Sports: McLean named to Kansas Baseball Hall of Fame
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THE IOLA REGISTER Locally owned since 1867
www.iolaregister.com
Tuesday, December 2, 2014
MORAN COUNCIL
Emergency crews to be equipped with new radios By RICHARD LUKEN The Iola Register
All decked out Jan Knewtson, above, stands among purses and jewelry at her new store, Sophisticated Rose Plus, 110 E. Madison. The store also carries scarves, shoes and plus-size clothing for women and compliments her original store, Sophisticated Rose. Both venues will have prices marked down by 20 percent for Friday night’s Downtown Block Party. At left, Marily Stroud of McGinty-Whitworth, 101 E. Madison, stands beside a display of the popular jewelry brand Mariana. Clothing at McGinty’s is currently marked down 30 percent. The store is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. weeknights and until 7 p.m. on Thursdays and for Friday’s Block Party. REGISTER/SUSAN LYNN
MORAN — New radios will benefit the Moran Volunteer Fire Department, particularly when local firefighters are dispatched for mutual aid calls. That’s because the department’s current radios aren’t equipped to hear broadcasts from other frequencies. “So if we get a call to help in Bourbon County, we can’t talk to them,” Mayor and Fire Chief Phillip Merkel said Monday. Moran City Council approved, 3-0, purchase of two hand-held radios, using a $1,000 grant provided to the city by Enbridge Pipeline. Council members Jim Mueller, Chryll Ginn and Bill Bigelow cast the affirmative votes. Council members Jerry Wallis and Gene Gardner were absent. The radios cost $518
apiece. A SECOND Enbridge grant — also for $1,000 — will be combined with a second grant totaling $1,133 to provide additional equipment for the Moran Police Department. Council members directed Police Chief Shane Smith to purchase a body-mounted AXON FLEX video camera system from TASER International, the same company that provides similar cameras for the Allen County sheriff ’s and Iola police departments. The camera system, which give a true, first-person account of what an officer sees when he’s dispatched on a call. The video is then uploaded to a secured, online storage terminal, where it can be archived and used as eviSee MORAN | Page A6
Legislators elect leaders; 4 killed in W.Va. shooting spree Merrick kept as Speaker 3 crime scenes, TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas House Speaker Ray Merrick easily won a second term Monday as the chamber’s top leader, despite a recent controversy over his comment in an interview that government employees “produce nothing.” Merrick’s fellow Republicans appeared to ignore complaints from state workers and a public campaign against him from the Kansas Democratic Party. GOP House members and members-elect voted 80-16 to retain Merrick as their leader for the next two years. Several Republicans said the 75-year-old Merrick built broad support within the GOP by regularly consulting lawmakers on policy and considering their grievances. Also, Republicans gained
five seats in this year’s elections, for a 97-28 majority. “I think everyone respects the job Ray has done here,” said Rep. Travis CoutureLovelady, a Palco Republican. Meanwhile, House Democrats picked veteran Rep. Tom Burroughs, 60, of Kansas City to serve as the chamber’s minority leader. The job was open because former Minority Leader Paul Davis of Lawrence gave up his House seat to run unsuccessfully for governor. Burroughs prevailed in a 17-11 vote over Rep. Jim Ward of Wichita. Lawmakers met at the Statehouse to pick leaders for 2015 and 2016. The entire House must ratify Merrick’s See SPEAKER | Page A6
plus a suicide
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) — Police say towing business owner Jody Lee Hunt fatally shot four people — one who owned a competing company and another who filed a domestic violence case against him — and then himself Monday, but officials have yet to piece together clues as to why he went on the spree. During an hours-long manhunt Monday, police released few details. They warned residents to look out for his black 2011 Ford F-150. That night his body was found in that truck in the woods. Hunt, 39, was wanted in three separate shootings — two in the Westover area,
outside Morgantown, and another in the Cheat Lake area in Monongalia County, state police said. His business — J&J Towing and Repair LLC of Westover, according to state documents — was in Morgantown, though Jody Lee Hunt there was little activity outside it Monday. The door was padlocked. Medical officials will work to confirm the body’s identity, and today, investigators at each of the three crime scenes planned to “sit down and piece all those puzzle pieces together and find out how this all happened,” state police spokesman Lt. Michael Baylous said. Police identified the victims as Sharon Kay Berkshire, 39,
of Westover; Michael David Frum, 28, of Maidsville; Jody Taylor of Monongalia County and Doug Brady, owner of a towing company located less than a quarter mile from Hunt’s company. Berkshire filed a domestic violence case against Hunt last month, according to Monongalia County Circuit Court records. Court records indicated there were no protective orders currently in place for Berkshire. Frum’s aunt, Ellen Shafer, of the Cheat Lake area, said she knew few details about her nephew’s death. She said Frum worked on detailing cars in Westover and did some construction work and other odd jobs. “We were just saddened, and we’re living with the realization of his death and coping the best we can,” Shafer said.
Kansas clinics seek federal funding for new sites By BRYAN THOMPSON Kansas Public Radio
TOPEKA — Even with the Affordable Care Act, millions of Americans still lack health insurance. For them, safety net clinics are a lifeline. These clinics provide primary care for anyone, regardless of their ability to pay. Today there are federally funded clinics in 21 Kansas counties, but there soon could be more. At least six organizations in Kansas are asking the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for grants to open new clinics. GraceMed, in Wichita, is asking for $650,000 for a new clinic on the
south side of the city. CEO David Sanford said that region of the state’s largest city is underserved. “Areas kind of in the southern part of the county have very few if any doctor’s offices or dental offices,” Sanford said. The Greater Wichita YMCA has given GraceMed a little more than four acres of land on the Y’s south campus to build the clinic. “Medical, dental, pharmacy, vision services, integrated behavioral health. At full capacity, we anticipate serving about 17,000 unduplicated patients per year,” Sanford said. That would increase the
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number of patients GraceMed serves at its eight current locations by half. The Community Health Center of Southeast Kansas also is seeking a $650,000 grant. The Pittsburg- David Sanford based organization serves 40,000 patients through clinics in six counties, including Iola in Allen County. But Douglas Stuckey, its chief financial officer, said part of the region remains underserved. “And if you look at the ratio of underserved people, we’ve
basically got a doughnut — and right in the middle is Labette County and Parsons,” Stuckey said. About 1,000 patients from the Parsons area seek care at his organization’s clinics in Pittsburg and Coffeyville — a distance of about 40 miles either way — and that’s just a fraction of the unmet need, according to Stuckey. “And if they don’t have transportation to get to Pittsburg or Coffeyville, they either go without, or there is a couple small, free clinics in Parsons, but they’re not open all the time,” he said. He estimates a new clinic in Parsons would provide health
“Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers.” — Voltaire 75 Cents
care to nearly 5,000 uninsured and low-income people a year. The nonprofit organization that runs clinics in Olathe and Paola also is seeking expansion money. The Health Partnership Clinic wants to establish a new clinic in an abandoned Wal-Mart store in Ottawa. The entire $650,000 federal grant would go for operational costs. CEO Jason Wesco said most low-income residents in Franklin County appear to be forgoing health care, in part because the state hasn’t expanded Medicaid eligibility. “We have patients who See CLINICS | Page A6
Hi: 43 Lo: 26 Iola, KS