Saturday, January 4, 2020
Locally owned since 1867
iolaregister.com
Water woes grip Humboldt By RICHARD LUKEN The Iola Register
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY WHITNEY IKEHORN
LaHarpe targets housing puzzle LaHarpe Home Fair
By RICHARD LUKEN The Iola Register
(Editor’s note: Reporter Richard Luken is a member of LaHarpe PRIDE, the primary organizer of the upcoming LaHarpe Home Fair.) LAHARPE — More affordable housing. It’s on pretty much every community’s wish list, but a confluence of factors have traditionally stood in the way. Working class folks are often limited by what types of homes they can afford, particularly with exorbitant down payments needed just to get their feet in the door. As such, builders are just as resistant to build houses on the mere speculation
1:30 p.m. Jan. 18 LaHarpe City Hall somebody may be in the market for a home months or years later. The LaHarpe PRIDE Committee is hoping to tip the scales in both instances. PRIDE is teaming up with the United States Department of Agriculture, city officials and area lenders and builders for the LaHarpe Home Fair at 1:30 p.m. Jan. 18 at LaHarpe City Hall. All are invited. The Home Fair’s centerpiece focuses on a pair of USDA initiatives, the Direct Rural Home Loans and the Guaranteed Rural Housing
programs. Each allows borrowers to finance new, energy-efficient homes with minimal interest rates — hovering currently in the 3% range — and with no down payment. Combine those programs with incentives available in LaHarpe — free utility extensions to within the foot of a new home’s foundation, and property tax abatements for the first 10 years of owning the home — and suddenly you’ve pared thousands of dollars off the cost of buying a new home. How enticing is such a program? Putting pen to paper, a Direct Rural Home Loan borrower can suddenly find himself in a $100,000-plus home with a monthly mort-
gage payment (including insurance costs and escrowed taxes) at a cost of under $600 a month. THE PRIMARY difference between the Direct Rural Home Loan and Guaranteed Rural Housing Program lies in the borrower’s income. A family of four’s household income must be $49,200 or less to qualify for the Direct loan, which comes straight from USDA. Other factors, such as current living conditions, also come into play. Mortgage notes run for 33 years, or in special cases, as many as 38 years for some borrowers. Kelli Kramer, a loan speSee LAHARPE | Page A3
By ERIC SPRUILL The Iola Register
PAGE B1
PAGE A2
US hits Iranian general; tensions rise in Mideast PAGE A4 Tesla autopilot crashes probed
PAGE A6
See HUMBOLDT | Page A3
BBQ guru: Low and slow is the way to go
ACC baseball hosts skills clinic
Some vaping flavors banned
HUMBOLDT — Contaminated water — spilled from the scene of an early morning fire Wednesday Stay up to date at Mid- with Humboldt’s water crisis at West Feriolaregister.com tilizer in Iola — has prompted Humboldt to suspend operations at the city’s water plant. The city remained at risk of losing its water service altogether, once its water towers are emptied. As of Friday morning, the city still had water in its towers, “but they’re getting pretty low,” City Administrator Cole Herder. Crews from the Kansas Department of Environment were awaiting test results to determine whether the contaminated water has cleared. Those results were not announced before the Register went to press. Without resuming water plant operations, Herder ex-
One of the worst things that can happen to someone trying to learn to smoke meats is for everything to turn out dry and tough. Meat can be expensive. When you’re not getting the results you long for, it’s a hobby someone may be quick to give up on. According to Marshall Barnhart, owner of Dudley’s Done Right BBQ, there are a few steps one can take to prevent meat, no matter the cut, from drying out. Barnhart says one of the biggest factors is heat control. Barnhart says low and slow is the way to go. “If you have it too hot at the very beginning, then you are opening up the meat, very, very fast. So when it closes back up it doesn’t have time to break down those enzymes in the meat so it will get tough,” he said. “My belief is to open
Co-owner Sharon Santucci of Portland’s Russell St. BBQ proudly talks about their new smoker, an 84-inch long Lang from Georgia. THE OREGONIAN/STEPHANIE YAO LONG/STAFF LC/TNS it up slowly and then sear it in the end. It’s called a reverse sear. You roast and barbecue for a while then you get a hot skillet and sear it at the end.” When talking to people about barbecue, brisket is a favorite. Yet it also seems to
be one of the toughest cuts to get right. Barnhart says the key is to leave it alone. “Just leave it alone. Don’t flip it over, don’t put probes in it. Some cook fast, some cook slow. But keep it between 220
and 240 degrees for 8 to 10 hours and you will be all right,” Barnhart said. “The internal temperature you’re looking for is about 190 degrees.” Barnhart said if you don’t cut brisket correctly, it is going to be tough. He said to flip the meat over and look which way the grain runs. Whichever way the grain runs, cut the opposite way. “You cut it that way so it will fall apart more easily,” he said. “If you cut it with the grain, you are going to end up with one long piece of stringy meat.” Another tip Barnhart gave was on cooking beef. Try not to use sugar-based rubs. The sugar will create a bark which will not allow the beef to cook all the way through. Everyone wants a good bark on the meat to add to the flavor. However, Barnhart says you can get the same bark to See BBQ | Page A3
Vol. 121, No. 302 Iola, KS 75 Cents NMRMC Women’s Health Center Chanute 620-431-0340