By DEWEY TERRILL
JC Post

JUNCTION CITY — The high water at Milford Lake has created problems for the private business sector. That subject arose during a town hall meeting conducted by Senator Jerry Moran in Junction City Monday evening.

Geary County Commissioner Keith Ascher was among those in attendance. On the lake issue he noted there’s no help right now for private sector operations. “Some of your campgrounds are out of business right now. They expressed their concerns that they needed some to help to even reopen, if they can.”

Ascher said he felt the senator took the lake issue to heart because of the impact on a lot of lakes in Kansas.

The Corps of Engineers has had to hold water in reservoirs including Milford Lake in order to prevent downstream flooding.

WICHITA — A 22-year-old Hutchinson woman was taken to a Wichita hospital after a semi crossed into her lane and struck her vehicle Sunday.

Sebastiana Romero was in one lane of K-96. A semi driven by 42-year-old Christopher Lunsford of Wichita was in the other lane. Lunsford started to merge into the Romero lane and the two vehicles collided.

Romero complained of pain after the accident and was transported to Wesley Medical Center for treatment. Lunsford was not injured.

The accident occurred around 11:40 a.m. Sunday, about a half-mile east of West Street on K-96 in Wichita.

WICHITA (AP) — Authorities say one person has died after coming into contact with a power line in north Wichita.

KAKE-TV reports emergency crews responded at around 11 a.m. Tuesday to an electrocution. A dispatch supervisor says the person was pronounced dead at the scene about 50 minutes later.

Power was disconnected in the area while crews extricated the person from the bucket of a vehicle.

Circumstances surrounding the death were not immediately released.

WICHITA (AP) — Kansas drivers can no longer be charged with a crime for refusing a field sobriety test under a new state law.

The Wichita Eagle reported that a change in state law that took effect Monday means police can’t ticket suspected drivers for not taking the test, but refusal to comply comes with a yearlong license suspension — the same as the longest suspension for failing a breathalyzer or blood test.

Field sobriety tests are usually administered before a driver submits to a breath test to determine intoxication. They can include things like standing on one leg or walking in a straight line. Drivers who refuse to be tested can still be prosecuted for a DUI based on other evidence.

The decision to strike the law designating a separate violation comes as state appellate courts and the U.S. Supreme Court have reversed course on whether motorists give implied consent to sobriety tests.

“The court interpretations have continued to change, so sometimes the Legislature feels like it has been chasing a moving target,” said John Carmichael, D-Wichita, ranking minority member on the Kansas House Judiciary Committee.

The Kansas DUI Judicial Council, which is made up of lawyers and other experts, is still working on a new overall scheme for DUI laws.

“In the meantime, they felt like there were some immediate changes that needed to be made,” Carmichael said.
Ed Klumpp, a Judicial Council member and a lobbyist for law enforcement groups, acknowledged that there may be some DUI cases that police officers won’t be able to make now.

“There was a benefit to having that for the test refusals simply because it encouraged more people to take the test,” he said of the compulsory testing. “Let’s face it — that’s what it was designed to do.”
Suspensions for drivers who refuse to be tested will likely be more severe than for those who take the test and fail, he said.

“In the long run, I think maybe this makes it a little more difficult for our law enforcement officers, but the job they do out there — I’m not concerned that our highways or streets are going to be any less safe based on the officers’ ability to get drunk drivers off the road,” said Bradley Ralph, the Republican vice chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.

TOPEKA (AP) — Kansas is reporting that it collected nearly $33 million more in taxes than anticipated in June and ended its 2019 budget year with solid revenue growth.

The state Department of Revenue said Tuesday that Kansas collected nearly $782 million in taxes last month. The state’s fiscal forecast had predicted a little more than $749 million in taxes, making the surplus about 4.4%.

Tax collections exceed expectations 24 of the past 25 months.

The state collected nearly $7.5 billion in taxes during its 2019 budget year, or $191 million more than expected. That was a surplus of 2.6%.

The budget year’s tax collections grew nearly 6.3% from the 2018 budget year, or by $440 million.

It’s likely that Kansas ended its 2019 budget year with $1 billion in cash reserves.

By COLE REIF
Great Bend Post

GREAT BEND — Anyone driving down 10^th Street in Great Bend needs to pay heed of construction work being handled at the intersection with Grant Street, but this past Saturday an unexpected hazard surfaced. Motorists may have seen a large portion of the middle turning lane on 10^th Street buckle.

Great Bend City Administrator Kendal Francis says crews had to cut the damaged portion of the road out and temporarily filled the damaged area with asphalt millings.

“Once the 10th & Grant project is complete, the buckled area will be repaired correctly,” Francis said.

City staff believe heat was the main cause for the road buckling.

Francis does urge motorists to use caution while driving through the 10^th & Grant area with construction to widen the intersection expected to continue until September.

“The traffic signals have been removed so that adds another element to the whole project,” said Francis. “It is a significantly reduced speed so we just ask that motorists follow the speed limit and be aware of their surroundings.”

The third phase of construction is expected to begin July 9 to reconstruct the middle lanes. All left turns will be prohibited in the project area during the third phase.

Salina Post

SALINA — A Salina man is dealing with the loss of multiple farm implements and the building they were in after a fire Monday evening northeast of Salina.

Saline County Undersheriff Brent Melander said Tuesday that deputies were called to the 4300 block of East Campbell Road at 7:15 p.m. Monday for the report of a farm shed on fire. When deputies arrived, they found an approximate 40-foot Morton Building engulfed in flames, he said. The building and its contents are owned by Roger Mattison, 66, of Salina, Melander said.

Firefighters from Rural Fire District No. 5 were on scene but were unable to save the building and its contents. The building was valued at $48,000, Melander said. Equipment in the building included the following, he said.

• A square baler
• A pickup
• A grain cart
• A tractor
• A combine
• Some diesel engines

According to Melander, the total loss, including the building, was estimated at $149,000.

The cause of the fire has not been determined, he said.