8/11/09
HUMBOLDT — The viability of southeast Kansas communities depends on their ability to attract and keep businesses and population, said Humboldt administrator Larry Tucker. One key to helping the region grow, rather than decline further, is providing access to broadband, or high speed Internet for the general population.
Broadband acts for digital information much as a multilane highway does for interstate commerce. It can carry far, far more than a gravel county road.
“This is an economic development issue,” Tucker said. “How can we attract new businesses and industry to the area if there isn’t Internet and they need high speed Internet,” he asked.
Tucker isn’t alone in his concern.
He has been meeting with a consortium of federal, state and municipal government officials, plus representatives of hospitals, school districts, community colleges and businesses in order to determine how best to tap into $7.2 billion in available government funds earmarked for increasing broadband accessibility across the country.
The money, part of the federal government’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, will be distributed based on population levels, Tucker said.
“We’ve identified 12-13 counties in southeast Kansas we think should be involved in this,” including Allen, Neosho, Woodson and Coffey counties, Tucker said.
“The U.S. Department of Commerce went across the state and talked to seven different regions,” Tucker said. Southeast Kansas was the second-to-last region identified, he said. Still, “We were told we’re the only region that has had a second meeting” about accessing the funds, Tucker said.
The initiative, called Connect Kansas, has two components, according to Joe Monaco of the Kansas Department of Commerce.
The ultimate objective is “to increase high speed Internet access in rural Kansas,” Monaco said.
First, though, the Commerce Dept. is trying to “map the state’s current broadband capacity,” said Monaco.
“The idea is to do an assessment to determine where there is lack of access,” or where access is “too slow or too expensive that people don’t use it,” he said.
Kansans — with or without Internet — have been asked to help by logging on to www.connectkansas.org to contribute data to the mapping process. The data will be updated as it is submitted. Those with Internet reception can visit the site to test their connection speeds, Monaco mentioned.
THE COST to hook up to available Internet service is prohibitive to many in southeast Kansas.
Currently, it costs $600 to hook up to satellite Internet, Tucker said. Available wireless costs almost a third that much. And those prices don’t include monthly service charges.
That’s just too much for many in today’s economy.
The new initiative can help, Tucker said.
Grants may be available through the initiative to help service providers offer low cost Internet to the public.
“Once they broaden their area and bring in more people they can make their prices more competitive,” Tucker said of Internet service providers.
But the June 2009 edition of “Digital Communities,” a government technology periodical, said the old market model doesn’t apply — and won’t work — for broadband expansion. Rural communities are just too small to have the client base necessary for a business to take on infrastructure development themselves.
“Rural Americans cannot wait for the market or competition to eventually build out high speed networks to them, It just wouldn’t happen in a reasonable time,” said Russell Parks in the magazine.
Instead, Digital Communities recommends that the government build the infrastructure, much as it did the interstate highway system in the last century, as a means to move the country to the front of the now-global economy.
Currently, the U.S. lags behind, numbering 22d in global Internet connectivity according to a survey by the International Telecommunications Union. Clearly 43 of every 100 homes in the U.S. lacked Internet access at all, the study showed. For those homes that are connected, Internet speeds are 10 times slower than South Korea, and slower still than other Asian and European countries.
Especially in rural areas, or if people own older computers, new programs and downloads built for high speed, broadband technology slow those machines to the point where “all people want to do on them is e-mail,” Tucker said.
Tucker believes in Allen County “40 to 50 percent of our citizens live outside the cities.” Inadequate access is the norm. For younger people who are more adept at technology, the laggardly service is unacceptable. They simply move on and move out of the area.
“This is critical for tomorrow’s economy” Tucker said of ensuring the region become fully wired.
Quoting a recent report he had read, Tucker mentioned how computer speed equates to economic power.
“Wall street executives who have access to supercomputers are getting ahead of other executives. They’re making more money.”
A THIRD reasons broadband access lags in the region, Tucker said, is education.
“A lot of people don’t know how it works,” Tucker said. Older individuals may not have had much exposure to the Internet or personal computers. Some are scared to learn. Some don’t want to be bothered, he said.
The $7.2 billion in federal funds can also be tapped by educational institutions to bring the population up to speed on computer use.
Humboldt will begin offering free wifi — wireless Internet service — to its residents through an agreement with Iola’s Kwikom.
Kwikom will put its broadcasters on towers belonging to the city, and the city will be given free service for its parks, pool, city buildings and ball fields in return. Anyone with a laptop or near enough to receive a signal will just have to turn on their computer to be connected to the world.
Tucker is hopeful that continued meetings with the committee will produce similar arrangements for other towns. So far, Iola officials have not participated in the meetings.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
IMS walkers go the distance
5/11/09
By ANNE KAZMIERCZAK Register Reporter
With recent weather wavering between sunny days in the 70s and blustery rain, no one was sure what to expect Saturday morning when Iola Middle School students ventured forth to walk from Colony to Iola on the Prairie Spirit Trail.
The walk was organized by Principal Jack Stanley as a fund raiser for the school’s social outreach projects.
Students spent last week gathering pledges, promising to walk in return.
Between 60 and 70 students came out on the cool, gray morning to step lively down the trail, Stanley said. A handful of parents and siblings joined the middle-schoolers.
The first group was bussed from Iola’s Cofachique Park to the Colony trailhead around 8:40 a.m. The next bus left Cofachique about half an hour later. By 9:45, all participants were on the trial. The first group started off running, but quickly switched to a steady walk.
Eighth-graders John Hutton and Mason Helman did a little stick fencing along the route. After four miles, Helman said he was tired. He had started at the front of the pack, he said, but now was dead center of the larger group.
Helman normally fixes cars on the weekend with his stepfather Artie Whiles. “But I got out of it to do this,” he said.
“It’s better than doing nothing,” Hutton added. Hutton said he usually spends Saturdays on his family’s farm, in the fields or riding horses “in the arena when its not raining.”
The two finished just before 1 p.m., about four hours after they began.
Sixth-grader Trey Colborn got out of doing something else, too.
“I was gonna ride my bike 20 miles, to Colony and back, but I got grounded,” he said. His mom relented enough to let him walk, “because I already had the pledges.”
The first 30 to 40 walkers strolled into the check station at Carlyle just after 10:30 a.m.
A collective sigh of relief seemed to come from the group as they learned they had already gone 5 miles. Water bottles, a restroom and chairs waited those who needed them.
The Foxy Ladies Meltdown team were in high sprits, declining an offer to set a spell.
“If we stop, we’ll never get up again,” they laughed. Besides, said Kathy Butler, “I’m not tired, my feet just hurt.”
After a quick break, they departed.
Shane Sams dealt with a dilemma many walkers seemed to have. He pulled off his shoes and poured out “a lot of rocks.”
“My feet feel so much better now,” he said.
The next group of walkers sauntered into Carlyle around 11:30.
Emma Piazza, Kyra Moore, Jo Lohman and Trilby Bannister began to run when they saw the check point. After bottles of water and a break, they walked on.
Walkers had varied motivations for participating.
One group of sixth-graders was on the trail because of each other.
“I’m doing it because she’s doing it,” Torrie Lewis said of Emery Driskel. Emery was walking because “I thought it would be good exercise.” Shelby Smith “just felt like it,” she said, and Shane Walden didn’t have a reason.
Camaraderie and technology kept the group in high spirits.
Driscoll was plugged into her purple iPod the whole 10 miles, and Lewis said she’s been texting since the starting line. After six miles, the group was still laughing and joking with one another.
“For the 258th time Shelby,” Walden told his friend, “I’m not going to carry you!”
SIXTH-GRADER Joey Dunlap was walking despite an injured foot. He wanted to win “the iPod — or the shoes” being given away. “Plus,” he said, “I thought I’d find some interesting rocks along the way.”
So far, he found “a dalmation rock — it’s called that because it’s white with black spots,” and a piece of layered sedimentary stone ranging from green to beige. The most interesting rock he’d found, he said, was a “large white crystally rock with some orange in it.” From his pocket, he pulled another curious stone he’d gotten on the trail. It looked like a large piece of candy corn.
Dunlap said he had never walked this far before, though “I walked 5 miles in the Badlands last summer.”
Catrina Dunlap was following her son — in her car — meeting him at every road crossing.
“She just wants to make sure I’m OK,” he said, “’Cause I twisted my ankle the other day, and I have asthma.”
Undaunted, Dunlap finished the walk.
BY THE END, everyone was tired. Weary walkers slumped onto benches, but the students could take pride in their accomplishment. As Stanley told them, “You guys have done something a lot of people have never done — walk from Colony to Iola.”
The tired throng was treated to hot dogs and chips after their 10 mile trek.
An exact total of walkers and the donations they brought in will not be known until later, Stanley said.
Although more kids came to the all-night dances than went on the walk, Stanley said the “the numbers the kids were bringing in were impressive,” for the pledges. The middle school uses the funds to help out needy students with school clothes, supplies and more.
As for next year, Stanley said, “Our plan is, in the fall, to do a bike ride. A lot of kids asked about that. We’ll go from Iola to Colony and back, or maybe to Carlyle and back.”
By ANNE KAZMIERCZAK Register Reporter
With recent weather wavering between sunny days in the 70s and blustery rain, no one was sure what to expect Saturday morning when Iola Middle School students ventured forth to walk from Colony to Iola on the Prairie Spirit Trail.
The walk was organized by Principal Jack Stanley as a fund raiser for the school’s social outreach projects.
Students spent last week gathering pledges, promising to walk in return.
Between 60 and 70 students came out on the cool, gray morning to step lively down the trail, Stanley said. A handful of parents and siblings joined the middle-schoolers.
The first group was bussed from Iola’s Cofachique Park to the Colony trailhead around 8:40 a.m. The next bus left Cofachique about half an hour later. By 9:45, all participants were on the trial. The first group started off running, but quickly switched to a steady walk.
Eighth-graders John Hutton and Mason Helman did a little stick fencing along the route. After four miles, Helman said he was tired. He had started at the front of the pack, he said, but now was dead center of the larger group.
Helman normally fixes cars on the weekend with his stepfather Artie Whiles. “But I got out of it to do this,” he said.
“It’s better than doing nothing,” Hutton added. Hutton said he usually spends Saturdays on his family’s farm, in the fields or riding horses “in the arena when its not raining.”
The two finished just before 1 p.m., about four hours after they began.
Sixth-grader Trey Colborn got out of doing something else, too.
“I was gonna ride my bike 20 miles, to Colony and back, but I got grounded,” he said. His mom relented enough to let him walk, “because I already had the pledges.”
The first 30 to 40 walkers strolled into the check station at Carlyle just after 10:30 a.m.
A collective sigh of relief seemed to come from the group as they learned they had already gone 5 miles. Water bottles, a restroom and chairs waited those who needed them.
The Foxy Ladies Meltdown team were in high sprits, declining an offer to set a spell.
“If we stop, we’ll never get up again,” they laughed. Besides, said Kathy Butler, “I’m not tired, my feet just hurt.”
After a quick break, they departed.
Shane Sams dealt with a dilemma many walkers seemed to have. He pulled off his shoes and poured out “a lot of rocks.”
“My feet feel so much better now,” he said.
The next group of walkers sauntered into Carlyle around 11:30.
Emma Piazza, Kyra Moore, Jo Lohman and Trilby Bannister began to run when they saw the check point. After bottles of water and a break, they walked on.
Walkers had varied motivations for participating.
One group of sixth-graders was on the trail because of each other.
“I’m doing it because she’s doing it,” Torrie Lewis said of Emery Driskel. Emery was walking because “I thought it would be good exercise.” Shelby Smith “just felt like it,” she said, and Shane Walden didn’t have a reason.
Camaraderie and technology kept the group in high spirits.
Driscoll was plugged into her purple iPod the whole 10 miles, and Lewis said she’s been texting since the starting line. After six miles, the group was still laughing and joking with one another.
“For the 258th time Shelby,” Walden told his friend, “I’m not going to carry you!”
SIXTH-GRADER Joey Dunlap was walking despite an injured foot. He wanted to win “the iPod — or the shoes” being given away. “Plus,” he said, “I thought I’d find some interesting rocks along the way.”
So far, he found “a dalmation rock — it’s called that because it’s white with black spots,” and a piece of layered sedimentary stone ranging from green to beige. The most interesting rock he’d found, he said, was a “large white crystally rock with some orange in it.” From his pocket, he pulled another curious stone he’d gotten on the trail. It looked like a large piece of candy corn.
Dunlap said he had never walked this far before, though “I walked 5 miles in the Badlands last summer.”
Catrina Dunlap was following her son — in her car — meeting him at every road crossing.
“She just wants to make sure I’m OK,” he said, “’Cause I twisted my ankle the other day, and I have asthma.”
Undaunted, Dunlap finished the walk.
BY THE END, everyone was tired. Weary walkers slumped onto benches, but the students could take pride in their accomplishment. As Stanley told them, “You guys have done something a lot of people have never done — walk from Colony to Iola.”
The tired throng was treated to hot dogs and chips after their 10 mile trek.
An exact total of walkers and the donations they brought in will not be known until later, Stanley said.
Although more kids came to the all-night dances than went on the walk, Stanley said the “the numbers the kids were bringing in were impressive,” for the pledges. The middle school uses the funds to help out needy students with school clothes, supplies and more.
As for next year, Stanley said, “Our plan is, in the fall, to do a bike ride. A lot of kids asked about that. We’ll go from Iola to Colony and back, or maybe to Carlyle and back.”
Ingle takes trophy at IMS bee
2/2009
Words were the game pieces for 18 students in Iola Middle School’s spelling bee Wednesday afternoon. Students popped up from their seats one after another tackling microphone, fifteen, history and stamina. They easily swept through renovate, pigtail and hotel.
The first homonym, bizarre, came with a dictionary definition, but such clues weren’t routinely used. No sentences, context or grammatical addenda were offered with the words.
Sometimes, the whir of overhead fans prompted contestants to ask former state spelling champ Kent Toland to repeat the word again — or again — or again.
Food stuffs were the first to trip up students. Raisin and pretzel felled Alyssa Zimmerman and Cody Cokely. Jaguar got Cassandra Boyer.
Remaining contestants ran through algebra, shampoo and magician without harm. Intermittently, more fell out. The field was pared to nine.
Through replicate and succession and knowledge, they soldiered on. Then pharmacy took one, and others began to fall. Four in a row succumbed, then two more.
Bouquet brought inquiry into country of origin after it was pronounced “bo-ket.” The information didn’t help. Mason Coons would have to settle for third.
The field was down to two: Sydni Haen and Mickey Ingle, both seventh graders, were left standing. They would now play by different rules: a misspelled word would require the other contestant to spell it correctly, before attempting a new word of her own.
Cauliflower quickly eliminated Sydni, while Mickey polished it off, and ultimatum, too.
Applause and a trophy announced Mickey as the new IMS spelling bee champ.
Next week, the top three finalists from eight elementary and middle schools throughout Allen County vie for the title of county spelling bee champion. The winner will move on to the state level. The county bee will be held Feb. 18 at 1 p.m. in the Dale P. Creitz Recital Hall in the Bowlus Fine Arts Center.
REPRESENTING Iola Middle School will be Mickey Ingle and Sydni Haen, seventh grade, and Mason Coons and alternate Levi Ashmore, eighth grade.
From Jefferson Elementary: Fifth graders Clara Wicoff and Brett Taylor, fourth grader Joel Zimmerman and alternate Mikaela Platt, grade 5.
Lincoln Elementary: Ricky Dawn III, grade 5, Alexis Heslop, grade 4, Taylor Heslop, grade 5 and alternate Claire Moran, grade 5.
McKinley Elementary: Fifth graders Taelyn Sutterby, Jacob Marlow, Yohon Sinclair and alternate Krystal Kelzer.
From Marmaton Valley Elementary: Sixth graders Emily Boyd and Payton Wilson, fifth grader Tanna Lutz and alternate Molly Hamlin, grade 6.
Humboldt Elementary: Fifth graders Austin Heisler, Caley Schomaker and Dillon Aikins, plus alternate Jeremiah Scheimann, grade 4.
Humboldt Middle School: Layne Gonzalez, seventh grade, Carly Jones, eighth grade, Alex Murrow and alternate Billie Bockover, both seventh grade.
LaHarpe: Third graders Camryn Peck, Barry Porter, Katie Bauer and alternate Macayla Bycroft.
Words were the game pieces for 18 students in Iola Middle School’s spelling bee Wednesday afternoon. Students popped up from their seats one after another tackling microphone, fifteen, history and stamina. They easily swept through renovate, pigtail and hotel.
The first homonym, bizarre, came with a dictionary definition, but such clues weren’t routinely used. No sentences, context or grammatical addenda were offered with the words.
Sometimes, the whir of overhead fans prompted contestants to ask former state spelling champ Kent Toland to repeat the word again — or again — or again.
Food stuffs were the first to trip up students. Raisin and pretzel felled Alyssa Zimmerman and Cody Cokely. Jaguar got Cassandra Boyer.
Remaining contestants ran through algebra, shampoo and magician without harm. Intermittently, more fell out. The field was pared to nine.
Through replicate and succession and knowledge, they soldiered on. Then pharmacy took one, and others began to fall. Four in a row succumbed, then two more.
Bouquet brought inquiry into country of origin after it was pronounced “bo-ket.” The information didn’t help. Mason Coons would have to settle for third.
The field was down to two: Sydni Haen and Mickey Ingle, both seventh graders, were left standing. They would now play by different rules: a misspelled word would require the other contestant to spell it correctly, before attempting a new word of her own.
Cauliflower quickly eliminated Sydni, while Mickey polished it off, and ultimatum, too.
Applause and a trophy announced Mickey as the new IMS spelling bee champ.
Next week, the top three finalists from eight elementary and middle schools throughout Allen County vie for the title of county spelling bee champion. The winner will move on to the state level. The county bee will be held Feb. 18 at 1 p.m. in the Dale P. Creitz Recital Hall in the Bowlus Fine Arts Center.
REPRESENTING Iola Middle School will be Mickey Ingle and Sydni Haen, seventh grade, and Mason Coons and alternate Levi Ashmore, eighth grade.
From Jefferson Elementary: Fifth graders Clara Wicoff and Brett Taylor, fourth grader Joel Zimmerman and alternate Mikaela Platt, grade 5.
Lincoln Elementary: Ricky Dawn III, grade 5, Alexis Heslop, grade 4, Taylor Heslop, grade 5 and alternate Claire Moran, grade 5.
McKinley Elementary: Fifth graders Taelyn Sutterby, Jacob Marlow, Yohon Sinclair and alternate Krystal Kelzer.
From Marmaton Valley Elementary: Sixth graders Emily Boyd and Payton Wilson, fifth grader Tanna Lutz and alternate Molly Hamlin, grade 6.
Humboldt Elementary: Fifth graders Austin Heisler, Caley Schomaker and Dillon Aikins, plus alternate Jeremiah Scheimann, grade 4.
Humboldt Middle School: Layne Gonzalez, seventh grade, Carly Jones, eighth grade, Alex Murrow and alternate Billie Bockover, both seventh grade.
LaHarpe: Third graders Camryn Peck, Barry Porter, Katie Bauer and alternate Macayla Bycroft.
Humboldt OK's bus purchase
2/2009
By ANNE KAZMIERCZAK
Register Reporter
HUMBOLDT — Whether to purchase a new or used school bus to replace one totaled in an accident last month was the main topic of deliberation at the Humboldt School Board meeting Monday.
Superintendent Bob Heigele has been scouring used bus dealers and Bluebird Bus Company for deals on a bus comparable to the one hit last month by a D and D Propane truck.
The old bus, a 52-seater, was a model-year 2008 and had been in service since the latter half of the 2006-2007 school year. The closest Heigele found was a 59-passenger 2007 bus in Kansas City. It cost $57,000.
The board opted instead to purchase a new bus for $71,000. Insurance settlement with D and D was for $57,462.04.
“The blue book value of our bus was $52,700,” Heigele said. “But because of our low mileage we made a little more.” Of that, though, $350 is due for towing the disabled bus.
The board cited concerns with lack of a warranty on the used bus when opting to purchase new. Delivery of a new bus typically takes six months, so the board needed to act in haste to ensure a full fleet is in place for the beginning of the 2009-2010 school year. Until then, they will make due, using a new bus delivered on Feb. 2 and their spare bus usually reserved for extra-curricular activities.
“The spare has 100,000 miles on it,” Heigele said. “If we watch our extra-curricular schedule this spring and don’t have any breakdowns or repairs, we feel we could make it to the end of the school year.”
Heigele ordered the elementary school to schedule spring field trips on Wednesdays, so as not to conflict with athletic activities requiring transportation.
In other business, the board approved their authority to raise 8 mils for funding in coming years. “I would encourage you to do this,” Heigele told board members. “We don’t know where the economy is going, and if you don’t pass this resolution, your maximum will be four mils, which was approved four years ago.” Heigele stressed the resolution does not raise the current mil rate, it merely approves the board’s ability to ask for an increase in coming years. He said 8 mils is a standard level of taxation throughout the state.
The board accepted letters of resignation/retirement from two staff, Gayla Banz, a first grade teacher, and Heigele.
Banz, who has been at Humboldt 24 years, is leaving at the conclusion of the school year to spend more time with her grandchildren.
“I wish she wasn’t leaving,” said elementary principal Kay Bolt. “She will be missed.”
Heigele, who came to Humboldt from Missouri seven years ago, plans to depart at the conclusion of the 2009-2010 school year.
IN OTHER ACTION, the board approved Heigele’s authority to market the house being built by the high school building trades class. “There are several interested parties,” he said. “Some of these people are pushing to get in.”
Heigele anticipates marketing the house as soon as possible, allowing possible buyers the option of choosing their own wall colors, carpets, etc. “They get one chance at choosing colors,” he said. Students will install the selected products, but buyers will have to pay the difference in any materials they choose that exceed the school’s budget for completing the home.
In school reports, Bolt noted the elementary school is readying for fourth-grade state assessment tests in March, and will participate in a national assessment as well. “Students do not know what tests they will take until they sit down,” she said.
“We were hit hard by the flu,” Bolt said, making January’s attendance numbers low. However, “We have 12 new students since Jan. 5, and will have tow more coming on Feb. 23,” she said.
K.B. Criss, middle and high school principal, reported the middle school will receive a donation to build a memorial courtyard at the middle school/high school/technology building. The money will come form the family of the late long-time custodian and bus driver Pete Leonard. Picnic tables, benches and an engraved headstone are planned. Criss hopes to have the project completed before the end of the school year.
Heigele reported utility bills have increased 10 percent over last year. “During the winter it’s costing us more to run that field house than we anticipated,” he said. The January utility bill was $8,024.16, he said.
Heigele also noted the school board has not yet received word on per pupil funding reductions for the 2009-2010 school year. The legislature is “still forecasting a billion-dollar deficit for next year,” he said.
By ANNE KAZMIERCZAK
Register Reporter
HUMBOLDT — Whether to purchase a new or used school bus to replace one totaled in an accident last month was the main topic of deliberation at the Humboldt School Board meeting Monday.
Superintendent Bob Heigele has been scouring used bus dealers and Bluebird Bus Company for deals on a bus comparable to the one hit last month by a D and D Propane truck.
The old bus, a 52-seater, was a model-year 2008 and had been in service since the latter half of the 2006-2007 school year. The closest Heigele found was a 59-passenger 2007 bus in Kansas City. It cost $57,000.
The board opted instead to purchase a new bus for $71,000. Insurance settlement with D and D was for $57,462.04.
“The blue book value of our bus was $52,700,” Heigele said. “But because of our low mileage we made a little more.” Of that, though, $350 is due for towing the disabled bus.
The board cited concerns with lack of a warranty on the used bus when opting to purchase new. Delivery of a new bus typically takes six months, so the board needed to act in haste to ensure a full fleet is in place for the beginning of the 2009-2010 school year. Until then, they will make due, using a new bus delivered on Feb. 2 and their spare bus usually reserved for extra-curricular activities.
“The spare has 100,000 miles on it,” Heigele said. “If we watch our extra-curricular schedule this spring and don’t have any breakdowns or repairs, we feel we could make it to the end of the school year.”
Heigele ordered the elementary school to schedule spring field trips on Wednesdays, so as not to conflict with athletic activities requiring transportation.
In other business, the board approved their authority to raise 8 mils for funding in coming years. “I would encourage you to do this,” Heigele told board members. “We don’t know where the economy is going, and if you don’t pass this resolution, your maximum will be four mils, which was approved four years ago.” Heigele stressed the resolution does not raise the current mil rate, it merely approves the board’s ability to ask for an increase in coming years. He said 8 mils is a standard level of taxation throughout the state.
The board accepted letters of resignation/retirement from two staff, Gayla Banz, a first grade teacher, and Heigele.
Banz, who has been at Humboldt 24 years, is leaving at the conclusion of the school year to spend more time with her grandchildren.
“I wish she wasn’t leaving,” said elementary principal Kay Bolt. “She will be missed.”
Heigele, who came to Humboldt from Missouri seven years ago, plans to depart at the conclusion of the 2009-2010 school year.
IN OTHER ACTION, the board approved Heigele’s authority to market the house being built by the high school building trades class. “There are several interested parties,” he said. “Some of these people are pushing to get in.”
Heigele anticipates marketing the house as soon as possible, allowing possible buyers the option of choosing their own wall colors, carpets, etc. “They get one chance at choosing colors,” he said. Students will install the selected products, but buyers will have to pay the difference in any materials they choose that exceed the school’s budget for completing the home.
In school reports, Bolt noted the elementary school is readying for fourth-grade state assessment tests in March, and will participate in a national assessment as well. “Students do not know what tests they will take until they sit down,” she said.
“We were hit hard by the flu,” Bolt said, making January’s attendance numbers low. However, “We have 12 new students since Jan. 5, and will have tow more coming on Feb. 23,” she said.
K.B. Criss, middle and high school principal, reported the middle school will receive a donation to build a memorial courtyard at the middle school/high school/technology building. The money will come form the family of the late long-time custodian and bus driver Pete Leonard. Picnic tables, benches and an engraved headstone are planned. Criss hopes to have the project completed before the end of the school year.
Heigele reported utility bills have increased 10 percent over last year. “During the winter it’s costing us more to run that field house than we anticipated,” he said. The January utility bill was $8,024.16, he said.
Heigele also noted the school board has not yet received word on per pupil funding reductions for the 2009-2010 school year. The legislature is “still forecasting a billion-dollar deficit for next year,” he said.
School bus wrecked, high school honored
1/28/09
BY ANNE KAZMIERCZAK Register Reporter
HUMBOLDT — “We had a pretty severe bus wreck tonight,” superintendent Bob Heigele said, preluding the USD 258 Board of Education meeting Monday. The accident involved a 52-passenger school bus driven by Carrol Baker.
“We were close to the end of the route,” Heigele said, so only nine children were still aboard when the bus was hit by a propane truck. The bus was driving west on Arizona road, Heigele said, when a D and D propane truck pulled into its path.
“He pretty much knocked us into the ditch and tore the wheels off the bus,” Heigele said.
The bus, only three years old, is totaled, Heigele added. “It got hit hard.”
The driver of the truck, Julia A. Roberts, was cited by Allen County Sheriff’s Department for failure to yield.
All nine children were reported to be fine this morning, but the school district will continue to check in with them to be sure no injuries were overlooked. One child was taken by her parents to the hospital yesterday immediately following the accident. She was examined and sent home.
In the regular meeting, the board accepted the resignation of middle and high school computer technology teacher Prism Glynn, who is moving away from the area. “It’s a loss,” Heigele said.
The board also gave approval to their technology plan, opting to add three “tech-rich” classrooms to the middle and high school by next fall.
“The teachers have already been trained,” grades 6 - 12 Principal K.B. Criss said. Prices for equipment will be discussed at next month’s meeting. Funds will come from the capital budget.
An agreement to let 800 bicyclists use the Humboldt gymnasium and other facilities this spring was also approved.
The group, Biking Across Kansas, will be in Humboldt June 11, Heigele said, and will need two meals during their stay.
In other business, Darcy Rodriguez was approved to take over Glen Klein’s position on the USD 258 Recreation Commission.
A “Fun and Family Expo” will be held in the community field house Jan. 20, Elementary Principal Kay Bolt said. There will be booths on fluoridation, tobacco use, nutrition and scoliosis, and participating children will have the opportunity to win one of two bicycles, Bolt said.
The elementary school is beginning an after school walking program, Bolt said. Members of the Leos, a youth group affiliated with the Lions Club, will walk with children two afternoons a week at the community building track. Children have a chance to win wrist bands for their efforts.
Just over 70 percent of grade 6-12 students made the honor roll, Criss reported, and the high school was again selected at the bronze level by U.S. News and World Report as a Best High School of America. The school’s size, coupled with sampling criteria, mean bronze is the highest level Humboldt can achieve in the competition, Criss said. More than 21,000 high schools nationwide were evaluated. It was the second year in a row Humboldt made the list. Only a very few schools achieve back to back awards, Criss said.
Criss is looking to place five students as apprentices with local businesses as part of the town’s “Rebuilding the Square” program.
A potential buyer has expressed interest in the house the Building Trades class’ is working on, Heigele said. The building is not yet completed.
BY ANNE KAZMIERCZAK Register Reporter
HUMBOLDT — “We had a pretty severe bus wreck tonight,” superintendent Bob Heigele said, preluding the USD 258 Board of Education meeting Monday. The accident involved a 52-passenger school bus driven by Carrol Baker.
“We were close to the end of the route,” Heigele said, so only nine children were still aboard when the bus was hit by a propane truck. The bus was driving west on Arizona road, Heigele said, when a D and D propane truck pulled into its path.
“He pretty much knocked us into the ditch and tore the wheels off the bus,” Heigele said.
The bus, only three years old, is totaled, Heigele added. “It got hit hard.”
The driver of the truck, Julia A. Roberts, was cited by Allen County Sheriff’s Department for failure to yield.
All nine children were reported to be fine this morning, but the school district will continue to check in with them to be sure no injuries were overlooked. One child was taken by her parents to the hospital yesterday immediately following the accident. She was examined and sent home.
In the regular meeting, the board accepted the resignation of middle and high school computer technology teacher Prism Glynn, who is moving away from the area. “It’s a loss,” Heigele said.
The board also gave approval to their technology plan, opting to add three “tech-rich” classrooms to the middle and high school by next fall.
“The teachers have already been trained,” grades 6 - 12 Principal K.B. Criss said. Prices for equipment will be discussed at next month’s meeting. Funds will come from the capital budget.
An agreement to let 800 bicyclists use the Humboldt gymnasium and other facilities this spring was also approved.
The group, Biking Across Kansas, will be in Humboldt June 11, Heigele said, and will need two meals during their stay.
In other business, Darcy Rodriguez was approved to take over Glen Klein’s position on the USD 258 Recreation Commission.
A “Fun and Family Expo” will be held in the community field house Jan. 20, Elementary Principal Kay Bolt said. There will be booths on fluoridation, tobacco use, nutrition and scoliosis, and participating children will have the opportunity to win one of two bicycles, Bolt said.
The elementary school is beginning an after school walking program, Bolt said. Members of the Leos, a youth group affiliated with the Lions Club, will walk with children two afternoons a week at the community building track. Children have a chance to win wrist bands for their efforts.
Just over 70 percent of grade 6-12 students made the honor roll, Criss reported, and the high school was again selected at the bronze level by U.S. News and World Report as a Best High School of America. The school’s size, coupled with sampling criteria, mean bronze is the highest level Humboldt can achieve in the competition, Criss said. More than 21,000 high schools nationwide were evaluated. It was the second year in a row Humboldt made the list. Only a very few schools achieve back to back awards, Criss said.
Criss is looking to place five students as apprentices with local businesses as part of the town’s “Rebuilding the Square” program.
A potential buyer has expressed interest in the house the Building Trades class’ is working on, Heigele said. The building is not yet completed.
You can go home again, group told
2/11/10
By ANNE KAZMIERCZAK Register Reporter
HUMBOLDT — Kansas Technology Enterprise Corporation’s Eric Ferrell noted that all of the 13 counties he works in throughout southeast Kansas face population loss. To combat that trend, K-TEC came up with the “Home Again” program to encourage former residents to return to their home towns.
Humboldt’s Rebuilding the Public Square Business Action Team took in his ideas Wednesday evening.
Ferrell described “Home Again” as a “structured program that identifies, communicates, educates and provides former residents opportunity to return home.”
The idea, funded by the Southeast Kansas Regional Prosperity Foundation, basically markets community amenities to what should be a vested market.
Former residents, Ferrell noted, still want to know about the place they called “home.” Few, however, still receive their home town newspaper, the primary means of information dissemination in such communities, he noted.
Say a town has builds a new school, or upgrades their existing facilities, Ferrell noted.
“How do you communicate that,” he asked. Local sports, too, are a great hook to interest former residents, but again, how to do you let someone who moved away know about happenings in their home town?
“Home Again” focuses on Web presence and direct mail to former residents to re-ignite that latent interest.
Ferrell said “Home Again” will use branding, much like Tree City USA, to identify communities throughout the country that are actively encouraging former residents’ return.
“Why come hope again?” he pondered. “Cost of living, a reasonable pace of life, friends and relatives, low crime rates and Internet — if available” — are all draws to people who have become disillusioned with a faster pace of life elsewhere, Ferrell said.
“I’m hoping it would be like dream vacation,” Ferrell said of moving back.
Our country’s current economic woes can actually help places like Humboldt recruit population, Ferrell said, by focussing on its comparatively less pricey cost of living.
In addition, Ferrell said, the bulk of America’s population — the baby boomers — are in or entering retirement age. Now is the time to capture that population, Humboldt City Administrator Larry Tucker said he learned at a recent economic conference.
Those people come with skill sets and their own bank accounts, Ferrell noted, and are more likely to start small businesses that might employ others than seek out employment in their former home.
“They become the angel investors,” Ferrell said. “That’s why you don’t want to criticize people for having left.”
Instead, Ferrell said, “Home Again” provides an organized system for welcoming back such ex-pats.
“Home Again” provides a common Web base and uses Internet, press releases, promotional materials and direct mail to target potential residents.
“This isn’t some magic bunny I’m pulling out of a hat,” he said.
Instead, simple things like a magnetic business card with the Home Again or municipality’s Web link printed on it become marketing tools, he noted.
“I don’t know about you, Ferrell told the group, “but my wife and I just bought a new fridge. We had an opportunity to buy some new magnets. The old ones had been on there 20 years.”
Eventually, Ferrell said, people use the ads on those magnets.
“You’re up at 3 a.m. to get a snack, and you see the Home Alone address. You go to your computer an check it out and there,” he said, “is a link to your home town.”
Through a score of photographs provide by the community, new development or historic features of the town are highlighted.
“Home Again” targets communities with populations under 15,000 and is free to municipalities in southeast Kansas. Elsewhere, the idea will be sold for $99, Ferrell said.
The fee covers a community’s Web presence on the Home Again site.
One a town is enrolled, Ferrell’s team scours the Web for all live links to that community and organizes a directory page. That page offers links to local business, government, schools, housing opportunities, you name it, Ferrell said.
The links must be live, Ferrell explained, noting some Web pages simply offer text information. Ferrell’s group focuses on links that are regularly updated and have a live presence behind them so that potential residents can actually contact someone to get more information.
“If you’re in Chicago, you don’t want some dumb links” that lead to a dead Web presence, Ferrell said. “You want links that actually go someplace.”
To that end, a designated “Home Again” facilitator will be selected within each community to monitor all communications that originate through the “Home Again” site.
“It’s not going to work if the whole community is not behind it,” Ferrell said.
No action was taken.
By ANNE KAZMIERCZAK Register Reporter
HUMBOLDT — Kansas Technology Enterprise Corporation’s Eric Ferrell noted that all of the 13 counties he works in throughout southeast Kansas face population loss. To combat that trend, K-TEC came up with the “Home Again” program to encourage former residents to return to their home towns.
Humboldt’s Rebuilding the Public Square Business Action Team took in his ideas Wednesday evening.
Ferrell described “Home Again” as a “structured program that identifies, communicates, educates and provides former residents opportunity to return home.”
The idea, funded by the Southeast Kansas Regional Prosperity Foundation, basically markets community amenities to what should be a vested market.
Former residents, Ferrell noted, still want to know about the place they called “home.” Few, however, still receive their home town newspaper, the primary means of information dissemination in such communities, he noted.
Say a town has builds a new school, or upgrades their existing facilities, Ferrell noted.
“How do you communicate that,” he asked. Local sports, too, are a great hook to interest former residents, but again, how to do you let someone who moved away know about happenings in their home town?
“Home Again” focuses on Web presence and direct mail to former residents to re-ignite that latent interest.
Ferrell said “Home Again” will use branding, much like Tree City USA, to identify communities throughout the country that are actively encouraging former residents’ return.
“Why come hope again?” he pondered. “Cost of living, a reasonable pace of life, friends and relatives, low crime rates and Internet — if available” — are all draws to people who have become disillusioned with a faster pace of life elsewhere, Ferrell said.
“I’m hoping it would be like dream vacation,” Ferrell said of moving back.
Our country’s current economic woes can actually help places like Humboldt recruit population, Ferrell said, by focussing on its comparatively less pricey cost of living.
In addition, Ferrell said, the bulk of America’s population — the baby boomers — are in or entering retirement age. Now is the time to capture that population, Humboldt City Administrator Larry Tucker said he learned at a recent economic conference.
Those people come with skill sets and their own bank accounts, Ferrell noted, and are more likely to start small businesses that might employ others than seek out employment in their former home.
“They become the angel investors,” Ferrell said. “That’s why you don’t want to criticize people for having left.”
Instead, Ferrell said, “Home Again” provides an organized system for welcoming back such ex-pats.
“Home Again” provides a common Web base and uses Internet, press releases, promotional materials and direct mail to target potential residents.
“This isn’t some magic bunny I’m pulling out of a hat,” he said.
Instead, simple things like a magnetic business card with the Home Again or municipality’s Web link printed on it become marketing tools, he noted.
“I don’t know about you, Ferrell told the group, “but my wife and I just bought a new fridge. We had an opportunity to buy some new magnets. The old ones had been on there 20 years.”
Eventually, Ferrell said, people use the ads on those magnets.
“You’re up at 3 a.m. to get a snack, and you see the Home Alone address. You go to your computer an check it out and there,” he said, “is a link to your home town.”
Through a score of photographs provide by the community, new development or historic features of the town are highlighted.
“Home Again” targets communities with populations under 15,000 and is free to municipalities in southeast Kansas. Elsewhere, the idea will be sold for $99, Ferrell said.
The fee covers a community’s Web presence on the Home Again site.
One a town is enrolled, Ferrell’s team scours the Web for all live links to that community and organizes a directory page. That page offers links to local business, government, schools, housing opportunities, you name it, Ferrell said.
The links must be live, Ferrell explained, noting some Web pages simply offer text information. Ferrell’s group focuses on links that are regularly updated and have a live presence behind them so that potential residents can actually contact someone to get more information.
“If you’re in Chicago, you don’t want some dumb links” that lead to a dead Web presence, Ferrell said. “You want links that actually go someplace.”
To that end, a designated “Home Again” facilitator will be selected within each community to monitor all communications that originate through the “Home Again” site.
“It’s not going to work if the whole community is not behind it,” Ferrell said.
No action was taken.
Stimulus funds allow work to start in Humboldt
By ANNE KAZMIERCZAK
Register Reporter
HUMBOLDT — Work will start soon on remodeling Humboldt’s new city hall, said Humboldt administrator Larry Tucker.
“The first thing we’ve had to do is order an elevator for the building,” he said.
Humboldt purchased the former Emprise Bank building at 725 Bridge St. in January.
“They’re estimating actual construction will start at the end of May,” Tucker said of Hofer and Hofer Construction of Humboldt, which was hired to complete the work.
Funding for the remodel came from the United States Department of Agriculture Rural Development office through a community facilities loan and grant.
Humboldt will receive $200,000 in loan funds plus another $70,000 in grant money from Rural Development.
“It’s all provided through our stimulus funding from President Obama,” said Charles Heath, USDA Area Specialist for Southeast Kansas.
“One great thing is we’re able to provide the grant because it doesn’t raise taxes for the residents,” Heath said.
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds are approved “based on a community’s financial capacity — what we think they could afford to borrow,” Heath said. “We also base it on median household income,” Heath noted. Humboldt’s median income is $30,625.
Heath said the loan/grant package is unique in that it’s “the only program I know of that can fund city hall” projects.
Mulberry, in Crawford County, is using the same program to build a new city hall, he noted.
“It’s great for communities in southeast Kansas because most of them don’t have a lot of residents so they can’t raise a lot of money in taxes” to fund such projects, Heath said.
Humboldt was officially approved for the funds March 31.
Distribution occurs after construction and remodel work is complete, Heath said.
“If it’s a complete grant, we’ll advance the funds right away,” he noted.
Work should be completed by September, Tucker said.
Humboldt will repay the loan over 30 years through issuance of general obligation bonds.
In addition to the elevator, space for the city clerk and police department will be included in the structure. A door will be added to the north end of the building, interior walls restructured and “in May, we’ll be discussing some additional heating and air work” for the building, Tucker said. “We’ll have a proposal for that at our May (City Council) meeting.” he noted.
Once completed, the structure will also provide a community meeting room plus “about 4,000 square feet of unfinished space in the basement that will be utilized as a public storm shelter,” Tucker said. That area will be accessible by both stairs and elevator, Tucker noted. The building will be Americans with Disabilities Act compliant upon completion of the remodel, Tucker noted.
HEATH said additional stimulus funds are available in southeast Kansas, and urged other communities to apply. Public bodies and non-profit organizations are eligible to apply for funding.
Heath can be reached at the USDA Rural Development office in Iola at 365-2901. More information can be found at www.rurdev.usda.gov/ks or at the state office at 785-271-2700.
Register Reporter
HUMBOLDT — Work will start soon on remodeling Humboldt’s new city hall, said Humboldt administrator Larry Tucker.
“The first thing we’ve had to do is order an elevator for the building,” he said.
Humboldt purchased the former Emprise Bank building at 725 Bridge St. in January.
“They’re estimating actual construction will start at the end of May,” Tucker said of Hofer and Hofer Construction of Humboldt, which was hired to complete the work.
Funding for the remodel came from the United States Department of Agriculture Rural Development office through a community facilities loan and grant.
Humboldt will receive $200,000 in loan funds plus another $70,000 in grant money from Rural Development.
“It’s all provided through our stimulus funding from President Obama,” said Charles Heath, USDA Area Specialist for Southeast Kansas.
“One great thing is we’re able to provide the grant because it doesn’t raise taxes for the residents,” Heath said.
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds are approved “based on a community’s financial capacity — what we think they could afford to borrow,” Heath said. “We also base it on median household income,” Heath noted. Humboldt’s median income is $30,625.
Heath said the loan/grant package is unique in that it’s “the only program I know of that can fund city hall” projects.
Mulberry, in Crawford County, is using the same program to build a new city hall, he noted.
“It’s great for communities in southeast Kansas because most of them don’t have a lot of residents so they can’t raise a lot of money in taxes” to fund such projects, Heath said.
Humboldt was officially approved for the funds March 31.
Distribution occurs after construction and remodel work is complete, Heath said.
“If it’s a complete grant, we’ll advance the funds right away,” he noted.
Work should be completed by September, Tucker said.
Humboldt will repay the loan over 30 years through issuance of general obligation bonds.
In addition to the elevator, space for the city clerk and police department will be included in the structure. A door will be added to the north end of the building, interior walls restructured and “in May, we’ll be discussing some additional heating and air work” for the building, Tucker said. “We’ll have a proposal for that at our May (City Council) meeting.” he noted.
Once completed, the structure will also provide a community meeting room plus “about 4,000 square feet of unfinished space in the basement that will be utilized as a public storm shelter,” Tucker said. That area will be accessible by both stairs and elevator, Tucker noted. The building will be Americans with Disabilities Act compliant upon completion of the remodel, Tucker noted.
HEATH said additional stimulus funds are available in southeast Kansas, and urged other communities to apply. Public bodies and non-profit organizations are eligible to apply for funding.
Heath can be reached at the USDA Rural Development office in Iola at 365-2901. More information can be found at www.rurdev.usda.gov/ks or at the state office at 785-271-2700.
Technology rules in 258
By ANNE KAZMIERCZAK
Register Reporter
HUMBOLDT — Technology — and its price tag — dominated the USD-258 school board meeting Monday night.
The board plans to spend about $62,355 to turn three high school classrooms into “tech rich” classes for the 2009-2010 school year.
Assistant High School Principal Craig Smith offered the board a breakdown of per unit pricing on the technology being considered.
Laptops, digital and video cameras, smart boards and software are all part of the package. But, Smith said, technology pricing is directly tied to the stock market. Since the market is down, the price per ram of computer memory is down, as well. “We’re not going to get as much advantage of that since we’re buying laptops, but I really think we can do less than this,” Smith said.
Smith will shop out the technology specifications to other vendors to try to find a more competitive quote. The specs will match those in the elementary building to allow the incoming class of middle schoolers to continue at the same level they are used to.
“You need machines with motion stability,” Smith said. “With kids, that’s a big factor because they’re moving them around.”
They will not use their current vendor, CDW, however, due to ongoing customer support problems with the company. “We’re gonna look for another option there,” Smith said.
Smith also discussed a potential savings in per-computer licensing costs. The district currently pays $40.77 per computer, but could get by with a reduced license for about $22 per machine through a different vendor, he said.
The board briefly considered reducing the number of tech rich classrooms to two, but decided against it as three teachers have already been trained to work with the technology.
That training came at no cost to the district, Smith said, as Elementary Principal Kay Bolt secured an arrangement to train the middle and high school teachers concurrently with elementary teachers who were trained to use the technology package.
The school currently has $536,286 in its capital outlay fund, said Superintendent Bob Heigele.
After selling the building trades house, that fund should rest closer to $600,000 he said.
SMITH LATER gave a presentation to the board on the “Kansas curriculum to produce a highly trained workforce.” The K-12 vocational education program, called the “Career Pipeline,” is mandated by the state to be in place by the 2012 school year, Smith said.
The program focuses on “high wage, high demand” jobs for high school graduates, Smith said.
The program begins with career awareness at a basic level and progresses with the grade levels, he said. For example, in an early elemetary class “You have the class look at a loaf of bread and discuss all the careers that go into that loaf.” Package design, marketing and agribusiness are all jobs associated with one loaf of bread, Smith said.
Higher grade levels must integrate cross-curricular programs or themes, he said, “Such as the Vietnam War. You talk about defoliants and napalm in science class, then the Tet Offensive in history and how a plane flies in physics.”
Under state guidelines, “Every school has to come up with a career cluster action team and infuse that into every aspect of the curriculum,” Smith said. In addition, some current curricula must be modified to meet the new guidelines.
“Family and consumer sciences now has to be 30 percent health care” he said. “There’s a lot of change and work involved” in restructuring the current programs, he said.
The positive aspect of the new program will be students who are more aware of available jobs and career choices, he said.
“Each eighth-grader will take an interest test to match their interest and skills to career options. If you have a C or D student who is interested in medicine, he can’t be a surgeon, but there might be other career options out there that still match those interest areas.”
Resume writing and financial aid application help are skills the students will learn before high school, Smith said.
“After they take their skills test the second time, they’ll adjust their schedules,” he said.
High school classes will be more directed towards producing a “career literate graduate,” Smith said.
IN OTHER business, Elementary Principal Kay Bolt was offered the positions of curriculum director and Title 1 supervisor, adding two weeks to her 2010-2011 contract.
ANW will freeze administrative raises for the coming year, said board member Don Hauser, but other than that “Our discussions on finance have been wait and see,” he said.
The immediate resignation of Missy Ferron, an elementary para educator, was accepted. Ferron will retain her school bus driver duties. The early retirement of Lance Carlson, high school social studies teacher, was accepted, effective at the end of this school year.
The schools will review their security practices after an evaluation was done by the district’s insurance company. “A lot of things, because of our clientele, we probably don’t need to do, but we should look at what we can,” to increase school security Heigele said.
Register Reporter
HUMBOLDT — Technology — and its price tag — dominated the USD-258 school board meeting Monday night.
The board plans to spend about $62,355 to turn three high school classrooms into “tech rich” classes for the 2009-2010 school year.
Assistant High School Principal Craig Smith offered the board a breakdown of per unit pricing on the technology being considered.
Laptops, digital and video cameras, smart boards and software are all part of the package. But, Smith said, technology pricing is directly tied to the stock market. Since the market is down, the price per ram of computer memory is down, as well. “We’re not going to get as much advantage of that since we’re buying laptops, but I really think we can do less than this,” Smith said.
Smith will shop out the technology specifications to other vendors to try to find a more competitive quote. The specs will match those in the elementary building to allow the incoming class of middle schoolers to continue at the same level they are used to.
“You need machines with motion stability,” Smith said. “With kids, that’s a big factor because they’re moving them around.”
They will not use their current vendor, CDW, however, due to ongoing customer support problems with the company. “We’re gonna look for another option there,” Smith said.
Smith also discussed a potential savings in per-computer licensing costs. The district currently pays $40.77 per computer, but could get by with a reduced license for about $22 per machine through a different vendor, he said.
The board briefly considered reducing the number of tech rich classrooms to two, but decided against it as three teachers have already been trained to work with the technology.
That training came at no cost to the district, Smith said, as Elementary Principal Kay Bolt secured an arrangement to train the middle and high school teachers concurrently with elementary teachers who were trained to use the technology package.
The school currently has $536,286 in its capital outlay fund, said Superintendent Bob Heigele.
After selling the building trades house, that fund should rest closer to $600,000 he said.
SMITH LATER gave a presentation to the board on the “Kansas curriculum to produce a highly trained workforce.” The K-12 vocational education program, called the “Career Pipeline,” is mandated by the state to be in place by the 2012 school year, Smith said.
The program focuses on “high wage, high demand” jobs for high school graduates, Smith said.
The program begins with career awareness at a basic level and progresses with the grade levels, he said. For example, in an early elemetary class “You have the class look at a loaf of bread and discuss all the careers that go into that loaf.” Package design, marketing and agribusiness are all jobs associated with one loaf of bread, Smith said.
Higher grade levels must integrate cross-curricular programs or themes, he said, “Such as the Vietnam War. You talk about defoliants and napalm in science class, then the Tet Offensive in history and how a plane flies in physics.”
Under state guidelines, “Every school has to come up with a career cluster action team and infuse that into every aspect of the curriculum,” Smith said. In addition, some current curricula must be modified to meet the new guidelines.
“Family and consumer sciences now has to be 30 percent health care” he said. “There’s a lot of change and work involved” in restructuring the current programs, he said.
The positive aspect of the new program will be students who are more aware of available jobs and career choices, he said.
“Each eighth-grader will take an interest test to match their interest and skills to career options. If you have a C or D student who is interested in medicine, he can’t be a surgeon, but there might be other career options out there that still match those interest areas.”
Resume writing and financial aid application help are skills the students will learn before high school, Smith said.
“After they take their skills test the second time, they’ll adjust their schedules,” he said.
High school classes will be more directed towards producing a “career literate graduate,” Smith said.
IN OTHER business, Elementary Principal Kay Bolt was offered the positions of curriculum director and Title 1 supervisor, adding two weeks to her 2010-2011 contract.
ANW will freeze administrative raises for the coming year, said board member Don Hauser, but other than that “Our discussions on finance have been wait and see,” he said.
The immediate resignation of Missy Ferron, an elementary para educator, was accepted. Ferron will retain her school bus driver duties. The early retirement of Lance Carlson, high school social studies teacher, was accepted, effective at the end of this school year.
The schools will review their security practices after an evaluation was done by the district’s insurance company. “A lot of things, because of our clientele, we probably don’t need to do, but we should look at what we can,” to increase school security Heigele said.
USD 258 ready to roll
By ANNE KAZMIERCZAK
Register Reporter
USD 258 is ready for the coming academic year, Humboldt principals told the board Monday.
Some teachers have been preparing since July for the coming year, noted elementary principal Kay Bolt.
“Custodians are finishing up last minute details in all the buildings,” she added. That done, “We’re ready to go,” she said.
A $45,000 Health Care Foundation grant was received by the district to fund a full-time school nurse, the board noted. Megan Anderson will spilt her time between the elementary and high schools, Bolt and high school prinicpal Craig Smith told the board.
Humboldt received a fresh fruit and vegetable grant from the Child Nutrition and Wellness division of Kansas Department of Education. The grant will be used to enhance nutritional intake of students by introducing them to fresh produce. No dollar amount was given.
In the high school, existing furnishings will be used to “define the academic area” in an otherwise multi-use space to segregate students with behavioral issues and those under in-school suspension from those engaged in “credit recovery” (students making up missed work) and nontraditional students working on General Education Degree requirements, said high school principal Craig Smith. Cubicles from the old technology lab will help define work centers in the school’s alternative learning center, he said.
Smith will be reviewing job descriptions and curricula as part of his first year as Humboldt High School principal, he noted.
ANW special education cooperative is examining cell phone and vehicle use policies regarding personal use of such equipment to conform with tax codes, noted board representative Don Houser.
THE BOARD unanimously approved teacher-negotiated contracts for the coming year. A new speech pathologist was hired for the district. Jeremy Weilert was hired to be assistant high school football coach, head middle school basketball coach and lunch supervisor for both morning and afternoon.
A hearing on the 2010-2011 budget will be at 7:30 p.m. Monday in the board office.
Dielbolt Lumber of LaHarpe was given preference over Cleaver Lumber of Chanute for purchase of materials for the 2010-2011 building trades house. The two bids had only a $600 difference between them. That Dieboldt is located within Allen county proved the deciding factor. The materials list bid was accepted at $26,254.37.
Register Reporter
USD 258 is ready for the coming academic year, Humboldt principals told the board Monday.
Some teachers have been preparing since July for the coming year, noted elementary principal Kay Bolt.
“Custodians are finishing up last minute details in all the buildings,” she added. That done, “We’re ready to go,” she said.
A $45,000 Health Care Foundation grant was received by the district to fund a full-time school nurse, the board noted. Megan Anderson will spilt her time between the elementary and high schools, Bolt and high school prinicpal Craig Smith told the board.
Humboldt received a fresh fruit and vegetable grant from the Child Nutrition and Wellness division of Kansas Department of Education. The grant will be used to enhance nutritional intake of students by introducing them to fresh produce. No dollar amount was given.
In the high school, existing furnishings will be used to “define the academic area” in an otherwise multi-use space to segregate students with behavioral issues and those under in-school suspension from those engaged in “credit recovery” (students making up missed work) and nontraditional students working on General Education Degree requirements, said high school principal Craig Smith. Cubicles from the old technology lab will help define work centers in the school’s alternative learning center, he said.
Smith will be reviewing job descriptions and curricula as part of his first year as Humboldt High School principal, he noted.
ANW special education cooperative is examining cell phone and vehicle use policies regarding personal use of such equipment to conform with tax codes, noted board representative Don Houser.
THE BOARD unanimously approved teacher-negotiated contracts for the coming year. A new speech pathologist was hired for the district. Jeremy Weilert was hired to be assistant high school football coach, head middle school basketball coach and lunch supervisor for both morning and afternoon.
A hearing on the 2010-2011 budget will be at 7:30 p.m. Monday in the board office.
Dielbolt Lumber of LaHarpe was given preference over Cleaver Lumber of Chanute for purchase of materials for the 2010-2011 building trades house. The two bids had only a $600 difference between them. That Dieboldt is located within Allen county proved the deciding factor. The materials list bid was accepted at $26,254.37.
Humboldt Fire A-OK
HUMBOLDT — As part of an ongoing effort to share knowledge of city services with the public and city council, Humboldt Volunteer Fire Dept. opened its fire barn for a tour Monday evening.
Chief Kent Barfoot explained the department and its duties, described equipment and spoke of space needs for training and housing volunteers.
The equipment the department has is all in good repair, Barfoot said. Recent certification of a pumper will allow it to be sold in coming years for a higher value, he added.
Barfoot, who has been with the department 23 years, said their primary need is fo rmore space for trianign. The current fire barn houses the trucks and a space used for both meetings and training sessions, he said.
The fire department has 21 volunteers. They can have up to 22.
“These guys are very agressive — they will attack a fire and enter a building while its still burning and carry people out,” said Sam Murrow, a paramedic who used to serve with the department.
Anyone city resident who is at least 21 can join, but the upper limit is 55, Barfoot said. Despite requiring city residency, the department serves 128 miles — about a quarter — of Allen County, Barfoot said.
The department has different trucks assigned to different districts within their coverage area, Barfoot explained. A brush truck goes to rural calls, while a city-owned full-service truck remains within city limits. A corresponding full-service truck will respond to any fires or emergencies outside of the city limits. The determination is made based on ownership of the vehicles, he said.
The department itslef reaised money to purchase equipment such as jaws of life and thermal imaging, so those tools may be used anywhere the firefighters go.
Over the years, Barfoot siad, the type of service calls has changed. They respond to many more accidents rather than structure fires now, he said.
The city purchased land a couple years back for the department ot build on, barfoot said. Although no plans are in the works at this time, he siad having the land will make it easier to secure grant funding once the city is ready to build.
“We’ve got a really good group of volunteeers,” Barfoot said. “They are what make this go.”
Chief Kent Barfoot explained the department and its duties, described equipment and spoke of space needs for training and housing volunteers.
The equipment the department has is all in good repair, Barfoot said. Recent certification of a pumper will allow it to be sold in coming years for a higher value, he added.
Barfoot, who has been with the department 23 years, said their primary need is fo rmore space for trianign. The current fire barn houses the trucks and a space used for both meetings and training sessions, he said.
The fire department has 21 volunteers. They can have up to 22.
“These guys are very agressive — they will attack a fire and enter a building while its still burning and carry people out,” said Sam Murrow, a paramedic who used to serve with the department.
Anyone city resident who is at least 21 can join, but the upper limit is 55, Barfoot said. Despite requiring city residency, the department serves 128 miles — about a quarter — of Allen County, Barfoot said.
The department has different trucks assigned to different districts within their coverage area, Barfoot explained. A brush truck goes to rural calls, while a city-owned full-service truck remains within city limits. A corresponding full-service truck will respond to any fires or emergencies outside of the city limits. The determination is made based on ownership of the vehicles, he said.
The department itslef reaised money to purchase equipment such as jaws of life and thermal imaging, so those tools may be used anywhere the firefighters go.
Over the years, Barfoot siad, the type of service calls has changed. They respond to many more accidents rather than structure fires now, he said.
The city purchased land a couple years back for the department ot build on, barfoot said. Although no plans are in the works at this time, he siad having the land will make it easier to secure grant funding once the city is ready to build.
“We’ve got a really good group of volunteeers,” Barfoot said. “They are what make this go.”
Fluoride an issue — again
By ANNE KAZMIERCZAK Register Reporter
HUMBOLDT — A readily passed decision of the Humboldt City Council last month became a hot button issue at Monday night’s session.
On May 11, the council unanimously voted to add fluoride to Humdoldt’s municipal water supply at .7 to 1.1 parts per million, a level sufficient to combat tooth decay. The level falls within the safe range for the additive, and would be adjusted according to ambient readings of Neosho River water, which naturally contains a minor amount of flouride.
That was still too much for some HUmboldt residents, who believe no amount of the substance is safe.
Paul Finney, a local acupuncturist, handed out a poster to the council of an image of a can of insecticidal flouride from the 1950s. He held up a list of cities that had discontinued fluoridation of their water supplies in the 1990s, though gave no reason as to why those communtiies acted as they did.
One community he mentioned on the list, Wichita, has actually never fluoridated its water. Its ambient levles are higher than those of Humboldt.
Finney and David Weilert, a chiropractor, argued that the public should be allowed to choose for themsleves whether or not to injest a substance they called “toxic” and “caustic.” Finney went so far as to bring a materials safety data sheet for pure sodium flouride, one form of the chemical.
That got the ire of councilman Dan Julich, who noted such sheets are for workers using the chemical, not consumers of a highly diluted product. “It says right here, dilute it with water,” Julich read from the sheet.
Another councilman, Sam Murrow, added “It’s all about dosage levels. Any medication is toxic in too large a dose.”
Murrow, a paramedic, asked “Why, if it’s so toxic, have I never heard a doctor ask in an emergency situation for a blood fluoride level?”
Even water itself can be harmful, Murrow said.
“You can drink distilled water all day, but if you inject it directly into your blood vessels, it will kill you.”
Weilert argued adding fluoride to the water will be a hardship to the poor, who would have to buy reverse osmosis filters to remove it from their drinking supply. “If you want to help people, give them a toothbrush,” Weilert said.
John Hodgden, Humboldt water treatment plant superintendrent, said during a tour of the plant last month that inexpensive faucet filters will remove a good portion of added fluoride.
Nonetheless, councilman Jeremy Weilert, David Weilert’s nephew, made a motion to rescind last month’s decision. Weilert was not at last month’s meeting. The motion was seconded by Jerry Griffith and passed on a 6-2 vote. Voting against ressision were Vada Aikins and Sean McReynolds.
The issue will be revisited during next month’s regular meeting.
THE COUNCIL reviewed revised zoning regulations and a corresponding overlay map, the culmination of a six-month process by the Humboldt Planning Commission. Changes to the ordinance include the addition of multifamily, suburban and planned unut developemnt zones.
“We don’t have anything in our current guidelines that address this. To plan for growth you have to include new things,” City Adminsitrator Larry Tucker said. “We tried to identify all the land uses here in Humboldt and within a three-mile radius,” Tucker said.
A highway service district, allowing for ease of business development along Ninth Street (old Hwy. 169) and adult entertainment districts were also included.
Tucker said the adult entertainment district was required by law, but that restrictions on the zone such as hours of operation were allowed.
The three mile boundary confused some. Tucker explained the buffer does not give the city jurisdiction over those lands, which still fall under county zoning control, but gives the city a voice should a planning decision be made that would negatively impact adjacent city dwellers. Essentially, it is a transition zone between rural and urban uses.
Tucker said Monday’s review of the zoning regualtions was a first reading, and no action was required at this time. Humboildt’s zoning regulations were last updated in 1972.
TRENTON Brown of Collection Bureau of Kansas, based in Topeka, addressed the council regarding the city taking on his agency’s services to assist in collecting past due municipal court fines and city utilitiy fees. The agency would add a surcharge onto all court fines collected, allowing the city to collect the full amount due. Utility fees collected would be split between the city and the collection agency, with the agency receiving 25 percent of the fees collected. In cases requiring litigation, however, the city would be obligated to pay court and filiing fees associated with the collection process.
Fred Works, city attorney, asked for time to review the proposal and speak with representatives at the agency. The issue was tabled until next month.
The city unanimously approved a 3 percent raise for appointed city officials for the 2009-2010 fiscal year. The adjustments take effect July 1. Regualr expenditures of $40,847.26 were also approved. The city clerk position was named as the freedon of inforamtion officer, to handle requests under that law.
After an executive session, the city accepted a bid of $2,200 by Wayne Smith to purchase two city-owned lots at 220 S. 3rd and
allow Chris Troxell to take a leave of absence.
HUMBOLDT — A readily passed decision of the Humboldt City Council last month became a hot button issue at Monday night’s session.
On May 11, the council unanimously voted to add fluoride to Humdoldt’s municipal water supply at .7 to 1.1 parts per million, a level sufficient to combat tooth decay. The level falls within the safe range for the additive, and would be adjusted according to ambient readings of Neosho River water, which naturally contains a minor amount of flouride.
That was still too much for some HUmboldt residents, who believe no amount of the substance is safe.
Paul Finney, a local acupuncturist, handed out a poster to the council of an image of a can of insecticidal flouride from the 1950s. He held up a list of cities that had discontinued fluoridation of their water supplies in the 1990s, though gave no reason as to why those communtiies acted as they did.
One community he mentioned on the list, Wichita, has actually never fluoridated its water. Its ambient levles are higher than those of Humboldt.
Finney and David Weilert, a chiropractor, argued that the public should be allowed to choose for themsleves whether or not to injest a substance they called “toxic” and “caustic.” Finney went so far as to bring a materials safety data sheet for pure sodium flouride, one form of the chemical.
That got the ire of councilman Dan Julich, who noted such sheets are for workers using the chemical, not consumers of a highly diluted product. “It says right here, dilute it with water,” Julich read from the sheet.
Another councilman, Sam Murrow, added “It’s all about dosage levels. Any medication is toxic in too large a dose.”
Murrow, a paramedic, asked “Why, if it’s so toxic, have I never heard a doctor ask in an emergency situation for a blood fluoride level?”
Even water itself can be harmful, Murrow said.
“You can drink distilled water all day, but if you inject it directly into your blood vessels, it will kill you.”
Weilert argued adding fluoride to the water will be a hardship to the poor, who would have to buy reverse osmosis filters to remove it from their drinking supply. “If you want to help people, give them a toothbrush,” Weilert said.
John Hodgden, Humboldt water treatment plant superintendrent, said during a tour of the plant last month that inexpensive faucet filters will remove a good portion of added fluoride.
Nonetheless, councilman Jeremy Weilert, David Weilert’s nephew, made a motion to rescind last month’s decision. Weilert was not at last month’s meeting. The motion was seconded by Jerry Griffith and passed on a 6-2 vote. Voting against ressision were Vada Aikins and Sean McReynolds.
The issue will be revisited during next month’s regular meeting.
THE COUNCIL reviewed revised zoning regulations and a corresponding overlay map, the culmination of a six-month process by the Humboldt Planning Commission. Changes to the ordinance include the addition of multifamily, suburban and planned unut developemnt zones.
“We don’t have anything in our current guidelines that address this. To plan for growth you have to include new things,” City Adminsitrator Larry Tucker said. “We tried to identify all the land uses here in Humboldt and within a three-mile radius,” Tucker said.
A highway service district, allowing for ease of business development along Ninth Street (old Hwy. 169) and adult entertainment districts were also included.
Tucker said the adult entertainment district was required by law, but that restrictions on the zone such as hours of operation were allowed.
The three mile boundary confused some. Tucker explained the buffer does not give the city jurisdiction over those lands, which still fall under county zoning control, but gives the city a voice should a planning decision be made that would negatively impact adjacent city dwellers. Essentially, it is a transition zone between rural and urban uses.
Tucker said Monday’s review of the zoning regualtions was a first reading, and no action was required at this time. Humboildt’s zoning regulations were last updated in 1972.
TRENTON Brown of Collection Bureau of Kansas, based in Topeka, addressed the council regarding the city taking on his agency’s services to assist in collecting past due municipal court fines and city utilitiy fees. The agency would add a surcharge onto all court fines collected, allowing the city to collect the full amount due. Utility fees collected would be split between the city and the collection agency, with the agency receiving 25 percent of the fees collected. In cases requiring litigation, however, the city would be obligated to pay court and filiing fees associated with the collection process.
Fred Works, city attorney, asked for time to review the proposal and speak with representatives at the agency. The issue was tabled until next month.
The city unanimously approved a 3 percent raise for appointed city officials for the 2009-2010 fiscal year. The adjustments take effect July 1. Regualr expenditures of $40,847.26 were also approved. The city clerk position was named as the freedon of inforamtion officer, to handle requests under that law.
After an executive session, the city accepted a bid of $2,200 by Wayne Smith to purchase two city-owned lots at 220 S. 3rd and
allow Chris Troxell to take a leave of absence.
Water and roads occupy council
HUMBOLDT — Infrastructure expenses took up the bulk of Monday’s Humboldt City Council meeting. Discussion spanned from water line replacement to resurfacing roads. Funding for the projects will involve general obligation bonds, a Community Development Block Grant, a USDA Rural Development loan and federal stimulus funds administered through Kansas Dept. of Transportation.
The city received a $400,000 CDBG towards a $1.6 million water distribution project involving replacing aged water mains, fire hydrants and valves.
The city approved issuing $1.2 million in temporary notes at 3 percent interest to fund the project.
“It gives you the authority to issue bonds up to that amount,” explained Rick Ensz of Cooper, Malone and McClain, the city’s financial advisor. “It does not mean you have to issue that total.” Instead, Ensz said, the notes are “identical to a construction loan on a home.” The city will make interest payments, then finance the whole project once it is complete.
Rural Development has agreed to loan the city $1.1 million, repayable over a 40 year period, to finance the project.
The Council was originally asked to consider a bond amount of $1.1 million, but an extra $100,000 was needed to cover water lines to the cemetery and to increase the size of mains laid in areas where future development is expected.
“We just felt with the future growth of the city, we need to have the infrastructure in place to meet that growth,” City Administrator Larry Tucker said.
Federal Stimulus Funds will be used to complete a street project involving East Bridge, Central, 13th and 14th streets, Tucker said.
Because the KDOT is funding 90 percent of the project with federal stimulus dollars, an engineer must be hired to design the project and work must be inspected by a KDOT-approved inspector. The city will chip in 10 percent — $35,354 — of the total project cost, Tucker said.
Project plans must be 80 percent complete and submitted to the state by Oct. 1 to secure the federal funding. Completed plans are due Nov. 1. The project will be bid by the state in March 2010.
The work will include curb, gutter and handicap access along the affected length of 13 street.
Concrete improvements, including curb and gutter, will be made on one block of Indiana Street between 8th and 9th streets north of the swimming pool, Tucker said. Funds for the $67,800 project will be drawn from the city’s consolidated street fund. A bid from Hofer and Hofer and Associates of Humboldt was accepted for the work, which should commence in September.
In other business, the council voted to approve purchase of a used tiller for $800 to do preparatory work on the city’s new walking trail , rather than continuing to rent one. Rental fees were $80 per day.
Two pumps will be purchased for the city’s lift stations at a cost of $3,482 each, plus shipping. Rebuilding the pumps would have cost the city $2,850 each. The new pumps come with a one year warranty and have an expected life of 10 years.
Tucker announced that a moratorium has been placed on expenditures from KDOT’s Transportation Revolving Fund. Until state funding improves, no new loan applications will be processed, Tucker said. The funds had been available for qualified street and bridge work.
Work continues by the city to remove nuisance properties, with Kenneth Rowe, who has ignored repeated city appeals, being cited to court.
The city received a $400,000 CDBG towards a $1.6 million water distribution project involving replacing aged water mains, fire hydrants and valves.
The city approved issuing $1.2 million in temporary notes at 3 percent interest to fund the project.
“It gives you the authority to issue bonds up to that amount,” explained Rick Ensz of Cooper, Malone and McClain, the city’s financial advisor. “It does not mean you have to issue that total.” Instead, Ensz said, the notes are “identical to a construction loan on a home.” The city will make interest payments, then finance the whole project once it is complete.
Rural Development has agreed to loan the city $1.1 million, repayable over a 40 year period, to finance the project.
The Council was originally asked to consider a bond amount of $1.1 million, but an extra $100,000 was needed to cover water lines to the cemetery and to increase the size of mains laid in areas where future development is expected.
“We just felt with the future growth of the city, we need to have the infrastructure in place to meet that growth,” City Administrator Larry Tucker said.
Federal Stimulus Funds will be used to complete a street project involving East Bridge, Central, 13th and 14th streets, Tucker said.
Because the KDOT is funding 90 percent of the project with federal stimulus dollars, an engineer must be hired to design the project and work must be inspected by a KDOT-approved inspector. The city will chip in 10 percent — $35,354 — of the total project cost, Tucker said.
Project plans must be 80 percent complete and submitted to the state by Oct. 1 to secure the federal funding. Completed plans are due Nov. 1. The project will be bid by the state in March 2010.
The work will include curb, gutter and handicap access along the affected length of 13 street.
Concrete improvements, including curb and gutter, will be made on one block of Indiana Street between 8th and 9th streets north of the swimming pool, Tucker said. Funds for the $67,800 project will be drawn from the city’s consolidated street fund. A bid from Hofer and Hofer and Associates of Humboldt was accepted for the work, which should commence in September.
In other business, the council voted to approve purchase of a used tiller for $800 to do preparatory work on the city’s new walking trail , rather than continuing to rent one. Rental fees were $80 per day.
Two pumps will be purchased for the city’s lift stations at a cost of $3,482 each, plus shipping. Rebuilding the pumps would have cost the city $2,850 each. The new pumps come with a one year warranty and have an expected life of 10 years.
Tucker announced that a moratorium has been placed on expenditures from KDOT’s Transportation Revolving Fund. Until state funding improves, no new loan applications will be processed, Tucker said. The funds had been available for qualified street and bridge work.
Work continues by the city to remove nuisance properties, with Kenneth Rowe, who has ignored repeated city appeals, being cited to court.
Money, money, money — budget and tax breaks discussed
HUMBOLDT — The City Council decided Monday to offer a developer responsible for bringing Dollar General to Humboldt a 50 percent share in city sales taxes collected at the store for five years.
“This type of policy is popular in other states,” said City Administrator Larry Tucker. Sharing sales tax revenue is “fairly new to Kansas,” however, Tucker said.
Tucker said the agreement was basically a good will gesture to elicit interest of other businesses looking to locate in Southeast Kansas. “We can use this as a tool to recruit business,” Tucker told the council. Hopefully, he said, some of those business will also choose to build on the 4.4 acre site the city is in the process of purchasing on the north edge of town.
Craig VanWey, regional project manager for the Kansas dept. of Commerce told the council that other incentives exist to lure businesses to Kansas communities of less than 2,500 people. Income tax credits and sales tax exemptions on materials needed to build or expand a business are both available from the state, he said. The tax breaks are also available to businesses that add at least two new employees, VanWey said. In addition, grants are available to train existing work force in new skills, he said.
THE COUNCIL approved Monday the city’s budget as amended in the special budget workshop held on July 27. General fund expenditures were increased by $4,000 to retain a public works position scheduled to be cut in the preliminary budget; swimming pool expenses were increased to allow for purchase of pool chemicals; and the library budget was adjusted so the city would take over paying for the building’s insurance, as discussed at the July meeting.
Pool usage and revenue were both up this year, pool managers reported.
Tucker told the council that due to property tax valuations dropping this year, actual ad valorem tax dollars collected will be less than last year. The change represents a 0.6 percent increase in ad valorem tax, however.
Overall, Tucker said, Humboldt taxes are low.
“I analyzed 26 communities around Southeast Kansas, and Humboldt is very competitive for our property tax rate.” Of the 26 towns examined, Humboldt ranked 11th in per capita tax rate. Iola ranked fourth, and Chanute third in per capita tax levels.
Total expenditures in the 2010 budget are $3,865,533. The tax levy stands at $387,133.
“This type of policy is popular in other states,” said City Administrator Larry Tucker. Sharing sales tax revenue is “fairly new to Kansas,” however, Tucker said.
Tucker said the agreement was basically a good will gesture to elicit interest of other businesses looking to locate in Southeast Kansas. “We can use this as a tool to recruit business,” Tucker told the council. Hopefully, he said, some of those business will also choose to build on the 4.4 acre site the city is in the process of purchasing on the north edge of town.
Craig VanWey, regional project manager for the Kansas dept. of Commerce told the council that other incentives exist to lure businesses to Kansas communities of less than 2,500 people. Income tax credits and sales tax exemptions on materials needed to build or expand a business are both available from the state, he said. The tax breaks are also available to businesses that add at least two new employees, VanWey said. In addition, grants are available to train existing work force in new skills, he said.
THE COUNCIL approved Monday the city’s budget as amended in the special budget workshop held on July 27. General fund expenditures were increased by $4,000 to retain a public works position scheduled to be cut in the preliminary budget; swimming pool expenses were increased to allow for purchase of pool chemicals; and the library budget was adjusted so the city would take over paying for the building’s insurance, as discussed at the July meeting.
Pool usage and revenue were both up this year, pool managers reported.
Tucker told the council that due to property tax valuations dropping this year, actual ad valorem tax dollars collected will be less than last year. The change represents a 0.6 percent increase in ad valorem tax, however.
Overall, Tucker said, Humboldt taxes are low.
“I analyzed 26 communities around Southeast Kansas, and Humboldt is very competitive for our property tax rate.” Of the 26 towns examined, Humboldt ranked 11th in per capita tax rate. Iola ranked fourth, and Chanute third in per capita tax levels.
Total expenditures in the 2010 budget are $3,865,533. The tax levy stands at $387,133.
New building triples city space
HUMBOLDT — Humboldt’s city council met Monday evening to tour the former Emprise Bank building, purchased by the city for use as its city hall and police department.
The location will more than triple available square footage for the city, which currently occupies 5,000 square feet. The new space contains 16,000 square feet, said City Administrator Larry Tucker.
Rick Zingre, of Fort Scott’s Zingre and Associates Architects, led Monday night’s tour.
Zingre explained choices for elevator placement, walls and restrooms, all questions that came up during the tour.
A small, three-person, wheelchair accessible elevator will be built, leading both to the main floor, which will house the daily workings of city hall and the police department, and to the basement, which will contain a public meeting room. The elevator will be located at the southeast corner of the building where the sole grade-level entrance exists, Zingre said. A 30 foot rise to the main lobby necessitates the elevator for public access to that part of the building, ZIngre noted. In addition, Zingre siad, “joist spans and subsequent support” in other parts of the building would not accommodate the lift.
The basement will remain primarily unfinished space, with 4,000 feet for the city, an existing 2,000 foot multipurpose community room and 2,000 feet of secured space dedicated to the police department. The basement will also be opened as a storm shelter as needed, if the council has its way. Monarch Cement has offered the city use of its facility in case of an ice storm, Tucker noted.
“For 99.9 percent of tornadoes, (the basement) will serve you better than a wood-framed house ever would,” Zingre observed of the windowless, reinforced space. That use sparked discussion of the need for back up generators. Currently, police and public works departments each have one such generator.
Costs for additional generators were never considered, Zingre said.
“This job was presented to me as ‘What can we do for $100,000, first and foremost as city hall and the police department” Zingre said. “The base bid is to build an elevator and create office space for the city,” he said. The police department will also get a “secure point of entry” with the base bid remodel, Zingre noted.
Along with the expansive space, the city acquired numerous desks, office stations, chairs and the bank’s teller counter. All will be utilized by the city in their remodel, reducing costs of furnishing the new facility. Most carpeting will remain, too, Zingre said.
THE $160,000 base bid includes elevator, hall and American With Disabilities Act-compliant restrooms in the basement, plus city offices upstairs. The alternate bid, for an additional $90,000, adds a municipal court room and ADA restrooms upstairs.
Funding for the remodel will come from a $70,000 grant and $200,000 loan, both from the USDA Rural Development office in Iola.
“We’ve already gotten preliminary approval” for the funds, Tucker said.
The money can also be used to improve the heating and air conditioning system on the north half of the building, Tucker said.
“The system you have is original to the building” Zingre noted, and is “probably not efficient and not serviceable. Functionally, it’s a funky system anyway,” he said, noting it lacks individual area controls for different parts of the building.
Final architectural plans will be ready in about a week, Tucker said Zingre told him. Those plans, plus remodelling bids, must be submitted to the United States Department of Agriculture before final approval of the funds is made.
Zingre suggested the council open bidding for contractors using the base bid design, then add modifications as needed. The council ultimately agreed.
Council member Vada Aikins moved to accept the base bid. The motion passed 6-1, with Jeremy Weilert, Jerry Griffith, Don Walburn, Sean McReynolds, Otis Crawford and Aikins in favor and Dan Julich against. Sam Murrow was absent.
The deadline for bids will be the end of January.
The city hopes to be in the building by April or May, Tucker said. Tucker added he is already fielding inquiries from those interested in using the current city hall building.
The location will more than triple available square footage for the city, which currently occupies 5,000 square feet. The new space contains 16,000 square feet, said City Administrator Larry Tucker.
Rick Zingre, of Fort Scott’s Zingre and Associates Architects, led Monday night’s tour.
Zingre explained choices for elevator placement, walls and restrooms, all questions that came up during the tour.
A small, three-person, wheelchair accessible elevator will be built, leading both to the main floor, which will house the daily workings of city hall and the police department, and to the basement, which will contain a public meeting room. The elevator will be located at the southeast corner of the building where the sole grade-level entrance exists, Zingre said. A 30 foot rise to the main lobby necessitates the elevator for public access to that part of the building, ZIngre noted. In addition, Zingre siad, “joist spans and subsequent support” in other parts of the building would not accommodate the lift.
The basement will remain primarily unfinished space, with 4,000 feet for the city, an existing 2,000 foot multipurpose community room and 2,000 feet of secured space dedicated to the police department. The basement will also be opened as a storm shelter as needed, if the council has its way. Monarch Cement has offered the city use of its facility in case of an ice storm, Tucker noted.
“For 99.9 percent of tornadoes, (the basement) will serve you better than a wood-framed house ever would,” Zingre observed of the windowless, reinforced space. That use sparked discussion of the need for back up generators. Currently, police and public works departments each have one such generator.
Costs for additional generators were never considered, Zingre said.
“This job was presented to me as ‘What can we do for $100,000, first and foremost as city hall and the police department” Zingre said. “The base bid is to build an elevator and create office space for the city,” he said. The police department will also get a “secure point of entry” with the base bid remodel, Zingre noted.
Along with the expansive space, the city acquired numerous desks, office stations, chairs and the bank’s teller counter. All will be utilized by the city in their remodel, reducing costs of furnishing the new facility. Most carpeting will remain, too, Zingre said.
THE $160,000 base bid includes elevator, hall and American With Disabilities Act-compliant restrooms in the basement, plus city offices upstairs. The alternate bid, for an additional $90,000, adds a municipal court room and ADA restrooms upstairs.
Funding for the remodel will come from a $70,000 grant and $200,000 loan, both from the USDA Rural Development office in Iola.
“We’ve already gotten preliminary approval” for the funds, Tucker said.
The money can also be used to improve the heating and air conditioning system on the north half of the building, Tucker said.
“The system you have is original to the building” Zingre noted, and is “probably not efficient and not serviceable. Functionally, it’s a funky system anyway,” he said, noting it lacks individual area controls for different parts of the building.
Final architectural plans will be ready in about a week, Tucker said Zingre told him. Those plans, plus remodelling bids, must be submitted to the United States Department of Agriculture before final approval of the funds is made.
Zingre suggested the council open bidding for contractors using the base bid design, then add modifications as needed. The council ultimately agreed.
Council member Vada Aikins moved to accept the base bid. The motion passed 6-1, with Jeremy Weilert, Jerry Griffith, Don Walburn, Sean McReynolds, Otis Crawford and Aikins in favor and Dan Julich against. Sam Murrow was absent.
The deadline for bids will be the end of January.
The city hopes to be in the building by April or May, Tucker said. Tucker added he is already fielding inquiries from those interested in using the current city hall building.
Sports programs to be tweaked
By ANNE KAZMIERCZAK Register Reporter
Expensive changes may be in store for the USD 258 football program said Superintendent Bob Heigele at Monday night’s USD 258 board meeting.
Students in the program have suffered four concussions this season, Heigele said.
Helmet technology is progressing to protect against such head injuries, but such helmets run $300 each, he noted.
Heigele said, “$300 used to buy a full set of equipment for a kid. It’s going to be a pretty good tab if you have to buy 40 helmets at $300 apiece.”
Still, parents have inquired after the new helmets, he said.
Heigele is inquiring of the Humboldt Parks and Recreation department about playing school softball and baseball games at Sweatt Manion Fields. The fields have been measured and fit regulation play, he said.
STUDENTS took home the trophy at the Burlington High School Scholars Bowl Monday. Coach Ruby Crawford said team captain Bret Hauser and members Mary Hauser, Valerie Weilert, Callum Taylor, Jeremy Setter, Matt Green and Sherry Scoville bested other schools at the invitational meet.
Expensive changes may be in store for the USD 258 football program said Superintendent Bob Heigele at Monday night’s USD 258 board meeting.
Students in the program have suffered four concussions this season, Heigele said.
Helmet technology is progressing to protect against such head injuries, but such helmets run $300 each, he noted.
Heigele said, “$300 used to buy a full set of equipment for a kid. It’s going to be a pretty good tab if you have to buy 40 helmets at $300 apiece.”
Still, parents have inquired after the new helmets, he said.
Heigele is inquiring of the Humboldt Parks and Recreation department about playing school softball and baseball games at Sweatt Manion Fields. The fields have been measured and fit regulation play, he said.
STUDENTS took home the trophy at the Burlington High School Scholars Bowl Monday. Coach Ruby Crawford said team captain Bret Hauser and members Mary Hauser, Valerie Weilert, Callum Taylor, Jeremy Setter, Matt Green and Sherry Scoville bested other schools at the invitational meet.
Couple recovering from fire's loss
By ANNE KAZMIERCZAK Register Reporter
LAHARPE — As crocuses begin to bloom and daffodils rise from recently frozen ground, one LaHarpe couple, too, is awakening from a dark state.
Robert McClanahan and Tawnya Roloff lost their small three bedroom house to a fire in early fall.
Now, they have trays of flower seeds waiting to be planted on their new, four acre plot just a block away from their former residence in south LaHarpe.
“Right now my niece has a horse out there,” McClanahan said. “She and her mom come over twice a day to take care of it.” The couple’s fully fenced pasture allows 7 year old Kahlan Roloff to keep her Christmas filly, Paloma, near home.
Behind the pasture, a small pond is chirping with spring peepers. A side yard is already fenced for a garden, the couple said. They’re just waiting for weather to stabilize before they plant.
SEVEN months ago, the duo found themselves awakened in the night by thick black smoke engulfing their small home.
A double layer of Sheetrock kept a fire, started where wiring was bad, from reaching the couple’s bedroom.
Due to the fire, they lost one of their cats, and McClanahan lost all his tools. He had been in the midst of a remodel when the house was gutted.
A video game system, moved to Roloff’s parents’ house to keep construction dust out of the machine, is “about the only thing that came through the fire,” Roloff said.
Though the couple received some help from the Red Cross, Roloff noted she still could use work clothes.
“I wear a 26-28 woman’s,” she said, adding it has been hard for her to find anything other than sweatpants or T-shirts on her very limited budget.
“It’s hard to go to job interviews without appropriate clothes,” she said. She would be happy with doantions of used clothing.
“Ever since the fire everything has gotten real bad,” she said. “I have arthritis in my spine,” and the stress seems to have worsened it, she added.
McClanahan is optimistic, though.
“Her parents helped us out a lot,” he said of assistance they received from Tim and Carol Roloff. “We couldn’t have done it without them.”
The couple stayed with her parents until they found another house to purchase, this one a two bedroom trailer.
Roloff had known the former owner, who made them an offer she couldn’t refuse, she said.
Insurance money paid off the remainder of their former property, plus allowed purchase of the trailer.
Although it needs work, — “there are soft spots in every floor,” McClanahan noted — the couple was moved in by Halloween, and held a big family gathering to thank everyone.
Family still visits frequently.
“We have a lot of company,” McClanahan said. “We could use a bigger couch.”
All the couple’s furniture is second-hand, they said.
But the new trailer is cozy. Tapestries and paintings hang upon the walls. Roloff sits in a big, over-stuffed arm chair.
McClanahan hopes to pick up gardening and yard work now that his father-in-law gifted him with his older riding mower and pull-behind tiller. Foxglove, hollyhock and lupine seeds await planting. And their shy cat, Screech, has a small sun porch to retreat to when visitors arrive.
The couple never considered leaving LaHarpe, Roloff said.
“I grew up in this community. My grandfather was a judge here. Everybody knew my grandfather,” the late Clifford Warren Baysinger, she said.
And, McClanahan added, “We know the neighbors. We wouldn’t want to leave them.”
LAHARPE — As crocuses begin to bloom and daffodils rise from recently frozen ground, one LaHarpe couple, too, is awakening from a dark state.
Robert McClanahan and Tawnya Roloff lost their small three bedroom house to a fire in early fall.
Now, they have trays of flower seeds waiting to be planted on their new, four acre plot just a block away from their former residence in south LaHarpe.
“Right now my niece has a horse out there,” McClanahan said. “She and her mom come over twice a day to take care of it.” The couple’s fully fenced pasture allows 7 year old Kahlan Roloff to keep her Christmas filly, Paloma, near home.
Behind the pasture, a small pond is chirping with spring peepers. A side yard is already fenced for a garden, the couple said. They’re just waiting for weather to stabilize before they plant.
SEVEN months ago, the duo found themselves awakened in the night by thick black smoke engulfing their small home.
A double layer of Sheetrock kept a fire, started where wiring was bad, from reaching the couple’s bedroom.
Due to the fire, they lost one of their cats, and McClanahan lost all his tools. He had been in the midst of a remodel when the house was gutted.
A video game system, moved to Roloff’s parents’ house to keep construction dust out of the machine, is “about the only thing that came through the fire,” Roloff said.
Though the couple received some help from the Red Cross, Roloff noted she still could use work clothes.
“I wear a 26-28 woman’s,” she said, adding it has been hard for her to find anything other than sweatpants or T-shirts on her very limited budget.
“It’s hard to go to job interviews without appropriate clothes,” she said. She would be happy with doantions of used clothing.
“Ever since the fire everything has gotten real bad,” she said. “I have arthritis in my spine,” and the stress seems to have worsened it, she added.
McClanahan is optimistic, though.
“Her parents helped us out a lot,” he said of assistance they received from Tim and Carol Roloff. “We couldn’t have done it without them.”
The couple stayed with her parents until they found another house to purchase, this one a two bedroom trailer.
Roloff had known the former owner, who made them an offer she couldn’t refuse, she said.
Insurance money paid off the remainder of their former property, plus allowed purchase of the trailer.
Although it needs work, — “there are soft spots in every floor,” McClanahan noted — the couple was moved in by Halloween, and held a big family gathering to thank everyone.
Family still visits frequently.
“We have a lot of company,” McClanahan said. “We could use a bigger couch.”
All the couple’s furniture is second-hand, they said.
But the new trailer is cozy. Tapestries and paintings hang upon the walls. Roloff sits in a big, over-stuffed arm chair.
McClanahan hopes to pick up gardening and yard work now that his father-in-law gifted him with his older riding mower and pull-behind tiller. Foxglove, hollyhock and lupine seeds await planting. And their shy cat, Screech, has a small sun porch to retreat to when visitors arrive.
The couple never considered leaving LaHarpe, Roloff said.
“I grew up in this community. My grandfather was a judge here. Everybody knew my grandfather,” the late Clifford Warren Baysinger, she said.
And, McClanahan added, “We know the neighbors. We wouldn’t want to leave them.”
Wine tasting Saturday
Iolans will have a rare chance to taste $20 per pound cheeses, wines and fine chocolates this Saturday at the third annual Hope Unlimited fundraiser, “Tour of Tastes.”
Tickets for the 7 p.m. tasting and silent auction are $18 per person or $30 per couple, available from Hope Unlimited at 8 N. Washington St. in Iola, or by calling 365-6040. Those who purchase tickets by Friday receive a complementary wine glass, said Hope’s Executive Director Dorothy Sparks.
“This is a fun fundraiser for Hope Unlimited,” Sparks said. “It’s not just asking for money — you get something, too.”
Sparks said four to five red and an equal number of white wines will be sampled, along with different chocolates and a champagne cocktail.
The wines will be served with cheeses unlike those found on local supermarket shelves.
“We have a goat cheese with honey and a cheese with wild rice in it,” she said. The exotic cheeses are priced out-of-range for most Iolans, making the night that much more special.
“People can come and support us and get to try something you wouldn’t otherwise get to try in Iola,” Sparks noted.
In addition to the tasty tidbits, the evening features a silent auction that includes cookbooks signed by Food Network chefs and gift certificates to area merchants. “There’s a lot of unique and different things,” Sparks said.
SPARKS said the tasting’s connection with the Food Network happened by chance.
“We didn’t know any better the first year,” she said. “We called Paula Deen’s restaurant directly.”
Since then, Sparks said, a rapport has grown between Hope Unlimited and the celebrity chef who, Sparks said, has experienced domestic violence herself, the subject that Hope Unlimited tackles each day for local residents of Southeast Kansas.
“Hopefully, she’ll come speak one day,” Sparks said.
Until then, Iolans can enjoy a taste of luxury at the fundraiser at the American Legion, 712 W. Patterson. Tickets can be purchased at Hope Unlimited’s office from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. through Friday.
Tickets for the 7 p.m. tasting and silent auction are $18 per person or $30 per couple, available from Hope Unlimited at 8 N. Washington St. in Iola, or by calling 365-6040. Those who purchase tickets by Friday receive a complementary wine glass, said Hope’s Executive Director Dorothy Sparks.
“This is a fun fundraiser for Hope Unlimited,” Sparks said. “It’s not just asking for money — you get something, too.”
Sparks said four to five red and an equal number of white wines will be sampled, along with different chocolates and a champagne cocktail.
The wines will be served with cheeses unlike those found on local supermarket shelves.
“We have a goat cheese with honey and a cheese with wild rice in it,” she said. The exotic cheeses are priced out-of-range for most Iolans, making the night that much more special.
“People can come and support us and get to try something you wouldn’t otherwise get to try in Iola,” Sparks noted.
In addition to the tasty tidbits, the evening features a silent auction that includes cookbooks signed by Food Network chefs and gift certificates to area merchants. “There’s a lot of unique and different things,” Sparks said.
SPARKS said the tasting’s connection with the Food Network happened by chance.
“We didn’t know any better the first year,” she said. “We called Paula Deen’s restaurant directly.”
Since then, Sparks said, a rapport has grown between Hope Unlimited and the celebrity chef who, Sparks said, has experienced domestic violence herself, the subject that Hope Unlimited tackles each day for local residents of Southeast Kansas.
“Hopefully, she’ll come speak one day,” Sparks said.
Until then, Iolans can enjoy a taste of luxury at the fundraiser at the American Legion, 712 W. Patterson. Tickets can be purchased at Hope Unlimited’s office from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. through Friday.
A new heart for living
MORAN — On Saturday, not quite two weeks after receiving a heart transplant at St. Luke’s hospital in Kansas City, Moran native Kayla Norman was out doing what any other healthy 21-year-old would be: enjoying Moran Day festivities with her family.
The remarkable recovery reflects the way Norman feels after the procedure: “I feel better than I have for the past two years,” Norman said.
Heart disease is isn’t unheard of in Norman’s family — her mom, Leslie Norman, died in 2004 of congestive heart failure at age 38; and her maternal grandfather had died of the same thing when her mother was in high school, Norman said.
But Norman had appeared healthy all throughout her youth, to the point of being active in sports while at Marmaton Valley High School.
Trouble started in June 2007, about a month after graduation from MVHS.
“I started fainting,” Norman said, for no apparent reason. Her heart was racing, “but by the time we got to the hospital, it would be done throwing its fits.”
After a number of such occurrences, Norman “spent a week at the heart hospital and they mapped her heart,” her dad, Darin Norman, said.
“It was an arrhythmia,” he said of the final diagnosis, which called for placement of a heart defibrillator to even out the electrical impulses in Kayla’s heart.
Before the device was implanted, Kayla’s heart “would beat at 200 beats per minute on one side, and normally on the other,” Darin said.
Kayla said she “felt fine” after the regulating device was implanted in April of 2008, then in May of this year, “I got sick.”
“She couldn’t keep food down,” Darin said. This went on for a couple months.
Kayla, a nursing student at Emporia State University, thought it was stomach flu. Her dad felt it was something else.
“I made her go to the doctor. I took a day off work” from his job at Gates Rubber in Iola, Darin said, “to take her.”
In mid-July, Newman Regional Health in Emporia ran tests on Kayla’s heart function.
While home in Emporia awaiting the results, “I had a stroke,” Kayla stated matter-of-factly,
“Her friends rushed her to the hospital,” Darin said. He hurried back.
When he got the hospital, Darin said, “she looked fine.”
“Within an hour and a half of the stroke, I was functioning better,” Kayla noted.
But after the hospital ran a CT scan and examined the results of the previous tests, an echocardiogram, the family learned that Kayla’s heart was functioning at only 10 percent of normal capacity.
Kayla was immediately referred to Saint Luke’s Mid America Heart and Vascular Institute in Kansas City, Mo., as a candidate for heart transplant.
After eight days of tests — “they have to evaluate every system in your body,” Kayla noted — she was sent home on intravenous medication. On Aug. 31, Kayla and Darin went back to Kansas City for a listing meeting, where the doctors determine placement on a waiting list for when donor organs become available.
“We were told we could be called tomorrow or in six months,” Kayla said. “One family we met had been waiting for 970 days,” Darin noted.
So they were a bit surprised when less than a week later, the call came about an available heart.
Family members quickly converged — Kayla’s aunt and uncle Angela and Brent Thummel of Derby; and her dad, roused from sleep — at her sister, Brooke Norman’s house in Olathe before heading to St. Luke’s.
The hospital, Darin said, “wants you to have a lot of family structure and support. That helps” in recovery.
At the hospital, Kayla was asked to write a letter, not too personal, to be given to the donor family “when they’re ready to read it,” she said.
No personal information about the heart’s origin was given to the Normans, except that it cane from someone under the age of 35, Darin said, noting “They don’t like to put hearths from older people into younger patients.”
Surgery was expected to take four to five hours. After 1 1/2 hours, the doctors came out and told Kayla’s family she was done.
Her surgeon, Dr. Michael Borkon, “is really picky about what kind of scar he leaves on younger people,” Darin said. As a result, there is only a slight line where Kayla’s sternum had to be split to allow the procedure.
“I’m healing nicely,” she said. “They say I will be back 150 percent.” Still, Kayla must take 30 pills a day — antirejection drugs she will need to take for the rest of her life.
“It’s worth it,” she said. “It’s a small price to pay for a new heart.”
In addition, she must limit her exposure to large crowds — ”I have to wear a mask when I go out” — and must take the year off school.
“I’m in the nursing program and I can’t lift anything or be around sick people,” she said. With only practicals left in her schooling, time off was the only option.
“A simple cold could be fatal to her,” Darin noted of the sensitivity of her immune system as her body adapts to the new organ.
So, for a year, Kayla is living with her aunt, uncle and their family in Derby. She returns weekly to St. Luke’s for biopsies of the heart tissue.
Those will taper down as time passes and the heart is not rejected, she said, eventually becoming yearly blood draws.
“This whole thing has been harder on my family than it has on me,” Kayla said.
In additon, she noted, “I would like to (meet the donor family) some day,” Kayla noted. “A letter can only say so much. You’d like to thank them in person for somethiing like this.”
Already, though, she is making use of her new experience to help others.
While still at the hospital, Kayla met with a 19-year-old athlete from Chanute, Jeremy Gant, who was being evaluated for placement on the transplant list.
Her dad said he thought it might help if Gant saw that someone his own age had undergone the same thing, and came out okay.
“I’m very lucky,” she said. “I’m ready to get back to life.”
The remarkable recovery reflects the way Norman feels after the procedure: “I feel better than I have for the past two years,” Norman said.
Heart disease is isn’t unheard of in Norman’s family — her mom, Leslie Norman, died in 2004 of congestive heart failure at age 38; and her maternal grandfather had died of the same thing when her mother was in high school, Norman said.
But Norman had appeared healthy all throughout her youth, to the point of being active in sports while at Marmaton Valley High School.
Trouble started in June 2007, about a month after graduation from MVHS.
“I started fainting,” Norman said, for no apparent reason. Her heart was racing, “but by the time we got to the hospital, it would be done throwing its fits.”
After a number of such occurrences, Norman “spent a week at the heart hospital and they mapped her heart,” her dad, Darin Norman, said.
“It was an arrhythmia,” he said of the final diagnosis, which called for placement of a heart defibrillator to even out the electrical impulses in Kayla’s heart.
Before the device was implanted, Kayla’s heart “would beat at 200 beats per minute on one side, and normally on the other,” Darin said.
Kayla said she “felt fine” after the regulating device was implanted in April of 2008, then in May of this year, “I got sick.”
“She couldn’t keep food down,” Darin said. This went on for a couple months.
Kayla, a nursing student at Emporia State University, thought it was stomach flu. Her dad felt it was something else.
“I made her go to the doctor. I took a day off work” from his job at Gates Rubber in Iola, Darin said, “to take her.”
In mid-July, Newman Regional Health in Emporia ran tests on Kayla’s heart function.
While home in Emporia awaiting the results, “I had a stroke,” Kayla stated matter-of-factly,
“Her friends rushed her to the hospital,” Darin said. He hurried back.
When he got the hospital, Darin said, “she looked fine.”
“Within an hour and a half of the stroke, I was functioning better,” Kayla noted.
But after the hospital ran a CT scan and examined the results of the previous tests, an echocardiogram, the family learned that Kayla’s heart was functioning at only 10 percent of normal capacity.
Kayla was immediately referred to Saint Luke’s Mid America Heart and Vascular Institute in Kansas City, Mo., as a candidate for heart transplant.
After eight days of tests — “they have to evaluate every system in your body,” Kayla noted — she was sent home on intravenous medication. On Aug. 31, Kayla and Darin went back to Kansas City for a listing meeting, where the doctors determine placement on a waiting list for when donor organs become available.
“We were told we could be called tomorrow or in six months,” Kayla said. “One family we met had been waiting for 970 days,” Darin noted.
So they were a bit surprised when less than a week later, the call came about an available heart.
Family members quickly converged — Kayla’s aunt and uncle Angela and Brent Thummel of Derby; and her dad, roused from sleep — at her sister, Brooke Norman’s house in Olathe before heading to St. Luke’s.
The hospital, Darin said, “wants you to have a lot of family structure and support. That helps” in recovery.
At the hospital, Kayla was asked to write a letter, not too personal, to be given to the donor family “when they’re ready to read it,” she said.
No personal information about the heart’s origin was given to the Normans, except that it cane from someone under the age of 35, Darin said, noting “They don’t like to put hearths from older people into younger patients.”
Surgery was expected to take four to five hours. After 1 1/2 hours, the doctors came out and told Kayla’s family she was done.
Her surgeon, Dr. Michael Borkon, “is really picky about what kind of scar he leaves on younger people,” Darin said. As a result, there is only a slight line where Kayla’s sternum had to be split to allow the procedure.
“I’m healing nicely,” she said. “They say I will be back 150 percent.” Still, Kayla must take 30 pills a day — antirejection drugs she will need to take for the rest of her life.
“It’s worth it,” she said. “It’s a small price to pay for a new heart.”
In addition, she must limit her exposure to large crowds — ”I have to wear a mask when I go out” — and must take the year off school.
“I’m in the nursing program and I can’t lift anything or be around sick people,” she said. With only practicals left in her schooling, time off was the only option.
“A simple cold could be fatal to her,” Darin noted of the sensitivity of her immune system as her body adapts to the new organ.
So, for a year, Kayla is living with her aunt, uncle and their family in Derby. She returns weekly to St. Luke’s for biopsies of the heart tissue.
Those will taper down as time passes and the heart is not rejected, she said, eventually becoming yearly blood draws.
“This whole thing has been harder on my family than it has on me,” Kayla said.
In additon, she noted, “I would like to (meet the donor family) some day,” Kayla noted. “A letter can only say so much. You’d like to thank them in person for somethiing like this.”
Already, though, she is making use of her new experience to help others.
While still at the hospital, Kayla met with a 19-year-old athlete from Chanute, Jeremy Gant, who was being evaluated for placement on the transplant list.
Her dad said he thought it might help if Gant saw that someone his own age had undergone the same thing, and came out okay.
“I’m very lucky,” she said. “I’m ready to get back to life.”
Spreading the laughter
By ANNE KAZMIERCZAK
Register Reporter
one 4 col. pic
“Silent films were never really silent,” Buster Keaton aficionado Martha Jett told school children in Iola Thursday.
“There was always music” that expressed the emotion of the film.
Jett, in town for the annual Buster Keaton Celebration, gave presentations at the three Iola elementary schools about the nature of silent film, props and silent comedy methods.
“When you kids go out for Halloween, you dress up in props,” she explained, placing a classic Groucho Marx nose and eye glasses on Hayden Hillbrandt at McKinley Elementary Thursday morning.
Jett displayed props popular with Charlie Chaplin — a set of forks and some dinner rolls. She then showed a film clip of Chaplin making the rolls dance across a table using the forks as legs.
Props and slapstick antics can make “a silent film funny without using any words,” she told the kids.
Introducing children to Keaton’s — and other silent comics’ — work is something of a quest for Jett, who together with children’s book illustrator Marlene Abadi composed a booklet on Keaton distributed to young readers in Muskegon, Mich. The town, where Keaton’s father, Joe, had formed an artists and actor’s colony in 1908, hosts a Buster Keaton film festival every fall.
Jett claimed no knowledge of Keaton before 1995.
That year, “the centennial year of his birth,” Jett saw her first silent film, “Seven Chances” on cable television station AMC. The station was showing a Keaton marathon in honor of the anniversary, she said.
Watching the silent star and his stunts, Jett said, “I was blown away by his talent and his ability to tell a story without words. I just wanted to learn more about him.”
She devoted her spare time to her new hobby.
“This is my second life,” she said. (In her first, she is a buyer at West Virginia United Health Systems.)
“I didn’t realize how beautiful silent film could be,” Jett said. “I’d always thought it was just Keystone Cop stuff.”
Keaton, though, “was doing all this stunt work — nothing was faked,” Jett said. “Watching him, my jaw just dropped.”
Jett has since learned how silent film influenced society.
“Back in the days when they showed these films in theaters, there were a lot of illiterate people,” she said. Theaters hired actors to read the title cards — the written frames in a silent film — during the showing of such movies, Jett noted.
“Many people learned how to read by reading the title cards along with the speaker,” she noted. Some European immigrants learned English by following along the same way, she said.
These days, Jett said, children can learn about humor through the films.
JETT ended her presentation with a showing of “The Scarecrow,” a Keaton/Joe Roberts film that exemplifies the use of props.
In the film, Keaton and Roberts are roommates who have devised any manner of contraptions to make housework easier — from a table top with permanently secured dinner plates that can be hosed off, to a wash tub that automatically tips outdoors into a duck pond.
Other props include a pie-eating dog, a pile of hay and copious use of string.
Without words, the children got the jokes.
For adults, Jett presents “The Great Dane — the Life and Career of Karl Dane” Saturday at 11:10 a.m. at the Bowlus Fine Arts Canter.
To the children, she said, “There’s showings of more silent films Friday and Saturday night. Have your parents bring you; they’re free.”
Register Reporter
one 4 col. pic
“Silent films were never really silent,” Buster Keaton aficionado Martha Jett told school children in Iola Thursday.
“There was always music” that expressed the emotion of the film.
Jett, in town for the annual Buster Keaton Celebration, gave presentations at the three Iola elementary schools about the nature of silent film, props and silent comedy methods.
“When you kids go out for Halloween, you dress up in props,” she explained, placing a classic Groucho Marx nose and eye glasses on Hayden Hillbrandt at McKinley Elementary Thursday morning.
Jett displayed props popular with Charlie Chaplin — a set of forks and some dinner rolls. She then showed a film clip of Chaplin making the rolls dance across a table using the forks as legs.
Props and slapstick antics can make “a silent film funny without using any words,” she told the kids.
Introducing children to Keaton’s — and other silent comics’ — work is something of a quest for Jett, who together with children’s book illustrator Marlene Abadi composed a booklet on Keaton distributed to young readers in Muskegon, Mich. The town, where Keaton’s father, Joe, had formed an artists and actor’s colony in 1908, hosts a Buster Keaton film festival every fall.
Jett claimed no knowledge of Keaton before 1995.
That year, “the centennial year of his birth,” Jett saw her first silent film, “Seven Chances” on cable television station AMC. The station was showing a Keaton marathon in honor of the anniversary, she said.
Watching the silent star and his stunts, Jett said, “I was blown away by his talent and his ability to tell a story without words. I just wanted to learn more about him.”
She devoted her spare time to her new hobby.
“This is my second life,” she said. (In her first, she is a buyer at West Virginia United Health Systems.)
“I didn’t realize how beautiful silent film could be,” Jett said. “I’d always thought it was just Keystone Cop stuff.”
Keaton, though, “was doing all this stunt work — nothing was faked,” Jett said. “Watching him, my jaw just dropped.”
Jett has since learned how silent film influenced society.
“Back in the days when they showed these films in theaters, there were a lot of illiterate people,” she said. Theaters hired actors to read the title cards — the written frames in a silent film — during the showing of such movies, Jett noted.
“Many people learned how to read by reading the title cards along with the speaker,” she noted. Some European immigrants learned English by following along the same way, she said.
These days, Jett said, children can learn about humor through the films.
JETT ended her presentation with a showing of “The Scarecrow,” a Keaton/Joe Roberts film that exemplifies the use of props.
In the film, Keaton and Roberts are roommates who have devised any manner of contraptions to make housework easier — from a table top with permanently secured dinner plates that can be hosed off, to a wash tub that automatically tips outdoors into a duck pond.
Other props include a pie-eating dog, a pile of hay and copious use of string.
Without words, the children got the jokes.
For adults, Jett presents “The Great Dane — the Life and Career of Karl Dane” Saturday at 11:10 a.m. at the Bowlus Fine Arts Canter.
To the children, she said, “There’s showings of more silent films Friday and Saturday night. Have your parents bring you; they’re free.”
Teacher hopes to strike 'Gold' with new book
By ANNE KAZMIERCZAK
Register Reporter
one pic
Iola middle and high school photography teacher Donna Regehr is known to have an eye for the creative. But she also has an ear, and put pen to paper to prove it in publishing a new suspense romance novel, “Desert Gold, the Legend of Chinook.”
“I’ve wanted to do this for 35 years,” Regehr said of publishing a book.
“I’ve written other stories before,” Regehr said, but for one reason or another, she never pursued having them published. This summer, cruising online, Regehr found Eloquent Books, an on demand publisher that is promoting her work through amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com.
“It’s already sold some,” she said.
Regehr, whose classroom boasts a bounty of photographs of far-off places, set her tale in her own frequent haunts.
“I have gone to Colorado a million times,” Regehr said of the landscape of the book. “I’ve climbed Gray Rock Mountain, where Natty finds the statue.”
In Regehr’s book, a college senior finds a small statuette tucked in the nook of a tree on a mountain trial.
Intrigued, the girl takes the trinket with her, but gets the uneasy feeling she is being watched.
Turns out, she is.
The statue, of pure gold, was stolen from a tribe Regehr calls Cotiquette. The thief was about to retrieve it when protagonist Natty Darrow stumbled upon it.
REGEHR based her tale on impressions gleaned from her travels in the American Southwest. Tribal groups of the region are known to create small icons used for ritual purposes.
However, she said, “The legend is about a group of Indians that are completely nonexistent.”
To combat those who might find fault with her imagery, she purposely invented a tribal group, rather than base her story on one that exists. “I didn’t want to get involved in any group’s belief system,” she said.
To make the story better fit the landscape, Regehr added “tribal lore” to her tale.
The Cotiquette, she said, had an elaborate engagement ritual that young couples must follow in order to wed.
The statuette, she said, “represents Chinook, a legendary tribal hunter.”
It is said that the statue would have gone to Chinook’s bride upon their marriage. Instead, etiquette was breached, and the young couple was banished. Since then, the statuette has served as a reminder of following proper custom.
Of course, Darrow doesn’t know this. She takes the figurine to a local college where she meets the thief, posing as a new professor.
Unnerved by the man, Darrow joins friend at a local club where she “meets a handsome Indian fellow. That’s where the romance comes in,” Regehr said.
The story is a “light romance,” Regehr said. “There’s nothing sweaty about it,” unlike many modern romance novels.
“After all,” Regehr quipped, “I’m a school teacher.”
Regehr said she wrote the book because she loves to read — “It’s one of my favorite things to do,” she said.
“The funny thing is,” Regehr added, “I don’t read a lot of romances.”
But she does like fantasies, so, she said, “I put a lot of fantasy into this book.”
Her next book, which she has already begun, delves more into that realm.
“The antagonist in the story is something intangible,” she said. The story is “less romance and more suspense.”
And, she said, the scenery is unearthly. “The shadows are on the wrong side of the light, that sort of thing.”
Regehr said she will probably follow the same route in publishing the new story.
For now, she is hoping to expand readership of “Desert Gold.”
“I’m going to have the librarian at the middle school look at it and see what she thinks,” Regehr noted. And, she said, “The principal at the high school, David Grover, told me he is going to order two copies for their library. I’m really excited about that.”
Register Reporter
one pic
Iola middle and high school photography teacher Donna Regehr is known to have an eye for the creative. But she also has an ear, and put pen to paper to prove it in publishing a new suspense romance novel, “Desert Gold, the Legend of Chinook.”
“I’ve wanted to do this for 35 years,” Regehr said of publishing a book.
“I’ve written other stories before,” Regehr said, but for one reason or another, she never pursued having them published. This summer, cruising online, Regehr found Eloquent Books, an on demand publisher that is promoting her work through amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com.
“It’s already sold some,” she said.
Regehr, whose classroom boasts a bounty of photographs of far-off places, set her tale in her own frequent haunts.
“I have gone to Colorado a million times,” Regehr said of the landscape of the book. “I’ve climbed Gray Rock Mountain, where Natty finds the statue.”
In Regehr’s book, a college senior finds a small statuette tucked in the nook of a tree on a mountain trial.
Intrigued, the girl takes the trinket with her, but gets the uneasy feeling she is being watched.
Turns out, she is.
The statue, of pure gold, was stolen from a tribe Regehr calls Cotiquette. The thief was about to retrieve it when protagonist Natty Darrow stumbled upon it.
REGEHR based her tale on impressions gleaned from her travels in the American Southwest. Tribal groups of the region are known to create small icons used for ritual purposes.
However, she said, “The legend is about a group of Indians that are completely nonexistent.”
To combat those who might find fault with her imagery, she purposely invented a tribal group, rather than base her story on one that exists. “I didn’t want to get involved in any group’s belief system,” she said.
To make the story better fit the landscape, Regehr added “tribal lore” to her tale.
The Cotiquette, she said, had an elaborate engagement ritual that young couples must follow in order to wed.
The statuette, she said, “represents Chinook, a legendary tribal hunter.”
It is said that the statue would have gone to Chinook’s bride upon their marriage. Instead, etiquette was breached, and the young couple was banished. Since then, the statuette has served as a reminder of following proper custom.
Of course, Darrow doesn’t know this. She takes the figurine to a local college where she meets the thief, posing as a new professor.
Unnerved by the man, Darrow joins friend at a local club where she “meets a handsome Indian fellow. That’s where the romance comes in,” Regehr said.
The story is a “light romance,” Regehr said. “There’s nothing sweaty about it,” unlike many modern romance novels.
“After all,” Regehr quipped, “I’m a school teacher.”
Regehr said she wrote the book because she loves to read — “It’s one of my favorite things to do,” she said.
“The funny thing is,” Regehr added, “I don’t read a lot of romances.”
But she does like fantasies, so, she said, “I put a lot of fantasy into this book.”
Her next book, which she has already begun, delves more into that realm.
“The antagonist in the story is something intangible,” she said. The story is “less romance and more suspense.”
And, she said, the scenery is unearthly. “The shadows are on the wrong side of the light, that sort of thing.”
Regehr said she will probably follow the same route in publishing the new story.
For now, she is hoping to expand readership of “Desert Gold.”
“I’m going to have the librarian at the middle school look at it and see what she thinks,” Regehr noted. And, she said, “The principal at the high school, David Grover, told me he is going to order two copies for their library. I’m really excited about that.”
Heavy story fills book for youths
By ANNE KAZMIERCZAK
Register Reporter
Writers are always told to “write what you know.” Laura Manivong decided to write what she married.
After all, she knows her husband, Anousone “Troy” Manivong well. It is his story, fictionalized and written for young readers, that Manivong tells in “Escaping the Tiger.”
The tale chronicles the escape of a Laotian family into neighboring Thailand in the early 1980’s. Laos, at that time, had been under the control of communists since the end of the Vietnam War in 1975.
The main character, Vonlai, was a young boy when his country’s government was altered. “Life under communist control was all he remembered,” Manivong states.
Across the broad Mekong River, though, Laotian youths watched as Thai citizens “went about their business freely.” Laotians trying to cross the river were shot dead by communist guards.
One dark night, Vonlai’s family attempts to escape by crossing the Mekong in a leaky canoe.
In Thailand, instead of being free, the family is relegated to life in a squalid refugee camp.
For Vonlai and his family, life was shattered from normalcy to constant strain.
Trapped in the camp, his family knew hunger, crowding and privation.
Born of necessity, a closeness springs between Vonlai and his teenaged sister. They must rely on one another to stay safe in an environment that hints of evil behind every dirty latrine or dark corner of camp, and danger that comes at the hands of camp guards.
Vonlai, 12, meets other youths in the camp who share his love of playing soccer. Through the game, they try to regain some sense of self.
At the camp school, Vonlai learns English and about American culture. His sister, at 14, is too old for school, and spends days attending their mother in the tiny room the family calls home.
The boy even befriends an elderly man in camp, who, in telling tales of the war that tore their country, reminds them that “History doesn’t change just because we fear the truth.”
Vonlai most mourns the loss of his parents’ humor. At one point, though, his father tells him to retain his memories of better times.
“They can’t burn what’s in your mind, Vonlai,” his Pah tells him. “You can’t let them steal your hope.”
Through four long years in camp, Vonlai’s only hope is in dreams of the place called America, a place so strange that buildings touch the sky and there is even special food just for dogs.
Though the details of “Escaping the Tiger” are specific to Thailand and Laos, the refugees’ situation is replicated daily across the globe as families seek better lives on every continent.
AS PART of the Iola Public Library’s Family Reading Festival at Allen County Community College, the author reads from her book at 10 a.m. in room A-24; she signs books at 11 in the library.
Register Reporter
Writers are always told to “write what you know.” Laura Manivong decided to write what she married.
After all, she knows her husband, Anousone “Troy” Manivong well. It is his story, fictionalized and written for young readers, that Manivong tells in “Escaping the Tiger.”
The tale chronicles the escape of a Laotian family into neighboring Thailand in the early 1980’s. Laos, at that time, had been under the control of communists since the end of the Vietnam War in 1975.
The main character, Vonlai, was a young boy when his country’s government was altered. “Life under communist control was all he remembered,” Manivong states.
Across the broad Mekong River, though, Laotian youths watched as Thai citizens “went about their business freely.” Laotians trying to cross the river were shot dead by communist guards.
One dark night, Vonlai’s family attempts to escape by crossing the Mekong in a leaky canoe.
In Thailand, instead of being free, the family is relegated to life in a squalid refugee camp.
For Vonlai and his family, life was shattered from normalcy to constant strain.
Trapped in the camp, his family knew hunger, crowding and privation.
Born of necessity, a closeness springs between Vonlai and his teenaged sister. They must rely on one another to stay safe in an environment that hints of evil behind every dirty latrine or dark corner of camp, and danger that comes at the hands of camp guards.
Vonlai, 12, meets other youths in the camp who share his love of playing soccer. Through the game, they try to regain some sense of self.
At the camp school, Vonlai learns English and about American culture. His sister, at 14, is too old for school, and spends days attending their mother in the tiny room the family calls home.
The boy even befriends an elderly man in camp, who, in telling tales of the war that tore their country, reminds them that “History doesn’t change just because we fear the truth.”
Vonlai most mourns the loss of his parents’ humor. At one point, though, his father tells him to retain his memories of better times.
“They can’t burn what’s in your mind, Vonlai,” his Pah tells him. “You can’t let them steal your hope.”
Through four long years in camp, Vonlai’s only hope is in dreams of the place called America, a place so strange that buildings touch the sky and there is even special food just for dogs.
Though the details of “Escaping the Tiger” are specific to Thailand and Laos, the refugees’ situation is replicated daily across the globe as families seek better lives on every continent.
AS PART of the Iola Public Library’s Family Reading Festival at Allen County Community College, the author reads from her book at 10 a.m. in room A-24; she signs books at 11 in the library.
BBBS survives year of change
By ANNE KAZMIERCZAK
Register Reporter
A year ago, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Allen and Neosho Counties was in a two-room office that had an additional store room and its own bath. Now, the agency, which matches adult “Bigs” with underage “Littles” needing positive adult attention in their lives, is in a one-room office that measures 8 by 13 feet, total.
Noted former director Jackie Smith of the change, “We are so thankful. It is so good.”
Good, because a year ago Monday, BBBS lost their office altogether.
On Sept. 27, 2009, fire gutted the office at 9 1/2 East Madison St. and left BBBS homeless.
Salon Nyne, downstairs, and adjacent businesses were also damaged by smoke, but none else were forced to abandon their premises.
The agency has been living on the graces of others since.
First, BBBS moved into the rear of Thrive Allen County’s office.
“They adopted us, and we were thankful for that, but they were growing and needed the room,” Smith said.
Next came a call form Jeff Gilmore of Chanute, who owned a small free-standing building adjacent to Ray’s Mini Mart.
The building was on the market and unoccupied, and Gilmore offered it to BBBS for a while.
A while ended this August when the building sold — which left BBBS without a location yet again.
Serendipity took hold when Smith went to the offices of Kay Jean Brown at Street Abstract Company at 210 South St.
“My husband and I were refinancing our house,” Smith said, “and had Street Abstract do the paperwork. I noticed the little office next door and asked Kay Jean what she was doing with it.”
The reply, “Nothing,” suited Smith just fine.
Smith negotiated an in-kind exchange of the space for tax purposes for Brown, she said. And she couldn’t be happier.
“Our money was about to run out,” she noted.
The nonprofit runs solely on donations and grant funds, she said.
Noticing the financial straits of the organization prompted Smith to give up her directorship, which she had held five years, in exchange for a contract position which saves the agency money.
Case Aide Mitzi Farran observed the irony of losing their larger office.
“Who would think of a fire being a blessing?” she asked.
Insurance funds of $8,000 provided the operating budget for the agency for the past year, Smith said.
“If we didn’t have the fire, we’d be out of business,” she said.
In seeking stability for the organization’s continuance, Smith secured a one-year grant that allowed hiring of Farran, of Humboldt, and new Case Aide Kim Lubbering, of Chanute.
The grant, Smith said, obligates the organization to come up with 15 new matches between Bigs and Littles in each of Neosho and Allen Counties. Neosho County was added to the Allen County office’s service area in July, 2009, Smith noted.
Thanks to the interest of the Neosho County Community College wrestling team, 19 boys will be matched with Bigs in Chanute.
In Allen County, 37 children — boys and girls — are waiting for matches, Smith said.
“We have more boys waiting than girls,” in Allen County “because seldom do we get a Big Brother” in the Iola area, Smith said.
“Women have a little more time on their hands,” she noted, so it is easier to match girls.
When matched with adults capable of taking children out into the community, the Big and Little must both be of the same gender, Smith said.
A school-day program, in which a Big meets with a Little for 35-45 minutes during the course of regular academic time, allows cross-gender matches.
That program, called “Bigs in Schools,” also lets high school students 16 and older volunteer as Bigs. The community-based program requires that Bigs be at least 17 years of age.
Family matches — where a child is matched with a couple or family group — are also an option, Smith said.
“We have 13 checks we do on the Bigs and a series on the Littles,” Smith said, to ensure all are qualified for BBBS services.
Bigs have their driving records, court records and backgrounds checked before they can work with youth.
Most of the children served are from single parent homes and live at or below poverty level, according to statistics provided by the BBBS office. Children are referred by teachers, counselors and parents, or sign up themselves (with parental approval) at events at county fairs, in schools and the like, noted Smith.
“If people knew how drastically it affects the child and how little time it takes,” more would certainly sign up as Bigs, observed Terry Downing, district program director for Southeast Kansas Big Brothers Big Sisters.
“Their self-esteem is raised,” he said of matched Littles. “They’ll be less likely to do drugs, and it really helps in school attendance.
“Just that little time in the life of the child where someone is caring and shows them some support,” Downing said, makes a lasting impact.
Downing noted that “A lot of the teachers report the kids come in the class in the morning excited that ‘This is the day I see my Big.’”
Many kids, Downing said, might not otherwise have a positive adult influence in their lives.
“It inspires confidence because somebody is there for them,” he said. “It’s not mentoring, it’s not tutoring. It’s all about relationship, not anything else.”
TO RAISE operating funds for the coming year, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Allen and Neosho Counties is sponsoring a “Fall For Kids” fun run on Oct. 16 during Farm City Days.
The route is similar to that of the Charley Melvin Mad Bomber Run For Your Life, Smith said. Individual and team runners are encouraged to sign up before run day in order to receive T-shirts the morning of the event.
“It’s so much fun the day of an event to have your T-shirts,” Smith noted.
Those who would like to see their name in print can donate $50 or more to BBBS and have their personal or business name printed on the back of the shirt, Smith added.
In addition, the agency could use donation of storage space for its materials. “Right now, storage is under the desks,” Farran noted.
And, most importantly, “We need Bigs,” Smith said.
Planned for the coming year is a joint venture with USD 257’s SAFE BASE after school program.
“On Wednesdays after early dismissal, we’ll have Bigs go to Lincoln Elementary School to meet with their Littles,” Smith said.
Those interested in helping out once a week for 45 minutes in the school, or more as a community-based Big, can contact Smith at 365-8712 or at P.O. Box 704, Iola KS 66749. Office hours vary, but people are welcome to stop in at 210 South Street when the door is open, she said.
Register Reporter
A year ago, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Allen and Neosho Counties was in a two-room office that had an additional store room and its own bath. Now, the agency, which matches adult “Bigs” with underage “Littles” needing positive adult attention in their lives, is in a one-room office that measures 8 by 13 feet, total.
Noted former director Jackie Smith of the change, “We are so thankful. It is so good.”
Good, because a year ago Monday, BBBS lost their office altogether.
On Sept. 27, 2009, fire gutted the office at 9 1/2 East Madison St. and left BBBS homeless.
Salon Nyne, downstairs, and adjacent businesses were also damaged by smoke, but none else were forced to abandon their premises.
The agency has been living on the graces of others since.
First, BBBS moved into the rear of Thrive Allen County’s office.
“They adopted us, and we were thankful for that, but they were growing and needed the room,” Smith said.
Next came a call form Jeff Gilmore of Chanute, who owned a small free-standing building adjacent to Ray’s Mini Mart.
The building was on the market and unoccupied, and Gilmore offered it to BBBS for a while.
A while ended this August when the building sold — which left BBBS without a location yet again.
Serendipity took hold when Smith went to the offices of Kay Jean Brown at Street Abstract Company at 210 South St.
“My husband and I were refinancing our house,” Smith said, “and had Street Abstract do the paperwork. I noticed the little office next door and asked Kay Jean what she was doing with it.”
The reply, “Nothing,” suited Smith just fine.
Smith negotiated an in-kind exchange of the space for tax purposes for Brown, she said. And she couldn’t be happier.
“Our money was about to run out,” she noted.
The nonprofit runs solely on donations and grant funds, she said.
Noticing the financial straits of the organization prompted Smith to give up her directorship, which she had held five years, in exchange for a contract position which saves the agency money.
Case Aide Mitzi Farran observed the irony of losing their larger office.
“Who would think of a fire being a blessing?” she asked.
Insurance funds of $8,000 provided the operating budget for the agency for the past year, Smith said.
“If we didn’t have the fire, we’d be out of business,” she said.
In seeking stability for the organization’s continuance, Smith secured a one-year grant that allowed hiring of Farran, of Humboldt, and new Case Aide Kim Lubbering, of Chanute.
The grant, Smith said, obligates the organization to come up with 15 new matches between Bigs and Littles in each of Neosho and Allen Counties. Neosho County was added to the Allen County office’s service area in July, 2009, Smith noted.
Thanks to the interest of the Neosho County Community College wrestling team, 19 boys will be matched with Bigs in Chanute.
In Allen County, 37 children — boys and girls — are waiting for matches, Smith said.
“We have more boys waiting than girls,” in Allen County “because seldom do we get a Big Brother” in the Iola area, Smith said.
“Women have a little more time on their hands,” she noted, so it is easier to match girls.
When matched with adults capable of taking children out into the community, the Big and Little must both be of the same gender, Smith said.
A school-day program, in which a Big meets with a Little for 35-45 minutes during the course of regular academic time, allows cross-gender matches.
That program, called “Bigs in Schools,” also lets high school students 16 and older volunteer as Bigs. The community-based program requires that Bigs be at least 17 years of age.
Family matches — where a child is matched with a couple or family group — are also an option, Smith said.
“We have 13 checks we do on the Bigs and a series on the Littles,” Smith said, to ensure all are qualified for BBBS services.
Bigs have their driving records, court records and backgrounds checked before they can work with youth.
Most of the children served are from single parent homes and live at or below poverty level, according to statistics provided by the BBBS office. Children are referred by teachers, counselors and parents, or sign up themselves (with parental approval) at events at county fairs, in schools and the like, noted Smith.
“If people knew how drastically it affects the child and how little time it takes,” more would certainly sign up as Bigs, observed Terry Downing, district program director for Southeast Kansas Big Brothers Big Sisters.
“Their self-esteem is raised,” he said of matched Littles. “They’ll be less likely to do drugs, and it really helps in school attendance.
“Just that little time in the life of the child where someone is caring and shows them some support,” Downing said, makes a lasting impact.
Downing noted that “A lot of the teachers report the kids come in the class in the morning excited that ‘This is the day I see my Big.’”
Many kids, Downing said, might not otherwise have a positive adult influence in their lives.
“It inspires confidence because somebody is there for them,” he said. “It’s not mentoring, it’s not tutoring. It’s all about relationship, not anything else.”
TO RAISE operating funds for the coming year, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Allen and Neosho Counties is sponsoring a “Fall For Kids” fun run on Oct. 16 during Farm City Days.
The route is similar to that of the Charley Melvin Mad Bomber Run For Your Life, Smith said. Individual and team runners are encouraged to sign up before run day in order to receive T-shirts the morning of the event.
“It’s so much fun the day of an event to have your T-shirts,” Smith noted.
Those who would like to see their name in print can donate $50 or more to BBBS and have their personal or business name printed on the back of the shirt, Smith added.
In addition, the agency could use donation of storage space for its materials. “Right now, storage is under the desks,” Farran noted.
And, most importantly, “We need Bigs,” Smith said.
Planned for the coming year is a joint venture with USD 257’s SAFE BASE after school program.
“On Wednesdays after early dismissal, we’ll have Bigs go to Lincoln Elementary School to meet with their Littles,” Smith said.
Those interested in helping out once a week for 45 minutes in the school, or more as a community-based Big, can contact Smith at 365-8712 or at P.O. Box 704, Iola KS 66749. Office hours vary, but people are welcome to stop in at 210 South Street when the door is open, she said.
Back to basics for First Baptist
Bucking what might be a national trend towards flashier or multi-media services, Iola’s First Baptist Church is staying traditional — and seeing growth because of it.
“When I came we were averaging 90 in worship” on Sundays, said Pastor Mike Quinn, who has been at the church about a year and a half. “In the past six months, we’ve averaged 120. I think we’re growing because we’re reaching out,” Quinn said.
The church has a focus group, “God Rewards Our Work,” that devotes Tuesday evenings to home visits, letter writing and phone calls to former members, visitors or those recommended by congregants.
The church also implemented a Southern Baptist Convention program, “God’s Plan of Sharing” during the Easter season, wherein each church goer was to spread the word of God through their daily lives.
In addition, Quinn said, “the first two Saturdays of March we walked through the community and we prayed at each house as we went by.”
Quinn said his group didn’t know the householders, but merely offered prayer for whatever needs those inside each dwelling might have. Then, “the next two Saturdays, we hung door hangers with a gospel presentation” — a Scripture verse, Quinn explained — and an invitation to church. About 1,000 hangers were left on doors around Iola, he said.
On Easter Sunday, almost 230 people attended services, Quinn said.
“We’ve made some contact,” he observed.
“Another thing we’ve tried to do is reach into the college,” Quinn noted. “We’re working with Campus Crusade for Christ ministry,” he said. Also, the church “started a new Sunday school class for college-age kids,” Quinn said. That meets at 9:30 a.m. at the church at 801 N. Cottonwood, along with its other classes broken into age groups including preschool, adult and senior citizen.
First Baptist does some promotion of the class on campus, Quinn said, and other outreach there such as a dinner on April 27.
“There wasn’t any pressure,” Quinn said of the meal. “They just came, had supper and had a good time.”
To capitalize on the interest, the church recently hired a youth pastor to work 20 hours a week.
“It’s really the 40 to 50 years olds that we’re shortest on,” Quinn’s wife, Becky, said.
Becky Quinn works as the church secretary and keeps track of attendance.
“We’re reaching all age groups,” though, she noted, with the greatest attendance in the 55-and-up range. Children and 18- to 34-year-olds also boast high attendance numbers. Youth in grades seven to 12 attend only slightly less.
That troubling middle-aged group is six to seven times smaller than the others, though, she said.
Neither of the Quinns could explain why, unless it had to do with commitment to family, they said.
“I don’t think churches should expect young families to be very involved in running the church” Becky Quinn said. At that age, she said, “Your children are your biggest ministry.”
MIKE QUINN entered the ministry in 1986. His family was never very religious, he said.
When “in 1983 I left to go to the seminary, I didn’t know the Bible or anything like that,” Quinn said.
It was a series of deaths that led Quinn away from — and back to — God.
Before his conversion, Quinn’s only experience with church came through a friend.
“His mom would take us to Vacation Bible School,” Quinn said. “But he was killed at 15 and I turned hard toward the things of God.”
Quinn’s father was not a man of God. Instead of church, the family would go fishing on Sundays.
He was hard-working, hard-drinking, Quinn said. “He was a big guy, rough and tough. I idolized my dad. Growing up, I wanted to be just like him.”
And so, more or less, Quinn was.
Quinn worked construction at the Callaway County Nuclear Power Plant in Missouri.
“We drank every day after work,” Quinn noted. Then, in the course of 1 1/2 years when Quinn was in his mid-20s, he lost four of his best friends.
“Two were shot and killed in a bar in Jefferson City, Mo., one drowned in a pond and one burned to death in a house fire,” Quinn said.
The loss was shaking.
“I looked around there wasn’t anybody left but me in that group.”
About that time, he said, “there was a pastor who moved into our community. He started visiting with me and I didn’t want anything to do with him.”
Quinn would hide in the closet, he said, and wait until his wife told him the man had gone.
“Just about every time something happened, he’d show up — and he didn’t know about it,” Quinn noted.
The coincidence got to be too much for Quinn.
“It caused me to think about death and if there is life after death, where would I end up? I knew I wasn’t right with God.”
Quinn spoke to the man.
“He shared how God forgives your sins and it didn’t matter what you’d done.”
Quinn believed.
“I didn’t see lightning or hear voices,” he said. But he was changed.
“The next night was Friday night and after work we stopped to get our liquor and I got a Pepsi,” Quinn noted.
His fellow workers made fun of him.
“They asked me what happened and I told them a preacher stopped by and I accepted Christ and that I didn’t think God wanted me to drink anymore — They said it would never stick.”
That was 1980. Quinn hasn’t had any alcohol since.
Shortly thereafter, Quinn said, his father threw him a birthday bash. He pressured Quinn to drink. Quinn went inside and told his wife to pray.
About six months later, his father, too, accepted Christ.
His son’s refusal to drink affected him, Quinn said. “He told me, ‘Whatever you’d gotten, I needed it.’”
QUINN’S CHURCH offers a Wednesday evening program, TeamKid, that pulls in children like he was, he said.
“We’ve got kids who come whose families are not members here.” Many don’t attend church at all, he said.
The program attracts students from kindergarten through grade 12, he said.
“I think for the most part (they attend) because it’s Christ-based,” he said of the program.
“Iola is more conservative” than Quinn’s home town between Jefferson City and Columbia, Mo., “but as a rule there’s a vast loss and spiritual darkness — not only here, but everywhere,” Quinn said. “I see that as a major concern as a pastor.”
Although church attendance surged post 9/11, Quinn doesn’t “think it lasted very long. Things just went back to where they were.”
Quinn believes the role of the pastor is “to get Christ to people. It’s the gospel that changes lives and transforms lives.”
To that end, he is exploring additional outreach opportunities.
“We’ve thought about doing a discipleship class on financial planning or parenting or marriage strengthening,” Becky said. Plans for a six-to-eight week Sunday evening program are tentative right now, she said, but in the works.
“I think typically across the board people are doing away with Sunday night services because people just don’t come back for them,” Mike said. A Sunday evening class would draw a different crowd, the Quinns believe.
“It’s just finding someone to lead who is capable of doing that,” she said.
As for the Wednesday night kids program, “We keep the youth group up all summer,” Mike said. And, “We have a gym; that’s a nice draw for the kids.”
Other venues of participation open at First Baptist are music worship teams, fellowship teams which plan monthly suppers, ministry teams that visit the sick, homebound and those in nursing homes, and an evangelism/mission team that deals with mission projects and spending of church funds, Quinn said. “The goal is to get everybody involved in some sort of ministry,” Quinn said.
As a pastor, Quinn listens to congregants, he said.
“They have ideas and I have ideas and we bounce them off each other. I believe if we do a few things and do them well, they please the Lord.”
Each day, Quinn spends about an hour studying the Bible, then does additional research for a total of 15 to 20 hours per week prep time for his Sunday sermon, he said.
“I look online to get illustrations” and use “books that inspire me or preach through a book of the bible,” Quinn said.
“The Bible talks about getting the whole council of God. That makes me deal with passages that are harder. I try to take it in its historical and grammatical context and how we can apply that to day — what’s it really saying — then and to us? And now that we’ve heard it, what are we going to do with it” Quinn asked.
Quinn said his greatest role is to facillitate the healing of families.
“It’s not what I do; it’s what He does,” Quinn said.
“When I came we were averaging 90 in worship” on Sundays, said Pastor Mike Quinn, who has been at the church about a year and a half. “In the past six months, we’ve averaged 120. I think we’re growing because we’re reaching out,” Quinn said.
The church has a focus group, “God Rewards Our Work,” that devotes Tuesday evenings to home visits, letter writing and phone calls to former members, visitors or those recommended by congregants.
The church also implemented a Southern Baptist Convention program, “God’s Plan of Sharing” during the Easter season, wherein each church goer was to spread the word of God through their daily lives.
In addition, Quinn said, “the first two Saturdays of March we walked through the community and we prayed at each house as we went by.”
Quinn said his group didn’t know the householders, but merely offered prayer for whatever needs those inside each dwelling might have. Then, “the next two Saturdays, we hung door hangers with a gospel presentation” — a Scripture verse, Quinn explained — and an invitation to church. About 1,000 hangers were left on doors around Iola, he said.
On Easter Sunday, almost 230 people attended services, Quinn said.
“We’ve made some contact,” he observed.
“Another thing we’ve tried to do is reach into the college,” Quinn noted. “We’re working with Campus Crusade for Christ ministry,” he said. Also, the church “started a new Sunday school class for college-age kids,” Quinn said. That meets at 9:30 a.m. at the church at 801 N. Cottonwood, along with its other classes broken into age groups including preschool, adult and senior citizen.
First Baptist does some promotion of the class on campus, Quinn said, and other outreach there such as a dinner on April 27.
“There wasn’t any pressure,” Quinn said of the meal. “They just came, had supper and had a good time.”
To capitalize on the interest, the church recently hired a youth pastor to work 20 hours a week.
“It’s really the 40 to 50 years olds that we’re shortest on,” Quinn’s wife, Becky, said.
Becky Quinn works as the church secretary and keeps track of attendance.
“We’re reaching all age groups,” though, she noted, with the greatest attendance in the 55-and-up range. Children and 18- to 34-year-olds also boast high attendance numbers. Youth in grades seven to 12 attend only slightly less.
That troubling middle-aged group is six to seven times smaller than the others, though, she said.
Neither of the Quinns could explain why, unless it had to do with commitment to family, they said.
“I don’t think churches should expect young families to be very involved in running the church” Becky Quinn said. At that age, she said, “Your children are your biggest ministry.”
MIKE QUINN entered the ministry in 1986. His family was never very religious, he said.
When “in 1983 I left to go to the seminary, I didn’t know the Bible or anything like that,” Quinn said.
It was a series of deaths that led Quinn away from — and back to — God.
Before his conversion, Quinn’s only experience with church came through a friend.
“His mom would take us to Vacation Bible School,” Quinn said. “But he was killed at 15 and I turned hard toward the things of God.”
Quinn’s father was not a man of God. Instead of church, the family would go fishing on Sundays.
He was hard-working, hard-drinking, Quinn said. “He was a big guy, rough and tough. I idolized my dad. Growing up, I wanted to be just like him.”
And so, more or less, Quinn was.
Quinn worked construction at the Callaway County Nuclear Power Plant in Missouri.
“We drank every day after work,” Quinn noted. Then, in the course of 1 1/2 years when Quinn was in his mid-20s, he lost four of his best friends.
“Two were shot and killed in a bar in Jefferson City, Mo., one drowned in a pond and one burned to death in a house fire,” Quinn said.
The loss was shaking.
“I looked around there wasn’t anybody left but me in that group.”
About that time, he said, “there was a pastor who moved into our community. He started visiting with me and I didn’t want anything to do with him.”
Quinn would hide in the closet, he said, and wait until his wife told him the man had gone.
“Just about every time something happened, he’d show up — and he didn’t know about it,” Quinn noted.
The coincidence got to be too much for Quinn.
“It caused me to think about death and if there is life after death, where would I end up? I knew I wasn’t right with God.”
Quinn spoke to the man.
“He shared how God forgives your sins and it didn’t matter what you’d done.”
Quinn believed.
“I didn’t see lightning or hear voices,” he said. But he was changed.
“The next night was Friday night and after work we stopped to get our liquor and I got a Pepsi,” Quinn noted.
His fellow workers made fun of him.
“They asked me what happened and I told them a preacher stopped by and I accepted Christ and that I didn’t think God wanted me to drink anymore — They said it would never stick.”
That was 1980. Quinn hasn’t had any alcohol since.
Shortly thereafter, Quinn said, his father threw him a birthday bash. He pressured Quinn to drink. Quinn went inside and told his wife to pray.
About six months later, his father, too, accepted Christ.
His son’s refusal to drink affected him, Quinn said. “He told me, ‘Whatever you’d gotten, I needed it.’”
QUINN’S CHURCH offers a Wednesday evening program, TeamKid, that pulls in children like he was, he said.
“We’ve got kids who come whose families are not members here.” Many don’t attend church at all, he said.
The program attracts students from kindergarten through grade 12, he said.
“I think for the most part (they attend) because it’s Christ-based,” he said of the program.
“Iola is more conservative” than Quinn’s home town between Jefferson City and Columbia, Mo., “but as a rule there’s a vast loss and spiritual darkness — not only here, but everywhere,” Quinn said. “I see that as a major concern as a pastor.”
Although church attendance surged post 9/11, Quinn doesn’t “think it lasted very long. Things just went back to where they were.”
Quinn believes the role of the pastor is “to get Christ to people. It’s the gospel that changes lives and transforms lives.”
To that end, he is exploring additional outreach opportunities.
“We’ve thought about doing a discipleship class on financial planning or parenting or marriage strengthening,” Becky said. Plans for a six-to-eight week Sunday evening program are tentative right now, she said, but in the works.
“I think typically across the board people are doing away with Sunday night services because people just don’t come back for them,” Mike said. A Sunday evening class would draw a different crowd, the Quinns believe.
“It’s just finding someone to lead who is capable of doing that,” she said.
As for the Wednesday night kids program, “We keep the youth group up all summer,” Mike said. And, “We have a gym; that’s a nice draw for the kids.”
Other venues of participation open at First Baptist are music worship teams, fellowship teams which plan monthly suppers, ministry teams that visit the sick, homebound and those in nursing homes, and an evangelism/mission team that deals with mission projects and spending of church funds, Quinn said. “The goal is to get everybody involved in some sort of ministry,” Quinn said.
As a pastor, Quinn listens to congregants, he said.
“They have ideas and I have ideas and we bounce them off each other. I believe if we do a few things and do them well, they please the Lord.”
Each day, Quinn spends about an hour studying the Bible, then does additional research for a total of 15 to 20 hours per week prep time for his Sunday sermon, he said.
“I look online to get illustrations” and use “books that inspire me or preach through a book of the bible,” Quinn said.
“The Bible talks about getting the whole council of God. That makes me deal with passages that are harder. I try to take it in its historical and grammatical context and how we can apply that to day — what’s it really saying — then and to us? And now that we’ve heard it, what are we going to do with it” Quinn asked.
Quinn said his greatest role is to facillitate the healing of families.
“It’s not what I do; it’s what He does,” Quinn said.
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Hope helps during holidays
Tucked in the back of the Hope Unlimited complex is a comfortable little room, not unlike a waiting room at a doctor’s office.
Beneath a painting on a wall of the Child Advocacy Center, as the room is known, hangs a video camera, there to record interviews with children who have suffered through domestic violence and sexual assault situations.
The camera allows the children to “go through the post-abuse interview once,” instead of repeatedly to every agency or individual that might need details in the quest to assist the victim, said Michele Meiwes, coordinator of Hope Unlimited’s Child Exchange and Parenting Center.
Such agencies include law enforcement, Social and Rehabilitative Services and possibly the child’s relatives.
“The interview is encrypted and transferred to DVD for use by law enforcement,” Meiwes said.
“Research shows that retelling the story retraumatizes the victim” Meiwes said. “They basically experience the abuse over and over again.”
The video protocol minimizes that retraumatization, she said.
“Our goal here is safety for everyone,” she noted.
Assault victim numbers are sobering: One in three women report being beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused during her lifetime. One in five high school students report such abuse. And 46 percent of cities surveyed by the U.S. Conference of Mayors identify domestic violence as a primary cause of homelessness in their communities, Hope Unlimited’s Executive Director Dorothy Sparks said. Hope Unlimited helps about 500 such victims each year, she said.
As the holidays approach, victims of domestic abuse can be hard-pressed to feel festive.
Hope Unlimited tries to normalize the holidays by providing a Holiday Hope Shop for clients of the agency.
“People donate (new) items for adults and children,” Meiwes said. “Families then use the Hope Shop to procure gifts for their children, and children get gifts for their parents.”
They can also wrap and tag their gifts at the Hope Shop.
“One thing we don’t get a lot of is gifts for junior high and high school kids, especially boys,” Meiwes said. Such gifts are needed, she said.
Meiwes said gift certificates to local businesses, movie passes, certificates for fast food meals, and video rental cards are all good bets for junior high and high school age students. So are hand held video game systems, stocking caps and CDs and DVDs, she said.
In addition, underwear, socks, gloves and scarves are all also appreciated. For kids removed from their home environment, even the smallest gift can mean a lot.
“We’re lucky that we live in an Ozzie and Harriet sort of society,” Meiwes said of life in Allen County. For abuse victims here, though, she said, “The reality is, we deal with a nasty, grim secret society.”
The Holiday Hope Shop served 212 families last Christmas season. “This year, we expect at least 250,” Meiwes said.
Beneath a painting on a wall of the Child Advocacy Center, as the room is known, hangs a video camera, there to record interviews with children who have suffered through domestic violence and sexual assault situations.
The camera allows the children to “go through the post-abuse interview once,” instead of repeatedly to every agency or individual that might need details in the quest to assist the victim, said Michele Meiwes, coordinator of Hope Unlimited’s Child Exchange and Parenting Center.
Such agencies include law enforcement, Social and Rehabilitative Services and possibly the child’s relatives.
“The interview is encrypted and transferred to DVD for use by law enforcement,” Meiwes said.
“Research shows that retelling the story retraumatizes the victim” Meiwes said. “They basically experience the abuse over and over again.”
The video protocol minimizes that retraumatization, she said.
“Our goal here is safety for everyone,” she noted.
Assault victim numbers are sobering: One in three women report being beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused during her lifetime. One in five high school students report such abuse. And 46 percent of cities surveyed by the U.S. Conference of Mayors identify domestic violence as a primary cause of homelessness in their communities, Hope Unlimited’s Executive Director Dorothy Sparks said. Hope Unlimited helps about 500 such victims each year, she said.
As the holidays approach, victims of domestic abuse can be hard-pressed to feel festive.
Hope Unlimited tries to normalize the holidays by providing a Holiday Hope Shop for clients of the agency.
“People donate (new) items for adults and children,” Meiwes said. “Families then use the Hope Shop to procure gifts for their children, and children get gifts for their parents.”
They can also wrap and tag their gifts at the Hope Shop.
“One thing we don’t get a lot of is gifts for junior high and high school kids, especially boys,” Meiwes said. Such gifts are needed, she said.
Meiwes said gift certificates to local businesses, movie passes, certificates for fast food meals, and video rental cards are all good bets for junior high and high school age students. So are hand held video game systems, stocking caps and CDs and DVDs, she said.
In addition, underwear, socks, gloves and scarves are all also appreciated. For kids removed from their home environment, even the smallest gift can mean a lot.
“We’re lucky that we live in an Ozzie and Harriet sort of society,” Meiwes said of life in Allen County. For abuse victims here, though, she said, “The reality is, we deal with a nasty, grim secret society.”
The Holiday Hope Shop served 212 families last Christmas season. “This year, we expect at least 250,” Meiwes said.
Blueberry business blooming
WESTPHALIA — Even though they have been open to the public only one year, the Barnhardt family’s U-pick blueberry patch is becoming known.
“I had 35 buckets out this morning for people to use,” said Judy Barnhardt of Honey Berry Farm. “They were all gone.”
This afternoon, there is a steady trickle of customers. Some come to pick, some to peruse the store.
“Last week it was too hot to pick,” Judy said of the squelching heat that sucker punched Kansas. With cooler temperatures, more people are venturing the short country drive 15 miles west of Garnett to the family’s farm.
Locals are starting to flock to the patch Wednesdays and Saturdays, the days the farm is open.
Saturday goers have the option of a blueberry pancake breakfast before they head to the bushes.
“Some people come just to eat pancakes,” Judy said. On Wednesdays, “We always have something they can buy to eat,” be it pie, bread or cookies, all baked by the Barnhardt’s 12-year old daughter Melissa.
The family started their patch with just 30 blueberry plants in 2000. “We just started because we wanted some fruit to eat,” Judy said.
The small patch did so well, they decided to expand.
“It was Dan’s idea,” Judy said of her husband. “Dan said, we’ve got a pond, we can irrigate.”
So in 2005, they planted 1,200 new bushes — by hand. “It took a long time,” 18-year old Danell Barnhardt said.
That planting gave the family a full acre of blueberries. While not technically organic, the family does not spray the berries.
So far, Judy said, they have been lucky.
“I don’t know if it’s because they’re new or because they’re not native to here, but we haven’t had any pests.”
The biggest challenge has been acidifying Kansas’ limestone-rich soil enough to favor berry growth. Dan adds “peat moss by the gallons” to accomplish the feat.
All the bushes are producing, testament to his labor.
Before beginning their forray into berry farming, “We toured a lot of farms around the country,” Judy said. “They can’t keep up with their customers.”
She is hopeful, once better known, their farm will be the same.
“There’s just not that many (berry farms) around in this area, and its something that should do well,” she said.
Though their plants are still small, Danell is philosophic about it.
“Our customer base is growing as the plants are growing,” said Danell.
BLUEBERRY season lasts only four weeks; the family tries to make the most of it by offering other goods for sale.
Danelle makes fleece neck pillows. “They’re great for (using in the car for) long distances,” she said. She also makes photo cards with scenes of the farm.
The family also sells honey from their small collection of hives.
Clayton, 16, has one hive specially outfitted to produce comb honey. The round comb is a new to the Barnhardts. “We’ve only had that in about a week,” Judy said.
The family extracts fluid honey once a year, in the fall. Once that stock is gone, it’s gone until the bees can make more.
“The average worker bee will only make 1/12 of a teaspoon of honey in its life,” Danell explained. “In the summer time, the workers only live 2 to 4 weeks. They work themselves to death.”
Facts about bees and their habits are posted on the walls. One sign proclaims “550 bees must visit 2.5 million flowers and fly 35,584 miles” to produce one pound of honey.
“When they talk about busy bees,” Judy said, “they mean it.”
Danell and Judy are almost as busy. They make beeswax products like lotion and lip balm; mango and pina colada are popular flavors. They also make a medicated balm for skin afflictions like psoriasis.
Danell also makes shea butter soap.
“The cinnamon sells the best,” Judy said. “When she’s making it the shop really smells good.”
The small bars have an odd notch in one end. “It’s supposed to look like Kansas,” the women smile, turning a bar on its side so the notch becomes the northeast corner of the state.
Judy is also putting together a cookbook featuring popular blueberry and honey recipes, including their family ice cream recipe.
“We eat ice cream a lot,” Judy said. “Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday,” the family laughed. “It’s really good.”
The Barnhardt’s final item in their potpourri is a selection of Christian books.
“I wanted to carry books ... (related to) the farm” Judy said. “Then people began to ask for other titles.”
ONE ODD sideline the family deals in is gathering rogue bees.
“We collect a lot of wild swarms,” Judy said. Locals call the Barnhardts when there is a swarm in a building or field they’d like removed, Judy said.
Danell is the swarm removal expert. She’s very matter-of fact in relating her process. “I put a super (bee box) down and wait for some scouts to go in,” she said. If a swarm isn’t willing, “I shake them down.”
“Once the queen goes in, they all will,” she explained. She then closes up the box and carts her living treasure back to the farm.
The Barnhardts charge $2.75 per pound for the berries, about the same as a 6-ounce supermarket clamshell. They will also pick for those who choose not to, for $4 per pound.
“I had 35 buckets out this morning for people to use,” said Judy Barnhardt of Honey Berry Farm. “They were all gone.”
This afternoon, there is a steady trickle of customers. Some come to pick, some to peruse the store.
“Last week it was too hot to pick,” Judy said of the squelching heat that sucker punched Kansas. With cooler temperatures, more people are venturing the short country drive 15 miles west of Garnett to the family’s farm.
Locals are starting to flock to the patch Wednesdays and Saturdays, the days the farm is open.
Saturday goers have the option of a blueberry pancake breakfast before they head to the bushes.
“Some people come just to eat pancakes,” Judy said. On Wednesdays, “We always have something they can buy to eat,” be it pie, bread or cookies, all baked by the Barnhardt’s 12-year old daughter Melissa.
The family started their patch with just 30 blueberry plants in 2000. “We just started because we wanted some fruit to eat,” Judy said.
The small patch did so well, they decided to expand.
“It was Dan’s idea,” Judy said of her husband. “Dan said, we’ve got a pond, we can irrigate.”
So in 2005, they planted 1,200 new bushes — by hand. “It took a long time,” 18-year old Danell Barnhardt said.
That planting gave the family a full acre of blueberries. While not technically organic, the family does not spray the berries.
So far, Judy said, they have been lucky.
“I don’t know if it’s because they’re new or because they’re not native to here, but we haven’t had any pests.”
The biggest challenge has been acidifying Kansas’ limestone-rich soil enough to favor berry growth. Dan adds “peat moss by the gallons” to accomplish the feat.
All the bushes are producing, testament to his labor.
Before beginning their forray into berry farming, “We toured a lot of farms around the country,” Judy said. “They can’t keep up with their customers.”
She is hopeful, once better known, their farm will be the same.
“There’s just not that many (berry farms) around in this area, and its something that should do well,” she said.
Though their plants are still small, Danell is philosophic about it.
“Our customer base is growing as the plants are growing,” said Danell.
BLUEBERRY season lasts only four weeks; the family tries to make the most of it by offering other goods for sale.
Danelle makes fleece neck pillows. “They’re great for (using in the car for) long distances,” she said. She also makes photo cards with scenes of the farm.
The family also sells honey from their small collection of hives.
Clayton, 16, has one hive specially outfitted to produce comb honey. The round comb is a new to the Barnhardts. “We’ve only had that in about a week,” Judy said.
The family extracts fluid honey once a year, in the fall. Once that stock is gone, it’s gone until the bees can make more.
“The average worker bee will only make 1/12 of a teaspoon of honey in its life,” Danell explained. “In the summer time, the workers only live 2 to 4 weeks. They work themselves to death.”
Facts about bees and their habits are posted on the walls. One sign proclaims “550 bees must visit 2.5 million flowers and fly 35,584 miles” to produce one pound of honey.
“When they talk about busy bees,” Judy said, “they mean it.”
Danell and Judy are almost as busy. They make beeswax products like lotion and lip balm; mango and pina colada are popular flavors. They also make a medicated balm for skin afflictions like psoriasis.
Danell also makes shea butter soap.
“The cinnamon sells the best,” Judy said. “When she’s making it the shop really smells good.”
The small bars have an odd notch in one end. “It’s supposed to look like Kansas,” the women smile, turning a bar on its side so the notch becomes the northeast corner of the state.
Judy is also putting together a cookbook featuring popular blueberry and honey recipes, including their family ice cream recipe.
“We eat ice cream a lot,” Judy said. “Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday,” the family laughed. “It’s really good.”
The Barnhardt’s final item in their potpourri is a selection of Christian books.
“I wanted to carry books ... (related to) the farm” Judy said. “Then people began to ask for other titles.”
ONE ODD sideline the family deals in is gathering rogue bees.
“We collect a lot of wild swarms,” Judy said. Locals call the Barnhardts when there is a swarm in a building or field they’d like removed, Judy said.
Danell is the swarm removal expert. She’s very matter-of fact in relating her process. “I put a super (bee box) down and wait for some scouts to go in,” she said. If a swarm isn’t willing, “I shake them down.”
“Once the queen goes in, they all will,” she explained. She then closes up the box and carts her living treasure back to the farm.
The Barnhardts charge $2.75 per pound for the berries, about the same as a 6-ounce supermarket clamshell. They will also pick for those who choose not to, for $4 per pound.
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