Government
County turns to same firm to fill counselor's post
The Douglas County Commission has appointed Evan Ice to serve as the county's counselor.
Ice, an attorney at Stevens & Brand, 900 Mass., will replace Wint Winter Jr., a Stevens & Brand partner who told the commission in January he was resigning effective March 1.
Ice previously has advised or represented the county on several legal matters.
The attorney's time will be billed at $95 per hour for normal matters and $115 per hour for participation in court, state administrative or county commission hearings.
Winter said he had to resign because he is becoming more involved in other activities. He is an executive vice president and general counsel for Peoples Inc., an Ottawa-based holding company for Peoples Bank Financial Center, which opened recently in northwest Lawrence.
Courts
Innocent plea entered in fatal beating case
Ottawa One of two people charged with the brutal beating death of an elderly Franklin County woman last fall pleaded innocent Tuesday and was scheduled for trial.
Raymond Eugene Fuller, 23, will stand trial April 16 for the beating death of Vivian Johnson, 86. Johnson and her husband, Howard, were inside their rural Franklin County home when Fuller and another man allegedly broke inside and struck them with a shovel.
Fuller's co-defendant, Joseph Hayden, will be arraigned March 13. His hearing, originally scheduled Tuesday, was reset, said Mary Tritsch, spokeswoman for Kansas Atty. Gen. Carla Stovall.
Fuller and Hayden are charged with one count each of first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder and aggravated burglary.
At Fuller's preliminary hearing last week, paramedics and police testified that Vivian and Howard Johnson had been beaten repeatedly with a shovel.
Fuller later took authorities to a field, where the shovel was found. He said he and Hayden had taken the shovel to the field and discarded it.
Mentoring
School district taps second peer assistant
The journalism instructor at West Junior High School has been hired as a new peer assistant in the district's mentoring program for novice educators.
Jackie Stafford, who has been at West for six years, begins work this fall as the district's second peer assistant. She joins former Quail Run School sixth-grade teacher Sherry Nelson, who began in October. Assistants serve three-year terms.
Peer assistants visit classrooms of novice teachers throughout the year and serve as a primary resources for educators new to the district.
Education
Company backs out on school renovation plans
Ottawa Topeka-based Pioneer Group Inc.'s plans to buy and renovate the 80-year-old former Ottawa Middle School have fallen through.
The company recently opted out of a contract with the Ottawa school district, citing the expense of operating the property, at Fifth and Main streets.
In January, Pioneer hired Cohen-Esrey Real Estate Services to help co-manage the property. When the Kansas City firm came back with a financial report, Pioneer President Ross Freeman said the operating costs of the building were much higher than projected.
Pioneer had offered the district $250,000 for the building. The company had paid down $25,000, which the district will keep.
The news means the district again must decide what to do with the building, which has been closed since 1996.
Demolition has been considered as an option.
The Ottawa school board meets at 6:30 p.m. Monday, when it might discuss the issue.
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