINGTON, Kan. (AP) — A fire at a north-central Kansas apartment building killed a man believed to be in his 70s.

Fire officials are trying to determine what caused the fire early Monday on Main Street in Herington.

Herington fire officials say the blaze started in a second-story apartment above a vacant business. The man was found dead in the apartment, where he lived by himself. His identity has not been released.

No other injuries were reported. Surrounding buildings were not damaged.

The state fire marshal’s office is investigating the fire.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The husband of a Kansas inmate says he isn’t interested in visiting his spouse, who has complained that the state is discriminating by prohibiting the visits.

Christopher Yates is serving seven years in prison for crimes related to embezzlement. He says the state is treating him differently by refusing to allow his husband to visit. The two men were married in Iowa.

However, Yates’ husband, Steve Yates said that he has no desire to visit the prison. He says he plans to end the marriage, perhaps by getting an annulment.

The state has said the banned the visits because Steve Yates is a co-defendant in some of Christopher Yates’ crimes. Prison officials said the men’s sexual orientation had no bearing on the decision.