By ROD ZOOK
Hutch Post

HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Mark Buckley always liked toys. He especially likes trains. It’s the centerpiece of his shop at the Toy Depot.

The store can take anyone back in time with board games, toys and — of course — trains.

“When I retired, I wanted to sell toys at antique malls and the flea market,” Buckley recalled. “And we had a friend who owned this building and they said we’d like to sell.”

What has transpired is a store that is truly unique. Old board games line one side of the store. There are thousands of Hot Wheels still in the packages, many types of Tonka trucks and O, N and HO scale trains and merchandise. Buckley said he had no trouble filling the store once it opened.

“All through my life, I enjoyed toys, but we were poor and couldn’t afford anything. So we got one toy a year,” Buckley said. “When I turned 30, I decided I was going to buy all of the toys I had as a child, then I wanted to buy all the toys my friends had and then I wanted to buy all the toys I always wanted.”

The store not only sells toys, but also buys toys and trains from those looking to sell. The clientele comes from all over the nation. One of his clients comes from New York. On the day of this interview, Buckley had customers from Liberal, Denver, Oklahoma City and Kansas City.

While the toy collection is second-to-none, it is the Lionel train collection that leaves the young and old amazed. They stare into the glass cases full of locomotives and cars. In the middle of the area, a train layout lets customers interact by pushing various buttons that operate it.

“I have a true passion for Lionel. I’ve loved it since I was four,” Buckley said. “I used to carry TV Guides . . . so I’d take my money and go to Jim’s Hardware and I would put a dollar a week down against a train car until I got it paid off.”

Buckley said his friends eventually started selling him their train sets and the collection continued to grow. It now numbers about 3,500 locomotives and cars.

Buckley says it’s the memories the store generates that makes it special, noting it’s a love of watching people enjoying what you’ve done. Most of the memories surround the board games. Nearly everything you can think of is in there.

“Parents or grandparents will come in and buy a board game. It’s got to be the right box, the right color. It has to be exactly what they remember in their youth,” Buckley stressed. “Then they take it and show it to their grandchildren. People say board games are dead, they’re far from it. We sell hundreds of them every year.”

The store is rare, there are just 14 like it in the world, according to Buckley. He says as much as he enjoys selling toys and trains, he likes the reaction he gets from those who visit.

“I do it because of the love. It’s so much fun to have people come in here and smile,” Buckley said. “It’s a different business because when people walk in the door, they’re happy. When they walk through the store, they’re happy, whether they buy something or not.”

By ROXANA HEGEMAN

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A scathing report following an independent investigation into the heatstroke death of a 19-year-old football player who collapsed after the first day of conditioning practice at a Kansas community college found “a striking lack of leadership.”

Braeden Bradforth, a 315-pound (140 kilogram) defensive lineman for the Garden City Community College, was found unconscious outside his dorm room after practice on Aug. 1, 2018. The New Jersey teenager died that night at a hospital.

No lawsuits have been filed in the case.

A serious lack of oversight set off a series of events that led to Bradforth’s death, according to the report by investigators, including sports medicine specialists Walters, Inc. School staff failed to assess athletes prior to the conditioning test and paid little attention to assessing Bradforth’s personal level of fitness, the report said.

In particular, coaching staff didn’t consider if he had properly acclimatized to working out in summer temperatures at a higher altitude.

“A cause of death was a poorly designed and administered conditioning test for an unconditioned, non-acclimatized student-athlete at an altitude with 9% less oxygen than he was accustomed to at his home” in Neptune, New Jersey, the report said.

The college was not sufficiently prepared to ensure safety at practice or to deal with exertional heat illness, the report said. No college athletic training or coaching staff member and no emergency medical service or hospital emergency department personnel identified or treated Bradforth’s escalating symptoms of the heat stroke that caused his death, it found.

A timeline included in the report detailed the 73 minutes that passed from the moment Bradforth left the stadium to his arrival at the hospital.

“An effective plan likely would have rescued him from what turned out to be his untimely death,” the report said. “The response time and significant delays between multiple opportunities for effective treatment were a cause of death.”

Teammates found Bradforth collapsed in an alley, according to emails obtained by The Associated Press through an open records request.

Assistant football coach Caleb Young told officials Bradforth was “making a stressful moan” when he arrived on the scene, but rather than immediately dial 911 he called the head coach Jeff Sims “for instruction to see how we wanted to handle the situation.”

Young wrote in one email to university officials that while he was on the phone with Sims, players were filling jugs and bottles from drinking fountains to pour water on Bradforth and attempt to make him drink.

The college hired the investigators to conduct an independent review of the case under pressure from Bradforth’s family and the New Jersey congressional delegation. The University of Maryland also hired Walters, Inc., after the heatstroke death of offensive lineman Jordan McNair after a workout last year.

ELLSWORTH — Law enforcement authorities and USD 327 officials have determined that a possible threat made Thursday at Ellsworth Junior/Senior High School was not credible.

In a news release Thursday morning, Ellsworth Police Chief Emil Halfhill wrote that on “November 14, 2019 a possible perceived threat was vocalized at the Ellsworth Junior/Senior High School. An investigation both by law enforcement and school staff was conducted and it was determined the threat was not credible. The juvenile who made the statement was removed from the school as a precaution.”

Halfhill noted that “law enforcement personnel will continue to monitor the situation and will provide extra patrol in and around the High School in the following days.”

The chief also reminded citizens that if they see something to say something.

COWLEY COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a fatal shooting in Cowley County.

Just before 10p.m. Saturday, police were dispatched to a residence in the 500 block of South D Street in Arkansas City for a report of a gunshot victim, according to city spokesman Andrew Lawson.

First responders arrived and located a 17-year-old Arkansas City boy with a gunshot wound. He had been struck in the face with a bullet from a 9-millimeter handgun, according to Lawson.

Police determined the victim was shot unintentionally by a family member who was handling the gun. He was transported by the Arkansas City Fire-EMS Department to South Central Kansas Medical Center and later airlifted to a Wichita-area hospital for treatment of his injuries.

The boy died Wednesday from complications related to his gunshot injury, according to Lawson. An autopsy is pending.

Authorities have not released the victim’s name.
 

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — Prosecutors have announced plans to retry a Kansas priest who was suspended from the ministry after he was accused of inappropriately touching a young girl on two occasions.

Wyandotte County District Attorney’s Office spokesman Jonathan Carter said on Wednesday that the Rev. Scott Kallal’s new trial will likely be held in May. The 37-year-old faces two felony counts of aggravated indecent liberties with a child. He was accused of inappropriately touching a 10-year-old girl in 2015 at a Kansas City, Kansas, church gymnasium and again at a graduation party in Bonner Springs.

His original trial ended in mistrial in September after the jury couldn’t agree on a verdict.

KANSAS CITY (AP) -A federal grand jury has indicted a former northwest Missouri police chief accused of striking a handcuffed man after the chief helped rescue the man’s infant daughter from a pond.

Federal prosecutors said 50-year-old Greg Hallgrimson, of Kansas City, was charged Wednesday with violating the man’s civil rights. The indictment identifies the man only as “J.Z.” but Hallgrimson had previously been accused of using excessive force against Jonathon Zicarelli. Hallgrimson resigned in June.

Zicarelli told Greenwood police in December that he had tried to drown his 6-month-old daughter in a nearby pond. Hallgrimson and another officer rushed to the pond and rescued the child.

The indictment alleges Hallgrimson struck J.Z. in the face with his fist while he was restrained in a chair on the same day the child was rescued.

Hallgrimson’s attorney, Robin Fowler, said he will plead not guilty and go to trial.

HUTCHINSON — Investigators are working to determine the cause of a Thursday morning fire at a home in Hutchinson.

Just before 2a.m., fire crews responded to a structure fire at 807 East 9th Avenue in Hutchinson, according to a media release.

Upon arrival, fire crews were faced with a one-story residential home with heavy fire coming from the front and delta (west) side of the structure of the home. All occupants were out of the home upon fire crew’s arrival.

Fire crews performed an interior attack to contain the fire to two rooms within the home. The fire did spread into the attic space above the room of origin. The home sustained heavy smoke and heat damage throughout the rest of the home. Four dogs were rescued with one dog given oxygen by HFD crews that had a successful outcome. Red Cross was notified to assist the homeowner as the home is uninhabitable at this time.

Fire crews remained on the scene completing salvage and overhaul operations to check for hidden fire in the void spaces. Fire Investigators are also on scene working to determine the cause of the fire.

The Hutchinson Fire Department was assisted by the Hutchinson Police Department, Reno County EMS, Kansas Gas, Evergy and the Red Cross.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A former physical education teacher in Haysville has been sentenced to two years of probation for having sexual contact with a male student.

District Attorney Marc Bennett said 36-year-old Shari Herrs, of Andover, was sentenced Wednesday for an amended charge of attempted unlawful sexual relations.

If Herrs violates her probation, she could receive a 13-month prison sentence.

Prosecutors say Herrs committed the acts with an 18-year-old student at Campus High School between April and May of 2018.

Herrs has already registered as a sex offender and surrendered her teaching license.

JACKSON, Mo. (AP) — A rescued puppy is attracting a lot of attention because of his resemblance to a unicorn.

The nearly 10-week-old puppy, named Narwhal, has a tail-like appendage growing from his forehead.

Narwhal was rescued over the weekend and sent to Mac’s Mission in Jackson, which specializes in fostering animals with special needs.

Mac’s Mission founder Rochelle Steffen says Narwhal doesn’t notice the extra tail and is otherwise a happy, healthy puppy. Although it looks like a tail, Narwhal cannot wag it.

Steffen says the rescue group has been flooded with requests from people wanting to adopt Narwhal since his picture hit social media. But he’ll remain at Mac’s Mission so his caretakers can be sure the tail doesn’t grow out of proportion to his face and cause him problems.

KANSAS CITY (AP) — Federal transportation safety investigators criticized the U.S. Coast Guard Wednesday for ignoring suggestions over nearly two decades to improve tourist duck boats, changes they say might have prevented last year’s Missouri accident that killed 17 people.

The National Transportation Safety Board released a “Safety Recommendation Report” on the July 2018 accident, when a Ride the Ducks of Branson boat known as Stretch Duck 7 sank during a severe storm. The boat’s captain and two company executives were indicted, and 30 lawsuits filed on behalf of victims’ families have been settled.

Former World War II amphibious vehicles known as duck boats operate around the country as tour boats. Many, like the one in Branson, begin with land tours before the vehicles goes onto water.

The NTSB says that since an Arkansas duck boat accident killed 13 people in 1999, it has repeatedly urged the Coast Guard to require the vehicles to be better able to remain afloat when flooded, and to remove impediments to escape such as canopies.

“Lives could have been saved, and the Stretch Duck 7 accident could have been prevented had previously issued safety recommendations been implemented,” NTSB Chairman Robert L. Sumwalt said in a statement.

“It is imperative that the United States Coast Guard adopt these life-saving recommendations now,” Sumwalt said.

Coast Guard Lt. Amy Midget said the Coast Guard issued guidance in 2000, after an NTSB recommendation, urging its inspectors and vessel owners to evaluate canopy design and installation and to “evaluate the design and installation of seats, deck rails, windshields, and windows as a system to ensure the overall arrangement did not restrict the ability of passengers to escape.”

In addition, the guidance “emphasized the importance of carefully evaluating proposed routes and anticipated environmental conditions and imposing appropriate safety measures and operational restrictions,” Midgett said.

A new review of amphibious vessel canopies is planned based on “the NTSB’s reissuance” of recommendations, Midgett said.

The NTSB said duck boats’ low freeboard and open interior make them “vulnerable to rapid swamping and sinking” when they are suddenly flooded. In the Branson accident, a sudden storm caused massive waves that poured over the boat, sinking it within minutes.

The safety report also found that a fixed canopy and closed side curtain impeded passenger escape and likely caused more deaths. Fourteen of Stretch Duck 7’s 31 passengers survived.

“These safety issues were identified almost 20 years prior to the sinking of the Stretch Duck 7 and remain relevant to this accident,” the report said.

In May 1999, the Miss Majestic sank in Lake Hamilton near Hot Springs, Arkansas. Three children were among the 13 victims.

A February 2000 letter from the NTSB urged the Coast Guard to take immediate action. The NTSB said the Coast Guard responded in 2002 with a letter stating that “sufficient requirements and guidance are in place to provide to amphibious passenger vessels a level of safety equivalent to other passenger vessels of similar size and capacity.”

The NTSB said it also recommended the changes to 30 duck boat operators years ago, but just one made the recommended improvements.

The Missouri boat entered the lake as part of a land-and-water tour despite severe weather warnings. The dead included five children.

Tia Coleman of Indianapolis survived the accident but lost her husband and three young children — four of the nine victims from one extended family.

“The duck boat and Coast Guard’s failure to act on the NTSB’s recommendations to remove death trap canopies and improve the buoyancy of these boats killed my family,” Coleman said in a statement through her attorney.

Ripley Entertainment, owner of the Branson boats, has settled 30 of 31 lawsuits filed on behalf of victims of the accident, Ripley spokeswoman Suzanne Smagala-Potts said.

Meanwhile, a federal grand jury has indicted the boat’s captain, Kenneth Scott McKee, along with Ride the Ducks Branson General Manager Curtis Lanham and the company’s operations supervisor, Charles Baltzell.

McKee faces several charges accusing him of failing to properly assess the weather and failing to tell passengers to don flotation devices as conditions worsened.

Lanham and Baltzell are charged with misconduct and neglect. Indictments alleged that Baltzell got onto the duck boat before it departed and directed McKee to conduct the water portion of the excursion before the land tour because of the approaching storm. At no point after that did Baltzell or Lanham communicate with McKee about the growing intensity of the storm, including that wind gusts of 70 mph were predicted, the indictment said.

The indictment accused Lanham of helping to create “a work atmosphere on Stretch Duck 7 and other duck boats where the concern for profit overshadowed the concern for safety.”

MANHATTAN, Kan. (AP) — A 22-year-old Texas woman who said she accidentally shot and killed her boyfriend has been sentenced to three years of probation.

Gregoria Baez, of Stamford, Texas, was sentenced Tuesday for involuntary manslaughter. She was convicted in September in the death of 21-year-old Feliz Florez in Manhattan, who died in September 2018.

Baez testified during her trial that she and Florez pointed guns at each other while they were joking around. She said she accidentally disengaged the grip safety and shot Florez.

Before sentencing, Baez apologized and said she still loved Florez.

But Jennifer Florez, Felix’s mother, said the family would get some comfort if Baez was sentenced to prison.

Baez will serve her probation in Texas, where she moved after the shooting.

LAWRENCE —The suspect in Sunday’s shooting that left two injured at Playerz Sports Bar has died as a result of his injuries. The suspect is identified as 30-year-old Terry Dean Scearce III of Lawrence, according to police spokesman Patrick Compton.

Just after 2 a.m. Sunday, the Lawrence Police Department responded to multiple 911 calls in reference to a shooting at Playerz Sports Bar.

Officers learned that just prior to their arrival, a shooting had occurred in the parking lot resulting in serious, but non-life-threatening injuries to both a male and female victim.

Police located the suspect vehicle shortly after and attempted to initiate a car stop. Scearce attempted to evade police, but eventually stopped in the vicinity of E. 23rd St. and O’Connell Road.

Scearce was discovered by police in his vehicle with serious, life-threatening injuries from what appeared to be a gunshot wound and was transported to an area hospital.

Both victims have been released from the hospital. The case remains under investigation, according to Compton.