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THE IOLA REGISTER Locally owned since 1867
www.iolaregister.com
Monday, August 11, 2014
Race stays knotted By BOB JOHNSON The Iola Register
A group of protestors seeking the preservation of the Warren home, 217 W. Madison Ave., hand out information to passersby Saturday evening in front of the house. At left, Iolan Tracy Keagle holds a sign in support of keeping the house. REGISTER/RICHARD
LUKEN
Protestors rally to preserve house By RICHARD LUKEN The Iola Register
A group of Iolans seeking to prevent the possible demolition of a 92-year-old house next to the Bowlus Fine Arts Center made their voices heard Saturday evening. A group of about 15 supporters of the house — known locally as the Warren home — stood in front of the house along Madison Avenue to hand out flyers stating their
cause. The demonstration coincided with Saturday’s annual meeting of the Friends of the Bowlus, the non-profit organization that owns the house in question at 217 E. Madison. As its owner, the Friends of the Bowlus will decide the home’s fate. They’ve not yet done so. Among considerations is to have the house moved in order to make a park-like space to enhance See PROTEST | Page A4
By late this morning the race for the First District seat on the Allen County Commission was to have been decided. At 8 o’clock this morning a count of six provisional ballots was evenly split between Jerry Daniels, Humboldt, and Jim Mueller, Moran, giving each 255 votes. Commissioners ordered the ballots be counted by hand this morning when provisional ballots kept the race at a tie. Commissioners were to convene at 11 a.m. to certify commission race results, as well as all others from the primary election. If the race remains tied, County Counselor Alan Weber said likely resolution would be a coin flip. With no Democrat candidate, the winner will be the presumptive winner in the Nov. 4 general election and replace Dick Works, Humboldt. Race results, which arrive after the Register goes to press, will be posted on its Facebook page and website, www.iolaregister.com.
State crops take hit in 2014 By DAN VOORHIS The Wichita Eagle
Last year, despite an offand-on drought, Kansas’ booming agricultural sector contributed almost a third of the income that fueled the state’s modest economic recovery. Well, not this year. The state’s wheat harvest was the worst in decades, down 26 percent from last year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The fall crops look terrific after bountiful rains and cool temperatures in June and July, but because of that rain across the Midwest, the country is on track for the second biggest corn crop ever and the biggest soybean crop ever. As a result, the price for corn has fallen more than a $1 a bushel in the last month to the mid-to-high $3 range per bushel now. And in the livestock sector, feedlots and packing plants have seen the fewest cattle in decades, as ranchers who cut herds in the drought are now holding back heifers for breeding. It’s part of the DNA of farmers and ranchers to know that some years will be good and some will be bad. After several great years for farm incomes, it won’t be John Cougar Mellencamp
It’s going to affect us, and it’s going to affect Main Street. We’re not going to be buying Cadillacs anytime real soon. — Mick Rausch, Garden Plain farmer
“Rain on the Scarecrow” bad, but farmers do expect to take a substantial hit in income this year. The USDA predicted early this year that U.S farm net cash income would decline by 26.6 percent in 2014, after four consecutive years of record highs. “This will be a belt-tightening year,” said Dan O’Brien, an economist with Kansas State University Agricultural Extension Service. Impact on Main Street
According to the Kansas Farm Management Association, Kansas family-owned farms net incomes averaged $146,000 a year over the last five years. That bought a lot of tractors and helped drive up land prices from 2010 through 2013. But not this year. Mick Rausch, a farmer near Garden Plain, said his wheat crop was about half what it was last year, and the
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price of that wheat keeps falling. The price for his grain sorghum also keeps drifting down and is now below his cost of production. “It’s going to affect us, and it’s going to affect Main Street,” he said. “We’re not going to be buying Cadillacs anytime real soon.” Most farmers, he said, hopefully planned for the down years. “We’ll just kind of ride it out, make do,” he said. The ripple effect already is being felt across businesses related to agriculture. Larry Straub of Straub International, a farm machinery dealer in Wichita and elsewhere in central Kansas, said farmers are starting to cut back on purchases. Some bigger farms are still buying new, he said, but the smaller ones are holding back in anticipation of less See FARMERS | Page A4
Kenna Dodds enjoys the Iola Municipal Pool on Friday afternoon. REGISTER/KAYLA BANZET
Municipal pool used for therapy By KAYLA BANZET The Iola Register
Fun in the sun takes on a different meaning for Kenna Dodds. The 51-year-old Windsor Place resident uses the Iola Municipal Pool as part of her therapy in recovering from a brain aneurysm in 2010. Her stepfather, Kenneth
“He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life” — Muhammad Ali 75 Cents
Sanders, said Dodds formerly worked in advertising and was a very active person. The aneurysm has left her immobile. In February 2013 Dodds was moved from Texarkana, Texas, to Iola to stay in Windsor Place. Her mother passed away in 2006. Sanders is a frequent visitor. See POOL | Page A4
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