Sports: Seahorses swim past competitors See B1
THE IOLA REGISTER Locally owned since 1867
www.iolaregister.com
Thursday, July 10, 2014
MAD BOMBER
LAHARPE COUNCIL
City mulls tax increase By KAREN INGRAM The Iola Register
Spencer Michelson, from left, Tim McDermeit, David Toland, Don Burns, Cliff Harris, Ben Middleton, Richard Freimiller. In front, Titus Jones. REGISTER/KAREN INGRAM
Area men gear up for drag race By KAREN INGRAM The Iola Register
Don Burns is a man of many faces. Most days, he is a resident of Gas and works in operations and maintenance for USD 257. But every year Burns reinvents himself in honor of Iola’s Mad Bomber Run for Your Life. “It’s such an unusual event,” Burns said. “It’s so fun to run with 500 to 1,000 people.” The 5k walk/run begins at 12:26 a.m. Sunday, the same time that Charley Melvin bombed several saloons in 1905 to protest the evils of alcohol consumption. Burns participates in the
It’s great fun and it helps promote the activities. ... It’s the most fun you’ll ever have in a dress. — Don Burns, Charlie Melvin participant
Mad Bomber Run in a striped jailbird outfit each year, in honor of the Mad Bomber himself. “We’re not celebrating terrorism, we’re commemorating a page of Iola’s history,” he said. Last year, some descendants of Melvin also wore jailbird outfits and joined in the festivities. “It’s great fun and it helps
promote the activities,” he said. “I don’t know that I have a favorite part. I like the whole experience.” Speaking of experiences, Burns also participates in the event’s Drag Race, donning a dress and wig to get into the spirit. He wears something different each year. Last year he dressed up as Dorothy from See MELVIN | Page A5
A possible sales tax increase was discussed at the City of LaHarpe council meeting on Wednesday. The proposed increase of 1 percent would be used for street projects and other improvements. Chuck Apt, city attorney, said they would need to vote on the sales tax and settle on an amount at the meeting in August in order to have sufficient time to get it on the November ballot. If approved and voted in November, the tax increase
would be effective April 1, 2015 and last until 2025. The other major discussion centered on woes caused by the construction on U.S. 54. The construction company, by law, is supposed to leave right of ways in at least the same condition they were before the project began, but city officials and the public thinks this has not been done. There are many reports of drainage issues, debris left in ditches and yards making it difficult to mow and road shoulders left uncompacted, which See LAHARPE | Page A5
Poet Laureate coming to Iola Public Library The idea of home will be explored in poetry at Iola Public Library on Friday. Kansas Poet Laureate Wyatt Townley will be coming for the first time to Iola to read poems and discuss themes for a bring-your-own-brownbag-lunch event. “What is home, where is home, and how does it intersect with poetry?” Townley said. “I’m doing not only my poetry, but other Kansans’ and other greats, many of whom I’ve memorized.” Library Director Roger
Carswell said that, for him, “home” is a place to be comfortable and share memories, which is something that both Iola and the library does for him. Wyatt Townley “I think Iola is a good comfortable place to call home. I’ve been here for 22 years and it felt like home See LIBRARY | Page A5
Kansas VA clinics found lacking By ROXANA HEGEMAN Associated Press
Clara Wicoff, right, assists Briley Prather with her bag during a sewing class at the Heritage Arts Camp on Wednesday. REGISTER/ KAYLA BANZET
Heritage Arts campers explore Allen County By KAYLA BANZET The Iola Register
Allen County youth learned more about their communities during the Heritage Arts Camp this week. The camp’s theme is “Architecture, Industry and Daily Living.” Lisa Wicoff was the leader of the four-day camp that ends today. “I wanted to pass down crafts to the kids so they can have a past-time and develop a
hobby,” Lisa said. Campers spread out across the Bowlus Fine Arts Center and the Flewharty-Powell Annex to create different projects. Clara Wicoff helped instruct sewing in the Mary L. Martin Art Gallery at the Bowlus. The Wicoffs purchased T-shirts at the Senior Center’s second-hand clothing store and students designed them into bags. See HERITAGE | Page A5
Quote of the day Vol. 116, No. 179
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — The federal Office of Inspector General for the Veterans Affairs Department released a report Wednesday citing a list of needed improvements and performance review for the six community-based outpatient clinics across Kansas overseen by the Robert J. Dole VA Medical Center in Wichita. Its recommendations are based in part on a site visit to the Parsons clinic along with other data from VA outpatient facilities in Hays, Salina, Hutchinson, Parsons, Dodge City and Liberal. The routine review had been scheduled before national outcry over reports of patient deaths, widespread treatment delays and falsified records at VA facilities nationwide. Most of the issues cited in the report target the single Parsons clinic that inspectors visited in May, when the OIG found problems such as no panic alarm system, incomplete diagnostics, inadequate staff training and poor medication management. Inspectors found, for example, that the staff at the Parsons clinic did not do complete diag-
The report noted that the issues are ‘significant enough to be monitored by the OIG until corrective actions are implemented.’ — Inspector General report
nostic assessments on 38 percent of patients who had positive alcohol-use screenings. The Dole VA Medical Center, which administers the clinics, said in an email that it would be able to meet all the recommendations in the OIG report, noting it touched on issues that can be resolved in a “timely fashion.” Its executive secretary, Diane Henderson, noted in an email that the report specifically speaks of the Parsons clinic in which everything listed — from fire drills to women veterans in exam rooms having access to gender-specific bathrooms — are “routine matters” that will be resolved. “Overall, the goal is to have all recommendations completed by January 2015,” she said. The Inspector General made a detailed list of rec-
“Our patience will achieve more than our force.”
— Edmund Burke, political theorist 75 Cents
ommendations for improvement, and target dates for meeting each of them. The report noted that the issues are “significant enough to be monitored by the OIG until corrective actions are implemented.” Those recommendations included things like installing a panic alarm system, conducting disaster exercises, and additional staff training. In addition to the specific recommendations for Parsons clinic, the report also compares how well all the six Kansas outpatient clinics were able to meet wait times of under seven days and whether they follow up with patients once they are discharged. The report covered data for the fiscal year ending in September 2013. The outpatient clinic with the worst record for schedSee VA | Page A5
Hi: 86 Lo: 70 Iola, KS