On the Record for Oct 19, 2023 - GREAT BEND TRIBUNE gbtribune.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from gbtribune.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Three runaway girls suspected in brief crime spree
By The News staff
Police say three teen girls who run away from Reno County Youth Services are suspected of a vehicle burglary spree during 10 hours on the street.
The trio is accused of also stealing a minivan but abandoning it after it ran out of gas.
Eventually, one of them turned themselves in, resulting in the detention of all three, said Hutchinson Police Lt. Dustin Loepp.
The three – aged 14, 15, and 17 – were being housed at Bob Johnson’s Youth Shelter when they fled, police said. One was local and two from out-of-county.
It was unclear if the commission will take public comment on the issue.
Also on Tuesday’s agenda, as the meeting’s final business item, are the proposed regulations on commercial wind systems.
No public comment is expected on that item since the commission heard an hour of debate two weeks ago.
Commission Chairman Ron Hirst asked that the mask issue be placed on Tuesday’s agenda, said County Administrator Randy Partington.
Hirst was also the one who had it placed on the commission agenda on Dec. 22, when, after 90 minutes of public comment, the commission allowed the restriction to stand. At that time, however, Hirst indicated he’d bring it up again in the future.
Hermes wraps up 28 years as Youth Services Director
Reno County Youth Services Director Bill Hermes shared a few numbers with the Reno County Commission one last time on Tuesday.
Hermes, 57, is retiring from the position after 28 years, and the place he’s worked since 1989. He’s presented annual or quarterly reports to the commission for years.
Over those years, Hermes estimated, some 13,700 youth have been placed in the county’s youth shelter, more than 14,000 come through detention and 22,000 through intake and assessment.
“We’re definitely touching lives there,” Hermes said. “I want everyone to understand it’s the employees there that make it great. I’m only as good as the people I surrounded myself with and I was lucky to have people who’d chosen to work there as a mission in life and stuck with it through the most difficult times.”