October

1Hundreds of sometimes angry contractors and developers pack a city meeting room to voice concerns about what they called an unfriendly and illogical development and planning environment in Salina.

2More than a year after the mysterious disappearance of millionaire adventurer Steve Fossett, searchers find the wreckage of his plane in the Sierra Nevada, along with enough remains for DNA testing.

4Jamie Van Riper Jr., 27, is stabbed as he leaves Koyotee's, 501 N. Fifth. Jose Acosta, 30, 236 S. Fifth, is arrested on charges of attempted murder and aggravated battery.

4Larry Lysell is in-stalled as president of St. John's Military School.

5More than 100 people line Ninth and Crawford streets to protest abortion as part of a national Life Chain event. Demonstrations are held in about 1,200 towns and cities in the U.S. and Canada.

6Salina city commissioners direct city staff to temporarily suspend enforcement of a portion of the Salina code dealing with the licensing of specialty contractors. The action will allow specialty contractors to work without a license under a licensed general contractor.

8The body of Mike Likins, who has been missing for a month, is found in a submerged car in a lake in northeast McPherson County.

11A candlelight vigil is held for Taryn Dechant and Ernest Jones Jr., who were found dead Sept. 26 in their apartment at 611 S. Second.

14An American bulldog-boxer dog that attacked a 16-year-old girl is struck with a shovel, shot with a tranquilizer gun and shotgun and injected with a tranquilizer before it can be removed from a home in west Salina. The dog is later euthanized. The girl is treated for her injuries at Salina Regional Health Center.

15Eight peace activists who were part of a group protesting the Hawgsmoke bombing and strafing competition for fighter jet pilots are arrested for trespassing at Salina Municipal Airport.

16Spectators enjoy the sights and sounds of the Hawgsmoke competition.

18No one is hurt when a single-engine plane makes an emergency landing on the southbound lanes of Interstate Highway 135 north of the State Street exit. The pilot tells a Kansas Highway Patrol trooper that he didn't fully engage the switch when he switched fuel tanks, and the engine quit.

24William H. Jolly IV is sentenced to 25 years in prison for raping a 12-year-old girl.

27Salina city commissioners approve a grant of $212,125 to help launch CityGo, a fixed route bus system to be operated by OCCK. The Kansas Department of Transportation is to pay 70 percent of operating expenses and 80 percent of capital expenses.

29Human skeletal remains found Oct. 18 near Concordia are identified as those of Salinan Nicole J. Hoard, 17, who was last seen by her parents in August 2007.

30Christopher M. Hoffman, then 17, is sentenced to more than 15 years in prison for forcibly raping an 8-year-old girl who had been staying with his family in Brookville.

31Kansas Wesleyan students are offended by the hanging of a sheet and two nooses from a railroad crossing signal at the intersection of Claflin and South Fourth streets. An 18-year-old later says he meant the objects to be a Halloween prank.

31Costumed Trick-or-Treaters descend on downtown Salina.

31About 2,300 Saline County voters have cast advance ballots in the County Clerk's office and another 3,500 have mailed in ballots, shattering previous records for advance voting.

November

4Saline County voters approve a sales tax of 0.4 percent for projects such as a new aquatic park, capital improvements, major equipment purchases and property tax stabilization.

4Pete Brungardt retains his Kansas Senate seat in the general election, and Deena L. Horst, Charlie Roth and Joshua Svaty retain their Kansas House of Representatives seats. John A. Reynolds and Jerry L. Fowler are elected to the Saline County Commission, and Sheriff Glen Kochanowski wins re-election.

4Hawker Beechcraft announces that it will cut its work force by 5 percent. It isn't known how many jobs will be eliminated at the Salina plant, which employs about 500 workers.

6ElDorado National lays off roughly 10 percent of its employees in Salina.

10Oakdale Elementary School students pay tribute to veterans.

10Crestwood Inc., a custom cabinet manufacturer at 601 E. Water Well, lays off about 10 percent of its work force, amounting to 14 workers.

11 Salina contractors join with builders from Abilene, Chapman and Junction City to work with Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. The mission: Build a new home for the Patrick Tutwiler family in one week. The Tutwiler home was destroyed in the June 11 tornado.

11Salinans honor veterans with a ceremony at the War Memorial in Sunset Park.

13Saline County District Judge Rene Young rules that there is probable cause to try Jose L. Acosta. Acosta is accused of stabbing Jamie Van Riper Jr. early on Oct. 4 after the two were involved in an altercation at Koyotee's Bar, 501 N. Fifth.

17CityGo buses begin driving their routes, with passengers riding free for the first two weeks.

18Cesar V. Ramos, then 16, pleads no contest to attempted second degree murder, aggravated assault and two counts of child endangerment in connection with the March 10 shooting of Torrean Hughley. His brother, Juan P. Ramos, then 17, has pleaded guilty to aiding a felon.

18Kendall Trent Brown, convicted of rape for having sex with a 13-year-old girl whose friends offered her in exchange for what they thought was methamphetamine, is sentenced to 15 years in prison.

November

18The retrial of Jerry D. Sellers Jr., accused of sexually molesting a teenaged girl, is called off after prosecutors and defense attorneys negotiate a plea. Sellers pleads guilty to one count of indecent liberties with a child for an incident alleged to have occurred July 25, 2007. He pleads no contest to a second count of indecent liberties with a child.

23More than 400 area motorcyclists parade through Salina, led by the American Legion Riders, in the 22nd annual Salina Toy Run. More than $800 worth of toys were purchased for Ashby House, DVACK and KVC.

24Salina city commissioners direct their staff to draft a new smoking ordinance that would prohibit smoking in all public places.

25Saline County commissioners clear the way for commercial wind farms to operate within the county.

27Salinans partake in the 22th annual Community Thanksgiving Dinner at Applebee's Neighborhood Grill & Bar, 2875 N. Ninth.

December

2The murder trial begins for Cameron Nelson, who is accused of the April 16 fatal shooting of Mark H. Simpson.

2Jason Ingermanson and his wife, Lisa, discuss plans to lease a building at 2420 S. Ninth and remodel it to house a Freddy's Frozen Custard restaurant and a Timberline Steakhouse. The building, just south of the Green Lantern car wash, formerly housed a Golden Corral restaurant and then China King Buffet.

3Jerry Glover, a soil scientist at The Land Institute, is one of five agricultural scientists that the prestigious journal "Nature" says could change the world. The article "Five Crop Researchers Who Could Change the World" is in the magazine's December issue.

5Brian Hill, who was fired from his job as Wilson police chief in January after he was convicted of stealing city firefighters' beer, is arrested for DUI after authorities say the truck he was driving left a trail of undelivered mail scattered along the highway from McPherson County to Salina.

5Ben Frick's effort to obtain additional reimbursement from the city of Salina for the relocation of his businesses makes its way to the Supreme Court. An attorney for Ben and LaVelle Frick, of Salina, argues that justices should order a new trial to determine how much the couple should be paid for moving to make way for a North Ohio Street overpass.

8Security Savings Bank breaks ground for a new branch in The Shops at Meadow Pointe at South Ohio and Cloud streets. The Shops at Meadow Pointe is a new retail and office center.

8Juan P. Ramos is sentenced to nine months in jail for aiding a felon in connection with the March 10 shooting of Torrean Hughley.

9Residents and representatives of KSAL, a Salina Media Group radio station, raise $1,000 to buy Christmas lights to be placed on downtown buildings. Fundraising began after the Salina Downtown Inc. board decided not to turn on lights this year because of vandalism and aging equipment.

10Jurors in the second-degree murder trial of Cameron A. Nelson return to the courtroom after nearly two days of deliberation and announce that they cannot come to a unanimous verdict, which results in a mistrial. Nelson is accused of shooting Mark Simpson from the passenger seat of a car as Simpson stood in the middle of the street in the 500 block of South 10th Street about 2:30 a.m. April 16.

11A Federal Express tractor-trailer carrying packages from Lenexa to Salina ends up in the Solomon River, about two miles west of the Solomon exit on Interstate Highway 70. The driver is treated for minor injuries at Geary County Hospital.

12New toys make the offices of Great Plains Manufacturing look like Santa's workshop. Employees raised more than $7,500 to buy more than 550 toys to be donated to Toys From the Heart, a program associated with the Salvation Army's Christmas Toys for Tots campaign.

14The 871 people who completed Pound Plunge, a communitywide weight loss competition, lose a combined 9,581 pounds.

17District Judge Jerome Hellmer sentences Jerry D. Sellers Jr. to more than 12Ôªø1âÑ2 years in prison for two counts of indecent liberties with a child.

22Anna Louise Hartman is arrested on a charge of aiding a felon in connection with the Sept. 26 murders of Taryn Dechant and Earnest J. Jones Jr., both 20.

24Geraldine Briscoe, 88, dies in Jefferson City, Mo., where she recently moved to be closer to her daughter, Elizabeth Wilson. Briscoe was founder of Salina's Martin Luther King Jr. Child Development Center.

25Salinans eat their fill at the annual Bill Fekas and Family Christmas Dinner at the 4-H Building in Kenwood Park. It's the 26th year for the free dinner.

27In the first three weeks of paid service, CityGo recorded 1,582, 1,603 and 1,660 trips. A feasibility study estimated the bus system would provide 1,173 trips a week.

31Craig Stephenson and Sherri Barragree, outgoing Saline County commissioners, are honored with a public reception. The two took office together in January 2001, and both lost in the August primary election.