Golf: Iola prevails at Buck Quincy Invitational
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THE IOLA REGISTER Tuesday, April 29, 2014
FBI probes ex-aide to Gov. Brownback
Suspected of profiting from relationship By JOHN HANNA Associated Press
City tree sale Saturday By BOB JOHNSON The Iola Register
Iola’s spring tree sale, an annual event since 1991, starts at 8 a.m., Saturday at Riverside Park. About 65 trees and 20 bushes will be offered at $28 each for trees and $18 for bushes. They will arrive late this week from a nursery in Park Hill, Okla. Sales are not restricted to Iola residents, and will be made on a first-come, firstserved basis. Trees will be about five feet tall and come in five-gallon
containers; bushes smaller and in three-gallon containers. Container size is an important feature when it comes to transplanting, said Tim McDonnell, community forestry coordinator with Kansas State Extension Service in Haysville. “A lot of people tend to plant a new tree too deep,” McDonnell told the Register. “You don’t want the tree to be any deeper than how it sits in its container.” Another tip, he said, is to check for spiraling of the root
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system within the container, a concern commonly overlooked. “Cut off any roots that are spiraling,” McDonnell advised. “If you don’t the roots will continue like that,” and not spread out as they should. Watering is important, but initially not as much as some people may think, he added. It is important, though, not to let a young tree’s root system dry out. With young trees, including those just planted, once-aweek watering usually is sufficient, he said. See TREES | Page A6
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The FBI is examining whether Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback’s former chief of staff and a lobbying and consulting firm he helped found are trading on their ties to the governor to benefit themselves and others financially, a person familiar with the inquiry told The Associated Press on Monday. The person said the agency has been looking for several months into the activities of Brownback confidante David Kensinger and his Topeka firm, Parallel Strategies, which he and two former Brownback staffers formed last year. The person said the FBI had interviewed multiple people. The person is not a law enforcement officer and insisted on anonymity because the person is not authorized to speak publicly about the FBI’s inquiry. The existence of the investigation was first reported by The Topeka Capital-Journal on Sunday. The person who spoke with AP said the FBI is ex-
amining the aftermath of the Brownback administration’s decision to turn over the management of the state’s Medicaid program for the needy and disabled to Kansas subsidiaries of three large health insurance companies. One of the three firms awarded management of the program at the time employed a lobbyist, Matt Hickam, who was a former partner of Kensinger at another lobbying firm. Kensinger declined to comment. His partners in Parallel Strategies, Riley Scott and George Stafford, did not return telephone messages Sunday and Monday. Hickam also did not immediately return a call seeking comment. Brownback spokeswoman Eileen Hawley said the administration has had no contact with the FBI and no indication that it’s conducting an investigation. “We have heard absolutely nothing,” Hawley said. “This is a lot of rumor and innuendo, and we’re not going to comment on it.” FBI spokeswoman Bridget Patton said the agency never See FBI | Page A2
CITY COUNCIL
Board continues on Coming up short Iola seeks increase in county funding for EMS with fair funding By KAYLA BANZET The Iola Register
It was a light agenda Monday night at the USD 257 board meeting. Board members agreed to continue participating in Schools for Fair Funding. Schools for Fair Funding was created to restore balance to funding in school districts. It is a coalition of more than 50 school districts representing Kansas students. It helps protect K-12 learning within
communities. They are the group that filed a lawsuit against the state of Kansas to provide equal funding. “We’ve been in it this far, I see it as a necessity to continue,” board member Buck Quincy said. Lincoln Elementary Principal Larry Hart said the school has had problems with vandalism. “There has been a group of older kids gathering on the playground after school See USD 257 | Page A6
Denying expansion of Medicaid costing state By JIM MCLEAN KHI News Service
TOPEKA — The decision by Gov. Sam Brownback and Republican legislative leaders not to expand Medicaid is denying care to thousands and costing Kansas hospitals millions of dollars, participants in a panel discussion said on Monday. Randy Peterson, president and chief executive of Stormont-Vail HealthCare in
Topeka, said that hospitals agreed to reductions in reimbursement rates for Medicare and other federal programs in exchange for increasing the number of Americans with private or Medicaid coverage. Negotiators assumed the increase in coverage would more than offset the reductions. “The coverage hasn’t happened; the cuts did happen,” Peterson said. See MEDICAID | Page A6
Quote of the day Vol. 116, No. 129
By SUSAN LYNN The Iola Register
With hat in hand, Iola representatives plan to ask Allen County commissioners to increase their share of funding to the joint fire and EMS budget, it was decided at the City Council meeting Monday night. The savings to taxpayers from the city/county venture is estimated to be anywhere from $300,000 to $600,000. But the city pays an almost two-to-one ratio for the service, budgeting more than $1.4 million compared to the county’s contribution of $750,000. As is, the city is about $400,000 shy of funds to adequately fund the service. City council members tossed around ideas to raise the money, including raising utility rates or the city sales tax. Utility rates would have to increase about $25 a month per household to make up the shortfall, according to City Administrator Carl Slaugh. An additional half-cent city sales tax would also do the job. But what sticks in the craw of council members is that Iola residents should bear the burden.
“Iolans are getting the short end of the stick,” said Don Becker, council member. “Seems a service for the county should be paid by the county.” Iola’s pledge of $300,000 for 10 years toward the management of Allen County Regional Hospital plus the city’s contribution to install sewer and water lines to the new hospital as well as a transformer, should go a long ways in showing county commissioners Iola’s willingness to support county projects. To date, the city has contributed just shy of $860,000 toward the hospital in sales tax receipts and more than $200,000 for extending utilities. “I don’t see how they can object,” Becker said. Slaugh said he would arrange a meeting between him, Mayor Joel Wicoff, EMS Director Ryan Sell and county commissioners. SHARON BOAN expressed her concerns about parking on the south side of square. Boan said she drives a small car, “and no matter where I park, when I come back to my car some big pickup is parked right beside me, making it very difficult for me to back up. I’ve had almost four
“The best thing one can do when it’s raining is to let it rain.” — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 75 Cents
accidents in one month,” she said. Perhaps just alerting motorists of large vehicles of the dangers they pose by limiting the vision to the drivers of smaller cars will help, Boan said. In some cases, signs are posted for compact cars in order to group them together. Council members gave Boy Scout Troop 18 from Owasso, Okla., permission to spend the night of May 16 in Riverside Park. The troop plans to bike the 50 miles from Iola to Ottawa along the Prairie Spirit Trail in order to complete requirements for a cycle merit badge. In the group will be 15 Scouts and six adults. Neil Phillips of the accounting firm Jarred, Gilmore & Phillips, PA, gave the city a flawless report in its audit, and commended council members for building up reserves. The city has about Neil Phillips $1.3 million set aside in equipment reserves mainly for a new natural gas generator. Phillips noted the advantage of Gates Manufacturing See CITY | Page A2
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