The Iola Register, Feb. 5, 2022

Saturday, February 5, 2022

Locally owned since 1867

Scholarship named for slain Red Devil

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Housing debate echoes the past

By RICHARD LUKEN The Iola Register

PAGE B1

House bill delays Medicaid bidding PAGE A4

COVID drops in all states except Maine PAGE A5

Iola Mayor Steve French couldn’t help but feel a sense of deja vu as he heard arguments unfold about a developer’s plans to convert an abandoned nursing home in Iola into an apartment complex.

French was in attendance at the Jan. 18 Iola Planning Commission meeting where, after hearing opponents speak out against Rockey Meo’s proposal to turn the old Arkhaven Nursing Home property into one- and two-bedroom apartments, the Commission voted against the developer’s zoning See ZONING | Page A5

Developers built Country Place Senior Living in Chanute after plans to build the facility in Iola fell through after meeting resistance by neighboring property owners. REGISTER/RICHARD LUKEN

The recycling masters Coffey County’s recycling program is a model for other counties

By VICKIE MOSS The Iola Register

BURLINGTON — When Renee Lickteig moved from California to rural Waverly about five years ago, she was surprised and pleased to learn about the Coffey County Recycling program.

“It’s good for the county.

It’s good for the country,” she said. “We’re keeping stuff out of the landfill and helping the environment.”

Because she lives in a rural area, she brings most of her recyclables to the facility just east of Burlington, near the landfill.

The Coffey County program allows her family to recycle about 75% of their trash. They burn what they can’t recycle.

The program also allows Coffey County residents to repurpose as well as recycle, she said.

She’ll dig through the plastics bin and find square icecream containers she can use for various purposes on the farm. A nearby table offers a stack of egg cartons.

She’s seen people dig through the bin of glass bottles so they can use them for homemade wine or beverages.

The tub of books is a good place to find reading material.

Recycling has become ingrained in the Coffey County community, according to the team that leads the program.

Hundreds of residents and businesses in each city in Coffey County take advantage of a curbside recycling program.

The local library now offers opportunities to recycle plastic bags.

Before the pandemic, classes of school children frequently visited the center to learn more about recycling.

“I’m so glad we have this program,” Lickteig said. “Other counties can do it, too.”

Vol. 124, No. 88 Iola, KS 75 Cents

Allen County COVID-19 Case Count

Active cases ...........164 Total cases* ...........3,804 Deaths ..................43

*Since the start of the pandemic Sources: Southeast Kansas Multi-County Health Departments, Kansas Department of Health and Environment

Kelly vetoes GOP plan for redistricting

By JOHN HANNA and ANDY TSUBASA FIELD The Associated Press

Todd Bemis, left is the Coffey County Recycling coordinator, with Bill Reavis as the lead man for the recycling program. They are shown with the recycling trailer, which collects material through curbside pickups at each city in Coffey County.

ALLEN County’s recycling leaders look to programs like the one in Coffey County as an example of what is possible.

Steve Strickler, a dairy farm owner who is one of the leaders in local recycling efforts, said he learns a lot from the staff at Coffey County. A couple of weeks ago, he and Harry Clubine traveled to Burlington to watch them bale recyclable material using a large machine called a horizontal baler.

Allen County sends its plastics and glass material to Coffey County, which will bale it along with material it receives from numerous sources. Then, it will be shipped to recycling suppliers across the U.S. Allen County’s recycling efforts are all volunteer, and are currently in a state of flux. The Iola Rotary Club offered a program that allowed people to drop off recyclable material, but that ended in December. Now, volunteers will collect recyclables on the first See RECYCLE | Page A7

A recycling bin at the Coffey County Recycling facility east of Burlington shows some of the different types of material collected. A horizontal baler, back left, compresses nearly all types of recycled items. REGISTER/VICKIE MOSS

CONGRATULATIONS

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly on Thursday vetoed a Republican redistricting plan that would make it harder for the lone Kansas Democrat in Congress to win reelection this year.

Republicans in the GOP-controlled Legislature vowed to try to override Kelly’s veto, and they appeared to be close to having the two-thirds majorities in both chambers that they would need. But if they do, the new lines are likely to be challenged in federal and possibly state court.

The measure would split the state’s portion of the Kansas City area into two congressional districts, costing Democratic U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids some of the territory in her 3rd District where she performs best. The map also would move the liberal northeast Kansas community of Lawrence, home to the main University of Kansas campus, from the 2nd District of eastern See VETO | Page A4

To the Staff of Neosho Memorial Regional Medical Center for being recognized as the 2021 Health Quality Innovator of the Year population health category – runner up for Community of Immunity Initiative.

629 S. Plummer • Chanute, KS • 620-431-4000 www.neoshomemorial.com

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Saturday, February 5, 2022

The Iola Register

Hunger task force meetings begin

Obituaries Dean Head Dean Head, 75, passed away Tuesday, Feb. 1, 2022, at St. Luke’s Hospital in Kansas City, Mo. Dean was born Jan. 30, 1947, to Thomas Andrew Head and Blanche Marie (Charlie) Head in Iola. Dean attended school in Iola, and graduated with the class of 1966. Dean married Linda (Roush) Head on Dec. 21, 1968, in Iola. Their union was bless- Dean Head ed with two children. After school, Dean served in the United States Navy for almost four years. Dean worked for Gates for 22 years before retiring in 2009.

Dean is preceded in death by his parents, Thomas and Blanche Head; siblings, Ed, Betty, Wilma, Daryl and Lois; grandson, Dustin Dozier and great-grandson, Cason Dozier.

Dean is survived by his wife of the home, Linda Head; son, Dean (Amanda) Head Jr. and daughter, Patricia (Mark) Dozier; grandchildren, Brittany (Matt) Mulvaney of Georgia, Gabby (Josh) Yager of Alabama, Chris and Dakota Dozier of Kansas; great-grandchildren, Ryker Yager, Cloyce Dozier and Killian Manger; and numerous other family members and friends.

A graveside service with military honors to honor the life of Dean and his years of service will be at 2 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 8, at Highland Cemetery in Iola.

Family will greet friends at Feuerborn Family Funeral Service starting at 1 o’clock, prior to the service before leaving in procession to the cemetery.

Memorials are suggested to St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital and may be left with Feuerborn Family Funeral Service, 1883 U.S. 54, Iola, KS 66749. Condolences may be left at www.feuerbornfuneral.com.

Kenneth Laymon Kenneth Wayne Laymon, 82, of rural Neosho Falls, passed away on Wednesday, Feb. 2, 2022, at his home. He was born April 16, 1939, to Wayne and Anna Faye (Allen) Laymon in Neosho Falls where he spent most of his childhood days. He graduated from Neosho Falls High School in 1956.

Kenny and Jeanie Lynch were married in 1976 making their home west of Neosho Falls.

Kenny was a very successful businessman. He loved a challenge which led him to being active in the oil industry, cattle, farming, and race horses.

The oil industry was his biggest success where he drilled and produced oil wells. There was very little he didn’t know about oil in Southeast Kansas. He lived life in the fast lane and found yet another challenge in later years in owning, training, and racing Quarter Horses at various tracks. He loved every minute of it.

He was preceded in death by his parents and son, Kim. He is survived by Jeanie, his wife of 46 years; his son, Michael (Mary) Laymon of Yates Center; granddaughters, Amy (Pat) McConaghie, Rachelle (Luke) Galemore, and Hana (Thad) Trahan, all of Yates Center; great-grandchildren, Lauren and Brogan McConaghie, Kru and Kora Galemore, and Magraw and Trinn Trahan.

Memorial services will be at 1 p.m. Monday, Feb. 7, at Campbell Funeral Home. The family will meet with friends from noon until service time at the funeral home.

Memorial contributions to “Friends for Life” may be sent in care of Campbell Funeral Home, PO Box 188, Yates Center, KS 66783.

Today

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Temperature High Thursday Low Thursday night High a year ago Low a year ago

17 5 39 22

Sunrise 7:20 a.m.

44

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Precipitation 24 hrs ending 8 a.m. Friday 0 This month to date .44 Total year to date .50 Deficient since Jan. 1 1.20

A committee studying hunger issues in southeast Kansas have identified two main barriers to providing access to healthy and affordable food in Allen County — transportation and lack of awareness of available resources.

The SEK Hunger Action Team met Thursday to discuss those barriers.

“As Southeast Kansans, we are motivated to collaborate and make real changes for our communities,” the committee announced. “We are focusing on centering people with lived experiences to best utilize our collective skills, knowledge and power to reduce barriers.”

Members will reach out to local service pro-

By NOAH TABORDA Kansas Reflector

TOPEKA — A House panel refrained from acting Thursday on what some called a “train wreck” financial incentive package to encourage manufacturers to pursue significant investments in the state, opting instead to discuss potential improvements.

The so-called megaproject bill provides companies with special incentives if they plan to invest at least $1billion in Kansas over five years.

Amendments added by the Senate would reduce the state corporate income tax, make a tax credit offered to these companies nonrefundable and establish a sunset date on the act of June 20, 2023.

As requested by Gov. Laura Kelly, the bill is intended to boost the state’s bid for an unnamed company expected to invest $4 billion in a production plant. The company is also considering Tulsa for the site, according to the Kansas City Business Journal.

However, efforts to expedite the bill in the Senate resulted in a sloppy bill requiring further work, some House members said.

“We are still in the process of fixing this train wreck of a bill that came over to us, to say it nicely,” said Rep. Sean Tarwater, a Stilwell Republican and chairman of the House Commerce, Labor and Economic Development Committee. “We want to make sure that the i’s are dotted, and the t’s are crossed because we want to make sure we do it right.”

The House panel had anticipated working and potentially acting on the bill Thursday, but it instead discussed amendments to the bill. The committee

will vote on the potential alterations when members reconvene Monday.

Rep. Blaine Finch, an Ottawa Republican, said efforts to collaborate with the governor’s staff and the Department of Commerce did not result in an agreement but offered several ideas for potential solutions to House concerns. Finch proposed a significant amendment guided by three principles — accountability, economic development and benefits for all businesses.

His amendment would restore the refundable capital investment tax credit removed by the Senate and extend the payout from three years to 10 years.

The update would also cap payroll reimbursement for qualified companies at 7.5% Any efforts by the secretary of commerce to change the payout or payroll reimbursement rate would require approval from the State Finance Council.

“That last mile or those biggest chunks of incentive have to have someone else looking at the deal and making sure that it makes sense for all of Kansas,” Finch said.

“No deal of that size should happen without a check and balance.”

Finch said the bill should function as an economic development incentive program, not just a lure for one company. The amendment would ensure that anyone benefiting from the incentive program lives or operates in Kansas.

To encourage this, Finch proposed a $10 million matching incentive fund for the corporation to provide relocation incentives for employees moving to Kansas from another state.

Finch noted complaints from businesses and some lawmak-

You Dream It. We Build It.

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QualityStructures.com

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the base bill for existing Kansas businesses. His amendment would automatically reduce the sales tax on utilities from 6.5% to zero in years the state pays benefits to the megaproject company.

“Each year Kansas businesses are subsidizing somebody else’s business, they also receive a benefit,” Awerkamp said. “That shows Kansas businesses that we actually care about them too, and we’re not just trying to find somebody outside the state to bring into the state.”

The amendment would cost the state approximately $55 million a year.

Rep. Ron Highland also proposed a clawback mechanism for the committee to consider Monday.

“If (the company) leaves the state between the 10th and 15 years, there will be a prorated basis of what they’re going to have to pay back,” the Wamego Republican said. “The exception is if they sell to a company that stays in the state.”

Colony church meets For youth Sunday at Colony Christian Church, Ethan Prasko gave the Communion Meditation over Philippians 4:8, which tells us to “Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable.”

Ben Prasko was the guest speaker, and his sermon was “Finding identity.”

Our identity is reflected in everything we do, how we dress, speak and act, he not-

ed.

But when what becomes your identity fails, your self-worth becomes nothing. We often define our identity as what people say we are (dumb, ugly, etc.). We look to others for approval, attention or love. When we do this, we’ll do whatever it takes to be accepted by others. But we can’t focus on pleasing people. God’s plan is much bigger than that, and we don’t have to be who the world says we should be.

YOUR COMMUNITY FOUNDATION IS SEEKING NEW BOARD MEMBERS

Our mission is to advance the quality of life in Allen County and surrounding areas by building permanent endowments, fostering philanthropy, energizing community communication, helping donors achieve charitable goals and leave lasting legacies.

We work hard to create buildings that keep you going all year long.

1007 U.S. Hwy 54 • LaHarpe

ers that the measure was picking winners and losers. Rather than sticking with the Senate proposal to lower the state’s corporate income tax rate of 4% by 0.5%, or about $50 million annually, each year project funds are sent to these companies, Finch proposed a more measured approach.

The reduction would stay at 0.5%, but that would only occur once for each project.

“This measured reduction in Kansas and taxation on all Kansas corporations is a small fraction of the incentives that might be paid to even one apex project, but it spreads the benefit instead of being for one company or a handful of suppliers to every Kansas corporation,” Finch said.

The amendment would also limit the state to one megaproject initiative per year and amend the sunset to two years.

Rep. Francis Awerkamp, a St. Marys Republican, proposed another change to sweeten

Our vision is to be a trusted partner in charitable giving, to improve the quality of life and revitalize Allen and surrounding counties.

Send your love with flowers Unique arrangements HOUSEPLANTS & more

seed.

Locally participants are encouraged to contact Paige Olson, Southeast Kansas Thriving Advocate, at polson@ kansasappleseed.org.

Kansas Appleaseed estimates southeast Kansas has the highest food insecurity rates in the state with a projected one in six residents experiencing food insecurity.

Established in 2012, Your Community Foundation works to advance the quality of life in Allen County.

Sunset 5:50 p.m.

Valentine’s Day is MONday, February 14th

viders to collect data on resource awareness and utilization rates for such things as community pantries, existing transportation services and meal programs.

The Southeast Kansas Hunger Action Team meets from 10 a.m. to noon on the first Thursday of each month in a meeting convened by Kansas Apple-

House stalls work on incentives deal

de availlivery able !

(620) 496-1235

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Building the Rural American Dream™

The board meets once a month and plays a vital role in awarding grants, working with the community, and laying the foundation for our work.

Join us in service! Contact Job Springer (620-228-0293) or Alan Weber at givingmakesadifference@gmail.com to learn more. www.givingmakesadifference.com

The Iola Register

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Chamber to celebrate annual dinner Feb. 24 The Iola Chamber of Commerce and Tourism annual dinner is Thursday, Feb. 24.

We invite our members to join us at the Allen County Country Club starting at 5:30.

Ethel Davis, a native of Iola, will be our guest speaker.

Davis will be speaking on intentionality and purpose regarding life’s journey. She addresses how people can maintain a positive outlook and remain motivated in today’s new and changing environment.

Davis is the CEO and portfolio manager of VZD Capital Management, an Overland Park investment firm..

VZD was founded on the legacy of Ethel’s parents, Vergie and Zether Davis, who passed away in 1983 and 2007, respectively.

Davis said she learned and applied her parents’ values of going beyond reasonable expectations and fostering long-lasting partnerships.

Davis is the first African American female to own 100 percent of a Registered Investment Advisory firm in the Midwest and few within the United States.

She brings 25 years of investment experience from respected firms, including American Century, Fidelity Investments, Charles Schwab and Co., Inc and Paragon Capital Management, LLC. Help us welcome Ethel Davis on Feb. 24

Robin Schallie Chamber director

Random Act

Random Acts of Kindness Day on Feb. 17 is a day to observe kindness and pay it forward.

Demonstrating kindness doesn’t just feel great, it’s also good for your welfare. It has been suggested to decrease blood pressure, elevate happiness, reduce discomfort, improve healing, and raise recognition by contemporaries.

Listed are ways to participate in Random Acts of Kindness. I challenge you to select and do one if not more.

1) Stop to lend a hand 2) Spread some beauty.

3) Double dinner.

4) Send kind greetings to the troops.

5) Let a stranger go in front of you in line.

6) Send a kind note to someone 7) Clean up.

8) Pay it forward 9) Be kind to siblings, family members or friends 10) Go shopping for someone else.

11) Find opportunities to give compliments 12) Put a surprise note in with your spouse’s or kid’s lunch Let’s all do our part on this day and every day to make this a better world.

Iola library hosts exhibits, programs Exodusters: Arrival of Black Settlers in Iola, a lobby exhibit for

Black History Month, chronicles events in the era of early statehood, reminiscences of former slave Nancy Grubbs and handbills advertising Kansas.

Book Talk

On Tuesday, Feb. 8 at 2 p.m., Colleen Dobbins will highlight the Nordic Noir of Jo Nesbo and his Harry Hole detective series, which the library has just acquired.

The meeting then will open up to discuss the books others are reading. Come drop in to listen and learn from others. Book talks are a great way to figure out what you want to read next, especially if you’re looking for a change of pace.

Black History Month

Feb. 14-16: Prominent Black Iola families are featured on seven large display boards prepared by Helen Newman Ambler and shown in the library meeting room. Portraits, copies of freedom papers and photos of community life retrace history. Helen is married to Spencer Ambler, Iola’s first Black postmaster. From 1-3 p.m. Feb. 15, Colleen Dobbins will be on hand with books of special interest and answer questions about other

library resources.

Library Littles

Thursday, Feb. 17: Library Littles Play Date features fun and games for infants to age 3 and information for parents on their children’s learning and development skills.

Karen Culver, a family educator for SEKCAP Early Head Start, is this month’s featured speaker. There are two sessions: 10-11 a.m. and 2-3 p.m., in the meeting room. Space and time is limited, so registration is appreciated. Registrants receive a reminder call. Library Littles is held the third Thursday of each month.

Celebrating Our Teachers with Letters

Feb. 7-17: Iola Reads, co-sponsored with USD 257 and the Bowlus Fine Arts Center, is sponsoring a letter-writing campaign to thank teachers for their dedication.

The effort is spurred by the Iola Reads book, “Take Me With You,” by Catherine Ryan Hyde.

The entire community is encouraged to read the book as well as submit letters expressing gratitude for teachers, present and past.

The Iola Register will publish the letters on March 8. Submit your letter telling of how a teacher impacted your life to promotions@iolaregister.com.

Saturday, February 5, 2022

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Lawmakers frustrated by skirmish over 5G

By JESSICA WEHRMAN the C-band adjacent to bandwidth used by airCQ-Roll Call/TNS

craft radar altimeters to navigate in low-visibility situations. After Verizon and AT&T bought the bandwidth in February 2021 for more than $80 billion, the aviation industry worried publicly that deploying that spectrum would put airplanes at risk.

The deployment was delayed multiple times, but the telecoms, the FAA and FCC appeared to have reached a temporary detente, with Verizon and AT&T agreeing not to deploy in areas close to airports and putting a series of mitigations in for at least six months.

Still, Aviation Subcommittee Chair Rick Larsen, D-Wash., said the impact was felt in his district, where Alaska Airlines canceled more than 50 flights to Everett, Wash., on Jan. 24-26, and Graves warned “we are still in the middle of a big mess.”

“Although the temperature has been turned down for now,

WASHINGTON — Lawmakers on Thursday sharply criticized the process leading up to the deployment of 5G wireless technology around airports last month, repeatedly questioning how the Federal Aviation Administration and Federal Communications Commission had such a disconnect.

“There’s no excuse for us to be in this situation,” Rep. Garret Graves, R-La., said at a hearing of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Aviation.

“It’s embarrassing. …

It’s ridiculous and inexcusable.”

Committee Chair Peter A. DeFazio, D-Ore., similarly criticized the “extraordinary lack of communication and coordination between the FCC and the FAA” leading up to the deployment of 5G near airports.

At issue is a chunk of spectrum called

there’s an awful lot of work to be done by all parties as we move forward,” Graves said.

FAA Administrator Steve Dickson agreed.

“We recognize that the existing process for spectrum allocation did not serve anyone well,” he said, acknowledging that “there’s no free spectrum anymore.”

Instead, he said, the future would likely include retrofitting filtering devices on altimeters aimed at warding off 5G interference.

Some lawmakers worried that the current agreement would only lead to the same disagreements down the line.

DeFazio questioned whether the six-month agreement to impose mitigations around the 5G towers would lead to the same problems in July, when they expire.

“What do you think is going to happen after six months?” he asked.

‘Years, not weeks’ Meredith Attwell Baker, president of the wireless industry trade group CTIA, said she was confident that

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the FAA and telecoms would reach an agreement that would make the aviation industry “comfortable” with the protections imposed long term.

Other stakeholders were less optimistic.

Nicholas Calio, president of Airlines for America, which represents the major airlines, testified that the process would take “years, not weeks, to fully address.”

“The process that led up to this operational nightmare, or potential operational nightmare, should be held up as a cautionary tale of lack of communication and coordination gone awry,” he said.

Though lawmakers expressed frustration with both the FAA and FCC, DeFazio saved his most strident criticism for both the FCC and a telecommunications industry in dire need of more spectrum, saying the FCC has a “pattern of ignoring consequences beyond the consequences to the profitability of the telecom industry.”

Area church directory

This week’s message:

This week, I would urge you all to read Romans 12:1-2.

Paul writes this after taking 11 chapters to fully explain the gospel’s message to those in Rome. He uses the word, “therefore” to tell us, “I say all that to say this.” He then goes on to say that our only logical response to the gospel of Jesus Christ is to “offer your bodies as a living sacrifice.”

He isn’t telling us to physically die, but he is telling us that the only response there is to this good news, is surrendering everything we are to this merciful God. This is worship: obedience. Then he says that our merciful God will open your eyes and renew your thinking to see his will.

Christianity was never meant to be comfortable. It is a new way of life that will never be realized anywhere other than the cross of the Messiah Jesus.

Austin Hendrix, Senior Pastor of Community Church of the Nazarene

Carlyle

Sunday Worship . . . . . .9:30 a.m.

Bible Study . . . . . . .Tuesday 3 p.m.

Presbyterian

Church

620-365-9728

Livestream on our services: facebook.com/IolaNaz/

Sunday School 9:45 - 10:30 a.m.

Community Sunday Service 10:45 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.

Church Wednesday Night Bible Study 7:00 p.m. - 8:30 p.m. of the Senior Pastor Nazarene Austin Hendrix, 620-365-3983

www.nazarene.org 1235 N. Walnut St., Iola

“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God” -1 John 4:7

Cowboy Church & the Arena of Life

Bible School . . . . . . Wed. 7 p.m.

Sunday Worship . . . . . . 11:15 a.m.

Children’s Church . . . . . . Sun. 10:30 a.m.

620-637-2298

781 Hwy. 105, Toronto, KS

Service Time . . . . . . . 10:30 a.m. regional church

620-365-8001

Service Time...................10:30 a.m.

Fellowship fellowshipregionalchurch@yahoo.com

regional church fellowshipregionalchurch@yahoo.com facebook.com/FRCIOLA www.facebook.com/FRCIOLA/ frciola.com Service Time...................10:30 a.m.

214 Madison, Iola620-228-8001 214 W.W.Madison Ave., Iola

Sunday School . . . . . . . . . . . 9:00 a.m.

Worship Service . . . . . . . . 10:30 a.m.

Kids Connection . . . . . . . . . . . 10:30 a.m.

fellowshipregionalchurch@yahoo.com Jared Ellis 620-228-8001 Luke Bycroft www.facebook.com/FRCIOLA/

Jared Ellis Luke Bycroft

Travis Boyt, Pastor

801 N. Cottonwood St., Iola

First

Tony Godfrey, Pastor

Steve Traw, Pastor

29 Covert St., Carlyle

C H U R C H

Sunday Worship . . . . . . . .10:30 a.m.

Sunday Youth Group . . . . . . . . . . 6 p.m.

John & Jenna Higginbotham, Youth Leaders 620-365-2779

620-365-3688 2001 N. State St., Iola

hbciola.com

Humboldt United Methodist Church

Sunday School . . . . . . . . . 9:30 a.m.

Sunday Worship . . . . . . . . . 11 a.m.

Rev. Marge Cox, Pastor 620-473-3242

NURSERY PROVIDED

806 N. 9th St., Humboldt

Iola First Assembly of God

Sunday Worship . . . . 10:30 a.m.

Paul Miller, Pastor 620-365-2492

iolafirstag.org • pastorpaulmiller@gmail.com

1020 E. Carpenter St., Iola (at the intersection of North 3rd St. and Carpenter.

Parking is around back!)

South Church of Christ 2205 S. State St., Iola

St. John’s & St. Joseph’s Catholic Church 310 S. Jefferson Ave., Iola

620-365-2277 Father David Michael

“Nothing is Impossible for God”

Sunday Bible Class . . . . . . . . . 10 a.m.

Sunday Worship . . . . . . . . . 11 a.m.

Wednesday Night Services . . . . 7 p.m.

620-365-0145 Weekend Masses Sat. - 5:30 p.m. - Iola (Confession 4:30 - 5:20 p.m.)

Sun. 8:30 a.m. - Yates Center (Confession 8 - 8:25 a.m.)

10:30 a.m. - Iola Weekday Masses Mon., Tues., Fri., Sat. - 8 a.m. - Iola (Confession 7:30 - 7:55 a.m. M, T, F, S) Wed. - 6:30 p.m. - Iola (Confession 6 - 6:25 p.m.)

Thurs. - 5:30 p.m. - Yates Center

Sunday Worship . . . . . .9:30 a.m.

302 E. Madison, Iola

Presbyterian

Rev. Daniel M. Davis

Sun. Worship.....................9:30 a.m.

Church

620-365-3481

Join us “live” online for Sunday Worship at www.iolapresbyterian.org

302 E. Madison Ave., Iola

Grace Lutheran Church 117 E. Miller Rd., Iola

Join us “live” online for Sunday Worship at iolapresbyterian.org or on our YouTube channel

Adult Bible Class . . . . . . . . .9 a.m.

Worship Service . . . . . . . . . . 10:30 a.m.

Rev. Bruce Kristalyn 620-365-6468

329 S. 1st St., Iola, KS 66749 A gospel-centered church making disciples of Jesus Christ

Sunday Worship . . . . 10:45 a.m. waypointchurch.com • facebook.com/waypointiola

Wesley

United Methodist Church 301 E. Madison Ave., Iola

Sunday Praise & Worship . . . . 9:15 a.m.

Rev. Dr. Jocelyn Tupper, Senior Pastor • 620-365-2285

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Saturday, February 5, 2022

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The Iola Register

House bill delays rebidding state’s $3.9 billion Medicaid contracts until after governor’s race

By TIM CARPENTER Kansas Reflector

TOPEKA — A bipartisan cluster of House members, three Kelly administration agencies and a core group of advocates for the 440,000 Kansans in Medicaid shared unease with legislation blocking the rebidding of KanCare contracts with managed-care companies until after the governor’s race in November.

Officials working for Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly have been preparing to launch in October a competitive bidding process among for-profit companies and nonprofit organizations leading to selection in 2023 of three Medicaid contractors. Recipients of those contracts would share responsibility for delivering $3.9 billion in services to low-income children and adults as well as people with physical, intellectual or developmental disabilities.

The current contracts expire at the end of 2023, but legislation pending in the House would extend those deals to the end of 2025.

Rep. Brenda Landwehr, a Wichita Republican and chairwoman of the House Health and Human Services Committee, said the goal of the bill was to enable the Legislature to seize greater control of KanCare during a period covering the gubernatorial election and a portion of the next four-year term of a governor.

“The idea is to give whomever the next administration is the opportunity to go into long-term contracts with KanCare,” Landwehr said. “By extending it, then the next administration comes in and deals with it. That’s the intent.”

Rep. Brenda Landwehr, R-Wichita, said the Kansas Legislature should approve a bill blocking until after the 2022 election for governor the rebidding of Medicaid contracts with managed care organizations serving about 400,000 people enrolled in KanCare.

(THAD ALLTON FOR KANSAS REFLECTOR)

KanCare, the state’s privatized system of Medicaid, was launched in 2013 by Republican Gov. Sam Brownback.

He extended the initial KanCare contracts by issuing an executive order, not by permission of the Legislature. Sunflower State Health Plan and United Healthcare have been KanCare contractors from the start. In 2018, GOP Gov. Jeff Colyer announced selection — seven months before his term as governor ended — Aetna Better Health of Kansas would replace the third original KanCare contractor Amerigroup Kansas.

Under House Bill 2463, the executive branch in Kansas would not have authority to make “substantive or material” changes to Medicaid until Jan. 1, 2026.

It would order the Kansas Department of Health and Environment to negotiate contract extensions with Sunflower, United Healthcare and Aetna. KDHE would be forced to seek federal approval to continue operating KanCare in the manner of an experimental program, but the state’s Medicaid director said any request for an extension of federal authori-

zation beyond one year would be rejected by the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Rep. Kathy Wolfe Moore, a Democrat from Kansas City, Kansas, said the bill deviated from a process established by Republican governors in which the executive branch took the lead in developing contracts with managed-care companies. So far, Kansas governors have guaranteed Medicaid recipients three options among MCOs. She said the bill risked the state running afoul of federal regulators and jeopardized $2.9 billion in federal funding for Medicaid. A law requiring contracts with specific companies would soften the state’s leverage in management conflicts, she said.

“This would set up a no-bid process because these contracts would automatically stay. I’d love to be a contractor with the state if I knew I could do anything,” Wolfe Moore said.

Political motivations?

Kelly, who is seeking re-election to a second term as governor, has supported proposals to expand Medicaid eligi-

bility to include at least 100,000 more Kansans. So far, the House and Senate have not consented to expand access to Medicaid.

Kelly’s likely Republican opponent in November would be Attorney General Derek Schmidt, who has opposed Medicaid expansion and authorized legal challenges of the Affordable Care Act. None of the current KanCare contractors expressed support for the bill during the public hearing in Landwehr’s committee. Two Cabinet secretaries in the Kelly administration, the state’s Medicaid director and representatives of four health advocacy organizations opposed the legislation. Three organizations, including the Kansas Medical Society, raised objections but didn’t declare outright opposition.

Legislators were puzzled by absence of testimony from any organization or individual making arguments in support of the bill.

“It’s a little bit difficult when we don’t have a proponent,” said Rep. Doug Blex, a Republican from Independence. “The benefit of committee work is to hear all sides and make a somewhat intelligent decision.”

Democratic Rep. Susan Ruiz, of Kansas City, Kan., added: “I’m used to bills coming to us because we want to fix something or we want to enhance something. This is just out of that realm.”

GOP Rep. John Eplee, a physician from Atchison, said he was struggling to nail down purpose of the bill.

“I understand this is well-intentioned to provide more legislative engagement and oversight with this program,”

Veto: GOP map targets lone Democrat Continued from A1

Kansas into the 1st District of central and western Kansas with conservative communities six or more hours away by car.

Kelly’s veto message repeated Democratic legislators’ criticism of the plan, arguing that it violates guidelines set by the courts and lawmakers themselves aimed at protecting “communities of interest” and not diluting minority voters’ clout “I am ready to work with the Legislature in a bipartisan fashion to pass a new congressional map,” Kelly’s message said. “Together, we can come to a consensus and pass a compromise that empowers all people of Kansas.”

While Kelly portrayed her action as enabling bipartisanship, it comes with Republicans hoping to regain a U.S. House majority in this year’s elections and looking to recapture heavily suburban districts like Davids’.

Top GOP lawmakers were less conciliatory than Kelly, having said previously that they are confident Republicans can override a veto.

The Kansas House’s GOP leaders issued a statement accusing Kelly of bowing to the American Civil Liberties Union, which with

other groups urged her Wednesday to veto the plan. They also described Kelly as “beholden to New York special interests,” a reference to the home state of Democratic U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.

Top Kansas Senate Republicans said the GOP plan is “politically fair, keeping all four members of Congress within their current seats.”

Republicans argued that Davids still can win reelection, based on voting in the 2020 elections.

They said they simply followed past federal court mandates for all districts to be as equal in population as possible after population shifts over the past 10 years.

The GOP plan gives each district the ideal population of 734,470.

The new map would reduce the percentage of minority voters in the 3rd District by moving the northern part of Kansas City, Kansas, into the 2nd District.

Republicans defended the split because the percentage of minority voters would increase in the 2nd District.

But Stacey Knoell, the executive director for the Kansas African American Affairs Commission, rejected Republican lawmakers’ argument about diversi-

ty improving in the 2nd District because Lawrence would move out.

“The map looks like it’s struggling,” Knoell said.

The state’s side of the Kansas City area has about 33,000 too many people for a single congressional district. Republicans argued that lawmakers shouldn’t divide the faster-growing suburbs south of Kansas City, Kansas, and made I-70 roughly the boundary between the 2nd and 3rd Districts.

But the move separates minority neighborhoods rather than whiter suburbs. Kelly claimed the move came “without explanation.”

“When you drive on I-70 and you look on either side of the highway, the neighborhoods look the same,” said Thomas

Alonzo, a lifelong Kansas City, Kansas, resident and chair of the LGBTQ-rights group equality Kansas. “The houses look the same.”

Democrats also argued that Lawrence has little in common with rural western Kansas, and Kelly suggested western Kansas would lose clout if it’s tied to Lawrence.

Republicans argued said minority residents in Lawrence fit well with three southwest Kansas counties known for meatpacking plants, where white, non-Hispanic residents are now a minority. They also argued that the change for Lawrence is acceptable because it would put the main University of Kansas and Kansas State University campuses into the same district.

Eplee said. “Without proponent testimony it’s a little hard for me to really embrace what the goal of this bill is.”

sults would be devastating,” Fertig said.

DeAngela Burns-Wallace, secretary of the Kansas Department of Administration, said the House legislation could be problematic if it forced the state to extend contracts with a vender it no longer wanted to do business with.

“Language of the bill indicates that no substantive or material change can be made in the contracts. Vendors could argue that the state must retain the current vendor regardless of the vendor’s performance,” Burns-Wallace said.

‘Far-reaching’

Kansas Medicaid director Sarah Fertig, who is part of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment’s division of health care finance, said the federal government wouldn’t let Kansas secure more than a oneyear extension of its current authority to operate KanCare.

KanCare functions under a so-called Section 1115 waiver of federal rules scheduled to expire Dec. 31, 2023. However, the bill would require the Medicaid program to remain frozen through Dec. 31, 2025, which would be two years after the state’s Section 1115 waiver expired.

She doubted federal officials would approve a “two-year, no-bid contract extension for our three MCOs in the absence of a clear operational need.”

Vague language of House Bill 2463 had “uncertain and far-reaching implications” on operation of Medicaid in Kansas, Fertig said.

If made into law, she said, it could interfere with adding new drugs, treatments and services to Medicaid coverage.

It could block increases in medical provider reimbursements. It would interfere with extending coverage for postpartum women, behavioral health services and therapy for children with autism.

It would forbid the state from addressing workforce shortages for individuals working to care for people with disabilities. A prolonged hold on new contracts could jeopardize federal funding that made up two-thirds of the state’s Medicaid budget, she said.

“If even a portion of federal funding were lost as a result of the state’s compliance with HB 2463, the re-

‘Harmful rigidity’

KanCare Advocates Network, a coalition of more than 50 organizations and individuals who advocate on behalf of participants in Medicaid, argued the House bill would unnecessary pump the brakes on broadly supported reforms of KanCare. Years of opportunity for progress could vanish, said Sean Gatewood of KanCare Advocates Network.

“The bidding process by the MCOs is needed to constantly adapt to the current environment as well as improve the overall system on a regular basis,” Gatewood said. “At the core of the KanCare program is the premise that competition will drive better outcomes.

HB 2463 removes most of that competition.”

Denise Cyzman, chief executive officer of Community Care Network of Kansas, said 28% of patients at the network’s 34 clinics were covered by Medicaid. The network provides medical, dental, pharmacy, mental health, substance use disorder and case management services.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated how important it is for our health care system to be nimble and adaptable. HB 2463 not only discourages adaptability, but imposes an unnecessary and harmful rigidity to the system,” she said.

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The Iola Register

A5

COVID falling in 49 of 50 states as deaths near 900,000

By KEN SWEET The Associated Press

With the brutal omicron wave rapidly loosening its grip, new cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. are falling in 49 of 50 states, even as the nation’s death toll closes in on another bleak round number: 900,000.

The number of lives lost to the pandemic in the U.S. stood at over 897,000 as of midday Friday, with deaths running at an average of more than 2,400 a day, back up to where they were last winter, when the vaccine drive was still getting started.

New cases per day have tanked by almost a half-million nationwide since mid-January, the curve trending downward in every state but Maine. And the number of Americans in the hospital with COVID-19 has fallen 15% over that

Lily Bream, 11, from Towamencin, Penn., gets her COVID-19 vaccine from Mayank Amin who owns the Skippack Pharmacy. TNS period to about 124,000.

Similarly, an early-warning program that looks for the virus in sewage found that COVID-19 infections are declining in the majority of participating U.S. communities, according to data posted by

the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Deaths are still on the rise in at least 35 states, reflecting the lag time between when victims become infected and when they succumb.

But the trends are giving public health offi-

cials hope that the worst of omicron is coming to an end, though they caution that things could still go bad again and dangerous new variants could emerge.

Los Angeles County may end outdoor mask requirements in a few

weeks, Public Health Director Dr. Barbara Ferrer said Thursday. But that is unlikely to happen before the Feb. 13 Super Bowl, which will draw as many as 100,000 people to SoFi Stadium in Inglewood.

Ferrer said COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations in California’s biggest county are falling, and deaths may start to drop as well.

“Post-surge does not imply that the pandemic is over or that transmission is low, or that there will not be unpredictable waves of surges in the future,” she warned.

Arizona has also seen its daily case and hospitalization numbers decline, though deaths are still on the rise, climbing from average of about 61 a day last week to almost 79 as of Tuesday.

“We have reason to be hopeful, but we are by no means out of the

woods,” Elizabeth Jacobs, a University of Arizona professor of epidemiology, said Thursday on Twitter.

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds said she is calling an end to the state’s coronavirus public health emergency, a move that will limit the release of health data.

The step reflects her long-held belief that it is time to get past pandemic restrictions and move toward the point when COVID-19 becomes, like the flu, a manageable part of everyday life.

In Washington state, the Legislature is allowing double the number of senators on the chamber floor starting Monday.

Overall, new cases in the U.S. have plummeted from a record-obliterating average of more than 800,000 a day in mid-January to about 357,000.

Zoning: Iola lost a senior housing development 9 years ago Continued from A1

variance request, 4-2.

While the vote did not settle the matter — Iola City Council members have the final say Feb. 14 — the meeting vividly painted the opposing viewpoints about Meo’s proposal.

On one side were those who did not want the development in their neighborhood. On the other were those who saw it as crucial to retaining Iola’s workforce.

For the eight neighbors who spoke at the meeting, the prospect of an apartment complex would mean depressed home values because, in their opinion, the developer likely would not follow through on his promises.

“Our fear is a lack of upkeep,” said neighbor Beck Nilges. “We’re gonna have to live with it every day.”

And while she was the only one at the Planning Commission meeting who spoke in favor of Meo’s proposal, Iolan Mary Kay Heard hammered home Iola’s lack of affordable housing, and the ongoing struggle local businesses have had in finding employees.

“We’ve gotta keep the companies we have satisfied,” said Heard, a member of Iola Industries. “And they can’t get workers. There’s no

place for them to live …

This gentleman is ready to invest in Iola. It’s really important not to overlook that aspect of it.”

Regardless of how nice the property would become, neighbor Bob Droessler also touched on another bone of contention. To accommodate Meo’s plans to add 54 apartments, he also would revamp the parking lot to add additional stalls.

It was the traffic issue that caused Planning Commission member Teresa Longbotham to voice her concerns with Meo’s request.

“The number of apartment units is a lot for that small area,” Longbotham said, adding she preferred having more background information than what was provided at the Jan. 18 meeting before she would support such development.

But with tabling the matter not an option, Longbotham was among the four members who voted against Meo’s request.

Of the two Planning Commission members who voted in favor of recommending the zoning variance, only Tony Godfrey came closest to explaining his vote. Prior to the vote, Godfrey encouraged the others to look solely at whether Meo’s proposed zoning adhered to criteria

spelled out in the city’s Unified Development Code.

Those criteria include whether the property conforms to Iola’s comprehensive plan, and whether an apartment complex would be compatible with the existing neighborhood, and whether having it rezoned would negatively impact neighboring properties.

FRENCH noted the striking similarities between this year’s debate and one that took place in Iola nearly nine years ago, in the summer of 2013.

Then, a developer was hoping to construct an assisted living facility for Alzheimer’s patients along a residential area on North Kentucky Street.

Then, as now, neighbors were vocal in their opposition, fearing such development would depreciate the value of their homes and properties, while a few voices noted the development would be good for Iola.

And then, as now, Planning Commission members voted to recommend the city not rezone the property to allow the work to proceed.

French, who was on the City Council at the time heard all of the debate, and was among the six Council members to go against the

Planning Commission’s recommendation, and approved the zoning variance.

The issue became moot not much later, when one of the neighbors objecting to the development, bought the property in question, leaving the developer in search of a new site.

A new property was found in Chanute.

In 2014, Country Place Senior Living opened its doors not far from Chanute Elementary School on the west edge of town as part of the rapidly growing Osa Martin Subdivision.

Fears of living close to such a facility apparently haven’t materialized in Chanute, noted Matt Godinez, executive director of the Chanute Regional Development Authority, who pointed to several new homes built in the same subdivision since the facility opened its doors.

“There’s quite a bit of development there,” Godinez said, “and people are continuing to build.”

FRENCH fears Iola lost a good deal when Country Place decided to open in Chanute.

Even with property tax abatement incentives for the first 10 years after construction, Iola would have come out ahead, French offered.

Now, in 2022, the city would have been less than two years away from recouping all of the property taxes on a $2 million facility, he noted.

That’s why he will encourage the Council to take its due diligence in deciding whether to approve Meo’s request.

“We need people,” French said. “We have people who say we need housing, ‘just not in my neighborhood.’”

French’s fear is that without additional housing, and soon, employers here will soon begin looking elsewhere.

“There’s going to come a tipping point,” French said. .

ROBIN SCHALLIE agrees.

As Iola Area Chamber of Commerce director, Schallie fields calls on a daily basis from people looking to find a place to rent in Iola.

Schallie oversees the Grow Iola website, an online service that connects landlords with prospective tenants.

It’s common for a landlord to list an available rental and have a dozen or more applications within a day or two.

One such property was listed last Friday.

By the start of the week, 19 applications for the home were filled.

“Last week, we had six new properties up for rent,” she said. “One apartment was rented quickly. Another house was rented in three days. We had 17 people interested in that home.”

The vast majority are looking for places that rent in the $500 a month range, Schallie added.

“That seems to be the sweet spot. We have some very attractive homes at $725 or more, but they don’t get as many applications.”

She elaborated on the high demand.

“We get calls from people — and these are not even those who are applying for the rentals — asking us about what’s available, telling us they’ve been offered a job, and they need a place to live. We field calls on that daily.”

Schallie kept the Chamber office closed Wednesday because of inclement weather.

“We came into the office Thursday morning with three voicemails,” she noted. “They were for housing.

“There are people who call us and say, they can only drive back and forth, an hour and hour and a half, for so long. If they can’t find anything, they change jobs. It’s a real issue. In a small town, it’s very noticeable that we don’t have a lot of availability.”

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A6

Opinion The Iola Register

Saturday, February 5, 2022

~ Journalism that makes a difference

Letter to the editor Dear editor,

Mary Kay Heard can now see that a lifetime of accepting responsibilities as a merchant and parent was a natural progression to becoming engaged in local affairs once time allowed. SUSAN LYNN/REGISTER

She thinks she can, so she does

By SUSAN LYNN Register editor

As Mary Kay Heard tells it, “I was a nobody,” for much of her life.

That’s when you want to shake her by the shoulders and say it’s because of people like her and her husband Dave’s 46 years at Western Auto that Iola’s retail economy kept afloat.

But with her nose to the grindstone and raising a family, Mary Kay was too busy to take such a perspective.

Since her retirement in 2009, Mary Kay, now age 78, has begun to take on roles that all her life she saw as the purview of “leaders.” She certainly didn’t consider herself one, but accepts that role as a natural progression of a lifetime of taking on responsibility.

In 2006, she and others began meeting weekly over the course of four years to see that a new hospital would come to fruition. In 2010, their dedication was rewarded with passage of a bond issue.

Most recently, she’s zeroed in on a developer’s request to rezone land on North Walnut Street in order to build apartments. On Jan. 18, Mary Kay addressed members of the Iola Planning Commission as chairman of the board of Iola Industries, an organization whose goal is to bring industries and manufacturers this way and which backs the new development.

Though she’s not comfortable speaking in public, she felt her obligation took precedence.

“I could not stay quiet,” she said Wednesday.

“I think it’s important to let people know how you think.

To stand for something,” she said.

Mary Kay credits her dad, Harold “Smitty” Smith, for helping her find her voice.

“He always believed in me,” she said. “If you don’t think you can, then you sure

can’t.”

That confidence in Mary Kay probably stemmed from her mother Kathryn’s role at the family’s Western Auto store where she served as secretary, bookkeeper and oversaw credit and collections.

“She worked there from the time they bought the store in 1944 until the day she died in 1986,” Mary Kay said. “I suppose that’s why Dad thought I could do such a good job.”

An only child, Mary Kay frequently accompanied her mother to work.

“My favorite activity was playing store. I loved walking down the block to the Register’s print shop and buying little pads of paper to write up receipts and whatnot.”

Mary Kay said she was groomed to eventually take over the family business.

“Dad foisted responsibilities on me, wanting me to take charge.”

Step by step, Mary Kay’s confidence grew, sometimes not by choice.

“I was 25 when he sent me to the bank to make arrangements for a loan. I guess he wanted me to have that experience. I was shaking the whole way. But it taught me a lesson: Don’t let others intimidate you and don’t spend more than you don’t have.”

When the time came for Mary Kay and Dave to take over the business in 1986, “I said I did not necessarily think I could do it, but Dad did. And the minute he told me so, it made all the difference.”

AFTER A LIFETIME of serving customers at Western Auto, she said it came naturally to shift that passion to a broader scope.

“All those years in retail taught me my goal was to make our customers happy.

When Walmart came to town, I knew we could never outsell them. But we could out-perform them when it came to service. That’s the only way a small business survives.”

The evening of Nov. 2, 2010 Mary Kay Heard celebrates the passage of a quarter-cent city sales tax to go toward the building and maintenance of a new hospital. Heard was part of a core of volunteers that worked for its passage.

Mary Kay is anything but a performer.

“I hate public speaking, but if I have a message to tell people and it’s effective, I’ll do it.”

Having strong support helps.

“I’ve had the same friends for 50 years. They’re my team.

Loyalty has a lot to do with everything. Maybe that’s why I get so passionate about Iola.

“When we are not on the same page about things, we need to agree to disagree.

That’s not always an easy thing, but we must be able to believe we can count on people not being mad at us just because they have a different opinion on something.

“I was a nobody growing up. Just someone working at my parents’ store. But I always admired those who worked for causes greater than themselves,” she said.

“I have that same attitude with Iola. It’s by doing the best we can to see whatever needs doing gets done that Iola is going to stay strong.”

To me, that’s a leader talking.

I’d like to add my voice to those supporting the rezoning of the North Walnut property to allow refitting a dilapidated nursing home into apartments. I believe this not only will be an important spoke in the wheel needed to help solve our housing shortage, but also could spur momentum in helping other spokes — i.e. the elementary school availability for housing options — come to fruition.

As importantly, I think this decision will also be noticed, internally within Allen County and externally by building developers, existing and potential new businesses, and prospective residents, as setting a tone for us about our openness to progress and willingness to grow.

I attended the city planning board meeting a couple of weeks ago and was impressed with the developer, his examples of other projects and the team he has lined up to tackle the project.

A concern expressed by residents from the area about potential traffic congestion can be addressed by the Iola Council and us residents by investing in a new street that would allow ingress and egress to and from State Street into that part of town.

This will provide better access for emergency service vehicles, improve convenience for residents and make an asset out of a liability in northwest Iola.

As a member of the Allen County Economic Development Advisory Council, I am encouraged how this project could address our top three priorities for this county: 1)

housing; 2) business attraction and retention; and 3) workforce development. The apartments would provide much needed housing for our county in general and for employees of Allen County’s businesses and industries in particular.

I believe we must be open to any ideas — thinking outside of the box — to help ease our housing crisis in this time of high building costs and reluctance of developers to speculate in building new. Likewise, I am excited about the prospect of refitting one or more of our soon-to-be-abandoned elementary schools into housing opportunities. Potential developers will be watching this decision by the City Council on rezoning for the North Walnut apartments; a decision for the development, I believe, could create a momentum for our county in housing.

We all live in Iola and Allen County because we love the small-town way of life.

This luxury is getting harder and harder to accommodate, however, because of outmigration by residents and businesses, as can be seen in so many dying communities in rural Kansas, and rural America. I ask members of the Iola City Council to seize this opportunity to preserve our community, in this one small decision to rezone the property on North Walnut to allow the apartments, and for all of us in Allen County to continue fighting to maintain this beautiful rural lifestyle we cherish.

Sincerely, Bruce Symes, Iola, Kan.

A look back in t me.

70 Years Ago February 1952

Farmers from all sections of Allen County gathered at Friends Home Lutheran Church west of Savonburg yesterday for lunch and the 12th annual meeting of the local Soil Conservation district. C. F. Gilpin, president of Iola State Bank, representing the Kansas Bankers Association, presented Conservation Awards to Glen T. Childers, Ross Lamb, R. W. Walquist, Sam P. Breiner and Clarence Johnson. ***** Mrs. A. D. Gordon announced this morning that she will continue to operate the insurance business, at 16 S. Washington, opened here 25 years ago by her husband who died last week. ***** Louie Kinman, whose dance band may be more widely known in Topeka, Kansas City and Wichita than it is right here in Allen County, will receive a bonus when he plays for the March

of Dimes ball here Saturday evening. But it won’t be in cash. Most of the proceeds from the dance will be used to assist youthful victims of polio. Kinman’s “Big Little Band” was started six years ago and is now in demand at big time venues in a threestate area. ***** A gripping story of the loneliness and isolation imposed upon Americans now living in Red China was told to the Iola Rotary Club last night by the Rev. Perry O. Hanson. The Rev. Perry Hanson He returned to the United States in December after having been detained for 15 months at Tsingtao by the Chinese Communists. Mr. Hanson, and his wife, served for nearly a half century as Methodist missionaries in China.

How to contact Iola’s elected officials Yet to be determined

Iola Mayor Steve French steve.french@cityofiola. com

Iola City Council Ward 1 Josiah D’Albini josiah.dalbini@cityofiola.com

Iola City Council Ward 1 Nickolas Kinder nickolas.kinder@ cityofiola.com

Iola City Council Ward 2 Joel Wicoff joel.wicoff@cityofiola. com

Iola City Council Ward 2 Carl Slaugh carl.slaugh@cityofiola. com

Iola City Council Ward 3 Kim Peterson kim.peterson@cityofiola.com

Iola City Council Ward 3 Nich Lohman nich.lohman@cityofiola. com

Iola City Council Ward 4

Iola City Council Ward 4 Mark Peters mark.peters@cityofiola. com

iolaregister.com

The Iola Register

Saturday, February 5, 2022

A7

Recycle: Coffey County offers curbside pickup in its cities Continued from A1

Saturday of the month.

Collection is planned from 8 to 11 a.m. today at the 911 Center, 401 N. State St. Strickler and others are working to set up a new recycling center at a former chicken processing plant behind Pete’s convenience store on U.S. 54 in east Iola.

The volunteers also are continuing informal talks with government officials in an attempt to set up an official program.

COFFEY County’s program started out in a similar way, Todd Bemis, recycling coordinator, said.

It was a volunteer effort led by Bemis and a handful of others.

Then, in about 1996 or ’97, the county took over the program and hired Bemis to run it.

For the first couple of years, recycling was collected at the county fairgrounds. When it came time for the fair, they’d have to move everything out and postpone recycling.

In 1998, the county built a large facility for recycling, with several machines that help compress and bale the material. They added trailers to pick up curbside recycling.

“The county felt the need was there. Anything we can process through here, doesn’t go in the landfill,” he said.

They started small, though.

At first, they collected only newspaper, cardboard and glass.

They started to offer a curbside recycling program in Lebo, charging

a $5 monthly fee. There wasn’t a lot of interest.

When they did away with the fee, the program took off.

Now, each town in the county offers curbside recycling that is picked up twice a month, on Tuesdays and Thursdays. In Burlington alone, they have 300 stops.

Recycling is picked up at businesses on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

Rural residents can bring their recyclable material to the center, separating it into bins designated by the type of material.

They have different bins for glass, for different types of plastic and paper, including newspaper and cardboard.

Cardboard, by far, is the most common type of recyclable material received. They send out a truckload of cardboard each month and another truckload of everything else once a month.

The large horizontal baling machine can handle everything except glass.

A special machine crushes the glass into fine pieces. Once the recycling center collects between 30,000 to 35,000 pounds of glass, they’ll call a company to pick it up. That happens about every four months or so.

Plastic milk jugs also are handled separately.

Milk jugs are collected in 4 foot by 4 foot boxes called “gaylords.”

About 30 of those boxes are compressed into each bale.

BEMIS and his staff

The Coffey County Recycling Center holds bales of recyclable material, including paper at left and cardboard at right. The bales will be sold and shipped to recycling centers across the U.S. At right is a horizontal baling machine, which can handle nearly all types of recyclable items. pay attention to the recycling market, hoping to get the best deal for material.

Prices can vary by quite a bit. At one point, the price for corrugated cardboard bottomed out at $5 per ton. At other times, it’s been as high as $180 per ton.

They work with a broker that markets the products, and vendors will come pick up the material.

“It’s not going to be a moneymaker,” Bemis said.

Last year, the program brought in $58,034 in revenue — one of the best years the program has seen.

But that’s not even close to paying for ex-

Renee Lickteig of rural Waverly drops off her recycling on Monday. Because of the Coffey County Recycling Center, Lickteig and her family are able to recycle about 75% of their trash.

penses.

The county budgeted $214,500 for its recycling program this year, the same amount as last year. The big expenses include staff and fuel costs.

“Once you get established, the costs don’t change much,” Coffey County Clerk Angie Kirchner said.

But the program pays for itself in other ways, said Bill Reavis, who explained his role as “recycle lead man.”

It keeps trash out of the county’s landfill, which extends the life of the landfill. It’s also good for the environment, and helps those residents who are concerned about their impact.

“If we can move it, we take it,” Reavis said.

“Glass doesn’t bring in any money, but we keep it out of the landfill.”

THE CENTER’S staff does everything it can to make recycling easy.

The facility is open from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday; from 7:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Wednesday; and from 8 a.m. to noon.

At first, they provided

containers for recycling, but that got expensive.

Now, they allow residents to use their own containers but provide a sticker so the tubs aren’t mistaken for other trash.

The recycling trailer sits in different communities on Saturdays to make it easier for rural residents to drop off their recycling.

The program is well-received by the community, Bemis said.

“If they did away with our recycling pro-

gram, there would be an uprising,” he said with a laugh.

Not many, if any, counties offer curbside recycling, Bemis acknowledged. But other counties, like Allen, will bring their material to Coffey County for distribution.

And some, like Strickler, will call for advice on how to start their own program.

“You’re going to have to start kind of slow,” Bemis tells them. “That’s what worked for us.”

EXCLUSIVELY FOR SUBSCRIBERS ARCHIVES In collaboration with the Kansas State Historical Society, The Register has digitized over a century of our archives, spanning from 1875 to 2000.

The collection is exclusively for subscribers.

Todd Bemis, recycling coordinator, explains how crews use a recycling trailer to sort and separate items.

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Federal law allocates $58.6 million to plug thousands of orphan oil, gas wells in Kansas

By TIM CARPENTER Kansas Reflector

TOPEKA — The bipartisan federal infrastructure law appropriated $58.6 million to cap more than 5,400 oil and gas wells in Kansas that have been abandoned by owners and threaten water supplies or pose other environmental hazards.

U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids, a Democrat serving the Third District in eastern Kansas, said the state had thousands of wells polluting public spaces, recreational areas or private property.

The federal law included aid to deal with an estimated 5,400 orphan wells in Kansas, Davids said. She said the list of defunct wells included 34 in Johnson County and at least 375 in Miami County. In Kansas, 14 well sites are listed as high-priority

U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids, a Democrat, said the federal infrastructure law earmarked $58.6 million to plug more than 5,400 abandoned oil and gas wells in Kansas. (TIM CARPENTER/KANSAS REFLECTOR) projects due to urgent threats to public water supplies.

“Abandoned oil and gas wells pose a serious threat to the health and well-being of communities across Kansas, with the vast majority of these sites in the eastern part of our state,” said Davids, who serves on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

Dwight Keen, chairman of the Kansas Cor-

poration Commission, said infusion of federal investment in abandon well remediation would accelerate well-plugging efforts in Kansas and help protect freshwater resources in the state. The KCC has regulatory responsibilities for oil and gas wells.

“Addressing the abandoned-well issue in Kansas is critical to our environmental protection mission,” Keen said. “Given the

potential costs associated with plugging abandoned oil and gas wells, we appreciate the availability of federal funds to compliment the state’s well-plugging fund.”

Overall, the legislation adopted by Congress and signed by President Joe Biden earmarked $4.7 billion for dealing with orphan oil and gas wells.

The initial phase of the program allocated $1.15 billion for abandoned wells in Kansas and 25 other states.

Each state was eligible for $25 million in federal grants, with opportunity to apply for additional aid.

An estimated 81,000 abandoned drilling sites in the United States leak pollution and emit methane gas into the environment.

About 9 million Americans live within one mile of these sites.

Iolan Thomas Becker may be the first person to actually ski the John Robertson Memorial Cross Country Ski Trail out at Lehigh Trails. Robertson, who worked as a grant writer for Thrive Allen County until his death in 2015, slipped in plans for the ski trail into a grant application as a bit of a lark. It was approved, even though there’s rarely enough snow in Iola for its use. The ski trail was dedicated in his memory in 2018. PHOTO COURTESY OF KATE SCHROEDER

US economy defies omicron and adds 467,000 jobs in January WASHINGTON (AP) — In a surprising burst of hiring, America’s employers added a robust 467,000 jobs last month, a sign of the economy’s resilience in the face of a wave of omicron infections.

The government’s report Friday also drastically revised up its estimate of job gains for November and December by a combined 709,000. It also said the unemployment rate ticked up from 3.9% to a still-low 4%, mainly because more people began looking for work and not all of them found jobs right away.

The strong hiring growth for January, which defied expectations for only a slight gain, demonstrated the eagerness of many employers to hire even as the pandemic raged.

Businesses appear to have regarded the omicron wave as having, at most, a temporary

impact on the economy and remain confident about their longer-term prospects.

“Employers have assumed that omicron would be painful but short term, so they haven’t changed their hiring plans,” said Mathieu Stevenson, the CEO of Snagajob, a job listings site focused on hourly workers. “Demand from employers is as strong as ever.”

January’s hiring gain and sharp upward revisions to previous months mean that the United States has 1.1 million more jobs than government data had indicated only a month ago. The solid hiring, along with steady wage gains, are boosting consumer spending, which has collided with snarled supply chains to accelerate inflation to a four-decade high.

Adjusted for price increases, Americans’ paychecks on average

don’t go as far as they did a year ago, even though many workers have received raises.

Many households, especially lower-income families, are struggling to afford necessities like gas, food, rent and child care.

Those trends will give the Federal Reserve more leeway to raise interest rates, perhaps even faster than it had planned, to cool inflation. The Fed has indicated that it will begin raising rates in March, and it could do so again at its next meeting in May. Faster rate hikes could reduce borrowing and spending and possibly weaken the economy.

Stocks initially fell on the expectation that the Fed will tighten credit more quickly, before share prices recovered in early afternoon. But the yield on the 10-year Treasury jumped nearly one-tenth of a percent-

Storm brings misery to Northeast By the Associated Press

A major winter storm spread misery from the Deep South where a tornado claimed a life and tree limbs snapped under the weight of heavy ice all the way to the nation’s northeastern trip where snow and ice caused havoc for travelers on Friday. Hundreds of thousands were without electricity.

In Oklahoma, police were investigating the hit-and-run death of a 12-year-old boy who was sledding when he was hit by a vehicle.

More than a foot of snow fell in parts Pennsylvania, New York and New England on Friday but it was freezing rain and ice, accompanied by plummeting temperatures, that threatened to cause the biggest problems for travel and electric service before the storm blows out to sea late Friday and today.

“Snow is a lot easier to plow than ice,” said Rick Otto, meteorologist for the National Weath-

er Service in College Park, Maryland.

About 350,000 homes and businesses lost power in an area stretching from Texas to Ohio on Thursday as freezing rain and snow brought down branches and encased power lines. On Friday morning, the power outages were concentrated in Tennessee, Ohio, New York, West Virginia and Pennsylvania, according to poweroutage.us, which tracks utility reports.

In Memphis, crews worked Friday to remove trees and downed power lines from city streets, while those who lost electricity spent a cold night at home, or sought refuge at hotels

or homes of friends and family. Utility officials said it could take days for power to be restored in the city.

There were 225 downed trees on city streets and crews were working 16-hour shifts to clear them, Robert Knecht, Memphis’ public works director, said Thursday night.

“It’s going to take multiple days, given the inclement weather conditions, to clear the public right of way,” he said.

Many schools and businesses remained closed Friday in areas hit by the frigid weather because roads remained icy and temperatures hadn’t risen above freezing.

age point, to 1.91%, a sign that investors anticipate higher borrowing costs.

Across the economy, most industries hired workers last month, including retailers, which added more than 61,000 jobs, and restaurants and hotels, which gained 131,000. Shipping and warehousing firms added 54,000. Many com-

panies in those industries likely held onto some of the workers they had hired over the winter holidays, economists said, rather than laying them all off.

Omicron did leave some fingerprints on the report: The percentage of Americans who were working from home rose to more than 15%, up from 11% in De-

cember. And the number of people out sick last month soared to 3.6 million, up from fewer than 2 million in the previous January and about triple the pre-pandemic level. This forced many companies, from restaurants to retailers to manufacturers, to reduce their hours or even close because of staff shortages.

The Iola Reads Community Selection 2022,

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by Catherine Ryan Hyde, is about a burned-out teacher who rises above his grief and transforms the lives of two young boys, forever.

Iola Reads and The Iola Register are partnering together in Celebrating Our Teachers! Help us celebrate the teachers, both past and present, who have inspired us and made us better.

We invite the community and students to write letters to “Thank a Teacher who has inspired you.” It can be a teacher you have now or one you had many years ago.

Please submit your letters to the Iola Register by February 18 so they can be included in a special “Celebrating Our Teachers” supplement edition published on March 8. The Iola Register will include as many letters as we can.

You may submit letters in three ways to The Iola Register: 1. Email your letter to promotions@iolaregister.com 2. Send your letter to Iola Register, 302 S. Washington, Iola, KS 66749 3. Bring it by The Register anytime from Monday – Friday 8:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.

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Scholarship to be awarded in honor of Red Devil

By REESE BECKER The Iola Register

When former Allen Community College baseball player Torrence Summerlin Jr. was killed in a shooting last August, it was a tragic moment for the Red Devils. Iola declared Jan. 1, Summerlin’s birthday, as “Torrence Summerlin Day.” Now, Allen County head coach Clint Stoy, along with Summerlin’s mother, Carla, are establishing a scholarship in his honor.

“When people ask who Torrence Summerlin was, I want them to know he was a great

kid,” said Summerlin.

“He played ball here and was killed in his hometown for pretty much nothing.”

Summerlin, 26, had a passion for collecting, trading, and selling vintage sneakers and was killed in broad daylight in his hometown of Chicago, while selling a vintage pair of shoes to help pay back a small business loan, after opening his own property management business.

“He had been doing it since high school and was very careful,” Summerlin said. “He sold so many in college also just to get through sometimes. He had so

Torrence Summerlin and mother, Carla, before an Allen County home game. COURTESY PHOTO much going for him.

He was trying to build generational wealth for his family and was

Final Chapel Hill trip for Duke’s Coach K

By AARON BEARD The Associated Press

The famed rivalry between No. 9 Duke and North Carolina is changing.

One Hall of Fame coach is gone, with the Tar Heels’ Roy Williams retiring last spring and former UNC player and assistant Hubert Davis replacing him. On Saturday, outgoing Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski will make his final trip to Chapel Hill for the annual showdown.

Davis’ debut and Krzyzewski’s latest stop on his farewell tour add another dynamic as the rivals jostle for position atop the Atlantic Coast Conference.

“I wouldn’t say it’s pressure,” Duke big man Mark

Williams said of Krzyzewski’s UNC finale. “Obviously the stakes are a little different, but we’re still playing the same game.”

The Blue Devils (18-3, 8-2 ACC) and Tar Heels (16-6, 8-3) have each won four straight, with UNC joining Miami and Notre Dame close behind Duke.

But the focus will be on the sidelines.

In 42 seasons at Duke, Krzyzewski battled against late Hall of Famer Dean Smith, and he’s been a constant while UNC moved from Smith to Bill Guthridge to Matt Doherty and 18 seasons under Williams. He coached Duke in the first-ever game at the Smith Center in January See COACH K| Page B6

looking at buying a second building. He had so much more to accomplish.”

A look at the upcoming weekend around the Big 12 Conference:

GAME OF THE WEEKEND

Reigning national champion Baylor and perennial contender Kansas, both again stocked for NCAA Tournament runs, as the afternoon light spills through the old clerestory windows of Allen Fieldhouse? Yes, please.

Yet the last few weeks have not been smooth sailing for the eighth-ranked Bears and No. 10 Jayhawks.

Baylor dumped back-toback games to Texas Tech and bottom-dwelling Oklahoma State as the nation’s No. 1 team, then it lost to Alabama in the Big-12 SEC Challenge. Kansas lost an early game to the Red Raiders and then got pummeled

by Kentucky.

It doesn’t help that the Jayhawks, who bounced

back to beat Iowa State this week, have been missing Big 12 scoring leader Ochai Agbaji to COVID-19 protocols and talented Arizona State transfer Remy Martin to a lingering back injury.

“We’ve talked to ‘Och’ quite a bit,” Self said. “He is actually feeling well. He did have some symptoms right off the bat. He’s following the same COVID protocol every athlete in the Big 12 is following. He’s not getting anything special.”

The Bears also head into Saturday’s trip to Lawrence off a confidence-building win over West Virginia.

“This league is one of those leagues you don’t want to be on a losing streak, because nobody feels sorry for you,” Baylor coach Scott Drew said. “You can pick any sport. You lose, you make errors, you lose a little confidence. And you want to get back to winning as quick as you can.”

LOOKING AHEAD

The other matchup of

be $10,000 every year for a student, that would be lovely,” Summerlin said. “I have $5,000 put away from the GoFundMe, but my goal is to get up to $10,000. When Stoy brought up the scholarship I thought it would be beautiful.

I remember Torrence struggling one year.

Hopefully the scholarship can help someone ease that struggle.”

Stoy announced the original $1,000 scholarship at the Red Devil Diamond Club Hall of Fame ceremony in October. The announcement brought Stoy to tears as the room eruptSee ACC | Page B6

Mercury sign leading scorer PHOENIX (AP) — The Phoenix Mercury have signed WNBA leading scorer Tina Charles, their second big addition in as many days.

Charles joins a roster that includes Diana Taurasi, Brittney Griner and Skylar Diggins-Smith, who led the Mercury to the WNBA Finals last season.

“Tina is an elite talent in our league and adding a player of her caliber is another example of our commitment to our fans and players to pursue a championship every year,” Mercury general manager Jim Pitman said in a statement.

“Tina has made it clear that she wants to win and wants to do so in Phoenix.”

Charles led the WNBA in scoring for the second time in her career in 2021,

Kansas prepares for Big 12 tilt against struggling Baylor Bears

By DAVE SKRETTA The Associated Press

Summerlin was so beloved in his hometown that his alma mater, Whitney Young High School, is memorializing Summerlin with a plaque on its baseball diamond.

Stoy, along with Summerlin, hope to establish a scholarship to be awarded to a baseball player in Summerlin’s honor. A GoFundMe raised over $25,000 for funeral expenses and to help establish the scholarship. Stoy wanted to do a $1,000 scholarship, but Summerlin hopes to go a little bigger. Either way, it will help a deserving student-athlete.

“If we could do may-

ranked Big 12 teams Saturday pits the No. 20 Cyclones against No. 23 Texas in Austin, while the No. 14 Red Raiders head to West Virginia having won four of their past five games.

TCU is knocking on the door of the Top 25 after consecutive wins over then-No. 19 LSU and Oklahoma and faces Kansas State on Saturday. And the first edition of this year’s Bedlam matchups sends Oklahoma, loser of six of its past seven, to Oklahoma State, which has dropped four consecutive games.

PLAYER TO WATCH

Well-traveled Texas guard Marcus Carr scored 18 points in a 77-64 loss to No. 14 Texas Tech, a nice bounce-back game after he was held to three points in 35 minutes in a 52-51 win over No. 18 Tennessee. The former Pittsburgh guard, via two years at Minnesota, is averaging 11 points so far See JAYHAWKS| Page B6

Tina Charles (14) chats with teammate Diana Taurasi (12) while on the bench during a game with Team USA. TNS averaging 23.5 points while shooting 36% from the 3-point arch.

An 11-year WNBA veteran, Charles was the league MVP in 2012, is a nine-time All-WNBA selection and eight-time All-Star. She’s led the league in rebounding four times and is a threetime Olympic gold medalist.

Charles was the first overall pick in the 2010 WNBA draft by the Connecticut Sun after winning two national championships with UConn and was the WNBA rookie of the year. She played four seasons with the Sun, five with the New York Liberty and last season with the Washington Mystics.

Clock ticking for waiting speedskater

By BETH HARRIS The Associated Press

BEIJING (AP) — The clock is ticking for American speedskater Casey Dawson to get to his first Olympics.

He tested positive for COVID-19 three weeks ago.

Recently, Dawson had been testing negative and he believed that by producing two consecutive negative tests he would be cleared to join his teammates in Beijing.

“Everything was good until I received news that they now require four negative tests to even consider sending me over,” Dawson wrote in an Instagram post.

He’s also had issues with testing centers in Utah that must be approved by the Chinese consulate.

“My expectation is that he’ll get here,” Matt Kooreman, long track program director for US Speedskating, said Friday.

Kooreman said they’re targeting an arrival date of

Monday for Dawson.

“He’s such a level-headed guy,” Kooreman said. “I’m more worried about the people around him freaking out than I am him freaking out.”

Dawson’s first individual event is the 5,000 meters on Sunday. He would be replaced by Emery Lehman, a two-time Olympian. Dawson also qualified for the 1,500 on Tuesday, and could be replaced by Ethan Cepuran.

US Speedskating is eager to get Dawson to Beijing in time to join in the team pursuit. The quarterfinals are Feb. 13, with semifinals and the final two days later. The U.S. men are strong medal contenders in the event.

Dawson, a 21-year-old skater from Park City, Utah, has been training at the Utah Olympic Oval to stay sharp while his COVID-19 situation plays out. He is set to receive his U.S. Olympic clothing and gear this weekend.

“Now let’s just pass this test,” Kooreman said, “and get a plane ticket.”

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NASCAR will open the 2022 season Sunday evening with the Busch Light Clash, to be held at the Los Angeles Coliseum, which is used primarily for football. WIKIPE-

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NASCAR goes west to open with a Clash

By JENNA FRYER The Associated Press

LOS ANGELES (AP) — NASCAR is hitting Los Angeles a week ahead of the Super Bowl, grabbing the spotlight with its wildest idea yet: The Clash, the unofficial season-opening, stock-car version of the Pro Bowl, will run at the iconic Coliseum in a made-for-Fox Sports spectacular.

Yes, that’s correct.

A temporary track has been built inside the Coliseum, where race cars will rattle around a quarter mile of asphalt carefully laid over the grass field that has hosted two summer Olympics, the USC Trojans and the hometown Rams for four seasons until their new stadium opened in 2020.

The first Super Bowl in 1967 was played at the Coliseum, but the Rams will play for the NFL championship 10 miles away at Sofi Stadium a week from Sunday.

NASCAR is offering an appetizer with its season-opening event, until now raced every year since its 1979 inception at Daytona International Speedway in Florida.

Run under different formats with different presenting sponsors over the years, The

“At the end of the day, we want to put on a good show. We don’t want there to be a lot of cautions and wrecks, not a lot of chaos, just a good race to put on a good show with all the attention it’s getting and make it a successful event. I think a lot of new fans will be tuning in and I think we need to put on a good show.”

— Martin Truex Jr., NASCAR racer

Clash was the opening event of Speed Weeks and a warmup for the Daytona 500 — NASCAR’s own version of Super Bowl. But NASCAR has been willing to look beyond cookie-cutter tracks in traditional markets.

Ben Kennedy, NASCAR’s senior vice president of strategy and innovation, brainstormed moving The Clash exhibition out of Daytona for the first time and instead stage it as a Hollywood event not all that far from Hollywood. The Busch Light Clash will run Sunday night, heat races will set the field, DJ Skee will play during cautions and Ice Cube will headline a halftime show.

The Coliseum accommodates about 78,000, but modifications to build the track has cut

capacity for Sunday night to roughly 60,000 seats. Steve O’Donnell, NASCAR’s chief racing development officer, said polling shows 70% of ticket-buyers have never previously purchased a ticket to a NASCAR race.

Add in some sixplus hours of coverage across Fox Sports and NASCAR has already deemed the event a success.

“You want to put on a good race,” O’Donnell said. “But I would say, already it is a success.

The number of celebrities we have showing up, the enthusiasm and promotion we’ve seen from Fox just for this race, even during NFL broadcasts, it’s been unprecedented.”

The Clash will at long last mark the debut of NASCAR’s new

car, a years-long project meant to design a cost-efficient but competitive vehicle that can potentially close the gap between the NASCAR powerhouses and the small teams looking to gain footing in the series. The pandemic delayed the rollout of the Next Gen by a year, and no matter how much testing has been done, there is no clear idea how the car will race until a real trophy is on the line.

William Byron tested the Next Gen last week at Phoenix and isn’t concerned about his Chevrolet.

“Honestly the car from Phoenix is not that different, feeling-wise, of how it drives versus the old car,” Byron said.

“I am pretty optimistic for how it drives already.”

What Sunday night’s on-track show looks like will be critical in how NASCAR’s gamble in the Coliseum is graded.

The quarter-mile surface will be the shortest in history for a Cup Series race, and NASCAR has had its struggles at new venues. Last year’s debut on the road course at Indianapolis Motor Speedway was a bit of a wreckfest, and transforming Bristol Motor Speedway into a dirt

track last spring was a messy challenge for drivers who had driven on pavement their entire career.

Many say the Coliseum shares the characteristics of Martinsville Speedway, a 0.526-mile short track in Virginia won in three of the last five races by Martin Truex Jr. He believes it won’t matter if the race ends up something of a joke.

“At the end of the day, we want to put on a good show,” Truex said.

“We don’t want there to be a lot of cautions and wrecks, not a lot of chaos, just a good race to put on a good show with all the attention it’s getting and make it a successful event. I think a lot of new fans will be tuning in and I think we need to put on a good show.”

Kyle Larson, the reigning NASCAR champion, also believes the race needs to be free of drama. Of every driver in the field, none race at as many different venues across the country as Larson but the Coliseum will be unique even to him. The closest he’s come was a 2015 dirt race on the arena floor of the Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, where the Pacers of the NBA played the night before his event.

Some fans might want to see the winner cross the finish line in a beatup race car, its hood up and smoke pouring from the engine — the end result of close-contact racing on the shortest track the drivers have ever raced. But Larson hopes the show “won’t be that bad.”

He predicts The Clash could resemble a typical race at Martinsville — some bumping and banging, but not a demolition derby.

“I think there’s going to be points of the race where you get caution after caution and you can’t get into a rhythm, but there also may be portions where, who knows? You might run the first 75 laps under green,” Larson said.

“It’s going to be hard to pass, it’s going to be single-file, and people are going to be moving each other out of the way.

“But as long as there aren’t things popping up that delay the show, somebody gets into an inside wall and now it needs 15 to 20 minutes to get a forklift out and fix the wall,” he added.

“Stuff that delays the show, I think that will turn off new race fans who are curious about this event and we need to make sure they enjoy what they saw.”

Beijing dismisses critics as Winter Olympic Games begin BEIJING (AP) — As the lights flashed on the Bird’s Nest, the stadium designed for the previous Olympics in China, 63year old Liu Wenbin was just one of many excited Beijing residents eager for the Games to begin.

It didn’t matter that Beijing had just held the Olympics 14 years ago, or that the country had to artificially construct snow, or that the U.S. and several other Western countries were staging a diplomatic boycott over Beijing’s internment of a large part of its minority Uyghur population.

Many Chinese were filled with pride — like Liu, who filmed the opening ceremony on his phone as he watched from home in western Beijing.

“As a Chinese per-

son, I feel incomparably proud,” Liu said. “Our great China really is No. 1. Even when the pandemic is so severe, we’re still able to hold this highly anticipated international event, the Winter Olympics.”

Liu, a retiree from Beijing, was unable to see the event up close this year as tickets were only available to select groups owing to pandemic prevention measures. In 2008, he was too busy at work to snag tickets to Beijing’s Summer Games, he said with some regret.

Even though the Olympics are being held with strict COVID-19 prevention measures, there was still a festive air in the capital city.

At the Winter Olympics Culture Plaza in Beijing, neighborhood

The IOC and Chinese flag fly next to each other during the opening ceremony of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics Friday. GETTY IMAGES/LINTAO ZHANG/TNS dance troupes performed as families gathered to join in the excitement.

“This Winter Olympics, it’s like an international festival, and as a volunteer, it’s a hugely important thing for me as a college student, and

even in my life,” said Zhang Xinrui, a college senior who was volunteering at the event.

“You can hear from my voice how excited and how happy I am.”

“I hope that our athletes do well, and to-

gether show the world our future,” said Liu Jingyun, 69, who was part of a group of dancers performing with flat taiping drums, decorated with snowflakes.

The Chinese government, in hosting the

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Winter Olympics, has actively promoted winter sports, and that has successfully spread to some of the population.

Liu, who is from Beijing and unrelated to the dancer, said he sometimes takes his grandson to go skiing or ice skating. The family even went to Zhangjiakou, where part of the competition will be held, to see the ski trails, made with artificial snow from an intricate irrigation project.

And all the fervor and controversy abroad didn’t bother him in the slightest.

“I think some countries are biased, and that’s very natural,” he said of the diplomatic boycott. “When you are living well, of course there will be someone who’s jealous.”

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1304 East St. • Iola, KS

Hot Water Extraction & Low Moisture Carpet Cleaning Upholstery Cleaning • Tile and Grout Cleaning Stripping & Waxing VCT Tile • Janitorial Services

We treat your car right...the first time! We guarantee it!

Hwy. 54 in Gas • (620) 365-6136 • 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon. -Fri. David (Duke) Miller, owner

Brian cell: 620-380-1477 Angie cell: 620-380-1065 115 E. Jackson, Iola, KS 66749

Serving the Area Since 1959

(620) 431-9320 14 S. Highland • Chanute, KS

• Headstones • Final Dates • Setting & Straightening • Vases

Tire Sales & Service On The Farm Tire Service

JD’s

Granite Memorials 202 S. State • Iola

TIRE & AUTO

620-365-3163 Mechanic Shop 620-363-4652 Farm Service

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306 N. STATE, IOLA • (620) 365-ROOF (7663) or 1-800-750-6533

STATE REGISTERED, LICENSED & INSURED

B4

Saturday, February 5, 2022

All ads are 10-word minimum, must run consecutive days

The Iola Register

CLASSIFIEDS

iolaregister.com DEADLINE: 2 p.m. day before publication For Mon.-Thurs.; 10 a.m. Fri. for Sat.

CLASSIFIED RATES: 3 Days - $2/word | 6 Days - $2.75/word | 12 Days - $3.75/word | 18 Days - $4.75/word | 26 Days - $5/word 3-DAY GARAGE SALE SPECIAL: 20 words or fewer - $12 | 21-40 words - $15 | 41+ words - $18

WANTED

SERVICES

HELP WANTED: SOMEONE TO STAY IN THE HOME. Mon-Fri: 12pm-8pm, then weekly 10pm-6am.

Weekends: 8am-8pm. Call 620-3634776 Mary or 620-3659709 Alzina.

General G e n e r a l Repair Repair and a n d SSupply, u p p l y , IInc. nc.

ITEMS FOR SALE PACKING PAPERS AVAILABLE at the Iola Register Office. $3 per bundle.

HOMES FOR RENT

Nice Homes For Rent! view pictures and other info at growiola.com

FOOD & DRINK

MACHINE SHOP H REPAIR CUSTOM MANUFACTURING

Complete Stock of Steel, Bolts, Bearings & Related Items

(620) ( 6 2 0 ) 365-5954 365-5954 1008 N. Industrial Industrial Road Road HH Iola

SEK Garage doors full service!

residential &commercial industrial repair and installs fully insured free estimates!

620-330-2732 620-336-3054

sekgaragedoors.com

BOTTOMS UP TREE SERVICE

FOR SALE: FARM FRESH EGGS (FREE RANGE CHICKENS), $2 dozen, 3 dozen $5, will deliver in Iola for a 3-dozen order, 620-228-0631.

(620) 212-5682

PETS

HECK’S MOVING SERVICE

CREATIVE CLIPS

Ashton Heck 785-204-0369

Licensed and Insured Free estimates

•furniture •appliances •shop •etc.

Clean & affordable. Spacious Runs, Separated cat room, Climate Controlled, Lovingly Treated. Shots required.

Call Jeanne

(620) 363-8272

SERVICES

(620) 365-6445 tholenhvac.com

Must have excellent customer service and a clean driving record.

For more information, please contact Randy at

Maintenance Technicians must have reliable transportation and may have to respond to emergency after hours calls.

Job Type: Full-time Pay: $17.00 - $18.00 per hour Benefits: • 401(k) and 401(k) matching • Dental insurance

• •

Health insurance Life insurance

• •

(620) 365-3377

Paid time off Bonus pay

or come in to apply!

109 E. Madison • Iola iolapharmacy.com

Wilhoit Properties is an equal opportunity employer.

Send resumes to Sandi at sheidelberg@wilhoitproperties.com

is now hiring:

iolarvparkandstorage.com

We offer 4, 8 and 12-hour shifts, as well as bonus pay for extra shifts.

Apply at:

600 E. Garfield, Iola. EOE.

Insurance/Real Estate

620-365-3183

Loren Korte

Hometown people helping people.

Now hiring for the full-time positions below.

Visit our website to review our excellent benefits package!

Desktop Support Technicians (Ottawa and Chanute Campuses) Minimum $17.85 per hour

Health Information Technology (HIT) Assistant Director Starting Salary $33,000-38,000

Student Support and Data Specialist STARS Starting Wage $12.50 -13.00 per hour

Upward Bound Administrative Assistant Starting Wage $12.50 -13.00 per hour

Chapman Learning Center Associate - PT

PAYLESS CONCRETE

PRODUCTS, INC. 802 N. Industrial Rd., Iola

(620) 365-5588

EMPLOYMENT

Now hiring part-time and contract delivery drivers!

The Apartment Maintenance Technician will inspect the apartment community to enhance and maintain its curb appeal, perform service requests in occupied apartments, complete lawncare and ensure that all vacated apartments are thoroughly restored to "market ready" condition in a timely manner.

• Residential HVAC

• LG Ductless Systems

PHARMACY

The primary responsibility of our Maintenance Technicians is to maintain the physical appearance and integrity of the apartment community. This involves ensuring a clean and comfortable living environment for residents and visitors.

• Ice Machines

• Commercial Refrigeration

IOLA

Maintenance

• Geothermal

• Commercial HVAC

620-365-3183

Wilhoit Properties Inc. needs a Maintenance Technician at our Parkford apartment community in Iola, KS.

RNs, LPNs and CNAs

We specialize in the sales, service and installation of:

600 E. Garfield, Iola

Requirements: • Proficient in Microsoft Office applications and general computer skills • Property management experience preferred • Strong time management, planning, and organizational abilities • Ability to understand contracts and documents typical to the management of real estate • Professional attire and demeanor Job Type: Full-time Pay: $16.50 per hour

620-365-2200

MORAN MORAN 237-4631

Come join our team and be a part of worthwhile work!

Qualifications: • Property management and leasing experience is essential • Previous supervisory experience is favored • Understanding and working knowledge of affordable housing issues and programs is a plus • Experience using property management software, such as Yardi, OneSite, or Yieldstar • Section 8 experience is a huge plus.

Storage & RV of Iola

HUMBOLDT HUMBOLDT 473-3831

is now hiring a dietary manager, cooks and dietary aides.

Key Responsibilities: • Manage leasing office and maintaining property occupancy • Ensure deposits and rental payments are collected on a timely basis • Supervise maintenance staff; including delegating work, reviewing work, and maintaining deadlines • Develop & maintain marketing plans to ensure optimal occupancy level • Provide friendly and informative customer service • Resolve resident issues and ensure resident satisfaction through all interactions • Inspect the property daily to ensure it meets the company’s quality standards • Meet with outside vendors to obtain bids for authorized projects

323 N. Jefferson Call 620-365-3178 or 365-6163

IIOLA OLA 365-6908

EMPLOYMENT

Property Manager

Regular/Boat/RV/Storage LP Gas Sales, Fenced, Supervised

824 N. CHESTNUT • IOLA

EMPLOYMENT

is NOW HIRING at Parkford Apartments for the following positions:

Iola Mini-Storage

BOARDING FACILITY

EMPLOYMENT

EMPLOYMENT

EMPLOYMENT

HELP WANTED

(Pending Board Approval) Starting Salary Range: $12.50 - $13.00

LABORATORY TECHNICIAN Environmental laboratory, located in Chanute, Kansas, has an immediate opportunity for a highly motivated, energetic, dependable and detail oriented QA/QC Laboratory Technician.

Call 620-237-4668

Full-time, entry-level position with complete benefit package. Partial weekend and holiday work required.

Send resume to QA/QC Laboratory Technician, Post Office Box 684, Chanute, KS 66720. Or, email resume to pkrueger@cadenceenvironmental.com. EOE

Now hiring a part-time employee for durable medical equipment setup and delivery!

Responsible for ensuring safe delivery, setup, and education in usage of home medical equipment for our customers. Setup is done in their home, long-term care setting, clinic or any location deemed necessary to service patients.

Must have excellent customer service and a clean driving record.

Resource Center for Independent Living in Iola is hiring!

If caring is your superpower, we have your next opportunity.

Full-time (with excellent benefits) Independent Living Case Manager and Part-time Receptionist (Mon., Tues. and ½ day Wed.). Be a part of supporting individuals with disabilities as they achieve their independent living goals.

Questions? Call Adam or Deone at 785-528-3105 or email hr@rcilinc.org to apply.

Qualified individuals with disabilities are encouraged to apply.

Maclaskey Oilfield Services

NOW HIRING CDL LICENSED DRIVERS CLASS A WITH TANKER & HAZMAT ENDORSEMENTS PREFERRED OILFIELD EXPERIENCE A PLUS

Apply at 105 N. Industrial Rd., El Dorado, KS or call 316-321-9011 for details.

www.neosho.edu/Careers.aspx NCCC is an EOE/AA employer.

High school diploma required. Preferred candidates will have completed two years of college and/or relevant laboratory experience. ICP or AA instrument experience would be a plus.

Ag Choice Moran/Blue Mound, Kansas is a retail fertilizer, feed, seed and custom application business located in Southeast Kansas.

We have an employment opportunity for a motivated individual. Duties include general labor, some custom application, and all activities associated with day-to-day operations. CDL or ability to get one a must. Seasonal long hours can be expected. Safety is a priority. Excellent benefit package including health insurance, 401K, retirement, safety bonuses, and profitability bonuses included.

For a detailed description of all open positions and instructions for submitting your application, visit our website at

If you are passionate about making a profound impact on the quality of our patientsʼ lives, call Randy at 620-365-3377 or come in to apply.

ALLIED HEALTH PROGRAM COORDINATOR

Responsible to coordinate and instruct both onsite and online in the Allied Health program, responsible for student recruitment, program development and advising. Courses include CNA, Medical Terminology. Full time position. RN or LPN required. Excellent benefits including generous time off, paid single health/dental insurance, and tuition, fees and book rental grants. Review position description on website, www.allencc.edu.

Submit letter of interest, resume, employment application (on website, www.allencc.edu ) and three professional references to: Shellie Regehr, Human Resources, Allen Community College, 1801 N. Cottonwood, Iola, KS 66749 or email to hr@allencc.edu.

ACC IS AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER.

NOW HIRING!

109 E. Madison • Iola | Iolapharmacy.com

Visit: SEKHISTORY.COM Taking

SOUTHEAST KANSAS His ry Online Scan Me!

of Iola has a full-time opening in our maintenance department.

Good carpentry, plumbing and people skills a must. Must be available for weekend call rotation.

Pick up an application at 600 E. Garfield, Iola.

EOE

(620) 365-3183 • WINDSORPLACE.NET

iolaregister.com

The Iola Register

EMPLOYMENT

EMPLOYMENT

Join our team!

PSI INSURANCE

We are seeking to hire a FULL-TIME ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT at our Iola location

EMPLOYMENT

NOW HIRING

Warehouse And Production Personnel Pay up to $12 hour

Ideal candidates are detail-oriented, have great people skills and take initiative.

• Great opportunities for growth and advancement.

• Team environment • We are proud to serve our friends and neighbors.

Send resumes to Rosan at rosan@psi-insurance.com or call our Iola office at 620-365-6908 for more information.

Iola, KS

Humboldt, KS

Moran, KS

psi-insurance.com AUCTIONS

AUCTIONS

Saturday, February 5, 2022

B5

EMPLOYMENT

General Laborers Needed! 1st shift-Temp to hire position! $14.50 hour Previous concrete experience a plus!

Valid Driver’s License Required.

Call Today to Schedule Interview!

Interviews will be in Iola!

Apply Online!

Apply at focusjobs.com or call 620-875-0104

620-331-6200

www.expresspros.com

AUCTIONS

FIND A JOB. FILL A JOB.

Marketplace

iolaregister.com/marketplace

advertise Your Auction

In The Classifieds

ZITS

BEETLE BAILEY

EQUIPMENT CONSIGNMENT AUCTION Saturday April 2 @ 10:00 a.m.

7.5 miles north of Yates Center on Highway 75

Now accepting consignments of all types of equipment, tractors, trailers, vehicles and cattle handling equipment.

To receive the full benefit of free advertising, your items must be consigned by February 20.

PUBLIC NOTICE

by Jerry Scott and Jim Borgman

by Mort Walker

PUBLIC NOTICE

REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS The Allen County Public Works Department is requesting proposals for Asphalt Oils and Magnesium Chloride. For details, contact the Public Works Department at 620-365-1422.

Proposal deadline is Thursday, February 17, 2022 at 9 a.m.

HAGAR THE HORRIBLE

by Chris Browne

Allen County Commissioners reserve the right to reject any or all proposals.

(Published in The Iola Register Feb. 5 and Feb. 10, 2022)

To consign your items, call

E. Boone Auctions

Eric Boone 620-625-3246 cell: 620-496-6312 E-Mail: eboone60@hotmail.com

CRYPTOQUOTES CT Z S U J X D G U QT S U Z O Z H DGAZE G D B E C G A Z B E CT Z D G U QT S U Z O Z H W S Z E G U X CT B U P .

— CT Z SW S H Z HSSEZOZJC

FUNKY WINKERBEAN

by Tom Batiuk

BLONDIE

by Young and Drake

MARVIN

by Tom Armstrong

HI AND LOIS

by Chance Browne

Thursday’s Cryptoquote: Don’t worry about what’s cool and what’s not cool.

Authenticity is what’s cool.

— Zac Posen

B6

iolaregister.com

The Iola Register

Saturday, February 5, 2022

Nonprofit uses Super Bowl parties as way to help homeless

By TERESA WALKER The Associated Press

What started with a simple invitation to a few homeless people to watch the Super Bowl together in New York City has turned into quite a party.

And it just keeps growing.

Super Soul Party, a nonprofit started by filmmaker and social media influencer Meir Kay, will have Super Bowl parties in 35 cities when the Cincinnati Bengals and Los Angeles Rams meet Feb. 13.

Parties will be held in sites from Washington to Los Angeles, Boze-

man, Montana, to New Orleans.

All inspired by a conversation Kay had with a homeless man just wanting someone to talk to him.

“It just sort of connected like, ‘Oh my God, this is like an unofficial holiday in the U.S.,” Kay said of the Super Bowl. “People who don’t have family or friends may feel even more lonely. So how can I help with that?”

Kay threw his first party in 2017, inviting homeless people in the neighborhood. A year later, people asked Kay how they could help, so parties were held in

both New York and Los Angeles. Interest grew so quickly Kay founded the nonprofit to better organize to meet demand and seek corporate sponsors.

“I never thought myself as a founder of a nonprofit,” Kay said.

“I just thought, ‘I’m a guy who likes to do good through video, a filmmaker.’ But it was really through people saying, ‘Hey, how are we going to get involved?’ I just sort of stepped up.”

Super Soul Party has five sponsors helping cover the costs for this year’s parties that are much more than just food and football.

Guests can get haircuts from barbers, clothing and dignity bags of personal hygiene items.

Mental health counselors and people who can help with housing and jobs have been added as well.

Kay said the food and watching the game are important.

“Then we’re able to tackle on a deeper essence of the person, to build them back up,” Kay said. “And so the bigger picture from day one was to really bring back a connection to people who do not have it so they could go on and to rebuild their own lives.”

Super Soul Party works with existing nonprofits.

Expanding beyond New York has been accomplished through volunteer coordinators connecting with homeless shelters and other groups in their own towns.

Erika Harsanyi in Orlando saw one of Kay’s videos from an early party and wanted to host one in her city.

She too often felt helpless as a nurse at Level One Trauma Center in Orlando seeing homeless people needing more help than what an emergency room could provide.

Now Orlando is about

to host its first party with approximately 500 people expected at Exploria Stadium, a space big enough to feel safe in these COVID-impacted times. Harsanyi said the Super Bowl offers homeless people an experience most people take for granted.

“We don’t think how lucky we are whereas that’s something that ... maybe they may not have ever been able to experience,” Harsanyi said. “And to be able to provide that with resources, it’s a really great opportunity. I’m hoping we can agree to make this a regular yearly thing.”

Nebraska to consider beer sales at football games

By ERIC OLSON The Associated

Nebraska would sell alcohol at the Big Ten wrestling championships in March if university regents approve a policy revision at its meeting next week, opening the possibility of booze being available at Cornhuskers football games.

Athletic department leaders have long considered selling alcohol at their venues, and their interest has increased recently as they’ve looked for ways to develop new revenue sources. At least half the schools in the major conferences, and eight of the 14 in the Big Ten,

Aerial view of Nebraska’s home stadium. WIKIMEDIA sell alcohol.

Athletic director Trev Alberts said in a radio interview last week he knows opinions are divided on the matter and that there were no definite plans to open the taps. Nebraska-Omaha began selling alcohol at its venues when Alberts was athletic director at that school.

“The proposed regents policy would create a unified set of policies for all campuses,” chancellor Ronnie Green said in a statement. “Specific to UNL facilities and events, we have had ongoing conversations with the city of Lincoln for several years around this possibility. With respect to Husker Athletics, Trev

Jayhawks: Big game looming Continued from B1

this season.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS

After the Big 12-SEC Challenge, the league is the only one in the nation in which every team has a win over a ranked opponent. ...

The average scoring margin in the Big 12 is 9.1 points, the smallest among league peers. ...

The Big 12 leads the nation in scoring defense

at 62.8 points a game. ... Iowa State’s Izaiah Brockington was the Big 12 player of the week after scoring 24 points against Kansas, while Texas Tech’s Bryson Williams was the newcomer of the week. ... Kansas is 53-6 in its last 59 games following a loss, dating to the 2012-13 season. ...

Six of Kansas State’s nine Big 12 games have

been decided by one possession. ... Oklahoma State’s Isaac Likekele has had a rebound in 114 straight games, dating to his freshman year, and he has at least one assist in 55 straight. ... TCU’s 72-63 win over the Sooners was its first in Norman and allowed the Horned Frogs to sweep Oklahoma this season.

and I have been considering this carefully and will thoughtfully approach how best to move forward.”

Tom Osborne, the Cornhuskers’ College Football Hall of Fame coach from 1973-1997, voiced strong opposition to alcohol sales when he was athletic director from 2007-12.

Subsequent athletic directors Shawn Eichorst

and Bill Moos did not rule out exploring alcohol sales but the university didn’t move forward until now.

Alcohol sales have been a dependable money-maker for athletic departments across the country.

Schools are looking for ways to keep fans coming to stadiums and arenas and, in the last

Coach K: Last game vs UNC Continued from A1

1986.

Krzyzewski has also coached against Tar Heels greats like Michael Jordan, James Worthy, Antawn Jamison, Vince Carter and Tyler Hansbrough.

That list includes Davis, who played for Smith from 1988-92 and went 6-5 against Duke as a player before a 12year NBA career.

And Krzyzewski has won in Chapel Hill with Duke standouts like Christian Laettner, Bobby Hurley, Grant Hill, Jay Williams and J.J. Redick.

“Either here or there, at the jump ball, and you look at the guys on the court, you say, ‘Whoa, there’s a lot of good players on the court,’” Krzyzewski said. “I’ve seen so many great players play against us in Carolina uniforms, thank goodness we’ve been able to have a few of our own, too, which has made it unbelievable.

“That’s what I’ll remember most, the level of talent from both

teams on the court.

We’ve had so many amazing games, some that we’ve won and some that we’ve lost.

But they’ve been really high-level games.”

Krzyzewski, who turns 75 this month, is 49-46 against UNC, including road wins on walk-off baskets by Austin Rivers in 2012 and current Blue Devil Wendell Moore Jr. in 2020. Former Duke player and current associate head coach Jon Scheyer, 34, will take over for Krzyzewski this spring.

While UNC has much respect for Duke, Tar Heels guard Caleb Love isn’t focused on Krzyzewski’s Chapel Hill finale.

“I’m only thinking about what we’ve got going on,” he said.

Davis, 51, has a similar sentiment about his head-coaching debut in the rivalry.

“I know it’s a special moment, but my focus is on doing my job,” Davis said. “And my job is to prepare and to coach this team, and to prepare this team to

Prepare for Power Outages & Save Money Torrence Summerlin playing at catcher for ACC in 2016. REGISTER PHOTO

ACC: Scholarship in honor of slain Red Devil Summerlin Continued from B1

in praise.

“It was inspired because he was so loved here by everybody. Anybody that was around him, he was that infectious guy that you always wanted to be around. He was always

smiling and laughing.

He drew everyone to him.”

Stoy and Summerlin hope the scholarship keeps Torrence’s name and memory alive and that it can help make the dream of playing college athletics real

for another athlete, just as Torrence’s dream came true before his passing.

The season opener for the Red Devils is Feb. 8 when Pratt comes to Iola for two days of doubleheaders.

year, recoup some of ticket, concession and merchandise revenue lost during the pandemic.

First, they’ll vote on a proposed change that would permit the university president and chancellors to authorize the sale and consumption of alcohol at athletic events on their respective campuses.

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play the best they can on Saturday.”

The most notable change for the Tar Heels has been a more perimeter-oriented approach with an emphasis on floor spacing.

That included adding big players who can open up the floor with their shot-making ability, including Oklahoma transfer Brady Manek and Marquette transfer Dawson Garcia.

But the Tar Heels with have to get it done without Garcia, who will miss his fifth straight game due to a family illness.

Beyond that, the teams figure Saturday feels like the rest of battles between programs with a combined 11 NCAA titles.

“Coach Roy Williams and what he’s meant to the rivalry obviously will be missed,” Duke senior Joey Baker said.

“And after his season when Coach is gone, he’ll be missed. At the end of the day, it’s still Duke and UNC. I think that rivalry is going to last forever.”

The Iola Register

Locked out players reject mediator plan NEW YORK (AP) — Locked out players rejected Major League Baseball’s request for a federal mediator to enter stalled labor negotiations, a move that pretty much eliminated any chance for an on-time start to spring training and increased the work stoppage’s threat to opening day.

One day after MLB asked for help from the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, the Major League Baseball Players Association on Friday ruled out a third party trying to assist the fractured sport’s warring factions.

“Two months after implementing their lockout, and just two days after committing to players that a counterproposal would be made, the owners refused to make a counter, and instead requested mediation,” the union said in a statement.

“After consultation with our executive board, and taking into account a variety of factors, we have declined this request. The clearest path to a fair and timely agreement is to get back to the table. Players stand ready to negotiate.”

Owners locked out players on Dec. 2, immediately following the expiration of a five-year collective bargaining agreement. There have been just three negotiating sessions on core economics since, on Jan. 24-25 and this past Tuesday, and the sides are still far apart.

Players are upset payrolls declined to $4.05 billion last year, the lowest in a fully completed year since 2015.

They are asking for an expansion of salary arbitration eligibility, a significant increase in luxury tax thresholds

and minimum salaries, a decrease in revenue sharing and new rules to prevent what they allege is service time manipulation by clubs.

Teams say they will not expand arbitration or decrease revenue sharing, and that intensive negotiations on the luxury tax are for the final stage of bargaining.

The lockout entered its 65th day Friday and shows every sign of rolling past the scheduled start of spring training workouts on Feb. 16. Given that at least three weeks of training and exhibition games are required and the need for several days for players to report to camps and go through COVID-19 protocols, opening day on March 31 will be threatened if there is no agreement by the end of February or early March.

There is little chance of negotiations next week, when owners are scheduled to meet from Tuesday to Thursday in Orlando, Florida. Management’s bargaining team is expected in Orlando for the session.

Baseball’s ninth work stoppage is its first since a series of strikes and lockouts set back the sport from 1972-95.

The players’ association has made $5,000 stipends available to its members from the $178.5 million in cash, U.S. Treasury securities and investments available on Dec. 31, 2020, according to its latest financial disclosure form filed with the U.S. Department of Labor.

There is a wide disparity in income among players. Of the 1,670 who appeared on a major league roster last year, 1,145 earned under $1 million, including 771 below $500,000 and 241 under $100,000.

ENGLEWOOD, Colo.

(AP) — John Elway is refuting Brian Flores’ claim in a lawsuit that his interview with the Denver Broncos in 2019 was a sham and only conducted to satisfy the NFL’s Rooney Rule.

“While I was not planning to respond publicly to the false and defamatory claims

by Brian Flores, I could not be silent any longer with my character, integrity and professionalism being attacked,” the Denver Broncos president of football operations said in a statement released by the team Thursday.

Elway said he seriously considered Flores, one of five candidates for the job that eventually went to then-Bears defensive coordinator Vic Fangio.

Flores, recently fired as head coach in Miami, named the Broncos, Dolphins and Giants along with the league in a lawsuit this week alleging unfair hiring practices in the NFL. In other developments, civil rights leaders called for a meeting with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, Steelers owner Art Rooney II defended the league’s commitment to diversity even while acknowledging that the two-decadeold Rooney Rule hasn’t produced more minority head coaches.

Flores said in his lawsuit that Elway, then the team’s general manager, and president/CEO Joe Ellis showed up an hour late for his interview at a Providence, Rhode Island hotel, and they “looked completely disheveled and it was obvious that they had been drinking heavily the night before.”

Elway denied Flores’ contention he was hung over and just

“Coach Fitch was a great friend and trusted mentor and teacher to so many across the entire basketball community, while his impact on the game, and the lives of those he touched, spanned multiple generations.

He became a life-long friend to many members of the Cavaliers organization.”

Fitch was hired by Red Auerbach and the Celtics in 1979, the same year Bird arrived in Boston, which was coming off the two worst seasons in the famed franchise’s history. The Celtics went 61-21 in Fitch’s first season and won the championship the following year by beating the Rockets in six games.

“Fitch’s deep knowledge of the game, toughness, and dry wit made him a perfect fit for Boston and the Celtics,” the team said in a statement.

“Fitch had already built a reputation as a turnaround artist, and his ability to get the best out of his players paid immediate dividends as Fitch orchestrated what was at the time the best turnaround in NBA history, vaulting to a 61-21 record.”

Fitch went 242-86 in his four seasons in Boston.

John Elway going through the motions to satisfy the league’s requirement that teams interview minority candidates for head coaching jobs.

“For Brian to make an assumption about my appearance and state of mind early that morning was subjective, hurtful and just plain wrong,” Elway said.

If he appeared disheveled, Elway said, “it was because we had just flown in during the middle of the night” following an interview in Denver with another head coaching candidate, Mike Munchak, “and were going on a few hours of sleep to meet the only window provided to us.”

At the time, Flores was the Patriots linebackers coach and defensive play caller.

He was hired by the Dolphins shortly after his interview with the Broncos.

Elway said he enjoyed his 3½-hour interview with Flores and was “prepared, ready and fully engaged ... as Brian shared his experience and vision for our team. It’s unfortunate and shocking to learn for the first time this week that Brian felt differently about our interview with him.”

Among developments that drove Flores to file the lawsuit was a string of text messages with Patriots coach Bill Belichick three days before his scheduled Giants interview, leading Flores to believe Brian Daboll al-

ready had been chosen as their new coach.

The Giants said in a statement Thursday that their interest in Flores was “serious and genuine” and they were disappointed to learn he felt otherwise.

Flores’ “allegations about the legitimacy of his candidacy for our head coach position are disturbing and simply false,” the Giants said, adding they didn’t decide on Daboll until Jan. 28, one day after Flores’ second interview and daylong visit with the Giants.

“And to base that allegation on a text exchange with Bill Belichick in which he ultimately states that he ‘thinks’ Brian Daboll would get the job is irresponsible,” the Giants said, noting the text exchange occurred a day before Daboll’s in-person interview.

“Giants’ ownership would never hire a head coach based only on a 20-minute Zoom interview, which is all that Mr. Daboll had at that point,” the Giants said.

“In addition, Mr. Belichick does not speak for and has no affiliation

with the Giants. Mr. Belichick’s text exchange provides no insight into what actually transpired during our head coaching search.”

The most serious allegation in the lawsuit is Flores’ contention that Dolphins owner Stephen Ross told him he would pay him $100,000 for every loss during the coach’s first season because he wanted the club to “tank” so it could get the draft’s top pick.

The Dolphins went 5-11 that year and earned the fifth pick in the 2020 NFL draft. The Bengals went 2-14 and selected quarterback Joe Burrow with the top pick. In just his second season, Burrow has led Cincinnati to its first Super Bowl in 33 years.

The Bengals face the Rams on Feb. 13.

Like Elway, Ross said he was driven to defend himself publicly.

“I am a man of honor and integrity and cannot let them stand without responding,” Ross said. “I take great personal exception to these malicious attacks, and the truth must be known.”

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While he had his greatest success in Boston, Fitch may be best remembered for his early seasons with the Cavs.

He helped develop a young team that won just 15 games in its first season and improved steadily before making the playoffs in 1976 and shocking the Washington Bullets in what became known as the “Miracle of Richfield.”

Fitch was chosen coach of the year that season.

“Our franchise lost a great man and Rock that it was built on,” Cavs great Austin Carr wrote on Twitter.

“Coach Fitch, may he rest in peace, love u Coach.”

Fitch spent nine seasons in Cleveland, winning 304 games.

“Coach Fitch earned the love and respect of his Cavaliers players as he embedded a high standard of accountability and a belief system that he felt was a reflection of the team’s motto as a ‘group of daring, fearless men, whose life’s pact was never surrender, no matter what the odds,’ something that continues to be greatly valued by those he coached and worked with on and off the court,” the Cavs said in a statement.

B7

Elway, Giants deny coach’s allegations

Hall of Fame coach Bill Fitch dies CLEVELAND (AP) — Bill Fitch helped turn bad NBA teams into winners, and the Celtics back into champions.

A two-time coach of the year who guided Boston to one of its championships during a Hall of Fame coaching career spanning three decades, has died. He was 89.

Indiana Pacers coach Rick Carlisle, president of the National Basketball Coaches Association, said Fitch’s daughter told him her father died Wednesday night in Lake Conroe, Texas, surrounded by family.

“Coach Fitch’s numerous accomplishments pale in comparison to the giant impact he had on countless members of the basketball world in a legendary career that spanned 40-plus years,” said Carlisle, who broke in as an assistant under Fitch with New Jersey. “His mark on the NBA game is indelible.”

Fitch coached for 25 seasons in the NBA, starting with the expansion Cleveland Cavaliers in 1970. He was Larry Bird’s first pro coach in 1979, won a title with the Celtics in 1981 and spent time with Houston, New Jersey and the Los Angeles Clippers.

Saturday, February 5, 2022

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Saturday, February 5, 2022

The Iola Register

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Alabama coordinator Golding arrested for DUI TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (AP) — Alabama defensive coordinator Pete Golding has been arrested and charged with a DUI. Golding was listed as an inmate in the Tuscaloosa County Jail on Thursday morning after he was jailed on $500 bond. No further details were immediately available.

“I am deeply sorry for the actions that led to my arrest last night,” Golding said in a statement. “I sincerely apologize to my

family, everyone in our organization, including our players, Coach (Nick) Saban, the staff, the University of Alabama, and our fans.

“Regardless of the outcome of this pending investigation, I did not uphold the values I have for myself and the values of the Alabama football program. I am committed to learning and growing from this mistake and I will work to earn back the trust of those who I have disappointed.”

Alabama’s Pete Golding takes the field before the CFP semi-final against Cincinnati in Jan. 2022. TNS Saban hired Golding in 2018 as co-defensive coordinator with Tosh

RACING

Lupoi. He was promoted in 2019 and helped the Crimson Tide win

THIS WEEK

H

GRAIN STORAGE?

TOP: Helio Castroneves celebrates after winning the 60th annual Rolex 24 at Daytona International Speedway Sunday. Castroneves, along with Simon Pagenaud, Oliver Jarvis and Tom Blomqvist, shared driving duties in the No. 60 Meyer-Shank Racing Acura DPi en route to the overall victory.

ABOVE: Castroneves and other members of the team climb the fence at Daytona after the Rolex 24 victory. (Getty Images) I was like, ‘Man, I can’t get this car to work. It was just a rollercoaster of a race.”

NASCAR ties to this year’s Rolex 24 included seven-time Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson and No. 2 Team Penske Ford rookie driver Austin Cindric. Johnson and the No. 48 Ally/Action Express Cadillac DPi, also driven by Mike Rockenfeller, Kamui Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez, finished 11th overall and fifth in the DPi class. During the overnight hours, Johnson was forced to take the car to the garage for repairs after suspension issues.

Cindric drove the No. 15 Mercedes-AMG GT3 to 23rd in the overall classification, sharing driving duties with Patrick Assenheimer and Dirk Müller.

The No. 60 Meyer-Shank Racing Acura DPi finished the 24-hour race with a total of 761 laps completed.

What: 2022 Busch Light Clash at the Coliseum Where: Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum • Started in 1979, and run under a variety of names, premier series drivers competed in the Busch Clash at Daytona to kickstart the annual competition. For the first time ever, this season’s exhibition will be held Sunday at 6 p.m. ET on a 0.25-mile asphalt oval inside Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

• Race doubles as the competitive debut of the Next Gen cars, giving race fans their long-awaited look at a full fleet of redesigned Chevrolet Camaros, Ford Mustangs and Toyota Camrys.

• FOX Sports will have complete coverage of the event, including practice and qualifying. The lone practice session on Feb. 5 will be broadcast on FS2 at 12:30 p.m. ET, while qualifying at 8:30 p.m. ET that evening moves over to FS1.

• Sunday’s coverage kicks off at 3 p.m. ET on FOX with a slate of heat races before the main event at 6 p.m. ET. • Fresh off of his first Cup title, Kyle Larson looks to continue his dominance as the West Coast native battles a star-studded lineup to jump-start the season. The field will be open to 40 entrants, each vying for one of the 23 spots in Sunday’s main event. Currently, 36 drivers from 16 different teams are slated to compete, including rookies Austin Cindric, Harrison Burton and Todd Gilliland.

• Kyle Busch is the reigning Busch Light Clash winner, making the Joe Gibbs Racing driver a two-time winner (2012) of the prestigious exhibition. Erik Jones, Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano, Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick and Kurt Busch round out the list of active drivers with a Clash win. Dale Earnhardt holds the all-time record with six.

• After Saturday’s practice and the initial single-car qualifying session, drivers will be placed into heat races based on their best-posted speed. Every car entered into the Clash automatically advances to one of the heat races, giving them a chance to move on to the main event.

• On Sunday, drivers compete in one of four 25-lap heat races with up to 10 cars in each race. The fields will be filled out in a manner consistent with their initial qualifying speed. Fastest will start on pole in the first heat race, second fastest starts on pole in the second heat race and so on (one, five, nine, etc. line up in Heat 1).

• The top four finishers in each heat race will automatically advance to the main event, totaling 16 drivers with a ticket to Sunday night’s feature. Drivers who do not advance from their qualifying race will be placed into one of two 50-lap Last Chance Qualifier (LCQ) races. The top three from each LCQ advance to the Sunday feature. The final spot in the 23-man main event is reserved for the driver who finished the highest in the 2021 points standings who does not transfer on finishing position in the heat races or LCQ.

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ANDERSON PLUMBING

Running out of

recruiting abilities on Wednesday in talking about the Crimson Tide’s second-ranked recruiting class.

“I think Pete has a great personality.

I think he spends a lot of time with players,” Saban said. “And I think it’s all about relationships. I know that we have a good product here. Pete does a great job of selling that product.

“But I think in the end, the players know that he cares about them.”

Here’s a look at defending Cup champ Kyle Larson’s helmet for the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 2022 season.

It was a Helio of a run to Rolex 24 victory

elio Castroneves kept the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-05 ahead of the field during the final 30 minutes to lift MSR and co-drivers Tom Blomqvist, Oliver Jarvis and Simon Pagenaud to victory Sunday in the 60th anniversary of the Rolex 24 at Daytona International Speedway.

The win led to Castroneves’ signature celebratory move of climbing the fence, which he made famous during four Indianapolis 500 wins.

“It sounds cliche, but it’s all about believing,” Castroneves said. “I believe in them, they believe in me. This is exactly what is happening with this group here. With Simon, with Tom and with Oliver – we all believed that we could do it.”

It was Castroneves’ second consecutive Rolex 24 victory. Last year, he won the race as part of Wayne Taylor Racing, then climbed a fence in Victory Lane. This time, Castroneves fought off the No. 10 WTR Acura and driver Ricky Taylor to win, then stopped at the start-finish line and climbed the catch fence.

“That was absolutely incredible,” Castroneves said. “I’m so happy for the entire group. Everyone did their job. At the end, I said, ‘Put me in, Coach.’ It was great.”

The victory ended Wayne Taylor Racing’s bid to win the race for a record fourth consecutive time. As the Meyer Shank Racing celebration moved from the fence to the pits, Wayne Taylor was among the first to congratulate his former driver.

The trip to the top of the podium continued the resurgence of the career of Castroneves, 46. After winning last year’s Rolex 24 with WTR, Castroneves went on to win the Indy 500 with MSR, tying A.J. Foyt, Al Unser and Rick Mears for most Indy 500 wins in a career.

“It’s priceless,” Castroneves said. “In my case, I’m still very passionate about it and learning every day … and improving my driving skills. That’s what makes me a better driver. That’s why I enjoy it. That’s why when I go out there I push as hard as I can.”

Taylor finished 3.028 seconds behind Castroneves for WTR teammates Filipe Albuquerque, Will Stevens and Alexander Rossi. The 1-2 Acura sweep came 18 hours after both cars fell off the lead lap and trailed the five Cadillacs in the Daytona Prototype international (DPi) class.

Loic Duval brought the No. 5 JDC Miller MotorSports Cadillac DPi-V.R in third place with teammates Tristan Vautier, Richard Westbrook and Ben Keating.

The key to winning may have been the run by Blomqvist before Castroneves’ finishing run. Blomqvist got the No. 60 car into the lead with a back-and-forth duel with Taylor, then handed it to Castroneves.

“I was speechless after the race,” Blomqvist said. “I’ve dreamt of it. Did I believe? Yes. But you never know. It’s 24 hours of relentless racing. Every time I jumped in the car at moments I felt really comfortable and moments when

the national title the following season and a Southeastern Conference championship in 2021.

The Tide lost to Georgia in the national championship game.

“We are mindful of the seriousness of the situation and will continue to gather more information to address this personnel matter,” a statement attributed to the athletic department said.

Saban discussed Golding’s contributions to the team and

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