Inside: HHS wins state journalism competition See A2
Sports: Humboldt dominates on track, diamonds See B1
2017 1867
THE IOLA REGISTER Locally owned since 1867
www.iolaregister.com
Tuesday, May 9, 2017
Council: Iolans should dictate governing body size By RICHARD LUKEN The Iola Register
It will be up Iolans to decide if the size of the City Council should change. The existing Council members discussed the matter again Monday before agreeing that any decision about Iola’s future governance should once again be decided by the voters. They directed City Administrator Sid Fleming to start reaching out, perhaps with a community forum or two, to discuss the different types of governing bodies. From there, if there’s a consensus, he can draft specific proposals for consideration. There’s not much urgency, because the next round of city elections is this fall, and Fleming said he’d prefer a vote on the matter during an off-year election period.
Iolan Michael Middleton is administered the oath to become Iola’s newest city councilman by City Clerk Roxanne Hutton Monday. REGISTER/RICARD LUKEN
“Logistically, it’d be better to do this (vote) out of cycle,” Fleming said. “Then you’d go into an election cycle, and you’d know how that election would be.” He also will look at other communities Iola’s size to See COUNCIL | Page A8
Bad debt remains an issue Iola has more than $500,000 in past-due utility bills and Iola Municipal Court fines and other fees it is trying to collect. Those figures were shared Monday as Council members weigh hiring a collections agency to act on the city’s behalf. Council members tabled a decision on hiring Collection Bureau of Kansas, however, until they can figure out whether Iola can voluntarily collect less in past-due municipal court fines as a means to get more people to pay. The agreement before the
Council is to hire CBK, then hand over 30 percent of any past-due funds the agency collects. Seventy percent of pastdue funds is better than nothing, City Clerk Roxanne Hutton explained. However, state law dictates cities must collect 100 percent of the past-due municipal court fines, with CBK tacking on an additional 30-percent surcharge. “I’m appreciative of what can be collected,” Councilman Aaron Franklin said. See BAD DEBT | Page A3
Iola High School senior Ben Cooper will miss getting to compete in high school athletics, but is ready to follow his academic pursuits in college. REGISTER/RICHARD LUKEN
Ready for new pursuits By RICHARD LUKEN The Iola Register
Ben Cooper is going to miss roaming the halls at Iola High School. He’ll miss time in the classroom, taking the toughest possible courses he could find at every opportunity. But what he’ll really, really miss is competing in athletics. Since his freshman year,
Cooper has been a mainstay in IHS varsity sports, particularly basketball, football and baseball. So it may come as a surprise that Cooper is not pursuing at least one of those sports in college. Instead, he has decided to focus solely on academics when he enrolls next fall at Allen Community College. “I think I’m ready to go on, to try to be successful
in life,” said Cooper, one of four graduating seniors at Iola High who has sported a 4.0 grade-point average throughout high school. Cooper, et al, will receive their diplomas at 2 p.m. Saturday as part of IHS commencement ceremonies. COOPER IS hardly your
stereotypical
jock,
even
See COOPER | Page A3
Ottawa company considers Humboldt By BOB JOHNSON The Iola Register
HUMBOLDT – An unidentified Ottawa company that wants to expand its reach into southeast Kansas may find a home in Humboldt’s old city hall. City Administrator Cole Herder told council members Monday evening he and company officials thought
the building wound meet its needs. His suggestion was to charge about $400 a month rent, which he predicted would have the city break even after paying utilities, taxes and other costs. To facilitate negotiations, council members gave Herder, Mayor Nobby David and City Attorney Fred Works their go-ahead to deal with the company.
Herder said he thought the building could be reconfigured into another office or two for a second — maybe third — enterprise, in addition to housing the Humboldt branch of the countywide ambulance service. After it was abandoned as city hall, the building housed Weide Monuments, which moved See HUMBOLDT | Page A8
School board hires KC firm to handle district technology By RICK DANLEY The Iola Register
If there were any questions regarding the positive impact a single outstanding employee can have on an organization, Monday’s USD 257 board meeting went a long way toward muting those doubts.
Outgoing Superintendent of Schools Jack Koehn — along with his successor, high school principal Stacey Fager — have spent the last eightplus weeks searching out ways to best fill the hole left by departing district technology director Brett Linn, who tendered his resignation in
March. “The question we looked at,” said Koehn, who dwelt for a moment on the caliber of Linn’s talents, “is how do we replace Brett? It’s going to be very difficult. “Right now,” continued Koehn, “we have 1,200 Chromebooks in the district.
Yates: Warned White House of Flynn’s ties to Russia WASHINGTON (AP) — Former acting Attorney General Sally Yates told Congress Monday she bluntly warned the Trump White House in January that new National Security Adviser Michael Flynn “essentially could be blackmailed” by the Russians because he apparently had lied to his bosses about his contacts with Moscow’s ambassador in Washington. The testimony from Yates, an Obama administration holdover fired soon after for
We basically have one-to-one in fifth grade through twelfth grade. … But none of that will matter at all if your network doesn’t work.” How, then, without the vision and acuity of someone like Linn, will the district maintain its current firstclass network and ensure that
See YATES | Page B2 PRESS/OLIVIER DOULIERY/TNS
Quote of the day Vol. 119, No. 136
See 257 | Page B2
258 school year to end early By SHELLIE SMITLEY The Iola Register
Former U.S. Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates testifies before the Senate Judicary Committee’s Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism Monday in Washington, D.C. ABACA
it keeps pace in an arena of quickening change? The short answer is K12itc, a schools-oriented technology management firm out of Kansas City, Mo. On Monday, the board approved a five-year contract
HUMBOLDT — Humboldt school board members voted unanimously Monday to eliminate May 22 from the school calendar this year. The district has already met the state attendance requirement, Superintendent Kay Lewis said. Although students will not be at school that day, board members will meet at 7 p.m. Board members voted to accept the resignation of Hailey Schoendaller as assistant all school play director, senior
“You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.” — Zig Ziglar, author (1926-2012) 75 Cents
class sponsor and English teacher. Tell Wyrick also has resigned as strength and conditioning and PE/Health teacher, freshman class sponsor, football, track and wrestling coach, along with Michael Middleton as middle school boys’ basketball coach. The board approved the following new hires; Callee Kaufman as the Family Consumer Science teacher, Chad Carter as high school math teacher and Jason Weilert as strength and conditioning and PE/Health teacher.
Hi: 81 Lo: 64 Iola, KS