Numbers tell the need: ACARF full after four months

Only two dogs have been euthanized at the Allen County Rescue Facility due to aggressive behavior, Director Andie DePriest wanted Allen Countians to know. Only 12 more have been put down, total, in the four months the shelter has been open. 

All were euthanized because they were too sick to be saved, DePriest noted. 

“I don’t euthanize for space,” she said of the difficult topic. 

But people, she said, “will bring a dog in that is so sick it can’t be treated, or it is injured so badly it cannot be helped,” she noted.

Sammy, who lies under DePriest’s office desk, is proof that any dog that can be saved, is.

Sammy was the first dog the shelter accepted, DePriest said. He was so timid he would not let anyone near him.

Now, she said, “he goes outside on walks — without a leash. He chases a ball, and comes back when I call.”

The dog, probably neglected for years, is “a keeper,” DePriest said.

And so it is that ACARF, so young, is already at full capacity. 

57 dogs are currently at the shelter; at least 10 more are on a waiting list to come, she said. Since opening July 7, 

164 dogs have been brought to the LaHarpe shelter. That’s 41 a month, more than one per day.

Some, like a batch of newborns in a back room, come together. 

“She was dumped pregnant,” DePriest said of the white Parson Russell terrier. A family noticed her roaming, and very swollen, and paid the $20 surrender fee to have the shelter take her in — even though she was not their dog, DePriest said.

The little white dog, looking aged and tired, gave birth her first night at the shelter. Her pups are just a day old. Yet if the right person or family came along, she could go home to someone who might treat her better than whoever it was who put her out.

Another dog, a large black and white hound cross, looks mournfully up from his cage. He had a family who cared for him, but their living situation changed, and they were forced to give him up. They cared enough to pay his adoption fee, DePriest said.

Chico is neutered and all his shots are current. “You could walk in the door and walk right out with him if your references checked out,” DePriest said. 

Instead, he, too, has been at the shelter since it opened. 

He is large, middle-aged and a black dog: the hardest to adopt out, DePriest said.

And he is another mouth to feed.

That feed does not come cheap, DePriest said, admitting she has not tabulated the daily cost of feeding all the dogs and cats at the shelter. 

“I don’t want to know,” she said, lest she get depressed at the cost of operating the state-of-the-art shelter.

“When we opened, we had budgeted enough to get us through six months of food,” she said.

Come January, she plans to apply for assistance from pet food companies Hills and Pedigree, which both assist shelters that have been operation at least six months with feed costs, she said. 

Until then, operating funds come from donations and fees paid to the shelter to take in strays and unwanted pets.

The fee, noted board member Art Chapman, would be considered low if people understood all it did.

ACARF charges municipalities $75 for each dog it takes in. Individuals pay $20.

“I hate for people in the country to get stuck with dogs that others dump,” Chapman said. “We wanted to keep the charge reasonable so people could afford to bring these animals in.”

Sadly, some merely dump their dogs anyway, Chapman said. “It is a problem.”

The surrender fee pays for medical care, shots and exams for the animals, Chapman said.

It also houses and feeds them.

“There’s other things,” DePriest noted, “that people don’t think about.”

Things like hand sanitizer, leashes, paper towels, electric bills and the like, she said. “Even if we have food covered, we don’t have kitty litter covered.”

“We’re running short $2,000 to $3,000 a month,” Chapman said.

But he isn’t complaining. 

“People have been so good on donating,” he said. 

“It’s like any other business when you first start up,” he added. “I think in three to four years we’ll have grants coming in and bequest made, but it’s going to take time.”

If support is shown through time, ACARF has supporters.

Full-time volunteer Janice Porter “keeps me in line,” DePriest said. School groups help, as well. 

Iola Middle School has two Service Learning classes that each come twice a week, and ANW Special Education Cooperative’s high school work program drops in daily to walk dogs, do laundry and the like. They are also training to take dogs and cats into nursing homes, to socialize the animals, DePriest said.

The middle schoolers walk and bathe young dogs, DePriest said, familiarizing puppies with the sort of handling they will receive when adopted.

And many dogs are adopted, DePriest noted.

Since opening, 60 dogs have been adopted, 18 returned to owners, and 12 were sent to breed rescue foundations.

Two cats were adopted out Wednesday, for a total of 24 since opening. In that time, 55 were taken in. Cats, too, are on a waiting list as all cages are full.

But, both Chapman and DePriest noted, people have been good about fostering animals until there is space available.

“If I could videotape what goes on in here for a week, both good and bad, people would be amazed,” by the stories of those surrendering pets, DePriest said.

Some animals are neglected, and some stories, she said, break your heart. 

One man came in just before closing Wednesday to surrender his family cat. His wife had just entered a nursing home, and he didn’t have the ability to care for he animal, he said. He did have her spayed to save the shelter and her future owner that cost.

 All ACARF animals are listed on two websites, DePriest said. Robyn Porter donates her services as photographer and posts animals at petfinder.com. Mary Ann Dvorachek handles the ACARF website, www.acarf.com.

Through the sites, adopters have come from as far away as Colorado and Arkansas to give homes to Allen County animals.

“They wouldn’t know about us if it weren’t for petfinder,” DePriest said of the website that allows potential owners to search for particular breeds anywhere in the U.S.

Add as insert box: Pet lovers can show their support for ACARF at a soup supper this evening from 4 to 7 at Trinity Untied Methodist Church, corner of Broadway and Kentucky in Iola. Dinners include soup or chili, cornbread, pie and beverage. Carry out is available.

11/05/10

Garden flourishing this fall

By ANNE KAZMIERCZAK

anne@iolaregister.com

Changes are afoot — again — at Elm Creek Community Garden.

These most recent improvements come courtesy of a University of Kansas grant, Call Construction, Diebolt Lumber and artists Tracy Kiegle and Jim Smith.

All told, grants from the University of Kansas added up to more than $8,000, garden founder Carolyn McLean said. 

Almost $1,300 came from KU’s Center for Research. The funds were a continuance of an Inclusive Gardening Project award ECCG had been given to enhance outreach to those with physical handicaps or living below poverty level. In addition to the funds, McLean said “KU also gave us handicap-adaptable tools. They filled our car front and back with them.”

Additional funds went to widen the main drive through the garden, from 12 to 16 feet, noted Garden Coordinator John Richards. Dog House Concrete, LaHarpe, is doing that work, along with installing a 20-foot long concrete box culvert at the north entrance to the road.

Once road construction is finished, two large wagon wheels will be placed on each side of the drive at both the north and south entrances to notify drivers of the drop offs there. The wheels are being refurbished by Twin Motors Ford. 

“They normally don’t” do that sort of work, McLean said, “but they did it as a donation for us.”

Dog House also installed a crushed gravel pad for a new storage shed, which is being provided by Diebolt Lumber, LaHarpe. The shed, designed to look like a farm house, will be surrounded by a white picket fence with an arbor entrance. “It will be the exact same fence and arbor as at the Wayne Garrett Memorial Children’s Garden,” McLean noted. The fence and arbor at the new SAFE BASE-coordinated children’s garden, at the corner of Sycamore and Lincoln streets, were also installed by Diebolt Lumber.

While the shed — which will also sport a four-foot porch where gardeners can rest in the shade — is being loaned to ECCG by Diebolt, the fence and arbor are being paid for with KU funds.

The look is part of a bucolic farm theme selected for the garden. To enhance that look, small concrete animals are being painted in realistic fashion and will be scattered amidst the benches and picnic shelters — also new additions to the garden.

In keeping with the farm theme, existing garden sheds were painted by Jim Smith to mimic barns.

The unified look will help Richards in efforts to educate children about growing food, McLean said. In addition, a cistern pump, a kitchen pump, a regular hand pump, push-type garden cultivator and vintage mail box — all old farm staples — were donated by Jay and Wilma Sloan of Garnett. 

McLean would still like to locate an old farm wagon as well, she said. 

ALONG WITH the beautification, work is being done to the plots themselves, Richards noted.

Leaves composted after last fall’s city leaf pick up are being added to rows A and B at the garden to build humus levels and enhance drainage by raising the beds and giving them a more mounded structure.

Additional leaves are needed, Richards said, and can be brought loose or bagged to the garden. “They’ll see where to dump them,” he said of the obvious piles of leaves and bags on the west side of the driveway.

One caveat: “We can only take leaves,” Richards noted. “We can’t use trash.”

Also to enhance soil quality, three loads of manure have been purchased and delivered from Strickler Dairy; a fourth will be delivered soon.

All the changes have led to increased interest in the gardens, McLean noted. “The number of applications coming in” from people interested in “plots for next year is amazing,” she said.

McLean emphasized that anyone can garden at Elm Creek. 

The annual plot fee of $20 provides gardeners with seeds, water, tool use, training and hands-on help, she said. For those unable to pay or living below poverty level, the garden fee is waived, she said. Applications can be picked up by calling McLean at 365-5577, or by stopping by the garden, at the corner of South First and Vine streets, where they are hanging at the back of the small garden shed.

BECAUSE THE garden has always been a labor of love, a small memorial plot is also being established at Elm Creek.

Corian markers will be engraved by WIlliams Monument. So far, four have been spoken for. They will be placed in honor of Michael Diebolt, Connie McRae, Viki Lucas and Jeanie Larson. The latter two women created the first ECCG sign, McLean said, refurbished last year by Kiegle. Contact McLean for more information on the markers.

11/04/10

Meat market opens

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 are for 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. 

11/01/10

Cunningham cooks for a crowd

By ANNE KAZMIERCZAK

anne@iolaregister.com

Betty Cunningham has been cooking for a small crowd each night — and noon, and morning — for most of the last 30 years.

Cunningham, an Iola mother of 12, five of whom are still at home, learned by necessity how to stretch a budget and stretch a meal.

“I have to watch for sales and I buy in big quantities” when such sales are on, Cunningham said. She also noted that “I stay away from the expensive things like steak” and instead builds meals around more-affordable meats such as burger and chicken.

Mainly, she noted, “I do a lot of cooking from scratch to save money.”

Almost every day at the Cunningham house, something is baking in the oven, be it bread or rolls or homemade pizza.

“It’s tempting, when you walk through a grocery store, to buy cinnamon rolls and stuff, but then I think, I can make that for much cheaper,” Cunningham said.

A dedicated Iolan, Cunningham doesn’t drive up north to shop big box stores, but secures all her necessities locally. The furthest her family ventures is Chanute, where her husband works and will pick up groceries afterward. 

“He’s learned what to look for, what price range,” she said of her husband’s efforts.

“It’s funny, so many times I’ll think I need a certain item, but I didn’t tell him, and he’ll come home and say ‘Oh, I got eggs for you,’ or whatever, and it’s what I needed.” Cunningham chalks up the seemingly psychic connection to long years of marriage.

Despite daily having to fill so many mouths, Cunningham doesn’t plan out menus in advance — she is never quite sure how many she is cooking for anyway. Several of her children, now at college, may or may not come home on weekends. A couple married sons also occasionally pop in.

Her son, Micahel, jokes that his mother just starts cooking chicken or burger and thinks what to do with it afterward. That approach does lend itself to most of her recipes, though.

“What I learned growing up was how to make basic American food — potato soup, Spanish rice, chicken and noodles, meatloaf,” Cunningham said.

Most of her meals are based on complex recipes that were “simplified for kids,” she said. “Some of my favorite recipes came from church dinners. Every favorite recipe I have is from a different source.”

Meal preparation has also gotten trickier as her children have aged — the youngest is now 10 — and their tastes have evolved, she said. 

“The kids come in and say, “‘That’s what we had for lunch at school’ or ‘I don’t like that.’” 

Sometimes, she acquiesces to their tastes half way through meal preparation.

“The boys come in and one adds one spice, another adds another — by the time they are through, it’s spicy. We had some chili one time that was so spicy it made your eyes burn,” she said.

Not a fan of heavy flavors herself, Cunningham cooks even without onions, but has branched out of late to try new spices, she said, to keep the kids’ interest in home-cooked meals.

A new favorite spice mix has dehydrated vegetables, chili powder and tomatoes.

And, she said, she’s discovered the secret ingredient to make her homemade tacos taste more like Taco Bell’s: “It’s cumin,” she observed.

“What’s funny to me is my kids take my cooking for granted,” Cunningham said. Yet occasionally, when visiting sons that live out of town, they will go to a restaurant the boys have raved about. “It’s just home cooking,” she said, bemused.

AN EVEN bigger challenge than pleasing all right now is just keeping enough food ready to eat.

“With teenage boys, their stomachs are like bottomless pits,” she said. “They can eat a meal and they’re still hungry.”

So, typically, there is always something on the stove, on the counter, in the oven — it seems that Cunningham never stops cooking. 

“Last night I canned pears,” Cunningham said. “Today I was going to make jelly. 

“I have to multitask,” she noted. “If I start bread dough, I have to let it sit, so I start on laundry; then I add a few ingredients (to whatever is cooking), then come back and knead dough, then go work on something else.” 

It makes for an unending string of tasks, she said. “It just seems I’m never done.” 

And, she noted, “There’s always dishes, too. I’m probably the only person in town — besides a restaurant — who can run my dishwasher twice a day and still have a sinkful of dishes and pots and pans.” 

Yet for fun, Cunningham loves to bake. “I spend extra time doing that,” she said. 

She loves baking so much that her oven is on year round, even in the heat of summer. 

Known for tender, light rolls, moist apple cake and pizza crust so good it is used for both savory and dessert pies, Cunningham admits her baking wasn’t always perfect.

Yet in more than 31 years of marriage, her husband “Glen has never complained about my cooking. He likes everything.”

Except, she said, that first loaf of bread.

When newlywed, Cunningham tried baking bread as her mother did.

“My mom’s recipes were add a pinch of this and dump a handful of that,” she said. “She didn’t measure anything.” 

For bread, Cunningham was told “to put as much flour into the dough as you can until it’s not sticky any more.” 

Which she did. 

“Those first two loaves, well,” she said, “We ate the one, then Glen said we could varnish the second and use it as a doorstop.”

She was saved when a friend gave her a recipe for 60-minute rolls.

“It came out perfect. Her recipe taught me how much flour to use and proportions for baking,” Cunningham said. 

Though her sons tease her about her hesitance to spice up foods, her entire family loves anything she bakes, she said.

One family favorite is homemade hot pockets. 

“My kids started buying them at the store and they’re so expensive,” she said. “You can’t buy enough to them to feed a whole family. So I just made up my own recipe.” 

Cunningham initially thought she would bake and freeze the hand-held sandwiches, “but they all get eaten as soon as they come out of the oven. There’s never any left over to freeze.”

Cunningham uses a yeasted dough, cubed ham, sourcream and Velveeta cheese to create the tasty treats. Creating them takes about two hours, start to finish, she noted. Even so, the price per unit “is a lot less than what you’d pay in the store, I’m sure,” she said.

And despite the hours she spends each day on meal preparation, Cunningham’s kitchen in basic. There is no Kitchen Aid mixer. No Cuisninart food processor. No oven-safe silicon spatulas or pot holders.

She uses tried and true tools such as a wooden-handled pastry cutter. Battered baking pans that show the dents of time. 

Her one special tool is a measuring tube made just for shortening. It has a built-in plunger that allows just the right amount to be measured.

Though the task in her home is Sisyphean, Cunningham said, “I love to cook, and I love having a big family to cook for. I’d rather make big pots of things — it’s a lot more fun sharing when you eat.”

11/05/10

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.”

11/1/10

After 27 years, Aikins moving on

By ANNE KAZMIERCZAK

Register Reporter

“There wasn’t a computer in the place when I started here,” observed long-time Register employee and Humboldt correspondent Vada Aikins of the Register office, where every desk now sits topped with some sort of Macintosh computer.

“There were no digital cameras,” she said of the newsroom. Instead, “We used black and white 35 mm” film cameras, and Register staff developed the film in house, in a chemical-filled darkroom, she noted.

Aikins, who began as office manager with the Register in 1977, then became Humboldt correspondent in 1998, is retiring at the end of November.

It will mark the end of an almost five-decade association with the newspaper, she said.

“My relationship with the Register goes way, way back. My oldest son, Max Michael (now 58), had a paper route when he was in middle school,” Aikins noted. 

“We all helped out,” she said of the daily task of rolling, rubber-banding and tossing Registers along the route.

In 1977, Aikins joined the register staff as business manager “and worked in that capacity until August 1992,” when her daughter, Glenda Aikins-Hill, accepted the job.

“My husband (Roy Aikins) and I wanted to travel and I was old enough to retire,” Aikins said of leaving the Register the first time. 

“We got a mobile home and hit at least 37 states and Canada,” she said of their adventures. “It was awesome.”

Before that, though, Aikins watched — and helped — as the Register eased from the old ways of typewriters and calculators to computers and automatic billing.

As business manager, Aikins was in charge of bookkeeping and noted that “carriers collected (subscription fees) and they brought in their little bags of money every month.” That changed with the arrival of computers.

“We got Burroughs computers,” Aikins said. “They were bigger than PCs” 

Aikins work station was the first set up. 

“They brought it in, set it up and gave me a stack of books this tall,” she said, indicating a two-foot pile. The company that set up the computer “told me it’s self-explanatory” she laughed. 

The Register sent Aikins to Allen County Community College, where she took a class in BASIC computer language.

“The only thing I learned was not to be afraid of it,” she said of the skills needed to run programs on computers of that era.

“I got it up and running and we got programs for circulation,” she said. “Then they got computers for the news people,” she said. 

Until that time, reporters used “paper and pens and typewriters,” she said. “The accounts were kept in ledger books.”

“There was noise all the time,” Aikins said of the newsroom, including the constant tick of the AP wire. “People were still smoking at their desks. 

“When I left, the newsroom was switching to PCs,” she noted, the commonly-recognized desktop computers that require no special programming skills to run.

Aikins enjoyed her first retirement, she said, until her husband’s health failed and traveling was curtailed.

About that time, she received a call from the Register, asking if she would become Humboldt correspondent.

She equivocated, then agreed.

“One reason I said yes is I wanted to tell people about Humboldt,” she said. “It’s a wonderful little town.” 

People used to put Humboldt down, Aikins noted; expanding news coverage could only help allay that perception, she said.

“We had club news and that was about all” that was written in the paper about the town, she said. 

She parlayed her citizen involvement into fuller stories about her home town. “I go to the meetings,” she said.

A few months before Roy’s death eight years ago, Aikins took her seat on the Humboldt City Council.

The insider track allowed her to report even more fully on Humboldt happenings.

Humboldt has been exceptionally active the past two years, Aikins noted.

“We’re as close to a Norman Rockwell town as you can get, yet we’re moving forward. It’s just two years ago we were talking about wanting a little store and look, we’ve got it,” she said of the new Dollar General at the north edge of the community. “We’ve upgraded our parks; we have WiFi in all our parks and the library; we’ve done so many improvements,” Aikins said, “and there’s a lot more we want to do.” 

One such activity is the new Healthy Ecosystems, Healthy Communities project, which she is involved in, Aikins said.

“That’s going to take quite a bit of effort,” she noted. 

“I’m involved in everything now,” Aikins said, and she uses that involvement to create her extensive reports on Humboldt’s goings on.

But, the 79-year-old said, it’s time to slow down a bit. 

“This took a long time to decide to do,” she said of leaving the paper. 

“I’ve truly enjoyed sharing with the readers,” Aikins said. “I’m going to miss it, I really am.” 

But, she said, “It’’s time for new eyes and new ears” to take on the task.

Still, she said, “I’m not shutting down.” Aikins will remain an active citizen no matter what.

But “I’m approaching the big 8-0,” she said. “I thought it might be time to try something new.”

Honoring vets

By ANNE KAZMIERCZAK

anne@iolaregister.com

T.J. Taurus got it.

The six year old, brought to Saturday’s Veterans Day commemoration on the Iola square by his great-grandpa Armand Pulley, a Vietnam vet, was playing with his action figures while listening to speaker Col. Clifford Silsby. 

When the Colonel spoke of men making the ultimate sacrifice for their nation, T.J.’s soldiers lay prone, a yellow leaf a flag above their fallen bodies. 

“These are the ones who died,” he said softly.

Iolans of all ages and stripes — but predominantly veterans and their families — came out Saturday to honor and remember those who have served in our country’s wars, fighting and dying for our country’s freedom.

“Perhaps s most significant are the battles we do not have to fight,” Silsby noted, alluding to terrorist threats aborted thanks to the defensive action of the U.S. military.

Silsby also informed the crowd that veterans everywhere, deserving of our thanks, are in need.

Across the nation, 23 percent of those who are homeless are veterans, he said. Of those, 89 percent were honorably discharged; 47 percent served in Vietnam.

“Freezing in subzero temperatures; missing the births of their children; exposure to Agent Orange” as well as losing limbs and losing lives were all sacrifices made by veterans, Silsby noted.

There are 23 million living veterans, Silsby said, including those currently serving. 

The present conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan have left 40,000 wounded, he said.

“There is no shortage of opportunities to assist those who have served,” he told about 100 Iolans gathered at the square.

“And don’t underestimate the power of simply saying ‘thank you.’”

Silsby was training officer at the National Guard in Iola from 1984-1994. He now serves, based out of the Topeka area, as statewide facilities manager.

Silsby’s speech was followed by a reading of local Missing In Action, with a black balloon released for each name read. 

The American Legion Honor Guard gave a single shot salute in memory of the local dead.

The Rev. Jim Rausch opened the morning’s ceremony with prayer, noting, “I stand as one of the many millions who have benefited from the sacrifice of others.” 

The ceremony ended with Becky French, mother of four current and former servicemen, singing the Prayer of St. Francis — “Let There Be Peace on Earth.”

FROM THE podium, the crowd moved to the bean pots, where 90 pounds of ham and beans was served up by the local Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. 

Chase LaPorte of Winfield was in line with his dad, Bill LaPorte, from Moran. 

The younger man was visiting Iola for the weekend. He is stationed at Fort Riley and has been on two tours of duty in Iraq, he said.

“Rumors are flying,” he said, that his crew will next be sent to Afghanistan.

Undaunted, LaPorte said “I’d rather go back. You feel like you’re not doing anything productive if you’re stateside.”

He has two more years to go in his enlistment, he said, adding of his future that “nothing is certain.”

Harold and Shirley McAdams have lived in Iola two years now, moving up form Lebanon, Mo.

Harold and his father both served in the armed forces, he said.

“My dad served in World War I,” McAdams said. “My dad said anybody who’d ever seen bad action wouldn’t talk about it. He told us he drove the wagons to the front, and that’s all he’d say.” 

McAdams counts himself lucky. Although he served during “the Vietnam conflict”, it was from Mather Air Force Base in California, where he worked shipping out bombers, he said.

“My daddy said ‘Don’t get shot at if you don’t have to,’” McAdams noted.

Iolan Becky French was happy to have one son, Ben Myers, with her on the square. Another, Nick Myers, is currently on duty in Afghanistan.

“This is his seventh deployment, and he’s only 22,” she said. “Sometimes,” she added, “I just have to shut off the TV news. I just pray a lot for their protection,” she said of Nick and the other troops deployed.

Her four sons all chose to serve independently, French added. She is proud of them all.

“We have four girls, also,” she said. “We’re hoping they’ll all stay close.”

Other Iolans also participated as a ‘thank you’ to family members who have served. 

Glenda Isaacson has been building floats for the parade for at least seven years, she said. “My dad served in World War II; my granddad was in World War I; I had cousins who died in Vietnam and my great-great-great grandfather served in whatever war was way back then, probably the civil war,” she noted. “I do this for my dad.”

Carrying a 45 foot-long flag in the crisp autumn weather were members of Iola’s National Guard 891st Engineering Battalion. 

The flag required 35 men to hoist. Never once letting it furl or drop, they carried it level throughout Iola’s streets, rolling it with measured precision before stowing it, all in practiced form, in a large bin. 

Throughout, the men were stoic, aware of so much said through those colors: red, white, blue.