Iolans prefer eight

By ANNE KAZMIERCZAK

Register Reporter

If a decidedly unscientific survey of random Iolans in random settings is any indication, Iola may have an eight-person governing body next April. If people can figure out the ballot, that is.

Many of the Iolans surveyed by the Register were openly confused by the ballot language.

“Even if you could read it, you had to be a language expert to understand it,” noted Don Britt. “I’m thoroughly aggravated by it.” 

Britt believes the wording on the ballot is purposely meant to obfuscate the issue.

“I’d like to get rid of all of them,” he said of current commissioners.

William Nelson agreed. 

“On the ballot, you couldn’t make head nor tails of it. I think they wrote it that way to confuse people.” 

Nelson, who voted early, noted, “I asked for help and I didn’t get it.” 

Both he and his wife, Barbara, asked clerks at the courthouse to clarify the language, or asked if any written materials were available that explained it. None were, they said, and workers told the couple they could not explain the measure, which references Charter Ordinance 17 and asks only that voters either allow it to take effect or not, with no mention that it ties to governing body size.

Simply put, a yes vote puts into place a five person commission, including a mayor, while a no vote would provide an eight person council, plus a mayor, to govern the City of Iola.

Once he saw the ballot explained in the Iola Register, Nelson said he understood it. By then, though, it was too late. 

“I’d already voted,” Nelson said. “I left it blank.”

A NUMBER OF those who have followed the issue expressed frustration that they had to vote on the matter yet again. 

Iolans approved an eight person council in a vote in April, 2009. Commissioners requested another vote, with ballot wording for only a commission form of government presented, and subsequently put forth Charter Ordinance 17 to seat a five member commission.

While the delays have caused many to lose interest in the issue, others retained their original opinion.

“I’m leaning toward the eight-person council because I think that’s what we voted for the first time,” said Dale Donovan.

“We said we wanted the larger body the first time,” said another man, who preferred not to be identified. “They just didn’t listen,” he said of current commissioners.

Some voters tied the size of the next governing body to their hopes for Iola.

“I’m concerned about my home town,” Britt said. “I want Iola to grow.” 

He noted that current commissioners seem more interested in retaining office than they do in taking steps that would “capitalize on Iola’s strong points.” Iola needs to sell itself, he said. 

Other communities with similar-sized populations across the country are marketing themselves, their environments and the quality of their workers, Britt noted. Iola should do the same.

Iola’s leaders must step up to encourage interest from business, he said. “We’ve got to be smart and take advantage of it when it comes our way.” 

To that end, he believes a larger governing body would benefit the town.

“I think when you’ve got people with different heads, it takes more time to make a decision. More thought goes into it. 

“When three people (the current number of commissioners) can sit down and in 10 minutes decide what to do with our money, it’s not right,” Britt said. “If three is good enough, Britt added, “why do we have so many congressmen and senators?”

Others felt the same.

“Five would be better than three, but eight would be better than five,” said Jim Smith.

“I’m all in favor of the eight member council,” Ralph Romig said. “The power needs to be divided.”

Romig was the only voter who had no problem with the ballot language. 

“I’ve spent my lifetime in law enforcement so I’m used to reading legal documents,” he said. But, he noted, “Lawyers write (ballot language); lawyers write lawyer talk.”

Romig will vote for the eight-person council, he said, because he believes more representatives will better reflect the wishes of Iolans. 

He has given the matter much thought, he added. Currently working as a municipal judge, Romig noted, “I’m conservative, but open-minded. I study both sides of every issue.”

Kim Romig also plans to vote “No” on the issue, a “No” vote reflecting preference for an eight-person council.

Like Britt, she felt that the present smaller body hasn’t worked out in Iola’s favor. 

A lifelong Iolan, Kim Romig recalled when “there were seven groceries and three mom and pops.” 

With an eight person council encouraging new businesses to come to Iola, she said, “Maybe we’ll get a grocery store. Maybe we’ll get something else back in here. I’m tired of going to Chanute to shop.”

ON THE OTHER side of the fence, Alfred Link proclaimed “I think five people is a world of plenty, and I’ve already voted.” 

His daughter, Maria Erb, disagreed. “I thought eight was a good idea. I really think we need more opinions. And,” she said, “they need some women in there, not just men.”

Linda McDermeit “Hadn’t thought too much about it. I wouldn’t mind either way,” she said.

Still, like others, she said Iola “really needs to get some stuff going.”

10/29/10

Works wants to continue

Editor’s note: A legal clause in a funding agreement between Allen County and the City of Iola disallows Allen County Commissioners from speaking publicly about the local ambulance issue. That topic is therefore not addressed herein.

By ANNE KAZMIERCZAK

Register Reporter

one pic

HUMBOLDT — Twenty years after he was first elected to serve Allen County as a commissioner, Dick Works still has enthusiasm for the job.

Works represents Moran, Elsmore, Savonburg, Humboldt, and their environs as one of three commissioners charged with creating and administering policy for the county’s 13,000 residents.

“None of the issues are simple and they require complex answers,” Works said of managing the county and its $11 million annual budget. 

“That budget has been the biggest challenge we’ve had to face over the years,” Works added. “Costs keep going up and the state cuts our share of revenue funds each year.”

Works, who ran unopposed for his last two four-year terms, faces a challenge this year from Don Mann, a Moran contractor.  

Works, however, believes he still is the best man for the job.

“When I ran 20 years ago, I only made one promise, and that was to be honest,” Works said. “I have kept that promise and will continue to do so.”

As for county issues, Works said, “When I was elected 20 years ago, the landfill was the No. 1 issue we had to address. We also needed a new jail and a new hospital. We’ve accomplished the first two,” and now are working on the third.

Commissioners looked into replacing the hospital five years ago, Works noted, but at that time, the only funding mechanism available would have been to significantly raise property taxes.

State law has since changed, he noted, allowing the creation of local option taxes such as the quarter-cent proposed sales tax for a new Allen County Hospital.

A big issue this past year, mowing county roads, may be easier addressed in the future, he said.

“We are looking at a chemical growth retardant to spray on roadsides,” Works said. “It doesn’t kill the weeds, but it really, really slows (their growth) down,” he said.

That move, Works noted, could save the county a good deal of money.

“We burn a lot of fuel” between the sheriff’s department and county road crews, he said.

OVER THE years, Works said he has gotten a reputation for being particular about the county’s budget.

“I focus on trying to find ways to be more efficient,” he said. 

That expertise is especially important now, Works said, as the other two commissioners, Rob Francis and Gary McIntosh, took office in January of 2009. “The budget is very complex and it takes six to eight years to figure out.”

Works admits the job is stressful, but he still feels passionately about it. 

“I’m very emotional about it because I believe all residents of Allen County deserve” equal representation, he said.

Works is the only commissioner who does not live in Iola, he noted. 

“I think that’s one of my strong points,” he said. “I stick up for the county. I never forget that the farmers and rural people are who we represent,” he said, while adding that city residents are also county residents.

“Everybody wants to have their voice heard,” he said. And though he typically “keeps a low profile,” he said, “My number is in the book,” should a constituent want to reach him. 

Works noted that, as a commissioner, “We have both administrative and policy duties. Most people think we only meet one morning a week, but we spend about two days a week in our administrative duties. 

“The job is much more time-consuming than it was 20 years ago,” he said.

County commissioners are required to serve in an oversight capacity on those boards that receive any funding from the county, such as Tri-Valley Developmental Services, Allen County Extension Service and the Southeast Kansas Regional Planning Commission, Works noted.

“As a county commissioner, we have to serve on many boards because we give money to many groups,” he said.

The county also funds senior citizens’ centers and senior meals programs in each community, he said.

Other issues dealt with by commissioners include non-elected personnel and “we are often solicited for advice by other elected personnel,” Works said. “I get a lot more phone calls from staff than I do from constituents.”

Beyond being pragmatic about the budget, Works noted, “I’m an optimist. I tend to look at the bright side of things.”

WHEN NOT taking on county duties, Works farms about 1,400 acres of corn and soy beans in the Humboldt area. 

“I sit out on a tractor and I have a lot of time to think about county business,” he said. “I find myself thinking about it more than I do about farming.”

Works also is a member of the Humboldt Rotary and leads the singing at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Humboldt.

“It’s part of my heritage,” to serve, Works said. “For more than 150 years, the Works family has been working to make Allen County a better place to live.”

A position on the Allen County Commission pays about $17,000 per year, plus health and retirement benefits, Works said. 

“I still feel I can contribute,” he said. 

oct. 2010

Yates man intrigued by old news

YATES CENTER — About 20 years ago, Mark and Lynn Hobbs purchased an old, framed portrait of Jesus at an antique shop in Yates Center. They hung it on their living room wall — and there it stayed, until this week, when the couple removed it.
“We were remodeling our room and took the picture off the wall and noticed the back had come loose,” Mark Hobbs said. Inside, the couple could see a number of old newspapers, probably used as padding between the portrait and the backing.
“They were Iola Registers form 1943,” Mark noted.
Hobbs brought the papers into the Register office recently to share with anyone interested.
“I just thought it was neat,” he said of the old papers.
Back then, America was in the midst of World War II. Judging from ads in the paper, though, Iolans didn’t suffer too much deprivation. Offered were mink-dyed fur coats — including some of skunk and numerous social activities. Six groceries vied for Allen Countians bucks, offering Post Toasties for 8 cents a box, coffee at 26 cents per pound and flour, $2 for 48 pounds. Ground beef went for 29 cents a pound, and apple cider was offered — “No ration coupons needed.”
In June, a “Midnight Voodoo Party and Zombie Thrill Show” was offered live on stage at the Iola Theater.
Hobbs was tickled by an ad for Gates rubber belts in the June 3 edition. “I’ve worked at Gates for 12 years,” he noted.
The most prominent nod to the war came in the form of a daily cartoon, put out by the military, espousing the virtues of signing up and supporting the war effort. Crossword puzzles featured the portrait of a medal of honor winner at their center. And the front page had a daily brief, “Today in the War.”
The paper itself was much wider than today’s.
But some things haven’t changed — Society news still told of hospitalizations and happenings. Register ads still touted the effectiveness of classified advertising. And classifieds still told of lost cows and cars for sale.
The “25 years ago” column was even there — reminding folks of the happenings of 1918.
“It just amazes me,” Hobbs said of the contents.
“I thought it would be neat to share.”

Funding proposal is unfair, board told

HUMBOLDT — The quality of a child’s “education shouldn’t depend on his zip code,” USD 258 Superintendent K.B. Criss told board members Monday night.
Legislation backed by gubernatorial hopeful Sen. Sam Brownback would change the current funding formula for all schools throughout the state, Criss said, from one based on per-pupil counts and percentage of children receiving free and reduced-price lunches, to a flat rate for all districts that would require additional capital be raised through Local Option Budgets by raising mil levies.
That approach would be fundamentally unfair to poorer, rural districts, Criss noted.
“One mil in Shawnee County raises enough money to pay for 43.6 teachers,” Criss told the board. “One mil in Western Kansas pays for .16 teachers.”
On a local level, he noted that one mil in Burlington, bumped by the presence of Wolf Creek Nuclear Plant, raises $300,000, while a single mil in Humboldt raises only $25,000.
Humboldt schools saw an increase in the number of pupils this year, Criss announced. A head count of 576 students is significantly higher than five years ago, when 489 students were enrolled, Criss said. “We’re up 50 to 60 kids, which is really good,” he said.
The full time equivalent stands at 541.5, he said.
Of the total number of students, 53 percent qualify for free and reduced-price lunches this year, Criss told the board, 2 percent more than last school year.

IN A SCHOOLWIDE effort to improve technology delivery to students, high school publications instructor Kim Isbell and fourth grade teacher Haley Ellison will attend the Technology Plus Learning conference in Phoenix, Ariz., Oct. 19-21.
“One of our goals was to increase professional development for our classrooms with technology,” Criss said.
A Carl Perkins grant, plus charter school funds, will be used to send the teachers to the emerging technology conference. The two will then share what they have learned with instructors districtwide.
In an effort to boost efficiency, district e-mail will be transferred to a Google-supported educational mail system, said Humboldt High School Principal Craig Smith.
The transfer will eliminate a spam problem that has gotten out of hand on the district server, Smith said.
“Some teachers are receiving 150 spam e-mails per account,” he noted, taking considerable time to sort through to find legitimate correspondence and occasionally crashing the school’s server.
The new system will be monitored by Google, is provided at no cost to the district, and will not only limit spam but filter inappropriate e-mails such as offers for Viagra or pornography, Smith said. In addition, the educational mail protocol allows for linking maps, calendars and other necessary data sources between mail addresses to make finding such information easier for parents, he said.
“We’re trying to find a way to be more progressive in our communication with parents,” Smith noted.
The new mail addresses will still have a USD.258 extension, he noted.
Four teachers each received $850 in vocational equipment funds for their programs, Smith said. Nathan Ellison, building trades; Dorothy Neeley, Family and Consumer Science; Matt Kerr, vocational agriculture and Kim Isbell, publications, will all receive funds.
After attending an ACT curriculum conference recently, Smith said he is looking into aligning the high school curriculum with that needed for success on the test.
“It’s probably the only test our kids take that they never study for,” he said.
He noted that with state assessment scores uniformly high, aligning curricula with the ACT will better prepare students for college and work beyond high school.
“The goal is to set alignment for your school and also for each individual kid,” Smith said. “I’m encouraged; I know our staff wants to do it.”
Monarch Cement will donate materials and the school will provide labor to make improvements to the high school track program, Smith said, including bringing jump, shot put and discus forums to standard levels.

ELEMENTARY students are deep into tech rich learning, Principal Kay Bolt said.
“They are using YouTube for videos that relate to books we’re reading in class,” she said. Students are also “learning to create PowerPoint presentations and create Word documents and Excel spreadsheets,” she said. Students are also videoing their progress “to self-evaluate what they’re learning in class,” she said.
Next, Bolt said, “we’re wanting to learn how to pod cast and put that on our website.” She is also looking into e-pals and will investigate how other schools set up such correspondence to ensure safety of the students, she said.
At the middle school level, a Principal Payday plan similar to that used at Iola Middle School will be implemented.
Students will be given 16 “Cub Bucks “ at the start of the fall semester and 20 at the beginning of spring semester to which they will have to add additional bucks earned through merit achievement, such as making the honor roll, in order to attend a special end-of-semester outing, location determined by grade level.
“It’s not something that’s just given to them; they have to work for it,” Bolt said.
Bucks will be lost for missing assignments, class tardiness or disciplinary problems, she said.
K-12 Band Director Terry Meadows noted that the combined middle school/high school band has 39 members, 8 from high school and 31 in middle school.
The band has raised $4,612 towards the $8,500 needed to travel to Branson, Mo., Apr. 29-May 1 to attend a judged music festival at the College of the Ozarks. Students will also receive clinics from the judges at the festival. The group is chartering a bus to travel to the event. Ten chaperones will join them. The board approved the trip, 6-1, Don Hauser opposed.
Bids accepted for work on the building trades home were from Dale’s Sheet Metal, Iola, $7,419.20 for heating and air; KK Electric of Chanute, $1,750; and Northside Plumbing, LaHarpe, $1,500.

10/15/10
By ANNE KAZMIERCZAK
Register Reporter

Robbs exemplify ranching

By ANNE KAZMIERCZAK
Register Reporter

“I feel we’re not too deserving because we’re not typical farmers,” Becky Robb said of her and husband Rick’s selection as farm marshals for the 2010 Farm-City Days parade.
It could be their atypical-ness that got them the honor.
The Robbs, who own and operate General Repair and Supply in Iola, raise exotic animals as well as beef cattle on their ranch north of town.
“I just love animals,” Becky said, explaining her penchant for unusual farm pets.
It started 25 years ago with a pot-bellied pig. A donkey was added about 10 years later, Rick said. Now, Rick and Becky Robb’s menagerie has grown to include four-horned Jacob’s sheep, hump-backed brahmas, African watusis, zebus, shaggy Scot Highland cattle, various goats and sheep and dogs and wallabies.
Most notable is Clyde the camel.
Purchased about 6 months ago, Clyde is a single-humped dromedary and Becky’s favorite.
“I always just wanted one. It’s my dream animal — well, one of them, anyway,” she said.
Typical or not as their herds may be, the Robbs exemplify love of ranching.
They take pleasure in coming home each evening to the daily chores of feeding, slopping and caring for their flocks.
Becky Robb has also spent the last 20 years running the Baby Barn at the Allen County Fair.
“We’re all on the fair board,” Becky said of her family, which also includes son J.D. and daughter Kate.
Becky often brings young animals to show to civic groups and schools, and frequently has classes tour the ranch.
“I love animals and kids and this way I can do both of them together,” she said.
Becky also noted that her work with the Baby Barn actually encouraged their raising of unusual animals.
“To run the baby barn, you need mom and baby animals,” Becky said. “That time of year” — when the fair is session — “is not the normal time you have babes” on farms and ranches, she said. “So I started raising animals to have babies” to show in the Baby Barn.
Pot bellied pigs are particularly good with children, she noted. “I’ve never had one bite. They’re dainty and polite with the kids.”
While many of the Robb’s exotics are miniature breeds, smaller size does not mean less care, Rick noted.
“They have a really big attitude,” Rick said of miniature cattle. “They’re harder to handle than larger cattle and they are fast. I think you underestimate them because of the size.”
And, he said, despite their fancy names, “For salvage value, everything’s beef.”

Many of the exotics roam freely about the ranch, just as any pasture animal would.
In the evening, goats are turned loose.
As the flocked poured out of its pen into the pasture Tuesday evening, Becky pointed out one particular goat.
Known as a fainting goat, the breed locks its hind legs when frightened, Becky said.
Sure enough, as she chased it about the pen, the goat’s legs stiffened as it fumbled out into the open.
Becky said that when they purchased it, they were told the breed had been developed as coyote bait. Kept with more expensive animals, the story went, the goat would freeze up, providing easy prey for marauders, allowing the more-valued herd to escape. “That’s what we were told, anyway,” she said.
One animal not allowed to roam are the wallabies.
The Australian native that looks like a miniature kangaroo are “really just domesticated wild animals,” Rick noted. They browse like deer, he said, and don’t mind Kansas weather. “They actually like the rain, and will stand outside in it.”
But they can still jump. Let loose, they would just run, Becky said.
“Like a deer, when they’re frightened, flight is their main defense,” she said.
The Robbs do have deer, as well. Becky is state licensed wildlife rehabilitator. Currently, two fawn are growing up on Robb Ranch, and will be released into the wild when grown.
Although the fawn came to the Robbs form the state, Becky noted, the cost of rehabilitation “is all out of my own pocket.”
Although she has been licensed to care for injured and orphan animals since 1996, increased costs associated with such care mean this is most likely her last year at it, she said.

The Robbs purchase many of their menagerie at an exotic livestock auction held a few times a year in Yates Center.
The next such auction is in February, she said. By then, she hopes to have bottle-feeding pot bellied pigs to sell, plus young goats and sheep to trade.
The Robbs will trade animals they have enough of, acquiring new breeds or blood for their herds.
“As long as I can trade for most of my animals, I’m good,” she said of keeping her flocks diversified.
But Clyde will never be traded. Becky saved funds for years to purchase him, she said.
The camel wasn’t cheap. A recent young female at auction was offered for $3,000, she said. It didn’t sell.
Beside the purchase price, Becky noted there is the added expense of milk when you buy a bottle-feeding baby, as Clyde was.
Plus, “A lot of people don’t have the time to bottle-feed four times a day,” — the regimen she adopted with the camel, who was just weeks old when she got him.
Clyde sucked down numerous quart bottles of lamb milk replacer, Becky said. “It adds quite a bit to the initial cost.”
That is one reason, she said, that Clyde will most likely be an only camel.
Although related to llamas and alpacas (two more breeds at Robb Ranch), Clyde — due to his size — scares some of the other animals, Rick said. At eight months, he is already six feet tall, though he still follows Becky around like a puppy. As she turns to walk to the garage, Clyde looks up from his hale bale, and trots off bandy-legged after her, mewling.
Many of the exotics have long life expectancies, Becky noted. Donkeys can live 40 years. Pot bellied pigs can be 15. And Clyde — well, at the beginning of his four-decade life-expectancy, Becky noted, “J.D. will inherit Clyde.”
Her son is willing, she said. And while he loves ranching, she’s not too sure he’ll keep exotics. And that’s OK, she noted.
“Ranching is hard work,” she said. “It’s every day, year round. In winter you’re breaking ice and feeding hay.”
And although the hours are long, especially when coming after a day at the shop, “I can’t imagine living in town,” Rick said.


10/15/10

Another grave tale

Sometimes, it takes years of digging to unearth historical tidbits. Other times, as with recent interest in what seem now to be actual graves at the former Allen County poor farm, one story begets another.
John Mulkey brought forth a tale of yet other unfortunate souls whose remains lie buried in a rather public spot.
Mulkey worked construction in the early 1950’s, he said. At the time, old Highway 169 was being redone, and bulldozers unearthed human remains in the middle of the road.
“The graves were there before the road ever was,” the 79-year-old Mulkey said of the discovery.
Three large and four small graves were briefly uncovered. Crews decided the remains were those of a wagon train that had never made it past Iola. Uncertainty over what the travelers died from, however, meant the remains were let lie.
At that time, Mulkey said, the government required those who came in physical contact with such human remains to undergo a six month quarantine. Not interested in such a lay-off, the workers left the graves in place, and merely paved over them.
It’s unlikely that whatever had done in the would-be settlers would have survived to infect the road crew, but the decision was firm.
He said crosses were put alongside the road to remember the travelers buried underneath.
Mulkey said at the time, the story made quite the rounds at watering holes where the crews met after work.

9/18/09

Free bus a swimming success

By ANNE KAZMIERCZAK Register Reporter

MORAN — Thanks to a community effort in Moran, local youth are provided with free transportation to and from the Iola Municipal Pool two afternoons a week.
Typically, 18-20 youth ride the bus to the pool, said coordinator Kathy Ward, but “We’ve had as many as 25 some days.” In all, 50 students have signed on to use the service. Ward said most youth swim once a week.
Moran Thrive organized the service. The volunteer group formed in January after Thrive Allen County sponsored meetings identifying specific community needs in Moran.
“We talked about what we could do to make Moran better,” Ward said. “We had a list of 30 things. As we kept going we explored them all. Bus transportation to the pool was one of them.”
A walking trail through town and a community beautification project are two more efforts the group is currently tackling.
The bus’s success is something the town can be proud of, Ward said.
“I’m sure several of these kids wouldn’t have the opportunity to go swimming if we weren’t doing this,” Ward said.
Amazingly, “It’s all being paid for through donations,” Ward said.
Getting the bus going took a lot of support from a lot of places, she said. The school district provided the bus itself, while local businesses, individuals and organizations contributed funds to pay for drivers and fuel.
Volunteers ride with the students and stay with them at the pool while they are swimming.
Some of the donations came from Elsmore and Savonburg, Ward said. The two towns are also served by the bus.
The service is so appreciated, Ward said, that local churches are even promoting it through their congregations.
“We get $5 here, $10 there,” she said. “It all helps.”
“We raised almost $1,500,” Ward said. That should fund trips through the end of July if gas prices remain stable, she said.
And, it’s all for the children.
Even the youth themselves have helped out, she noted.
Three girls in Moran, NaLea Alexander, Tanna Lutz and MacKenzie Tynon, had a lemonade stand one day to collect proceeds for the bus. They raised $71.09, Ward said. “We were thrilled,” she said.
The bus picks up student sin Elsmore at 12:15 p.m., leaves Moran at 12:30 p.m. and arrives at the pool in Iola’s Riverside Park at 1 p.m.
They depart for the return trip at 3 o’clock.

7/7/09

Merc. Feature: Pump 'n Pete's

When days get hot and driving tedious, Moran’s Pump ‘n Pete’s has the perfect foil: a refreshing new iced coffee that awakens with its frosty flavor. The iced cappuccino machine offers three flavor choices, French vanilla, rich chocolate mocha and “radical X2” extreme caffeine.
It’s an effective jolt, said store manager Deanne Saichompoo.
If regular coffee or fountain drinks are more your style, the store has those, too, and offers them half price during happy hour from 2 to 4 p.m. daily.
Got the munchies? Pump ‘n Pete’s has more than the usual convenience store fare.
Pizza is offered in three sizes, mini to large. More than 10 toppings are available, plus specialties like chicken bacon ranch, six meat and cheeseburger. Calzones and stromboli are pizza pockets, Saichompoo said, with Italian or ranch dressing instead of red sauce.
For the morning commute, try a Denver omelet pizza or sausage, bacon, egg and cheese pizza. Not that hungry? Homemade honey biscuits might meet the need. “We bake them here and drizzle honey butter over the top,” Saichompoo said. “They’re really good.”
“A lot of people grab them and go,” she said of the popular item. “You can eat them in the car on the way to work.”
The biscuits also come as a side with the store’s new fried chicken.
“You can get it by the bucket, pack or meal,” she said of the crispy treat.
Sizes range from a single piece with biscuit to three piece meals or buckets of eight to 96 pieces.
“Our chicken is just as good cold as it is hot,” Saichompoo said, making it a perfect addition to a family reunion or summertime picnic. For very large orders, let the store know a day ahead and they’ll be happy to have your order ready when you are.
For grab and go snacking, zappers are a perfect choice. The bagel-dough wrapped Polish sausage and cheese is delicious, Saichompoo said. Or, the store has a dollar menu to choose from.
Pump ‘n Pete’s offers seven types of fuel, including premium unleaded, two mid-level grades, diesel and off-road diesel.
In the evenings, the store is a go-to for basics. Located at the intersection of highways 54 and 59, “We’re surrounded by a lot of little farm communities,” Saichompoo said. “Price-wise, Pete’s has made it a real good deal for people to stop here when they need milk, so they don’t have to drive to Iola” she said. Plus, “We have the only ATM in town.”
Service is honest and friendly, as are the customers.
“We’re just so eager to help, we baby our customers,” she said. The crew will even go so far as to pump your gas if you ask.
It’s probably that level of service that makes the community so protective of Pete’s, Saichompoo said. The community views it as their store. And Pete’s employees feel the same.
“The most rewarding part of this job is working with the public,” Saichompoo said.

7/7/09

Moran hires energy consultant

April 2010

By ANNE KAZMIERCZAK Register Reporter
MORAN — Billing discrepancies with Westar Energy prompted the Moran City Council Monday to hire Scott Shreve of Energy Management Group of Topeka as a go-between in negotiations between the municipality and utility giant.
In March, Moran received a bill that City Clerk Lori Evans could not reconcile based on kilowatt transmission loss.
After calls and e-mails with a Westar representative, she was told the company had changed its formula to calculate that loss.
Using the old formulas, the city had been incorrectly billed. The new formulas, however, made December through February’s accounts unbalanced. Westar told Evans they had foregone applying the new formula to those months.
“I’m not nitpicking — I want to verify the numbers,” Evans told council members.
She felt she did not receive willing assistance from the company in uncovering the differences. “We kept calling them every month and they just kept putting us off,” Evans said.
The company’s paperwork sat three inches high before her. Evans said with the changes, she no longer felt capable of properly analyzing the figures.
At some point, Westar’s mistakes will be great enough to matter, the council concurred.
“I think it’s a shame you have to hire a team of experts to understand your utility bill,” said councilman James Mueller.
Nonetheless, the city elected to hire EMG to attend to the monthly task.
Shreve told the council his company should be able to negotiate savings for the city.
The contract with EMG will run $300 per month.
“Essentially, we just raised our electric bills another $3,600,” said Mayor Phillip Merkel.
“I don’t think we had a choice,” Mueller replied.
Also at issue was the date Westar billed the city, which had been changed by the company to the 5th of the month. Previously, usage information was given so that Moran could bill its customers by the first of the month.
Westar would not commit to a solid billing date for the city, but told them the fifth was the most likely date each month it would transfer the information.
“If I ran my business like Westar, I would not have any customers,” said City Attorney Brett Heim.
To be on the safe side, the city opted to change its electric billing date to the 10th of each moth. Bills will be due 15 working days thereafter, with electricity shut off effective five days later if unpaid.
“I think people are going to complain no matter what you do,” Mueller said of the change.

NEWLY RESIGNED library board member Patti Boyd asked the council to consider funding the library’s admission into the SEK n Find shared circulation system used by many Southeast Kansas Library System libraries. Cost would be $450 a year for membership plus $200 annually for a courier system to deliver books to and from participating libraries. Additional funds, for a total of $1,000 the first year, would be helpful to train staff and complete data entry of all library holdings into the computer data base, Boyd said.
The council took no action, but will consider the request for the upcoming budget cycle.
Other changes being looked at for the library are a remodel or, preferably, rebuild, integrating a storm shelter within the building.
Costs for a prefabricated storm shelter had been reviewed, with the council opting to have a representative from Iola’s Shafer, Klein and Warren address city space needs and possibly submit plans for a new building.
Other considerations include parking bays for city vehicles and a loading dock exclusively for library use.
Appointed to the library board to replace Boyd and Frances Poling, whose term ended, were Ruth Spangler and Jo Tucker.

PARKING on sidewalks and downtown were addressed. Residents at 112 E. Oak have repeatedly blocked access to the sidewalk at that address, in conflict with city ordinance, Evans said.
Sidewalk deterioration has resulted, but the city will not remove the sidewalk as requested. Instead, it will notify the property owner of the code violation and request replacement of the sidewalk, as per ordinance.
A cattle trailer parked downtown has brought a “pre-complaint” said Police Chief Shane Smith.
It is legal for tractor trailers to be parked downtown on private property with property owner permission, Smith noted.
The council took no action on the trailer.
Residents who wish to receive the city’s all-electric utility rate must have gas meters at their homes removed, not merely locked, the council decided. An all-electric rate realizes a $7 per month savings for a homeowner, Evans said.
The city will arrange soon to have its buildings inspected for termites.
Micro utility vehicles or mini trucks are not valid for driving on city streets. No unlicensed drivers or uninsured vehicles may be driven in Moran, Smith said.
Issues with the new 911 dispatch system need to be addressed. Communications channeling through the center “sound ... out of range,” said Merkel. The problem was not present before dispatch services moved to new quarters at 410 N. State Street in Iola.
The fire department is using National Fire Incident Reporting software that allows reports to be accessed through the fire marshall’s Web site, Smith said.
Citywide cleanup was set for June 8.

Over $110K cut form Marmamton budget

dec 2009


By ANNE KAZMIERCZAK Register Reporter
MORAN — Rumored cuts of classified staff never materialized at the Marmaton Valley school board meeting Monday night, but the board did find ways to trim over $110,000 from the 2009-10 school year budget.
The cuts were necessitated by a reduction in state per pupil base aid which left USD 256 $108,000 under budget for the fiscal year.
One custodian position will be lost as a result of the actions.
Superintendent Nancy Meyer brought a list to the board delineating “as many things as possible that we could live without,” she said.
In addition, board members put forth their own lists of possible reductions, including combining bus routes, eliminating school field trips, incorporating a preschool/day care program into the schools and eliminating summer school.
“Nobody wants to cut anything, but we have to,” said board member Bob Rhodes, who presented 17 possible reductions, including an across the board pay cut.
The sacred cow of the budget was the school’s athletics programs. Even though some activities draw only minimal numbers of participants, board president Patti Boyd feared that being the only district in the region to cut sports would lead to parents opting to send their children to neighboring schools.
“If we cut athletics alone, we’re going rogue,” she noted.
In the end, the custodial position, staff professional development, K-12 summer school, one assistant track coach position, transportation and expenses for sponsors and groups were all cut. Basketball transportation was reduced. Previous budget savings would be applied to the current deficit as well, Boyd said.
In all, $111,134 was trimmed from Marmaton Valley’s spending.
About a dozen individuals who came to hear the board’s decisions never stayed for the final outcome of the meeting, which ran until 11:30 p.m.
Most may have been there to learn if any of the school’s six para-professionals were being cut, a rumor that proved unfounded as the board opted to cut programs rather than people.
The choices, even so, were not painless.
“We’ll see kids dropping out, especially in farm communities,” Meyer warned. “Our state assessments will be flat.
“There are other government entities that are hurting, but I don’t think they affect as many people” as education cuts do, Meyer said.
USD 256 serves 380 students, including 36 who chose to attend the school after LaHarpe Elementary was shuttered as a cost saving measure by USD 257 this past year.
The increase in enrollment prompted the hiring of additional teachers, although next year classes may need to be re-worked as far as number of pupils per class, Meyer said. “There will probably be teachers who lose their jobs next year,” she said.
“We’re not OK anymore. This hurts kids. I think next school year, we’re going to be desperate.”

A GROUP of former Marmaton Valley cheerleaders met privately with Boyd to discuss personnel issues.
“We’ve lost a lot of cheerleaders and we’re aware of that,” said Brooklyn Traub. School spirit has diminished due to the losses, she said, and “we’d like to get the girls back, get the crowds back.”
Accusations of verbal abuse by the cheer sponsor were raised but not addressed by the board.
Paula Miller, a cheer mom, said she encouraged her daughter to quit the squad.
“None of these girls wanted to quit, but dropping out was in their best interest, physically, emotionally, the whole nine yards,” Miller said.
“There was poor guidance from adults to high schools students, generally,” offered Mercedes Trollope
When asked by board member Amanda Allen what the group would like done, Traub responded “We’d like to get back to cheer if it’s under new guidance and supervision.”
Elizabeth Hopkins is the group’s current sponsor. She was not at the meeting.
Boyd said the board would follow up at a later date.

IN OTHER board business, proposed changes to the district’s attendance policy consumed a large chunk of meeting time. No action was taken.
Technology purchases will be kept to the bare minimum of replacement of laptop batteries and the like, the board decided.
“We have that two to three year plan for replacing everything and it’s a great plan,” Meyer said, “But right now we don’t have the funding.”
No changes were made to the school’s weapons policy. It remains that if weapons are found, they will be asked to be removed. Failure to comply will draw law enforcement involvement.
Junior high and high school principal Jeremy Boldra asked the board for ideas to curb student use of smokeless tobacco.
“Ours is much higher than the state average,” he told the board.

Iola — and Army — not always colorblind

By ANNE KAZMIERCZAK
Register Reporter

When Bob Lane was a teenager, movies at the Iola Theater cost a quarter.
“My, we loved to go to those shows,” Lane said. Problem was, if Lane wanted to go with a group of friends, only five of them could sit in the theater at one time.
“You could stand up there if you wanted,” Lane said, “but you couldn’t sit.”
There were only five designated balcony seats for people of color, and once they were filled, the theater wouldn’t let any more sit down.
Still, Lane has no bad feelings for the people of the past, who enforced or instilled those segregation laws.
“That’s just the way it was.”
Lane has a wealth of memories of Iola’s segregated past. He tells of a light-skinned football star who could play in games against teams that didn’t realize he was black. In towns where they knew, he wasn’t allowed on the field.
“Kansas was kind of strange,” Lane said. “It depended on what town you lived in.”
Iola schools, for instance, weren’t segregated, but Coffeyville was. In fact, Lane said, “I was the first black male to graduate from the Iola Junior College.”
“Other boys started, but they didn’t finish. Some girls went through, but I was the first black man.”
Lane was graduated from the college in 1941, which he attended after a year of trade school in Kansas City.
“But I didn’t get any more from the trade school than I did from high school,” Lane said, “so I came back here and went to the junior college.”
Despite the non-segregated schools, there were other aspects of life that were still off-limits.
Even in Iola, Lane said, if you were black, “You couldn’t go to the restaurants, you couldn’t drink from the water fountains.”
“If I went to Cook’s Drug Store, I couldn’t even sit at the counter and have a Coca-Cola.”
Even the Mason lodges were segregated.
“Oh, yes,” Lane said. He was a member of the Golden Square Lodge 71. “It was a fine lodge.”
“You had to be pure of heart to get through that time,” Lane said repeatedly. He said not all people were bad, but rules of segregation reigned.
Segregation didn’t stop the draft, though, and in 1942 Lane was summoned to armed service.
Army trains and troops did follow segregation laws, however, making for convoluted travel.
“If I was going to Leavenworth, I could sit anywhere I wanted” on the train, Lane said. “But if I wanted to go south, I had to move.”
Even Army busses required black servicemen to move to the back.
The United States Army did not integrate its troops until ordered by President Truman in 1947.
“All the black units had white officers,” Lane said.
“We had one black officer,” Lane said. “He was the chaplain.”
Even movie theaters on military grounds were segregated, Lane said.
Lane was a First Sergeant in the army, and an aviation engineer, and though he was offered officer’s training due to his skills and intellegence, he declined.
“I chose to stay with the guys I came in with,” he said.
That sense of comraderie was proven later, when the men were waiting to be shipped out from Boston, Mass.
“It wasn’t too long before we were told we were going to be shipped out the first part of February,” Lane said.
Being just before the holidays, though, “The next morning, those guys had scattered everywhere.”
Lane was in charge of his troop, and knew his men well. So he declared them all “present or accounted for,” which in Army parlance meant he knew where they were if they were not physically present.
His commanding officer chided him, warning his head would roll if the men were not back by the time they were scheduled to ship to Europe.
“Oh, they’ll be back,” Lane told him. And sure enough, by February, all the men had returned from their families.
Lane said the men boarded a ship — also segregated.
“We weren’t three days out fromthe U.S. coast, and those boats started rocking.” The men were under fire from German U-boats.
After docking in Bermuda, the men continued on to France and North Africa, where they were under the orders of Gen. George C. Patton.
As aviation engineers, it was Lane’s unit’s job to build runways, fix bridges and secure downed planes.
“The Germans were everyhwere,” Lane said. “The first runway we put down, they blew up.”
All the men in Lane’s unit were black. “There were black pilots, black fighting troops, black engineers,” he said.
“They weren’t integrated ‘til after World War II,” Lane said.
After the war, Lane returned to Iola. Despite the achievements of the black troops, the world he had left behind was still segregated.
“When I got back to the United States, I was bringing 10 guys back to Camp Chafee, Arkansas,” Lane said. Five of those men were white. Even though he was the officer in charge, when “we stopped at those different restaurants, I had to go to the back, or I had to go outside to the toilet, or I couldn’t drink water out of the fountains.”
“In Camp Chafee, I couldn’t be with my men,” Lane said. German prisoners of war housed at the camp could attend the local movie theater, but Lane and the other black soldiers could not.
“I couldn’t even buy a train ticket to go to Kansas City,” with the group, he said.
Blacks were not allowed to purchase advance tickets, Lane said, but only board the train when it came in, provided there was room. The six black soldiers in the group were thus cut off from their fellows.
“Some of the white guys bought us tickets so we could go with them” as a troop, Lane said.
Now, though, Lane said, “That’s water under the bridge.”
As he watches a changing nation, about to usher in its first black president, Lane said “I figured down the road it would happen. I never did think it would be in my time.”

Smith home simply elegant

By ANNE KAZMIERCZAK Register Reporter
pic(s)
An elegantly set table in a room bedecked by angels awaits visitors to Jim and Leonard Smith’s home on Sunday’s Allen County Animal Rescue Facility Holiday Homes Tour.
The home, at 201 S. Cottonwood, was purchased by Leonard Smith about 20 years ago. At the time, it was divided into upper and lower apartments.
Jim Smith said he told his brother, “Let’s get rid of that thing,” of the upstairs apartment.
The narrow, tastefully appointed upstairs bedroom was the smaller apartment’s kitchen, Jim Smith said. A sleeping porch is now Jim’s office. The main floor remained largely intact.
“We really don’t know who built it,” Smith said of the home, reckoned to be from the late 1800’s. “But we do know two famous people lived here,” he continued.
C.E. Perham — “He had Perham Clothing,” — and C.B. Spencer, former postmaster, pharmacist and secretary of the Iola Electric Railroad, both occupied the dwelling in the past.
Smith’s collection of model trains fits into that history, though those are a year-round hobby, not a holiday decoration, he said. A cluster of carolers and snowmen on the steps are more seasonal decor.
Smith said he and his brother, who have two dogs and care for five outdoor cats, are opening their home “to help the dogs and the cats. We do it because we love the animals.”
Proceeds from the tour will help complete the ACARF shelter in LaHarpe.
“Last year about 200 people toured the homes,” Smith said. “I hope we get that many this year.”

Dec. 12, 2009

IMS students sing Saturday

Iola Middle School students will be raising their voice in song Saturday at the 40th annual Elementary and Middle School Music Festival at Fort Scott Community College.
“We are sending two choirs and 22 soloists who will perform for a judge,” said music instructor Greta Adams. A total of 65 students will depart the Bowlus Fine Arts center Saturday morning for the day-long competition.
The middle schools’ seventh and eighth graders comprise one choir, while 15 sixth graders make up the other. The soloists also sing in the upper level choir. There are no sixth grade soloists, Adams said.
Because the group form IMS is so large, “We basically take up one room for a couple hours” and sing before the judges, Adams said. The IMS students begin singing at 10:30 a.m. Surrounding schools will compete in the afternoon. There will be 36 schools represented at the festival.
Students singing a solo include:
Mason Coons, Abriana Schubert, Scout Henry, Mickey Ingle, Audrea Stahl, Katie Thompson, Lydia Shirley, Michaela French, Brittany Porter, Chalene Hutton, Libby Shay, Essence Owens, Reagan Ford , Chanel Coyne, Keli Lee, Mason Helman, Tessa Rowe, Jordan Strickler, Tori Snavely, Thomas Haley, Daniel Michaels and Shane Stuart.

Spring 2009

Merchant Feature: BUrlington Construction

When it comes to concrete work, Burlington Construction are experts in the trade. Be it patios or sidewalks, curbing or street work, Burlington crews have the experience and the ability to do the job right.
Tom Hugunin owns Burlington, named for the town where they are centered. “We do anything concrete,” Hugunin said. “We can make decorative concrete look like flagstone or pavers. We have 25 different colors,” from red to tan and willow green to tint or dye the concrete.
Different surface treatments can make a product that looks like Mexican tile, or slate or even limestone.
The limits are only as broad as imagination.
Burlington employs eight men, most of whom have been with the company over 10 years. Hugunin has been in the business since 1977, when he “helped build Wolf Creek Nuclear Power Plant.”
“From there, I went on to building bridges,” then “doing streets and sidewalks,” in Topeka, Hugunin said of his experience.
He began Burlington Construction 15 years ago.
“There’s no job too small, as far as we’re concerned. We do patios and driveways and sidewalk segments.”
Burlington Construction did Craig Abbot’s showcase driveway, complete with the letter A “sandblasted into colored concrete,” Hugunin said. Driveway edging looks like slate, but it is actually colored concrete. “We textured it and acid stained it” Hugunin said of the showpiece. The drive itself is tinted to match local limestone of the house.
Burlington has also done work at Allen County Community College and for the City of Iola.
“We’ve done a lot of work for Iola over the past 10 years,” Hugunin said, “for the housing authority and the streets dept.”
“It’s great having the crew I have,” he added.
“Jeremy is a fanatic about details,” Hugunin said of his son and business partner. “He’ll make sure everything is lined up where it’s supposed to be.”
And that’s important to Hugunin, because Burlington Construction is serious about quality.
“When we do a city or county or state job, we’re held to a certain standard, or you can jeopardize the integrity of the job. I’m going to take that same standard and apply it to a residential project.”
So whether it is a patio or a subdivision in the plans, consider Burlington Construction.

5/20/09

Team Doe on the go in Meltdown

April 17, 2009


By ANNE KAZMIERCZAK Register Reporter
Teresa Cheney is melting down. “When I first read about Allen County Meltdown, my first thought was, ‘This will be a great way to meet new people.’” That’s important to Cheney, who still remembers the joy of family gatherings.
“When I was a child, I remember my grandma and my mom growing a garden and then freezing and canning the food for family and friends. This was fun to me. They helped me understand the importance of working, laughing, and spending time together.
“As I've grown older, I've noticed there is less and less time set aside to enjoy the company of others,” said Cheney, a special Ed teacher. Though she loves her job, it keeps her busy.
“Tending to everyday responsibilities has a way of zapping the fun out of life,” said Cheney. “Women, especially, thrive when they are involved in some type of positive socialization. This program, to me, is not only about physical health but also mental health.”
Cheney joined with three friends, Brenda Gregg, Heather Bailey and Charlotte Hancock. All hope to lose weight.
“I personally have an extreme amount of weight to lose,” said Cheney. “I understand that I will not lose it all in 12 weeks. My goal is to improve my health while finding ways to have fun and enjoy doing it at the same time.”
That goal prompted a name the group discarded as too negative: “The Singing Fat Ladies.” 
“You know the saying, ‘It ain't over ‘til the fat lady sings,’” Cheney said. “The idea behind that name would be the struggle with weight is over.” Instead, the team went for the more cryptic Team Doe.
“People say John or Jane Doe when they don't know the identity of someone. Well, that's the idea behind this name,” Cheney explained. “We are four women who don't necessarily feel comfortable being noticed.”
Hopefully, the lifestyle changes resulting from participating in the Meltdown will alter that perspective.
Cheney and her crew are dedicated to that change.
“We check the Web site just about everyday,” Cheney said, to learn of events, classes and new recipes. The site posts a new recipe each week, complete with calorie counts and fat gram totals.
“I went to the first Zumba workout last weekend,” Cheney said. “I am not coordinated at all, but I had already made up my mind that I was going to do the best I could do and enjoy it. I had a blast!”
In addition to Meltdown classes, the group coordinates its own activities.
“We are going to watch a ‘Walking Away the Pounds’ exercise video. We’re picking nights we can get together and walk. We’re sort of alternating things so we don’t get bored,” she said. In addition, Cheney joined Curves.
Being part of an organized event works for her, Cheney said.
“It’s helped me to get focused.”

Final Meltdown total released

July 2009


By ANNE KAZMIERCZAK Register Reporter
Final Meltdown numbers are in. Confirmed weight loss stands at 1,411 lbs.
Sunny Shreeve, of Thrive Allen County, believes the total is probably higher. But, 207 people out of the 384 participating in the Meltdown did not weigh out.
“We think that we exceeded our goal of one ton, but we can't verify it without people weighing out,” Shreeve said.
 Not participating in the offical weigh-out may have cost some teams, as well.
“We had several teams on the bubble that could have potentially won the big prizes,” Shreeve said. “However, one or two team members didn’t weigh out,” thus eliminating their chances to win.
“This just shows us the importance of each and every team member,” Shreeve said. 
Next year, Shreeve said, weekly weigh-ins — requested by many Meltdown participants — may be initiated.
Regardless of the total lost, the Meltdown was, by all accounts, a rousing success.
Participants gave their eating and execise habits a new look. They began fitness routines they otherwise would not have. They developed support networks to help them attain their goals. And they reached out to their community.
In all, that’s well worth a ton.

Fell free to lose with Meltdown

April 2009


Sometimes, it’s good to lose.
This spring, all of Allen County is welcomed to participate in a “Meltdown,” a 12-week organized effort to lose weight and improve health.
Sponsored by Thrive Allen County, the Health Care Foundation of Greater Kansas City and the K-State Research and Extension Service, the Meltdown begins with a “weigh in” at 9 a.m. on April 4 at the County Courthouse.
Individuals and teams of one to ten members are invited to participate. Everyone registering will receive a T-shirt and access to free work-out classes and online tips, said Sunny Shreve, Thrive’s program assistant.
As of this printing, a lot of the plans are still in the works, but expected activities include a zumba dance class every Saturday morning in Humboldt and a two-mile walk on the Prairie Rail Trial during week six. Extension service classes on healthy eating will be held every other week at floating locations throughout the county and seniorcize classes will be at the Humboldt United Methodist Church, Shreve said.
In addition, Healthy Humboldt yoga-pilates classes and the Iola Recreation department’s Tuesday and Thursday 5:15 p.m. aerobics classes are open to Meltdown participants.
A full listing of classes, their times and locations can be found on the official Meltdown website, www.allencountymeltdown.com
Shreve said she envisions community challenges, business competitions and church teams challenging each other to lose weight.
Registration forms can be printed off the Web site or filled out at the Thrive office, 2 East Jackson Ave., on the Iola square. There is a $5 per participant fee, which can be paid when returning the registration form. Be sure to note each team member’s shirt size and color choice on the form, Shreve said, as the shirts will be purchased about a week after kick off.
T-shirts are available in heather red or royal blue.
Participants must partake of an official weigh in at the beginning and end of the 12-week event. Scales will be located at businesses throughout the county for the duration of the Meltdown to track unofficial weights.
Complete rules for the Meltdown are on the Web site. Team captains should have Internet access to log their group weights on a weekly basis. In addition, registered teams are eligible to win weekly incentive prizes. Prizes will be distributed regardless of amount of weight lost, Shreve said, so everyone has a fair chance of winning. Prizes based on weight loss will be offered at the end of the event. Individual weights will be kept confidential.
Participants must be at least 18 years of age to compete. For those who cannot make the kick off, an alternate weigh in may be conducted at the Thrive office from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. on April 3 or April 6. No entry will be accepted after April 6.

Nursing homes may get boost from new tax

By ANNE KAZMIERCZAK
Register Reporter

Come Thursday, Iola nursing homes and residential care facilities should be floating a little higher financially.
That’s the date the state is set to reinstate a 10 percent cut to Medicaid paymets to such facilities.
The money will come from a new tax on nursing home beds.
According to a release by the Kansas Health Institute, “If the initiative wins federal approval, the tax would remain in place for three years. In the fourth year, it will be reduced by at least 40 percent. After the fourth year, it would expire if not renewed by lawmakers. ... The law calls for using the first year’s revenue to restore the 10 percent cut in Medicaid, dating back to Jan. 1. ... In the second, third and fourth years, most of the money would be used raise Medicaid reimbursement in ways intended to cause homes to hire more direct care staff. About $10 million would be set aside for projects aimed at improving quality of care.”
Few homes in Iola had heard about the new measure, however, and none knew if the tax would apply to Medicaid beds as well as those paid for by Medicare or private insurance.
All, though, were certain of one thing.
“That cut drastically hurt us,” said Peggy Strong, executive director of Tara Gardens residential care faciltiy.
“The state barely gives you enough money to survive on, to make payroll.” The reimbursement reinstatement will help, she said.
Half of Tara’s beds — 11 of 22 — are occupied by Medicaid patients.
Medicaid pays a flat rate to each nursing home, based on the number of Medicaid clients they house and the type of care provided those individuals.
At Tara, losing funds on half their beds was critical. They had somthing of a safety net, however, in that Humboldt’s Arrowowod Lane is owned and adminsitered by the same company, Strong said. There, only 5 of the 22 beds are Medicaid-paid.
“One building covers the other,” Strong said. But, “We’re just robbing Peter to pay Paul.”
As the health care crises worsens and costs continue to skyrocket, “more and more people are going to state assistance,” Strong noted. “We’re even seeing more of our private pay go that way.”
It’s the same elsewhere.
“It crippled us,” Jody Monsour, owner/operator of Fountian Villa said of the reduction implemtned earlier this year. “They called it a 10 percent cut, but basically they didin’t pay us what they owed.”
Monsour noted he recieves only $38 a day from Medicaid to cover one patient. “We take her to the hospital. We give her all her medications. I’m basically giving her care for free,” he said of the payment that doesn’t cover the cost of staff time provided.
Not only that, Monsour noted, but “the state has doubled every (annual) fee you would pay to them. My liscensure — which normally runs $400 — went to $800. My bed fees went from $600 to $1,200.”
Libality insurance was even worse, he said. “My insurance liablity went from $35 to $500 per bed,” Monosur said.
“At the same time,” he said, “all the services were cut. All the departments were cut. All the people who I used to confer with for information were cut. It’s really getting bad out there.”
Hopefully, Monsour conceded, restoring the 10 percent cut will be enough.
“When I take a Medicaid patient, I look at their plan of care,” he said. What sort of care does the client need? What medications? All are writen up in the plan, Monsour said. Then, “The state looks at what (the individual) can afford to pay — that’s called the client obligation.” Medicaid is supposed to pay the balance between the cost of care and the client’ s abilty to pay.
“There’s sometimes I can’t take them,” because the reimbursment rate is too low, he said.

MEDICAID payments are “a per diem that is established quarterly,” Joe Benter of Iola Nursing Center explained. He said that care costs sometimes increase before the Medicaid payment is adjusted. If a patient needs more intensive care before the next quarterly adjustment, the nursing home must cover that care on its own.
The per diem is set for the entire facility, not adjusted per client, he noted. But, “If you spend money improving your building, you’re reimbursed at a higher rate,” Benter said.
Medicare — a federal program — “is considered skilled care — that’s reimbursed at a higher rate,” Benter said. While Medicare payments come from the federal government, Medicaid funding “is thorugh the state,” he said.
There are no Medicare patients at Iola Nursing Center. Of 37 filled beds, 24 are Medicaid clients; 12 beds are empty.
Guest Home Estates, the asisited living side of INC, has 49 beds. Twenty are currently occupied. None are paid for by Medicaid.
Fountian Villa has 17 residents. Ten of those are Meidcaid clients. There are 20 beds total.
Statewide, a 55 percent Medicaid case load per residential center is the average.
Previously, Monsour noted, his Medicaid load was less than 25 percent. “Now we’re at 50 percent. People we had who were self-pay have slid into Medicaid as they’ve used up their resources.”
“Medicaid is going to be a necessity (for more individuals) as prices rise and insurance covers less” Monsour noted.
“I’m starting to get 40-year-olds in my place — it’s scaring me.” Younger platients may have drug abuse or obesity issues that disallow them from living on their own, Monsour said.
“Medicaid has to cover them” if they cannot afford to pay for their own care, he noted.
At Windsor Place, half of the 52 clients are supported by Medicaid, noted bookkeeepr Charelen Merriman. There are a total of 60 beds available at the skilled nursing home, she said.
To deal with the reduced reimbursent earlier in the year, “we actually cut (staff’s) rate of pay,” Merriman said. It was that or cut positions, she noted.
The hope is the new bed tax will allow the agencies “to get more money from the federal government,” Benter said.
“The state would tax the nursing home, and more money would flow into the federal system, then the state (is) supposed to pass that back down to the nursing homes,” he explained.
“I’ll beleive it when I see it,” he said.
To survive, Benter said, “You just try to run as lean and tight a ship as possible,” he said. “Staffing is the least flexible. You look at food and recreation” when needing to cut costs, he noted. “You have to be creative.”
“It still comes down to this,” said Monsour, “It’s all taxpayer money.”

July 2010

Bolling's Meat Market offers old-fashioned quality

New Business Story
0ne pic

By ANNE KAZMIERCZAK
Register Reporter
We’ve all heard that the family that plays together, stays together. The Bolling family, who own and operate Moran Locker, know the same is true of work.
The family recently unlocked the doors of their newest venture, Bolling’s Meat Market, at 201 S. State St. in Iola.
Family members Sharon, Seth, Cara and Mitch Bolling, plus Lucciano Cardona, will run the retail market.
Business hours are Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Hours may expand as business dictates.
The store opened quietly Saturday, but plans a grand opening sometime soon, Sharon said.
Available are retail packages of beef, pork and chicken, along with specialty meats such as tongue, liver, heart and fresh side, Sharon said. “We had a lot of people ask about those,” she noted.
Unlike a grocery meat counter, everything will be packaged fresh in-store, Sharon said.
“We will cut to order,” Cara said. Pork chops, for example, can be purchased as 1 inch, 1 1/2 inch, or any other preferred thickness, she said.
Ground beef, chops, steaks, chicken and various cuts of beef will be daily staples.
“It’s just like an old-fashioned meat market where you go to the local butcher every day and choose what you are going to fix,” Sharon said.
For those who don’t feel like cooking, cold cuts, deli meats and cheeses will also be available for purchase by the pound.
The selection of meats will vary somewhat day to day, but always be fresh, Cara said. In addition, people can order the popular Moran Locker meat bundles.
“It’s the exact same bundle for the exact same price,” Cara noted.
Meats in the bundles are double-wrapped and quick frozen for freezer longevity, Sharon explained. “A year from now, you go to open that package and it’s just as red and fresh as it is today,” she said.
Meats are packaged in usable portions, she added. “You don’t get one 12 pound chub of ground beef, you get six two-pound packages of ground beef. It’s designed for one meal for two, four or six people,” she said of the portion sizes.
As much as possible, meats will be raised locally.
“We really believe in buying local, eating local and getting the freshest product you can,” Cara said. Plus, she added of buying locally, “It’s good for everybody. It keeps your neighbors employed.”

THE IOLA store marks the fourth generation of meat cutters and processors in the Bolling family.
“Our grandparents,” Chub and Helen Bolling, “own Bronson Locker,” Cara said. Before that, Chub’s father Ted was a traveling butcher and butchered for Bronson locker as well, Sharon said.
Meat will not be butchered at the Bolling’s Meat Market. That will still be done in Moran, and in Bronson for fowl, Cara said.
Seasonally available meats will include smoked turkey and pit hams, also called holiday hams, Sharon said. Regular smoked hams will be available year-round, she added.
Other offerings include beef bones for pets or soup stock, Cara said. “They’re cut straight from the animal and put in the bag,” she said.
“We’ll also be selling Cheesecake Factory cheesecakes,” Cara said. The cheesecakes, which weigh 10 pounds, are available whole and are sold frozen. Flavors will vary on a daily basis, Seth noted, and will be offered at half the price they would be at the Cheesecake Factory itself, thanks to the fact that Cara and Cardona, both former Cheesecake factory employees, were able to secure bulk pricing on the treats.
And, “After the first of the year, we’ll get a food service license which will allow us to serve deli sandwiches and cheesecake by the slice,” Cara said.

THE BOLLINGS spent about three months remodeling the location, which had been vacant since 2008.
“Everything’s brand new,” Cara said. “The only thing we kept was the floor tile and we had to replace some of them. We’ve done work with the refrigeration and put in blinds to keep the building cool.” A ventilation system was added to siphon heat produced by the many freezers in the store. A tin style ceiling was added as well.
“Every inspection is done, everything passed,” Cara said.
The building — bigger inside than out — is conveniently located at the corner of Madison and State streets. The location should serve to bring in customers, Sharon said, noting some customers in Moran drive from as far away as Kansas City, Nebraska and Oklahoma.
To serve such distance customers better, Bolling’s Meat Market will begin offering Internet sales in the spring.
“We will be able to ship nationwide because all of our product is Kansas state inspected,” Cara said. “Our goal is for you to be able to order online and ship it to your home.”
The overall goal of Bolling’s Meat Market, Seth added, is simple: “Quality products at quality prices.”
Cardona offers bilingual service, Spanish and English, for clients as well, Sharon said.
The number for Bolling Meat Market, active after Oct. 23, will be 365-MEAT. The fax number, currently working as a phone line, is 380-6070.

10/18/10

May Day fun planned for Saturday

Saturday will be a day of fun and frolic at Iola’s Riverside park when the Bowlus Fine Arts Center and Daniels Bequest presents the May Day Family Fun Festival.
“Absolutely everything about this is free to families,” noted Bowlus Director Susan Raines.
Rock and Roll, pioneer games, hot dogs and horseshoes will all play a roll in the afternoon event.
First up will be games, starting at noon.
Games from yore such as hoop rolling and string games such as cat’s cradle will be taught by members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and Iola Public Library children’s librarian Leah Oswald.
Oswald will also teach jump rope rhymes. Hula hoops and jump ropes will be provided by Jefferson Elementary School and SAFEBASE. Horseshoes will be taught by members of the Iola Horseshoe Club.
The library will also teach youth how to make May baskets, a traditional gift of small baskets of flowers left on individual’s door steps.
“It’s like Halloween in reverse,” Raines’ noted.
Allen County Community College Red Devils dance and cheer squad will provide face painting, while the ACCC theater department lends its summer production stage for Kansas rock musicians to entertain the crowd.
From 1 to 1:45, Dino O’Dell and the Veloci-rappers bring a mix of rap, reggae and South African township jive to the stage.
From 2 to 2:45, Funky Mama Krista Eyler sings bluesy children’s tunes.
From 3 to 3:45, Mr. Stinky Feet and the Hiccups takes the stage playing kid-oriented folk-rock.
The Doo Dads close the show at 4 with feel-good rock and roll.
Ongoing will be storyteller and puppeteer Priscilla Howe, who spent four weeks in Iola two years ago as storyteller in residence; Kiwanis train rides; balloons from Community National Bank; and hots dogs and drinks courtesy of Emprise Bank, Sonic Drive-In and Cox Communications.
Iola’s tree board will give each family one live tree to plant as well, and the Northern Star Girl Scout troop will exchange a flowering plant for every full (root included) dandelion brought to the festival.
Funding for May Day is provided by the Kansas Arts Commission, which is itself funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, and the State of Kansas. Additional sponsors are A&W Restaurant, Allen County Farm Bureau, Citizens Bank, KIKS, Allen County Fair Board and the Iola Register.
5/10/10

Math and meals starts Wednesday

Regina Young’s seventh grade math students at Iola Middle School have a chance to earn some extra credit this year — and it comes with pizza.
Young is beginning a series of bi-monthly dates for the students and their parents from 6 to 8 p.m. in the Iola Middle School Commons.
The math and meal nights run every other Wednesday beginning tomorrow through Oct. 21.
“We’re trying to provide an opportunity for parents to interact with their child,” Young said.
“We’ve seen through the years less and less involvement between parents and children of this age group,” she added. “The district has been looking of late at drop out rates and one thing prevalent among children who drop out is a lack of parental involvement,” Young said.
Not pointing any fingers, Young said, “I think parent are working as many hours as they can to make ends meet,” she said, “and they come home tired.”
These occasional events will offer families a chance to spend some time together while reinforcing important math skills, she said.
The students will be “reviewing math skills necessary for the state assessments,” Young said. In addition, the evenings will act as a brief refresher for adults, who will find the math useful in their daily lives, she said. Concepts like proportion, ratios, one and two-step equations, area, angles and volume will be focal points of the evenings.
For those parents unfamiliar with the theories, the activity will offer them a chance to learn with their children so they can help with homework, Young said. And, she said, “Students get extra credit and an opportunity to build a relationship with their parent.” The evenings will be preceded by a take-home math activity that parents and students are to complete together.
For those parents unable to attend, volunteers have offered to go to the math/meal program with students, Young said. Call the school at 365-4785 to reserve a spot.
SAFE BASE is providing the meals.

9/4/09

Magic man mesmerizes masses

Everyone in Iola knows magician Mark Toland, or so it would seem from the crowds that have packed his annual Christmas performances at the Warehouse Theatre. This year, to accommodate the expected crowds, an additional show has been added. As ever, all performances are free.
Toland said doing the Iola shows is a treat — both for the town, and for him. “The Iola show is unique, because people are coming to see me. Usually I’m an added bonus,” he said about many of his gigs. “People come to a corporate party and I’m there, or they come to a restaurant and I’m there.”
Toland does “probably 100 shows a year,” he said. He anticipates that will increase once he graduates from Wichita State University this spring.
“As soon as I get out of school I’m going to try to do it full time,” Toland said. “I love magic to death.”
Toland first got bitten by the magic bug at age three, said his mother Karen Toland. That was via a book of magic tricks. But Mark Toland said TV had something to do with it, too.
“My favorite magician is David Copperfield,” Toland said. “I saw him on television when I was a kid and he made a train car disappear. I remember seeing that when I was very young and thinking ‘This is what I have to do.’”
“When they asked me in kindergarten what I wanted to be, I said a magician.”
Toland stuck to his dream.
Now he performs for kindergartners and other kids, at birthday parties and school functions. He also performs for adults, at corporate parties, dinner theaters, weddings and private functions. And then there are shows like this weekend’s.
Toland will host two performances at the Warehouse Theatre. The first is Saturday night at 7 p.m. and the next a 2 p.m. Sunday matinee. In addition, Toland is offering a free afternoon workshop for youth ages 8-14 on Saturday, also at the Warehouse Theatre.
The 1 p.m. workshop is limited to 15 participants, who must sign up by calling Jim Talkington at 365-2042. You may also e-mail him at jimtalkington@iolacommunitythatre.org.
Toland’s mom said he typically visits Jefferson school when he’s in town, but this year he has a Friday evening engagement in Kansas City, so will mis the opportunity. He conceived of the kid’s workshop instead, Karen said.
“He is teaching them the basics of magic,” Karen said. “He put together kits for them so they can not only learn how to do magic, but have something to do magic with after that.”
“I’ve never done a workshop like this before,” Toland said. “I’ve always been secretive about (how the tricks are done), but if one child gets hooked on it, it’s worth it,” he said.
Once hooked, Toland said, you learn there’s more to magic than meets the eye.
“People think it’s all fun and games, but I get to see the business side of magic. Building props, shipping props, repairing them.”
Toland works at Steve’s Magic Emporium in Wichita. “It’s a store that caters mainly to professional magicians,” Toland said. “It’s world-renowned becasue it’s so exclusive.”
Toland said 90 percetn of the store’s business is mail-order. “I still need to learn the tricks to demonstrate them to the 10 percent of our customers who walk in,” Toland said. That little perk lets him learn every new trick as it is brought in, allowing him to incorporate dazzling new material into his own shows.
Toland said a films such as 2006’s “The Illusionist” and “The Prestige” expanded the audience for magic.
“Every illusion you see in the film,” he said of “The Illusionist”, “can be performed on stage. I think that’s amazing.”
That meshes with Toland’s ideals. “I want to fool adults — I want to puzzle them beyond belief.”
“I think magic is a feeling,” Toland said. “Whether it’s seeing the snow or the mountains and feling that awe, thats the feeling I want the audience to get.”

1/28/09

Baker moved "up north" to Iola

2/26/09


By ANNE KAZMIERCZAK Register Reporter

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Lydia Baker didn’t have far to go when she decided to move to Iola. Her family has been moving further north with every generation, the last two veeeerrrry slowly.
“I grew up in Humboldt,” Baker said. “My mother and dad grew up in Chanute.”
The family made a leap before that, though. “My grandparents were both from Mexico. How they ended up in Chanute I don’t know — I think it was the railroad migration.”
Three of Baker’s siblings — “I’m the fourth of five children,” she said — were born in Chanute as well.
Despite her heritage, Baker never learned to speak her parents’ native tongue.
“My mom and dad both speak Spanish. All my grandparents spoke Spanish and broken English.
“My grandfather would tell stories to me and my siblings. He’d start a story in broken English and continue in Spanish. He’d forget we didn’t know what he was saying,” Baker said.
Once she married, Baker and her husband John opted to move north again.
“It was basically family that made us want to settle in Iola,” she said. “John is from Moran, and that puts us between the two sets of parents,” Baker said.
Baker isn’t sure if her own two children, Justin and Maria, will settle in Iola after college.
“My son is a junior at Pittsburg State,” she said, and Maria is a senior at Iola High School.
“I’m dreading the empty nest,” Baker said. “Maria graduates in May.”
She, too, plans to leave town for college, either Emporia or Pittsburg, Baker said.
“I don’t know if it will be possible for them to come back. I guess it would, because Justin’s major is finance and Maria’s is Education, but unless we get some economic incentive, it will be hard,” Baker said. “Unless we get some more industry or there’s an upturn in the economy, I don’t know.”
Baker works in Humboldt, at the ANW Special Education Co-op. “I take care of student records,” she said. The location allows her frequent visits with her parents, with whom she is still close. She knows she is lucky.
Bakers sees both Iola’s strengths and its weaknesses.
“The strongest point is the Bowlus Fine Arts Center,” she said. “The Bowlus is good for the city — it attracts a lot of talent that we wouldn’t see otherwise. The shows they bring in, you’d have to drive to the city to see otherwise.”
In addition she said, “The library is a strong point for Iola — Nobody else houses the stuff you can find there, and if they don’t
have it, they can get it for you.”
And, she said, Iola Industries helps. “They really try to bring in industries; they work on it.”
But Iola needs some work, too, she said.
“I’d really like to see something done with the schools. I know we can’t afford it right now, but I’d like new schools.”
“I’d like to see a recreation center with a walking track that you can use anytime you want. I’d love to see an indoor pool.”
“I hope the future of Iola is growth,” Baker said thoughtfully. “It was a great place to raise my kids.”
“Four years ago,” she said, “my son went from sport to sport to sport, so the recreation department was really good for us. When he aged out with American Legion baseball, that was the saddest thing.” But for families not sports-oriented, there’s not much to do, Baker noted, especially in the winter.
“I am not a winter person. I don’t like driving in the winter. I like spring because everything starts blooming,” Baker said.
Still, she added, “I wouldn’t have wanted to go to the city.”
Baker believes Iola can weather the current economic storm, if it can only grow.
“I think we’d want to get a little bit bigger. If you grow as a city you can grow your schools and rec centers. Growth stimulates the economy” she said. “I have hope for it.”

Lutherans happy to lose in Meltdown

By ANNE KAZMIERCZAK Register Reporter

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HUMBOLDT — They are there to work, and they are there to laugh. And there are lots of them.
The “Lumbering Lutherans, Plus One” have a few additions, besides the official one Methodist among them. The team of ten women have extras who come for the fun, joining them at regular workouts in their quest to succeed in the Allen County Meltdown.
The group, led by Sherry Herder, meets two nights a week in Terry Butts’ garage in Humboldt. They do a classic work out, complete with dumb bells and mat work. The group starts their hour-long routine with prayer. They add stretching and a warm up, then move into floor work, lifting weights, more stretching and a final cool down.
“Several of us have talked about continuing to do this after the Meltdown ends,” Herder said.
The women have different motivations, but it all boils down to health.
“I want to be around when my grandkids are older,” said Carmen Huse.
“It’s the energy factor,” Butts said. “It’s about getting to a place where you have more energy.”
“I’m not very good at doing it on my own,” said Herder. “The hardest thing is getting focuses and staying focused.”
“Well, I’m fat,” piped in Sunny Shreeve, an unofficial group member. The whole garage began to cackle.
Shreeve belongs to a different Meltdown team, but joins her neighbors for their twice-weekly workout.
Most of the women know each other through church, St. Peter’s Lutheran in Humboldt. They range in age from 19 to 71.
There is one mother-daughter pair, and one such trio.
They all try not to miss a meeting.
Some of the women work at home, and the group provides a welcome break to their routine. Some have young children and this is their only “adult time”.
“Dr. Phil says you need an intentional reason to leave the house,” Herder said.
“My husband feels better about me leaving the house if I’m going to exercise with the church ladies,” Hull added. The women laugh.
The laughter keeps the group together, but they don’t take the workout lightly.
“I just really felt walking and cardio is not enough,” Herder said. “I believe in strength training.”
Herder received her exercise instruction through “a degree in home video,” she quipped.
“I’m not an expert,” Herder said. “We go slow.”
But the women work hard, doing reps with 3-, 5-, 8- or 15-pound weights. They do lunges and abdominal crunches. They do pilates poses and “feel the burn” booty busting strecthes. “If someone needs to stop, they stop,” said Huse.
“It’s all about knowing your own body,” Herder said.
Some women in the group have physical limitations, though Herder said “It’s amazing how exercise helps that.” There is no shame is stopping, or working at a slower pace.
“It’s all about support,” said Mona Hull.
Support and camaraderie are a strong incentive to the group. They have lost 37 pounds so far, and intend to keep right on losing.

4/21/09

Lincoln saw Kansas as proving ground, scholar says

By ANNE KAZMIERCZAK
Register Reporter
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Abraham Lincoln never spent much time in Kansas, Arnold Schofield said. But the time he spent here was crucial in preparing him to make his first “official” stump speech in his bid for the presidency of the United States of America, he postulated.
Lincoln came to Kansas near the end of 1859 at the request of friend and supporter Mark Delahay, Schofield noted.
Over the years, Schofield, superintendent of Mine Creek Battlefield and Marais des Cygnes Massacre state historic sites said he has asked himself ‘Why?’
“Beyond politics, why?” Schofield said to a jam-packed crowd at the Frederick Funston Meeting Hall Tuesday night.
Schofield’s presentation on “Lincoln in Kansas” marked the annual fall meeting of the Allen County Historical Society.
Although not a Lincoln scholar, Schofield is a historian, he said, and could not pass up the invitation by ACHS Director Jeff Kluever to come talk in Iola about the president he calls “The greatest president the United States has had to date.”
Schofield believes Lincoln realized the good that making a series of stump speeches in Kansas could do him before his more famous appearance at the Cooper’s Union in New York City.
He basically gave slightly different versions of the same speech here three months before he would deliver it to the larger, more prominent crowd.
“This is the proving ground for that speech,” Schofield said of Lincoln’s whirlwind tour through Northeastern Kansas.
The speeches were Lincoln’s first promotion of his views on stopping the expansion of slavery, and his bid for the Republican nominee for president, Schofield said.
In so speaking, the future president displayed his political shrewdness, Schofield said.
“He knows if slavery is confined, it will die.”
Raising cotton and tobacco were depleting to the soil, Schofield said. Without new plantations — and slaves to work them — the system was doomed to obsolescence.
Lincoln was in Kansas from Dec. 1-3 of 1859. On Dec. 2, John Brown was executed in Virginia. The uncanny timing of the event offered Lincoln further opportunities to espouse abolition of slavery.
Ultimately, Schofield said, Lincoln visited Kansas “because he wants votes. Not in the general election, that comes later, but at the Republican convention” that would decide, in the spring of 1860, the party’s nominee for the nation’s highest office.
“He’s very well received in Kansas,” Schofield said. “And a lot of individuals said they would vote for him — and they did — in the general election.” But not one of the state’s six delegates gave Lincoln the nod at the time of the convention, Schofield said.
Kansas appealed to Lincoln because it reminded him of his boyhood and political origins on the frontier of Illinois, Schofield said.
That humble beginning never left him— “Lincoln wore a felt stove pipe hat — a poor man’s hat,” not one of more expensive beaver, Schofield said. It was the same with his suits, Schofield noted. They fit the man, but were never the finery of those at the top of the social heap.

SCHOFIELD opened his talk with an anecdote about a band of Neosho River Osage whose men all joined the U.S. Army in the spring of 1862.
Come fall, when regular soldiers were being sent to the army’s winter quarters, the Osage returned home to the Iola area, he said.
Because they had not yet been paid for their many months of service, the Osage betook a series of raids upon settler’s crops and cattle in order to provide their families with food for the winter. When confronted, they admitted the thievery, explaining they would repay the settlers when they received their payment from the army.
“It’s unknown if that ever occurred,” Schofield added. From accounts he had found, the army seemed less than eager to adequately pay the men for their time.

10/21/10

Personal touch offered at Iola Pharmacy

Iola Pharmacy is more than just a place to pick up prescriptions. It holds fast to the notion of a neighborhood drug store.
Offering over the counter medications and personal health items, Iola Pharmacy is a welcome retreat to a more personal level of business.
The store, at 109 E. Madison, offers Ambassador by Hallmark cards and numerous gift items, including University of Kansas and Kansas State University mementos. Iola Fillies and Mustangs gear, as well as state of Kansas curios and T-shirts can also be found. And, with October designated Cancer Awareness Month, Iola Pharmacy is offering commemorative items to support the cause. For a local touch, check out the collection of Allen County Historical Society post cards featuring pictures of old Iola.
Also available is hand-blown glass jewelry — the latest in fashion — while magnetic jewelry may balance your energy level and improve circulation. An ever-changing dollar section offers bargains on household needs like clothespins and cleaning supplies.
You can even stop in for a cup of Iola’s strongest coffee from two carafes serving Starbucks blends.
Prefer something a little sweeter? The pharmacy’s 50-cent, any size sodas are popular with the after school crowd.

IOLA PHARMACY has been in business since 1974.
Four local pharmacist/owners operate the business with the philosophy that the customer comes first. Jim Bauer, Travis Coffield, Jeff Dieker and Bill Walden all share the helm.
Services includes drive through prescription pick up at The Family Physicians/Iola Pharmacy clinic location, 1408 East St., and after-hours prescription processing for those who have a medical emergency or return from an out-of-town hospital visit.
“We drive in (to town) and get out of bed and get it,” Dieker of such prescriptions. “We are committed to our patients. If they need something, we back it up.”
In addition to filling prescriptions, the pharmacy also does extemporaneous compounding of lotions, creams and hormones, tailoring the medications to individual needs.
“Customer service is a higher priority with us (than with chain pharmacies) being owners,” Dieker noted. “If you don’t have good customer service, they won’t come back.”
“We all had worked here as students and saw the success that (original owner) Jim Arnott had,” Bauer said. “We wanted to continue that.”
When you work and live locally, Bauer noted, your customers are also “your friends, your neighbors, your kids’ friends’ parents. It’s a different job than a chain because you get to visit with the customers,” he noted.
Over the years, the pharmacy has grown to include a wide variety of medical-related services and products.
Iola Pharmacy carries medical accessories such as home blood pressure monitors, including the number one ranked brand, Bauer noted. Homeopathics, heating pads and ergonomic support cushions can also be found at the store.
Adjacent to the pharmacy downtown is Iola Respiratory and Home Medical, where one can find durable medical equipment such as lift chairs, motorized carts, athletic or injury braces and support shoes for those who have diabetes, foot problems or merely prefer an extra bounce in their step. Oxygen tanks and home machines and CPAP and BiPAP appliances for sleep apnea are also available through Iola Respiratory.
Back in the pharmacy section, on-site digital photography processing can be done at the self-service Sony Picture Station.
All told, Iola Pharmacy strives to be an all-purpose drug store, a goal — if one can judge by their growth — that is meeting with success.