SALINE COUNTY — When an early morning cry for help awakened a rural Saline County man Tuesday, the plea was not what he expected it to be.

According to Saline County Undersheriff Brent Melander, deputies responded to a residence in the 1300 block of East Stimmel Road at 4:49 a.m. Tuesday after Matthew Hockman, 41, reported hearing a cry for help.

Upon investigation, Hockman discovered that the cry for help was coming from his own basement, Melander said. There, Hockman found Jamey Sanders, 39, of rural Saline County, stuck upside-down on Hockman’s father’s inversion table, Melander explained.

He said that when Hockman asked Sanders what he was doing in the basement, Sanders replied that “they told me to come here.” Melander said it appeared that Sanders was under the influence of some sort of drug.

Hockman escorted Sanders from the residence and deputies found him a short while later outside the residence with some Ocean Spray cranberry juice belonging to Hockman, Melander said.

Sanders was transported to Salina Regional Health Center and then to the Saline County Jail where he was booked on suspicion of aggravated burglary, Melander said.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A zookeeper who spent two months recovering from a tiger attack at a Kansas zoo is now back to work.

Topeka zoo director Brenden Wiley told KSNT-TV that Hayden-Ortega returned to work Tuesday.

She was seriously injured in the April 20 attack by a 7-year-old Sumatran tiger named Sanjiv.

The zoo released a lengthy report last month that said “multiple” protocols and procedures concerning spaces occupied by tigers had prevented any similar attack at the zoo for decades. Its report says protocol was not followed when the keeper entered the tiger’s outdoor habitat without ensuring that the animal was locked inside.

Other zoo employees lured the animal away with meat so emergency responders could treat Hayden-Ortega.

TOPEKA- The Kansas Department of Wildlife, Parks and Tourism has confirmed the presence of invasive zebra mussels in Lyon State Fishing Lake in Lyon County. Routine samples collected by Aquatic Nuisance Species staff to detect zebra mussels were found to contain zebra mussel larvae (also called veligers). Upon finding the veligers, staff returned to the lake and located an established population of adult zebra mussels. Similar sampling is conducted by KDWPT at more than 100 waterbodies across the state.

The 135-acre lake is located 12 miles north and two miles east of Emporia on Rd 270. Lyon State Fishing Lake is owned and operated by KDWPT. The lake and surrounding wildlife area are popular destinations for fishing, hunting, hiking, and a variety of other outdoor-related activities.

While the zebra mussel population is currently small, there is no known method to completely rid a lake of this invasive species. The zebra mussels were likely introduced by “hitchhiking” with un-suspecting lake-goers. Adults are able to attach to boats or other equipment and the microscopic zebra mussel veligers may be present in any water originating from an infested lake or stream. Densities as high as 1,000 veligers per gallon have been recorded in Kansas waters.

“This is the first new population of zebra mussels found in the state in 18 months, which is the longest period of time between new lake infestations since 2006. While it is unfortunate that zebra mussels have been spread to a new lake, I remain hopeful that these occurrences will be less frequent as more people have become aware of zebra mussels, their impacts, and how to prevent moving them,” said Chris Steffen, aquatic nuisance species coordinator for KDWPT.

Lyon State Fishing Lake will be added to the list of ANS-designated waters in Kansas, and notices will be posted at various locations around the waterbody. Live fish may not be transported from ANS-designated waters. The sharp-shelled zebra mussels attach to solid objects, so lake-goers should be careful when handling mussel-encrusted objects and when grabbing an underwater object when they can’t see what their hands may be grasping. Visitors should protect their feet when walking on underwater or shoreline rocks.

Zebra mussels are just one of the non-native aquatic species that threaten our waters and native wildlife. After using any body of water, people must remember to follow regulations and precautions that will prevent their spread:

Clean, drain and dry boats and equipment between uses
Use wild-caught bait only in the lake or pool where it was caught
Do not move live fish from waters infested with zebra mussels or other aquatic nuisance species
Drain livewells and bilges and remove drain plugs from all vessels prior to transport from any Kansas water on a public highway.

Zebra mussels are dime-sized mollusks with striped, sharp-edged, two-part shells. They can produce huge populations in a short time and do not require a host fish to reproduce. A large female zebra mussel can produce 1 million eggs, and then fertilized eggs develop into microscopic veligers that are invisible to the naked eye. Veligers drift in the water for at least two weeks before they settle out as young mussels which quickly grow to adult size and reproduce within a few months.

After settling, zebra mussels develop byssal threads that attach their shells to submerged hard surfaces such as rocks, piers, and flooded timber. They also attach to pipes, water intake structures, boat hulls, propellers, and submerged parts of outboard motors. As populations increase, they can clog intake pipes and prevent water treatment and electrical generating plants from drawing water. In 2012, two Kansas communities, Council Grove and Osage City, experienced temporary water shortages from zebra mussel infestations before water intake structures could be cleaned up. Removing large numbers of zebra mussels to ensure adequate water flow can be labor-intensive and costly.

Zebra mussels are native to the Black and Caspian seas of western Asia and eastern Europe and were spread around the world in the ballast water of cargo ships. They were discovered in Lake St. Clair and the Detroit River in 1988 and quickly spread throughout the Great Lakes and other rivers including the Mississippi, Illinois, Ohio, Tennessee, Arkansas and Hudson. They were first discovered in Kansas in 2003 at El Dorado Reservoir. Despite public education efforts to alert boaters about the dangers of zebra mussels and how to prevent spreading them, the species continues to show up in new lakes every year. Moving water in boats and bait buckets has been identified as a likely vector.

 

DURHAM, Kan. (AP) — Flooding in central Kansas has forced evacuations in a small town along the rain-swollen North Cottonwood River.

The flooding resulted from heavy rains Thursday morning. Parts of Saline County received more than 8 inches of rain, while 6 inches fell in Marion County.

KAKE-TV reports that about 10 homes in Durham in northwest Marion County along the North Cottonwood had to be evacuated. Mayor Mike Sorensen said the downtown in the community of about 110 residents was under 3 feet of water.

Longtime resident Anna Maegoertz said she had to be rescued by boat after water surrounded her house and “It rose quickly. I couldn’t get out.”

Flooding also forced water rescues in Gypsum, southeast of Salina, along Gypsum Creek.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Authorities in Kansas City, Missouri, believe fireworks are to blame for a Fourth of July blaze at a home that sent two firefighters to the hospital with minor injuries.

Deputy Fire Chief Jimmy Walker said two firefighters received burns on their ears and necks in fighting a fire at a two-story home early Thursday. They were treated at a local hospital and released.

The Kansas City Star reports that an elderly resident safely fled the home.

It’s unclear when the fire began. Walker said the fireworks could have been smoldering long before igniting the home. He believes they came from a neighbor, not the resident of the home.

He said, “That’s why fireworks are illegal in the city.”

Walker said another home was damaged Wednesday in a fireworks-related fire.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A study has found that Kansas saves more money, on average, than any other state that uses federal grants to mitigate natural disasters.

The Pew Charitable Trusts recently released its data analysis showing that for every $1 of federal funds spent on protecting against flood and tornado damage, Kansas avoided $6.81 in potential recovery costs. Researchers drew from a previous study of federal disaster mitigation grants between 1993 and 2016.

The data shows Missouri trailed close behind, with each federal dollar saving $6.72, the Kansas News Service reported.

The findings come after Kansas saw heavy rain and flooding this spring, delaying wheat harvests. A May tornado near Pittsburg damaged buildings and toppled power lines and trees.

The mitigation programs in Kansas and Missouri only addressed threats of wind and flooding, but the projects had a large payback in the two states.

Federal programs typically have a match — typically 25 % — that must be paid by the state or local government receiving the grant. Researchers found Kansas and the federal government spent roughly $220 million on wind and flood mitigation, which netted about $1.5 billion in savings.

“The mitigation projects that the Kansas Division of Emergency Management are able to support or implement are largely reliant on the federal grants,” said Bryan Murdie, director of the Planning and Mitigation Branch at the Kansas Division of Emergency Management.

California, which is prone to earthquakes and fires, ranked near the bottom of the list, with every dollar of mitigation saving $3.26.

Colin Foard, one of the study’s authors, said governments should find ways to fit mitigation costs into their budgets.

“The takeaway for policymakers really should be that investing in mitigation saves,” Foard said.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A road maintenance official is pushing back against suggestions that the Kansas Department of Transportation is to blame for an invasion of a plant threatening native grasses.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that KDOT’s potential role in spreading bluestem grass is a point of contention as the state Department of Agriculture contemplates quarantining invasive varieties now in 103 of 105 of the state’s counties.

Ranchers and others attending a Department of Agriculture comment session last month on a possible quarantine said KDOT’s mowing regimen carried seed for invasive grasses to new roads.

KDOT maintenance chief Clay Adams said the agency includes bluestem varieties in seeding mixtures applied beside highways but not the invasive varieties targeted by the Department of Agriculture. KDOT mows from April to October to improve visibility for motorists.

GOVE COUNTY — Two Quinter men were hospitalized after an accident just before 5:30 p.m. Wednesday on a county road east of Gove.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported a 2012 Ford F150 driven by Randel Porter, 66, was eastbound on County Road S. The KHP said the pickup was struck by a 1998 semi driven by 70-year-old Phillip Mann, who was traveling north on County Road 58.

Porter was taken to Gove County Medical Center for treatment of a suspected serious injury, and Mann was hospitalized for a suspected minor injury.

The KHP reported Mann was wearing a seat belt, and Porter was not.

JOPLIN, Mo. (AP) — A recently awarded grant will help local teachers who are Hispanic or who teach in districts with large Hispanic populations.

The Joplin Globe reports that the Laura Bush 21st-Century Librarian program awarded Pittsburg State University’s College of Education a $530,281 grant to provide scholarships, mentoring and laptops to 25 teachers from Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma and Arkansas.

University officials said school districts in those four states have experienced significant growth in their Hispanic populations in the past five years.

The project to be funded by the grant is called Building Bridges Across Cultures. It will enable 25 future school librarians to earn master’s degrees online with an emphasis in library media.

A 2013 grant to Pittsburg State focused on Native American culture in teaching and provided scholarships to 25 school librarians.