WAKEENEY

New Veterans Cemetery nearly ready to open

Nearly two months before it is scheduled to open, the Kansas Veterans Cemetery in WaKeeney already has a waiting list.

The cemetery is 95 percent complete and will be dedicated Sept. 10. Already, five to eight people are waiting to be buried and 57 have preregistered for burial, said Kafer Peele, cemetery program director for the Kansas Commission on Veterans Affairs.

The $3.5 million cemetery is part of a system of veterans cemeteries in Kansas funded by the federal Memorial Grant Program to provide burial grounds for veterans and their families.

Four veterans’ cemeteries are being built across the state, with the WaKeeney cemetery the second one to be completed.

PLATTE CITY, Mo.

44-year-old sentenced in rape of 12-year-old

A 44-year-old man who fathered a child with a 12-year-old girl was sentenced Thursday to 22 years in prison.

Paul C. Williams, of Kansas City, Kan., pleaded guilty April 2 to first-degree statutory rape. Williams will serve the sentence consecutively with a statutory rape and sodomy sentence imposed in Wyandotte County, Kan., for having sex with the same victim at his home.

Williams will start his Missouri sentence after he completes the 13-year, 8-month sentence in Kansas.

Williams, a distant relative of the victim, began abusing her while she lived with her grandparents in Edgerton, Kan. He had sex with the victim more than 70 times over a year.