The
IOLA REGISTER Thursday, June 6, 2013
Locally owned since 1867
SWIM TEAM Iola Seahorses compete at home See B1
www.iolaregister.com
B&W GOES THE EXTRA MILE Hope
Company Unlimited celebrates fears cuts 35 years
By KAYLA BANZET kayla@iolaregister.com
By BOB JOHNSON bob@iolaregister.com
Above, Howard Wright burnishes a ball component of B&W Trailer Hitches’ flagship product, its Gooseneck Turnoverball Hitch. The company will treat employees and families to a day of fun in Kansas City Saturday to celebrate its 25th anniversary. At left, Sally Manbeck, corporate administrator, holds a 25th anniversary B&W Trailer Hitches T-shirt that will be given to employees and their families. Register/Bob Johnson
HUMBOLDT — B&W Trailer Hitches employees are “very blessed, as is the whole community,” said Sally Manbeck, corporate administrator. The Humboldt industry, which has grown to a sprawling factory and 280 employees, will celebrate its 25th anniversary with an outing for employees Saturday. Owners Joe and Jane Works will take 721 employees and family members to Worlds and Oceans of Fun in Kansas City, and include a down-home fried chicken dinner. “We have two charter buses going,” with many employees driving themselves, said Manbeck in the absence of Joe Works, tied up Wednesday with business commitments. Of its 280 employees, 168 will participate in the celebratory day of fun. “The dance recital (Cooper Studio Dance Center’s extravaganza at the Bowlus Fine Arts Center), weddings and other things will keep some employees from going,” Manbeck observed. B&W, with sales soaring, has offered overtime work many Saturdays this year, but production was put on hold
Money makes the world go around, so the saying goes, but budget cuts could greatly decrease funds for organizations that are funded by state grants. Hope Unlimited, an organization that works to end sexual and domestic violence in the community, is primarily funded by grants. Dorothy Sparks, executive director, said the recent budget cuts are bringing a lot of uncertainty to the group. “We are not sure how it will affect us yet,” Sparks said. This year Hope Unlimited will have to make a lot of decisions on what to cut within the organization. The cuts will take effect on July 1, so until then decisions are up in the air. Grants could be cut up to 10 percent. Although decisions have yet to be made, Sparks said they are looking at other options for funding. “We could look at alternative avenues as far as private funders go,” Sparks said. Fundraisers are another possibility but sometimes that can be difficult in a smaller community, Sparks said. In July, the organization will kick off a 100-woman campaign. Each individual will help raise $1,000. Hope Unlimited may also See CUTS | Page A4
See B&W| Page A4
State senator plans foster care reform By DAVE RANNEY KHI News Service
TOPEKA — A state senator who has adopted four boys out of foster care said he’s putting together a plan for reforming the state’s foster care and adoption programs. “There needs to be changes in every single part of the system,” said Sen. Forrest Knox, an Altoona Republican. During an informational meeting he convened at the Statehouse last week, Knox said he planned to spend much of the summer and fall working on the initiative, which he then would introduce for consideration in the 2014 legislative session. He said he would be conferring with officials at the Kansas Department for Children and Families, judges, attorneys, CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) workers, social workers and foster parents. “Bottom line? My (adopted) kids should have been in the (foster care) system for two years,” Knox said. “They were in for four. That’s a travesty.” Knox said he and his wife, Renee, have nine biological children, two of whom still live at home. The couple adopted the four brothers — then ages 5, 7, 8 and 13 — two years ago after having cared for them for two years as foster parents. “Everybody who’s part of the system now, when they find out we were foster parents and that I’m in the Legislature they say, ‘I want to talk to you,’” Knox said. “Every time, it’s the same thing, they say, ‘There are things that need to be changed.’”
Sen. Forrest Knox KANSAS
PRIVATIZED
much of its foster care and adoption services in 1996. Knox said he expected his initiative to include proposals for changing licensing standards that tend to discourage rural families from becoming foster parents (having to build a fence around a pond, for example), tougher penalties for service providers that miss appointments or fail to provide court-ordered services, and shortened procedures for terminating parental rights. “That’s a tough one for me,” Knox said, referring to termination of parental rights. “I’m very conservative and I’m very big on parental rights, but there comes a time when enough is enough. We know this parent just isn’t going to get his or her act together and we need to say, ‘OK, that’s it.’” Knox also said he would look for ways to expand the state’s corps of CASA volunteers. “They’re the ones who really know what’s going on,” he said. “They’re the shining stars.” House Majority Leader Jene See REFORM | Page A2
Vol. 115, No. 157
Register/Steven Schwartz
Members of “The Newsboys” cast leap into the air in one of their opening numbers during rehearsals on Wednesday evening.
‘Newsboys’ coming to Bowlus By STEVEN SCHWARTZ steven@iolaregister.com
Read all about it, read all about it! “The Newsboys” is coming to the Bowlus Fine Arts Center Friday and Saturday. The production ventures out of the norm for Jesse Cooper’s Kansas Youth Dance Company. As director and choreographer, Cooper said the 40-minute production focuses on newspaper workers in the 1890s who strike against Joseph Pulitzer’s tough child labor standards. Of course, the studio’s version of the story has a bit more pizzazz to it. “All of the other productions we have done have been ballet,” Cooper said. “This one has jazz-tap and even a little hip-hop thrown in.” Chelsea Lea is the primary dancer in the production, but Cooper said all of the dancers play integral roles in the action. The minimum amount of numbers each student had to learn was three, and he
said some have had to learn as many as 12. “We have a lot of different kids with a lot of different talents,” Cooper said. The action of the story requires aerial dance moves, choreographed fights and several
other types of movements. FOLLOWING “The Newsboys” will be the showcase performance by the larger Cooper Studio Dance Center. See NEWSBOYS | Page A2
Iola Municipal Band —Since 1871— Thursday, 8 p.m.
At the bandstand
Jake Ard, director
Star Spangled Banner........................... Arr. J.P. Sousa On the Square....................................Panella
Summer Evening Serenade......................Isaac/Lilya I Dreamt I Dwelt in Marble Halls................Balfe
His Honor..........................................Fillmore
Michelle, Eleanor Rigby, Yesterday..............Lennon/McCartney Good Night, Irene.................................Ledbetter/Lomax
Invictus.............................................K.L. King
Night and Day......................................Cole Porter
King Cotton.........................................J.P. Sousa 75 Cents
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