The

Goodland Daily News 50¢

THURSDAYFebruary 7

2002

Volume 70, Number 27 Twenty Pages Goodland, Kansas 67735

weatherreport

localmarkets

afternoonwireLate newsfrom theAssociatedPress

1 p.m.Texas fugitivescaught at store

ARDMORE, Okla. — Twoconvicted murderers who brokeout of a Texas jail surrenderedpeacefully early today, hours afterseizing a hostage at an Oklahomagas station. Two other fugitiveswho escaped with the pair lastmonth were also captured.

The hostage-takers, CurtisGambill and Joshua Bagwell, gaveup at 4:30 a.m., FBI Special AgentRichard Marquise said.

The surrender was the result of“a very skillful agent developinga rapport” with the fugitives, Mar-quise said. He said the fugitives’only request was to talk to relativesby telephone.

The hostage, store ownerGeorge West, 65, emerged un-harmed.

Authorities arrested the otherescaped inmates, Chrystal GaleSoto and Charles Jordan, outsidethe store at 9:50 p.m. Wednesday.

Citizens and officials speak on trash

By Doug StephensThe Goodland Daily News

City and county commissioners held a jointworkshop Wednesday night at the county court-house, looking for solutions to trash disposalproblems with an audience of more than 30people.

City and county officials got a chance to ex-plain and talk about changes in the trash system

with the new county landfill, and taxpayers got totell the officials they were not too happy with los-ing old services like yard-waste dumpsters whilepaying more to have their trash hauled.

Marty Melia of KLOE radio moderated theworkshop, and mostly held it to its agreed-uponguidelines. Commissioner discussion ran aboutfive minutes long, and a few of the audience spokeup without first being recognized, but it was a civiland well organized meeting.

All the county commissioners attended themeeting, and four of the city commissioners, withonly Mayor Tom Rohr absent.

The city is trying to cut the costs for handlingthe city’s trash. They were hit with a $32 a ton “tip-ping fee” for the new county landfill at the first of

the year, and City Manager Ron Pickman said itcost the city $60,000 last year to handle yard waste.The commissioners met to talk about what thelandfill will hold, and how to separate differentwastes.

City Manager Ron Pickman said the city andcounty are working together with a recycling pro-gram. Recycling dumpsters should arrive nextweek or the week after, he said. They will be putat three spots in town, and there will be separatedumpsters for cans, clear glass, brown glass, andnewspapers, magazines and office paper. Thevoluntary program should help keep the landfillfrom filling up as fast, and will help keep tippingfees down, he said.

Pickman said the city and county are trying to

get a cardboard bailer, either through Energy Oneor through a grant. The county wanted to know ifthey went ahead with the cardboard recycling ifthe city would put its cardboard dumpsters backout and bring them in to the county site.

“I don’t think we’ll have any problem withthat,” City Commissioner Rick Billinger said.“It’s a win-win situation.”

The city and county agreed the county’s trans-fer station could be more user-friendly. RichSimon, superintendent of waste water for the city,said four dumpsters will be delivered to the trans-fer station this morning and will be placed nextto the weighing scales for easy access. There is

See TRASH, Page 7

See KIDNAPPING, Page 7

Some say they’repaying for less

Big snowbringslittle helpCrop ‘desperately’needs some moistureBy Doug Stephens

The Goodland Daily NewsThe .30 of an inch of moisture the

area got from snow last month helpedparched wheat fields, but we could haveused a lot more.

“There are parts of this county wherethe crop was stressed early on,” saidDana Belshe, Sherman County exten-sion agriculture agent, “and any mois-ture will help.

“Some of our wheat crop is regress-ing rapidly and desperately needs moremoisture.”

It is a problem throughout the state.As much as 32 percent of the Kansaswheat crop is in poor or very poor con-dition, the Kansas Agriculture StatisticsService reported Monday, and Belshesaid Sherman County is no better off.

“We’re probably just about at thestate average. I would estimate 30 to 35percent of our wheat is in poor condi-tion.”

The condition is not uniform in allfields, he said.

There are areas which have wheat ingood condition, he said, and somewhich are very poor.

He says on the average, the south-western part of the county is worse offthan rest.

“They have been in almost a droughtsituation,” he said.

Farmers have a tougher time this yearthan they did last. Belshe said althoughwe had a dry summer last year, we haduniform moisture and colder tempera-tures in the fall and winter, the dormantseason.

This year it has been anything butcold.

When temperatures are above 40degrees, wheat keeps growing, usingup moisture, and becomes less resistantto disease and cold weather.

The barley yellow dwarf virus is aconcern this year, Belshe said.

The disease is spread by an aphid,and with recent warm, dry weather, heis worried the insects might get startedearlier.

The virus at full power can take athird of a crop’s yield away.

Belshe said he is worried about soilerosion and fluctuating warm and coldspells.

He said when wheat can’t grow,winds can take away top soil.

And up-and-down weather can causethe crop to lose its winter hardiness,making the plants more susceptible todamage.

Moisture might be on the way. DaveThede, a meteorologist at the NationalWeather Service here, says we got .21of an inch in the six-inch snowfall at theend of January and could get moreTuesday.

“At this point, it looks like wide-spread snow,” he said. “It’s too early toguess accurately, but we might get .10to .25 inches of moisture.”

Warm weather might be on its wayout now that we have snow on theground. Kevin Lynott of the weatherservice said if we have ground snow, airdoesn’t mix as well to bring warmerdays.

But then, by the end of the month, itwill be nearly time for spring.

New sign at inn

Children are safe, but ordeal isn’t overFather will be brought backto stand trial for kidnappingBy Sharon Corcoran

The Goodland Daily NewsWhile mother and sons are happy to

be back together, the Thompsonfamily’s ordeal is not completely over,as they are settling into a new home andawaiting Mark Thompson’s extraditionand trial for kidnapping.

The Sherman County Sheriff’s De-partment is working to bring Mark backto Goodland as his four sons returnedto school, and their mother, Tohnna,says she is seeking justice.

Tohnna Thompson says she doesn’twant the police and the courts to be toolenient on Mark, saying that wouldtrivialize what he did.

“He took my life when he took theboys, she said, “everything that evermeant anything to me.

“It was like living in hell without thefire. It was like someone sentenced meto hell and expected me to go on.”

While the boys were missing,Tohnna said, all she wanted to do wasstay home and not even go out. Shespent much of her time making and dis-tributing flyers to try to find the boys.

And the kidnapping was hard onother family members. Their cousins

missed them, Tohnna said, and are veryprotective of them now that they arehome.

“Her daughter (Alexis) cried andcried one night,” Tohnna’s sisterMonica Albers said, “and asked, ‘willwe ever see them again?’”

Now that Jaeger, 8; Jacob, 7; Jonah,3; and Job, 2, are home, Tohnna said,she wants to prevent futurekidnappings. The schools should teachkids about abduction, she said, so thisdoesn’t happen to other families.

Jonah has tonsillitis and an ear infec-tion, Tohnna said, and all of the boysneed well-child checks. They lived inabhorrent conditions for the two weeksthey were gone, she said, withoutproper nutrition in a dirty camper.

The woman who took care of theboys while she drove to Texas to pickthem up told her the camper was filthy,Tohnna said, and the clothes theybrought home smelled of urine. Shesaid she had to throw a lot of their thingsaway.

The camper had no bathroom, Jacobsaid, and the boys had to go in the

NoonWheat — $2.63 bushel

Posted county price — $2.49Corn — $1.90 bushel

Posted county price — $1.81Loan deficiency payment — 18¢

Milo — $1.62 bushelSoybeans — $3.71 bushel

Posted county price — $3.65Loan deficiency payment — $1.27

Millet — $3.50 hundredweightSunflowers

Oil current crop — $8.95 cwt.Loan deficiency pmt. — 86¢Confection current — inquire

Pinto beans — $25

(Markets provided by Mueller Grain, SigcoSun, Frontier Equity Co-op and 21st Century

Bean. These may not be closing figures. )

57°at noon

Today• Sunset, 5:13 p.m.

Tomorrow• Sunrise, 6:47 a.m.• Sunset, 5:14 p.m.

Midday Conditions• Soil Temperature 32 degrees• Humidity 21 percent• Sky clear• Winds southwest 18 m.p.h.• Barometer 20.13 inches

and falling• Record High 74° (1987)

• Record Low -16° (1933)

Last 24 Hours*High 53°Low 18°Precipitation none

Northwest Kansas ForecastTonight: partly cloudy, low upper

20s, wind west 10-20 m.p.h. Tomor-row: partly cloudy, high mid 60s, windwest 10-20 m.p.h.

Extended ForecastSaturday: partly cloudy and very

windy, high upper 30s. Sunday:mostly clear, high mid 50s, low near20. Monday: clear, high mid 60s, lowmid 20s. Tuesday and Wednesday:partly cloudy, high upper 40s, low 20.

(National Weather Service)Get 24-hour weather info. at 162.400 MHz.

* Readings taken at 7 a.m.

Workers from Commercial Sign in Colby used ex-tended ladders to put a fabric overlay to update theBuffalo Inn sign by Business U.S. 24 last week (aboveand right) while (below) they were directed from theground. Tim Kistler, Gary Salisbury, Lauren Wegle,Daniel Burke, and Jeff and Ray Griffen, all of Colby,worked on the crew.

Photos by Doug Stephens/The Goodland Daily News

Jacob (top), Job and Jaeger Thompson goofed around together Mon-day in their new home. The boys’ mother picked them up in Texas lastweek after they were found with their father, who is being extradited toGoodland to face kidnapping charges.

Photo by Sharon Corcoran/The Goodland Daily News