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THE IOLA REGISTER Tuesday, March 4, 2014
Moran aims to beat weather with shelter
By BOB JOHNSON The Iola Register
MORAN — Moran residents will have another option to safely ride out severe weather this spring and summer. At the urging of Councilman Jim Mueller, Moran council members voted unanimously Monday night to install a second community storm shelter in the city park. The shelter will be rated to hold
40 people, the same size as one in the downtown area, just south of the library. Council members have set aside $33,000 for the project, but aren’t sure who will build it or how much it will cost. “I’d like to see us do something,” said Mayor Phillip Merkel. “If we wait, it’ll be after storm season before we have the shelter.” Of the $33,000, $3,000 is from a tax equalization payment made by En-
I’d like to see us do something. If we wait, it’ll be storm season before we have a shelter. — Moran Mayor Phillip Merkel
bridge Pipeline for materials purchased elsewhere at a lesser rate than Allen County’s. Altogether, the tax windfall was $6,166. The remainder will be deposited in the library fund,
A LIFESTYLE WORTH STICKING UP FOR
See MORAN | Page A6
WORLD NEWS
Putin: Russia has right to use force
PowerUps promote pluses, amenities of rural life By KAYLA BANZET The Iola Register
After the high school graduation caps have been tossed in the air, young rural Kansans have an assortment of options ahead of them. Many make the decision to attend college or go headstrong into the workforce. After they have experienced life outside of their small hometown communities, it’s rare for them to return home. But why? “I hear all of the time that young people move away and don’t come back to the town,” said Elyssa Jackson, a California transplant who has taken to Iola. “Sometimes the young people who live here have ideas for the community but their ideas get squashed a little bit.” Jackson wants to change this. In
which is being built up for the day when a new library will be constructed. The library fund grew to $24,000.
2009, Marci Penner, executive director of Kansas Sampler Foundation, created the PowerUp movement. The purpose behind the movement is to bring together people ages 21 to 39 to create ways to bring “new life” to a rural community. Jackson, who moved to Iola in October 2012, first heard about the moveSee GROUP | Page A6
Elyssa Jackson is responsible for jumpstarting the PowerUp movement in Iola. The group aims to help make rural communities more attractive to young people. REGISTER/
MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin pulled his forces back from the Ukrainian border today yet said Moscow reserves the right to use all means to protect Russians in Ukraine. He accused the West of encouraging an anti-constitutional coup in Ukraine and driving it onto anarchy and declared that any sanctions the West places on Russia will backfire. It was Putin’s first comments since Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych fled Kiev last month and landed in Russia. Ukraine’s new government wants to put him on trial for the deaths of over 80 people during protests in Kiev. Tensions remained high today in the strategic Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea, with troops loyal to Moscow firing warning shots to ward off protesting Ukrainian soldiers. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry was en route to Kiev, where Ukraine’s new government is based. Yet world markets seemed to recover from their fright over the situation in Ukraine, clawing back a large chunk of Monday’s stock losses, while oil, gold, wheat and the Japanese yen have given back some of their gains. “Confidence in equity markets has been restored as the standoff between Ukraine and Russia is no longer on red alert,” said David Madden, market analyst at IG.
KAYLA BANZET
See RUSSIA | Page A3
Fire takes family’s home, community comes to aid By BOB JOHNSON The Iola Register
That all four of her children spent Saturday night at friends’ homes was a godsend for June Pergeson. The home where Jeff Sellman, Pergeson and her children live, about eight miles northwest of LaHarpe, was destroyed in a fire Saturday night. Had the four youngsters been at home, Sellman said it might have been difficult to get them out of harm’s way. Here’s what happened: About 9:30, Sellman was taking a bath and, with Pergeson also in that part of their home, he smelled smoke. “I grabbed a towel and ran into the front room,” Sellman said, and was greeted by smoke, wafting from a fireplace. “I figured it was from a
down draft,” he said. “That happened a year or so ago.” Sellman returned to the bathroom, only to have a fire alarm start emitting its piercing sound a minute or two later. This time when he arrived in the living room, he was met by flames gushing up around a fireplace. Advantage of having the children away from home was that their rooms were on the end of the fireplace. “We might have had trouble getting them out with the flames already filling the living room,” Sellman said. Rural volunteer firefighters from LaHarpe sped, as best they could on icy roads, to the fire, but by the time they arrived the house was engulfed. “We about slipped off the road a couple of times on the way,” said LaHarpe volunteer
Quote of the day Vol. 116, No.89
This is what’s left of a modular home at the north edge of Allen County, which had been occupied by Jeff Sellman, June Pergeson and her four children, after it caught fire Saturday night. COURTESY
PHOTO
chief Larry Trester. “And, there wasn’t much we could do once we arrived,” other than pour water on burning embers and hot spots. “We had quite a time fighting the fire with as cold as it was,” Trester added. “Every-
We slipped off the road a couple times on the way. We had quite a time fighting the fire with as cold as it was. Everything kept freezing up. — LaHarpe Fire Chief Larry Trester
See FIRE | Page A6
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