Locally owned since 1867
Saturday, February 6, 2021
Exhibit celebrates Iola Coca-Cola Company By TREVOR HOAG The Iola Register
A new exhibit at the Allen County Historical Museum celebrates the storied Iola Coca-Cola Bottling Company. Though the plant operated just north of the Iola square for decades, in the beginning it was anything but smooth sailing. It all started in 1905 with a fellow by the name of John Copening, who after his first week in town decided Kansas might be a little too rough for Then and now photos of the Coca-Cola Bottling Company, locathis taste. Not only “was the business ed at 204 N. Washington Ave. district rocked by three dynamite blasts,” the result of Charley Melvin targeting local saloons, but Copening was unjustly arrested and had his team and wagon confiscated. Two years later, though, he decided to buy the Iola Steam Bottling Company, and his bottling odyssey had officially begun. The Steam Bottling Company already made 30 different kinds of soda, mixing its own extracts and sometimes even its own carbonic acid gas (via a machine called a spider). Copening recalled when
The exhibit at the Allen County Historical Museum shows the evolution of Coca-Cola bottles. The iconic “hobble skirt” bottle design wasn’t developed until 1917.
IMS squeaks out victory over SFT
IHS cheerleader headed to NCCC PAGE A3
Troops will help with vaccine effort PAGE A5
See COKE | Page A7
Lindsay Myers is serving as the interim director for the Iola Area Chamber of Commerce. REGISTER/VICKIE MOSS
Interim director: ‘Same goals and vision’ for Chamber By VICKIE MOSS The Iola Register
Lindsay Myers had worked at the Iola Area Chamber of Commerce for only a few months before she was thrown into the job of interim director. Myers joined the Chamber in late August as an administrative assistant. She took over the director duties when Jill Hartman resigned in early January.
“We’re still kind of in this in-between stage of figuring it all out,” Myers said of the change in leadership. “I’m excited for the opportunity.” Myers wants to continue the Chamber’s efforts to support local businesses, especially as they continue to navigate the challenges caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The economic hardship caused by the panSee MYERS | Page A8
New COVID cases ease but caution still urged By VICKIE MOSS The Iola Register
Allen County officially topped more than 1,000 COVID-19 cases this week, as new cases appeared to subside slightly. The county has now reported 1,016 positive cases since the start of the pandemic. Fourteen county residents have died from COVID-19-related complications. The pace of new cases has eased, though, with 55 current cases as of Thursday evening. In recent weeks, the number of current cases typically hovered close to 100. Still, the county’s top public health official warned
that precautions like mask wearing, social distancing and quarantines after contact with infected persons is See COVID | Page A3
Allen County COVID-19 Case Count
Current cases ................. 55 Total cases* ................... 1,016 Deaths........................... 14 *Since the start of the pandemic Sources: Southeast Kansas Multi-County Health Departments, Kansas Department of Health and Environment
Senate adopts blueprint for $1.9T relief plan By JOSH BOAK The Associated Press
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the spider would vibrate wildly from internal pressure, and one day he witnessed the company boys wildly sprinting from the back room yelling “She’s a’ dancin’! She’s a’ dancin’!” Thankfully, “the machine never blew up and no one was injured.” Some of the other flavors of soda along with regular Coke included: iron brew, banana, vanilla, sarsaparilla, blackberry, tango, cherry, strawberry, orange, lemon and var-
iolaregister.com
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden met Friday with leading House Democrats who aim to put his $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package on a fast track to becoming law, drawing on new signs of strain in the economy to push for its approval. “We can’t do too much here, we can do too little,” he told them. “Real, live people are hurting. And we can fix it. And we can fix it and the irony of all ironies is when we help them, we are also helping our competitive capacity, through the remainder of this
decade.” The Senate early Friday approved a measure that would let Democrats muscle the relief plan through the chamber without Republican support. Vice President Kamala Harris was in the chair to cast the tie-breaking vote, her first. Senate Democrats applauded after Harris announced the 51-50 vote at around 5:30 a.m. The action came after a grueling all-night session, where senators voted on amendments that could define the contours of the eventual COVID-19 aid bill. The budget now returns to the House, where it will likely be approved again Friday to
reflect the changes made by the Senate. The measure can then work its way through committees so that additional relief can be finalized by midMarch, when extra unemployment assistance and other pandemic aid expires. It’s an aggressive timeline that will test the ability of the new administration and Congress to deliver. The push for stimulus comes amid new signs of a weakening U.S. economy. Employers added just 49,000 jobs in January, after cutting 227,000 jobs in December, the Labor Department said Friday. Restaurants, retailers, manufacturers and even the
health care sector shed workers last month, meaning that private employers accounted for a meager gain of 6,000 jobs last month. “At that rate, it’s going to take 10 years until we hit full employment,” Biden said at the meeting with House Democrats. “That’s not hyperbole. That’s a fact.” The unemployment rate fell to 6.3% from 6.7%, but there was a decline in the number of people who were either working or looking for a job in a sign that some people are dropping out of the labor force. The U.S. economy is 9.9 See RELIEF | Page A3
Vol. 122, No. 323 Iola, KS 75 Cents
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