Sports: Local parents push for soccer See B1
THE IOLA REGISTER Locally owned since 1867
Wednesday, September 10, 2014
www.iolaregister.com
ACC TRUSTEES
ALLEN COUNTY
By KAYLA BANZET The Iola Register
Commissioners split on EMS contract
Board hears auction options College trustees are still weighing their options on selling the college farm. Though a decision has not been made to sell the farm, the Allen trustees are looking into what it would take if they decide to do so. John Masterson, ACC president, sent out requests for auction proposals to local Realtors in the area. John Brocker of Allen County Realty, Inc., was the lone response. Brocker presented his proposals to trustees at their board meeting Tuesday evening. Brocker suggested breaking the farm into three parcels. If the college were to opt for separate tracts, they would include the farm manager’s house, the Zahn house where the students live, and then the land itself, which is 240 acres. The realty company would pay for the advertising of the auction, a licensed auctioneer, clerk and cashier. Brocker
Works holds the key By BOB JOHNSON The Iola Register
Commissioner Dick Works apparently will decide whether Iola will continue to operate countywide ambulance service. “I’m a little lukewarm” to a proposal that would have the county provide $1 million annually in a new fiveyear contract for Iola to operate the service, Works said Tuesday morning, noting that phone calls he had received about the issue were from callers “100 percent against the city delivering the service.” As it stands today, County Counselor Alan Weber and Robert Johnson, Iola city attorney, will flesh out a contract for city council members and commissioners to consider later this month. The contract will call for Iola to continue to receive
Above, John Masterson, left, ACC president, and Larry Manes, trustee chairman, listen to a proposal on the possibility of auctioning the college farm. Left, John Brocker, of Allen County Realty, explains the auction process if trustees decide to sell the farm. REGISTER/KAYLA BANZET
realtor.com which are online land searches. said he belongs to Lands of America, Land Watch and
See ACC | Page A4
guaranteed run revenue of $750,000 and an additional $250,000 — the equivalent of a 2.5-mill property tax levy — for a total of $1 million. A clause in the contract will provide for inflation protec-
I’m divided on the issue and want to wait until next week to see what the contract looks like. — Dick Works, commissioner
tion, with the Consumer Price Index as the go-to source. Iola also would accept $189,000 the county offered to meet a shortfall projected See EMS | Page A4
GAS COUNCIL
Gas paves way for housing By BOB JOHNSON The Iola Register
GAS — City council members voted Tuesday evening to sell land to an unnamed developer who has proposed to build six upscale houses in the southwest part of town. Mayor Darrel Catron said he visited with the developer about 12 lots Gas owns. Two lots — each 125 by 50 feet — would constitute a building site. Council members agreed to sell the two-lot sites for $2,000 each plus $400 for utility connection fees. The utility fees would be rebated after a house was completed. Catron said the houses would contain about 2,000 square feet, which he figSee GAS | Page A6
Loads of fungi Vicky Beck’s yard, along the 1000 block of South Broadway Street in LaHarpe, became a fertile breeding ground for scores of toadstools this week, courtesy of recent rainy weather followed by another round of warm temperatures. More than 70 of the toadstools appeared Tuesday. REGISTER/RICHARD LUKEN
Obama outlining mission against ISIS WASHINGTON (AP) — In an address to the nation, President Barack Obama will outline an expanded military and political effort to combat Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq, possibly including airstrikes in Syria, officials said.
The president will also urge Congress to quickly give him authority to arm moderate Syrian opposition forces fighting President Bashar Assad. But administration officials said Obama will press forward with other elements of his plan without formal authori-
Obama will address the nation tonight at 8 o’clock on major networks. zation from lawmakers. That could include wide-ranging airstrikes in Iraq and possibly in Syria. Other elements of
Obama’s plan, which he was to lay out in a prime-time TV speech tonight, included increased support for Iraqi security forces, as well as military and diplomatic commitments from partners in Europe, the Middle East and elsewhere. See OBAMA | Page A4
KanCare continues to hemorrhage money in year two By ANDY MARSO KHI News Service
TOPEKA — The three private insurance companies that administer the Kansas Medicaid program under KanCare lost $72.6 million in the first half of 2014, after losing $110 million in 2013. Rep. Jim Ward, a member of a KanCare oversight committee who requested the fiscal information from the Kansas Department of Health
and Environment, questioned Tuesday how long the three companies can sustain such losses. “These companies can’t keep subsidizing Medicaid to the tune of $100 or $150 million per year, and that’s what’s happening,” said Ward, DWichita. KanCare is the initiative launched by Gov. Sam Brownback on Jan. 1, 2013. It moved virtually all the state’s Medicaid enrollees into health plans run by Amerigroup, United-
Quote of the day Vol. 116, No. 224
Healthcare Community Plan and Sunflower Health Plan, a subsidiary of Centene. The three managed care organizations, in information to be filed with the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, reported a total of about $96 million in underwriting losses in the first half of this year. The claims they paid outstripped the $394 million to $483 million each received from the state based on how many Medicaid clients they have.
Amerigroup reported about $45 million in underwriting losses, Sunflower reported about $27 million in losses and United HealthCare reported about $24 million in losses. Amerigroup and Sunflower reported investment income and tax items that reduced their losses to about $38 million and $11 million respectively. United HealthCare did not break out its investment income from that of its parent company. The figures do not include
“The lure of the distant and the difficulty is deceptive. The great opportunity is where you are.” — John Burroughs, 75 Cents
pay-for-performance bonuses to be distributed to the MCOs for their work in 2013, but at about $42 million, those bonuses would not offset the first-half losses. Ward, who has been a persistent critic of KanCare, said his concern with the managed care organizations losing money was that one or more would pull out of the program and cause “a huge disruption” in delivery of Medicaid serSee KANCARE | Page A6
Hi: 81 Lo: 58 Iola, KS