Inside: Preserving the future of hunting See A5
Basketball: Iola teams fall to Chanute See B1
THE IOLA REGISTER Wednesday, January 8, 2014
ON A MISSION Mother-daughter duo serves in Belize
By KAYLA BANZET The Iola Register
An “eye-opening experience” is how Nanette Symes and Danielle Henke describe their November mission trip in Belize. The mother-daughter team traveled to Belize Nov. 2 to work in schools, orphanages, youth hostels and to spread the Christian message. The two spent a week working with other Americans and Praying Pelican Missions, a short-term international missions organization. They were thrown into Belizan culture the very first day and went to many cities along the coast throughout their stay. “We were given an itinerary and our days were 12 to 15 hours long,” Henke said. “We had three different school visits, along with going to a youth hostel which is like a detention center.” Those working with Praying Pelican helped put on a Vacation Bible School at Gallee Baptist for four out of the seven nights. They went around the area in Belize City and invited area children to the event. The Bible school had around 250 children in attendance. During the Bible school the women helped teach Bible lessons, played games and provided the children snacks. The way the children treated snack time really stuck in Symes’ mind. “A girl broke a small chip into four equal pieces so she could share it with her friends,” Symes said. “We are so fortunate here. There is no government assistance to help them when they can’t afford food.” The mission group helped with a food distribution at the end of the week. They would travel by bus and visit with families that they had met during their trip and deliver food. During the delivery the group saw how poverty and hunger is affecting
Above are some snapshots of Nanette Symes and Danielle Henke’s mission trip to Belize in Central America.
See BELIZE | Page A5
COUNTY COMMISSION
Bridge construction due By BOB JOHNSON The Iola Register
Construction of a bridge first conceived in 2004 should start this summer, Bill King, director of Public Works, told Allen County commissioners Tuesday morning. Bridges deemed to have higher priority have pushed Owl Creek bridge down the line. The bridge is about two miles west of Humboldt. To get up to speed, commissioners approved a new contract with Schwab Eaton, a Manhattan engineering firm, that did original studies and has a long history with Allen County and its bridges. The firm has done inspections of the county’s 224 for more than 20 years and, in another action, was hired to examine all of the bridges this year. Inspections, done every two years, will cost $84 each, or $18,816 total. Brad Fagan, a Schwab Eaton engineer, said the Owl Creek bridge presented several problems, from it crossing the creek at an angle and with the road it carries curving at each end. “I talked to KDOT (Kansas Department of Transportation) in 2004 about what approach to take,” Fagan said, allowing the configuration of the road and bridge made for tricky engineering. The option settled on then will have the new bridge 32 feet wide and essentially as part of the roadway’s curve. It will have 3 percent slope to
make passage safer, coming and going. The slope on highways is 1.5 to 2 percent in each lane to a crown in the center, Fagan said, and that the 3 percent slope of the bridge would be noticeable to motorists. The new agreement has provision for its cost not to exceed $60,000. KDOT will pay 80 percent of engineering as well as 80 percent of construction costs, estimated at $750,000. King said bids likely would be let in July. ALSO, KING said he was pursuing purchase of a fuel truck on Purple Wave, a national auction site specializing in heavy equipment. He said the county’s two fuel trucks, one a 1967 model and the other from 1976, were on their last legs. If bidding is successful, the older truck will be stationed at the airport to serve a fueling point, while the other will be kept at the landfill. The new one would be sent throughout the county to support Public Works projects. “I’m looking for a bargain,” King said of the fuel truck, which is in Colorado. “If we get it, we’ll have it shipped here,” cheaper than going to Colorado and then driving it back. Bidding ends Jan. 16. COMMISSIONERS agreed to transfer money from Allen County Sewer District No. 2
ACROSS THE POND Lohman finds fresh perspective in England By STEVEN SCHWARTZ The Iola Register
Moving across the Atlantic Ocean as a 16-year-old can have its stresses, but it can also lend itself to a new perspective only found through seeing the world. Jo Lohman, a junior at Iola High School, spent the fall semester studying near London, England as part of a plan that began in eighth grade. In preparation, Jo took some online classes she would be missing at IHS while studying abroad. Then, as her junior year was starting up in August, Lohman flew to England to stay with her mother’s college friend and study at a local private school. Lohman said her experience was surprisingly different from what she had expected, despite the fact she didn’t have to learn a new language. “It was kind of scary, but I was also excit- Jo Lohman spent the semester studying in ed,” Lohman said during an interview with Orpington, Kent, a suburb of London pictured The Register. “It was a lot different from here, below. you’d be surprised. I mean, other than that they speak English.” Lohman’s temporary home was in Orpington, Kent, a suburb of London. There she lived with Cori Smee, her mother’s friend, and Smee’s husband and baby. For her studies, she attended a private school in Chiselhurst, where she wore a uniform and went to all of the classes an English student would attend. She said assimilating into the environment wasn’t too different from making friends in the United States, and she began to connect with her fellow students in a few weeks. Her class even took a field trip to a local farm for team building exercises. See LOHMAN | Page A5
See BRIDGE | Page A5
Quote of the day Vol. 116, No. 50
“If men could only know each other, they would neither idolize nor hate.” — Elbert Hubbard, American writer 75 Cents
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