Basketball: Area schools open tournament play
Inside: So cute! Area children write letters to Santa See B3
See B1
THE IOLA REGISTER Wednesday, December 11, 2013
A MERRY MUSICAL MEDLEY Abatement Jefferson ACC BOARD
gets in the holiday spirit
Jefferson Elementary students got to show off to their family and friends Tuesday night, while spreading some Christmas cheer in the process. At left, from left, Brigg Shannon, Keelie Keeler, Kyser Nemecek and Jada Burton sing a song. The entire school sang holiday songs, and recited Christmas poems and stories. DVDs will be on sale by the school, and more photos are available online at iolaregister.com. REGISTER/STEVEN SCHWARTZ
program causing stir
By KAYLA BANZET The Iola Register
The Neighborhood Revitalization Plan brought lots of feedback at the Allen Community College board of trustees meeting Tuesday night. The City of Iola sent the plan to trustees to hear their concerns. “If we keep extending and extending everyone is going to want in on it,” trustee Spencer Ambler said. “There has got to be a stopping point.” Some trustees saw the expansion of the plan as going against the original intent. “They’re not using it as we intended,” Ambler said. Trustee Larry Manes agreed with Ambler. “When we exempt some it gives a burden to others,” Manes said. Areas in the plan receive a 10-year tax abatement for either new construction or improvements to their properties. They receive a 95 percent abatement for their taxes for the first six years of the program. That is decreased by 20 percent every year for the remaining four years. The board approved raising tuition by $3 per credit hour, $2 on book rentals and $3 on international tuition. See ACC | Page A5
NATIONAL
COUNTY COMMISSION
Obama, GOP line Public works gets early Christmas up budget deal By STEVEN SCHWARTZ The Iola Register
WASHINGTON (AP) — Top Republicans and President Barack Obama are lining up behind a modest but hard-won bipartisan budget agreement that seeks to replace a portion of tough spending cuts facing the Pentagon and domestic agencies. The deal to ease those cuts for two years is aimed less at chipping away at the nation’s $17 trillion national debt than it is at trying to help a dysfunctional Capitol stop lurching from crisis to crisis. It would set the stage for action in January on a $1 trillionplus spending bill for the budget year that began in October. The measure unveiled by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and his Senate counterpart, Patty Murray, D-Wash., blends $85 billion in spending cuts and revenue from new and extended fees — but no taxes or cuts to Medicare beneficiaries — to replace $63 billion in cuts to agency budgets over the coming two years. The package would raise the Transportation Security Administration fee on a typical nonstop, round-trip airline ticket from $5 to $10; require newly hired federal workers to contribute 1.3 percentage points more of their salaries
toward their pensions; and trim cost-of-living adjustments to the pensions of military retirees under the age of 62. Hospitals and other health care providers would have to absorb two additional years of a 2-percentage-point cut in their Medicare reimbursements. THE PLAN pales compared with earlier, failed attempts at a “grand bargain” that would trade tax hikes for structural curbs to ever-growing benefit programs like Medicare and Social Security. But it would at least bring some stability on the budget to an institution — Congress — whose approval ratings are in the gutter. “Our deal puts jobs and economic growth first by rolling back ... harmful cuts to education, medical research, infrastructure investments and defense jobs for the next two years,” Murray said. Ryan is set to pitch the measure to skeptical conservatives at a closed-door GOP meeting today. Democrats are set to discuss it as well, but the measure won an immediate endorsement from President Barack Obama if only tepid approval from top Capitol Hill See DEAL | Page A3
Quote of the day Vol. 116, No.33
Some big-ticket items, albeit financially painful for Allen County Commissioners to sign off on, will give the public works department some much needed upgrades. Public Works Director Bill King, along with representatives from Murphy Tractor, Twin Motors Ford, O’Malley Equipment and Foley Equipment, came before the commission to vie for bids. The results were as follows: — Commissioners ap-
proved a bid from Twin Motors Ford to purchase a new F-550 4-wheel-drive bucket truck. The truck will include an air compressor for the bucket lift and joystick controls. The cost for the truck was $83,210. — Foley Equipment, Chanute, was selected to provide county crews with a new motor grader for $143,250. King said crews tested machines from both Murphy Tractor and Foley Equipment, and ultimately went with the Cat 12M2 machine. — A decision for purchase
of a new boom mower was tabled for a week, following a recommendation from King to move ahead with one of the larger ticket items of four bids. The John Deere 6115M with a 22-foot boom attachment will run the county $104,990 from O’Malley Equipment. While there were lower bids from Sellers and Murphy Tractors, King said he would like the opportunity to work with a heavier machine like the John Deere, for the See COUNTY | Page A3
Check, double-check
A whitetail doe checks her back trail after leaving a canyon with hunters in Russell County, Kan. MICHAEL PEARCE/WICHITA EAGLE
“This is what I learned: that everybody is talented, original, and has something important to say.” — Brenda Ueland, author 75 Cents
Hi: 25 Lo: 15 Iola, KS