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Juco volleyball: Allen carries high hopes for 2016 season. See B1

THE IOLA REGISTER Locally owned since 1867

www.iolaregister.com

Thursday, August 11, 2016

LaHarpe council targets eyesores By RICHARD LUKEN The Iola Register

LAHARPE — City cleanup efforts led to a series of extended discussions Wednesday about appropriate ways to tackle nuisance properties in town. The LaHarpe City Council’s regular monthly meeting had barely begun when the Council was approached by four residents who have received notices for nuisance violations. The residents were given 10 days to clean their properties or be cited to appear in LaHarpe Municipal Court. All four asked for extensions of varying length, citing everything from a newborn baby and disabled parents to a wet summer that has contributed to lush lawns. While sympathetic to their plight, Councilman David Lee noted that by giving an extension to one or two would mean the city would be forced to give extensions to everybody. “What’s good for the goose is good for the gander,” he said. City Attorney Chuck Apt noted the Council has a special meeting scheduled for Aug. 29. He suggested — and the Council agreed — to have those four residents return then for review. “That should be plenty of time” to get those properties cleared, Apt said. Even then, if a citation is issued, the cases likely won’t go to court before October, Apt continued. In past instances, charges See LAHARPE | Page A5

Being ‘rich’ costs Humboldt schools By BOB JOHNSON The Iola Register

This property in the 1100 block of South Washington Street in LaHarpe is one of several that has been targeted for demolition or cleanup. This house is slated for demolition in the fall. REG-

ISTER/RICK DANLEY

Electric, water costs likely to rise By RICHARD LUKEN The Iola Register

LAHARPE — Higher utility bills are looming for LaHarpe residents. City Council members discussed Wednesday proposed increases in both electric and water meter charges before tabling discussion until a special meeting Aug. 29. The delay is to investigate other options, Councilman David Lee said.

“We may well come back to this,” he said, to a proposed $9 increase in electric and a $1 increase in water meter charges. The proposal would push the electric meter charge to $21 a month, with the added revenue earmarked for an ongoing upgrade in the city’s electric system. The added revenue — about $32,000 a year — would either be used to pay off bonds to complement a possible Community Devel-

opment Block Grant, or to pay for electric lines, poles or other equipment if the CDBG grant is rejected. Mayor Mae Crowell said electric meter charges should then increase another $1 annually, starting in 2018 and over the next six years, to keep up with higher costs down the road. “Anything we accrue now will help us with bonds,” Crowell said in promoting See UTILITIES | Page A5

HUMBOLDT — “We are paying for moving from being a poor district to a rich district,” Kay Lewis, USD 258 superintendent of schools, said. The change of for- Kay Lewis tune, oddly enough, is putting more of a funding burden on local property owners because of the Kansas Supreme Court’s ruling that school funding was inequitable between rich and poor districts. The state’s subsequent revamping of its school funding formula affects USD 258 because its assessed valuation was enriched by the new Enbridge pipeline crossing the district and the addition of a big pumping station southeast of Humboldt. With the pipeline, Humboldt’s net worth for ad valorem taxing purposes soared See 258 | Page A5

Sorry tokers: Feds won’t budge on pot By ALICIA A. CALDWELL The Associated Press

Board of Regents urged to discuss dental school WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — With Kansas facing a shortage of dentists, the state should consider establishing its own school of dentistry, with the most likely site at the University of Kansas Medical Center, the state Board of Regents was told. However, the regents and the Kansas chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little said after the presentation of an oral health care task force report Tuesday at the regents meeting that they have not considered the idea, The Lawrence Journal-World reported. Since 1964, Kansas has had a reciprocal agreement with Missouri to allow Kan-

sas residents to pay in-state tuition to study optometry and dentistry at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Regent Daniel Thomas, a dentist from Overland Park who led the task force comprised of lawmakers and dental health professionals, said Tuesday Kansas isn’t getting what it needs from that agreement. He said Kansas has trained far more architects from Missouri than MissouriKansas City has trained dentists from Kansas. Few of those dentists practice in Kansas outside the Kansas City metropolitan area, he See DENTAL | Page A5

Quote of the day Vol. 118, No. 200

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration will keep marijuana on the list of the most dangerous drugs, despite growing popular support for legalization, but will allow more research into its possible medical benefits, the Drug Enforcement Administration announced today. The DEA said the agency opted not to reclassify marijuana after a lengthy review and consultation with the Health and Human Services Department, which said marijuana “has a high potential for abuse” and “no accepted medical use.” “We are tethered to science and bound by statute,” DEA spokesman Rusty Payne said today. The decision to keep marijuana in the same class of drugs as heroin and peyote comes amid growing national support for the legalization of marijuana. More than half the states have legalized the drug for either medicinal or recreational use. The DEA said it plans to make it easier for researchers to study marijuana’s possible medical benefits by expanding the number of entities that can legally grow marijuana for research purposes.

Currently only researchers at the University of Missouri are allowed to grow marijuana, as part of a contract with the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Allowing for further research is the latest step forward in the federal government’s evolving position on marijuana, although legalization advocates claim it doesn’t go far enough.

“I try to make the good days great and take positive from the days I’m not feeling good.” — Katie Ledecky, gold medal swimmer 75 Cents

The DEA’s latest review of marijuana’s classification was prompted by requests from the former governors of Rhode Island and Washington. They requested that marijuana be considered a Schedule II drug, along with cocaine, morphine and opium The decision was announced in a lengthy notice in the Federal Register.

Hi: 94 Lo: 77 Iola, KS


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