Inside: U.S. must keep pressure on Syria, See A4
Football: Youth league opens season See B1
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THE IOLA REGISTER Wednesday, September 11, 2013
Hospital site abuzz for opening By SUSAN LYNN susan@iolaregister.com
Construction teams continue to push for an Oct. 1 finish date for the new Allen County Regional Hospital, hospital trustees learned Tuesday night. “A huge amount of activity,” is going on to make that goal, said Ron Baker, chief executive officer of the hospital. “Nothing at this point leads us to believe they won’t be done by Oct. 1.” A series of open houses are scheduled for Oct. 16-18, with the official ribbon cutting on Oct. 18. The hospital will be open for business the first of November. Correcting the poorly installed flatstone on a portion of the building’s exterior is in the works, Baker said. Contractors are waiting for a 20-year warranty on the new stone to be approved. Once confirmed, “We’re good to go,” Baker said, to install See HOSPITAL | Page A3
EMS merger imminent
More than just a pretty face By RICHARD LUKEN richard@iolaregister.com
Trilby Bannister chuckles when she tells friends how worn out she is from practice, then hears their reaction. But you’re just a cheerleader, they exclaim. Being just a cheerleader involves a lot more than rallying the crowd and looking pretty. “They think all we do is cheer,” Bannister said. “They don’t realize how hard cheerleading really is, how hard
we work.” The 14-member squad will perform its first halftime show of the 2013 football season Friday at the Mustangs’ home opener. Gearing up for a full game’s worth of cheers, as well as an elaborate halftime routine, involves long hours of practices, ones that can be every bit as intense as those for athletes involved in other fall sports. Monday’s was no exception. Practice began with a run around Riverside Park in the searing heat, then an
extensive stretching session before the members began work on their dance routine. Time is of the essence. They have until Friday to get the routine down pat. And with cheer captain Mackenzie Weseloh in charge, the routine must be perfect. Weseloh, who has an extensive background in various forms of dance, worked with the Bannister sisters, Trilby and Olivia, to set the choreogSee CHEER | Page A5
By BOB JOHNSON bob@iolaregister.com
All indications are that merger of Allen County and Iola ambulance services is all but a done deal. Allen County commissioners Tuesday morning instructed County Counselor Alan Weber to incorporate a handful of changes into the contract they proposed and Iola council members considered Monday night. The main adjustment is inclusion of a cost of living provision that will be triggered when county employees receive a raise. The See MERGER | Page A5
Iola High cheerleaders are, at top from left, Kayla Underwood, Rylee Knavel, Ashley Merritt; and at lower left, Torrie Lewis. At bottom right, from left, are Caitie Venter, Taylor Stout, Olivia Bannister and Clara Wicoff. REGISTER/RICHARD LUKEN
Athletes learn hazards of steroids
Dusty roads a bane to county residents
By KAYLA BANZET kayla@iolaregister.com
In today’s society, young athletes worship allstar athletes, many of whom use performance enhancing drugs. Unfortunately, steroid abuse is an issue in not only professional sports but in college and high school levels as well. Allen Community College athletes learned about the dark side of appearance and performance enhancing drugs. Don Hooton, with the Taylor Hooton Foundation, spoke to the ACC athletic department Tuesday night about the foundation’s purpose to educate about steroid abuse. Hooton’s brother, Taylor, began using anabolic steroids in his teen years. He was a high school athlete from Plano, Texas and wanted to excel in baseball. The drug consumed Taylor’s life and in 2003 Taylor committed suicide. He was 17. In addition to steroids, Hooten spoke about the effects of energy drinks, pre-workout enhancers and growth hormones. He said athletes need only three things to enhance their performance. “You need more sleep, a proper diet and more water,” he said. In 2011 there were 26,000 emergency room visits related to use of performance enhanced drugs and in 2012 there were 18 deaths. Red Bull or Monster energy drinks may seem an innocent choice for an energy boost but can lead to cardiovascular damage, Hooton said. Growth hormone stimulants have painful
Quote of the day Vol. 115, No.224
By BOB JOHNSON bob@iolaregister.com
Don Hooton speaks to Allen Community College athletes Tuesday night about the dangers of performance-enhancing drugs. REGISTER/
KAYLA BANZET
side effects like joint swelling, tissue swelling and fluid retention. There are 120 types of pharmaceutical steroids on the market today. Sixty-five percent of those steroids improve physical appearance. See STEROIDS | Page A5
Dust kicked up by vehicles is so thick on Delaware Road east of Humboldt that Sharon Scarrow fears it may cause an accident. The dust adds insult to injury. Sharon and her husband, Virgil, purposely bought their rural home along a hard-surfaced thorough to escape dusty roads. Four miles of Delaware, between 2200 and 3000 streets, were chewed up in preparation for a rebuild up earlier this year because of a number of breakdowns in its chip-seal surface. Bill King, director of Public Works, then asked for weight limit of 15 tons and a speed limit of 45 mph to curtail heavy truck traffic, which he said caused the road’s failure. His intention was to let it remain in crushed rock condition through the winter and rebuild the four miles in the spring.
“Is freedom anything else than the right to live as we wish? Nothing else.” — Epictetus, Greek philosopher 75 Cents
That’s still the plan, but it will be altered some after the Scarrows’ plea for dust relief struck a chord with Allen County commissioners Tuesday morning. Chairman Dick Works asked King if dust abatement material would be the answer. Not without frequent watering and then the material soon would dissipate if his crew continued to “work the road” with graders preparatory to its rebuild, King said. A solution commissioners and King agreed to was to dispatch a water truck periodically to settle dust near the Scarrows’ and other homes and also lower the speed limit to 35 mph. Sharon Scarrow said she thought a lower speed limit would help control the dust. Commissioners said they would ask Sheriff Bryan Murphy to have his officers aggressively enforce the lowSee DUST | Page A3
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