Sports: IHS volleyball standouts earn honors See B1
The Weekender Saturday, November 14, 2015
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35 dead in Paris attacks By ANGELA CHARLTON and LORI HINNANT The Associated Press
Staffers load their vehicles from Iola Nursing and Residential Care Center, which closed its doors Friday. REGISTER/RICHARD LUKEN
Iola Nursing Center closes doors Residents, staff given three days’ notice
Thursday, Evelyn Jones, 65, sat in her wheelchair in front of the Iola Nursing Center. Her dresser and matching nightstand rested on the sidewalk beside her. Her son loaded piles of hangered clothes into the cab of his pickup. “Day before yesterday, that was all the notice we got,” said Jones. “One of the workers, a CNA, she said ‘Well, did they talk to you yet?’ She says, ‘We’re closed and they want everyone out by the end of the week.’” The scene inside: Staff moved hurriedly from room to room. One employee inched down the hallway removing posters and framed items from the walls. The building’s administrator sat in her office, on the phone, one hand pressed against her forehead. Randy Latta, INC’s longtime bookkeeper, burst through pair of swinging doors trailed by two other staff members. At the other end of the hallway, in the cafeteria, his mother, Virginia Latta, sat at the end of a long
By RICK DANLEY and RICHARD LUKEN The Iola Register
The sudden closure of Iola Nursing and Rehabilitation Center leaves around 60 employees scrambling to find jobs elsewhere, and 35 residents whose futures were thrown to the wind. The company notified its staff and occupants Tuesday that the nursing home and assisted living facility was to close by the end of the week. “The owner of the building is a bank, and they decided to close the building, because there’s just not enough growth in the community,” Mike Levitt, with the Kansas City-based Walnut Creek Management, told the Register Thursday. As of Friday, only two residents remained, meaning the
Director touts KS exports By BOB JOHNSON The Iola Register
Exports are a huge part of the Kansas economy, Craig VanWey told Iola Rotarians Thursday. VanWey is the state’s economic development director for 19 counties in southeast Kansas. He works from an office in Pittsburg. In the last year, exports accounted for $12 billion in sales, VanWey said, which is $2.75 billion above the average of nearby states. Aircraft, grain and beef are the top three products sent to Mexico, Canada, China, Brazil and other countries. Industrial and electrical machinery manufactured in Kansas also is much See ROTARY | Page A4
Debbie Jones is among the nearly 60 employees at Iola Nursing Center forced to find other jobs after the nursing home and residential care facility closed its doors this week. REGISTER/
BOB JOHNSON
facility cannot lock its doors for good until those residents find new living quarters. “Some are going to Moran, some to Windsor Place and Greystone (in Iola), others are going to Caney and
Eureka,” said Nicole Almond, a certified nurse’s aide whose last day was Thursday. “They’re being spread out all over the place.”
See CLOSING | Page A4
DURING the noon hour
PARIS (AP) — Two police officials said at least 35 people have been killed in shootings and explosions around Paris Friday, in the deadliest violence in France in decades. A police official said 11 people were killed in a Paris restaurant in the 10th arrondissement, and about 15 killed in the Bataclan theater, where a hostagetaking is under way. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to be publicly named according to police policy. Also late Friday, two explosions were heard outside the Stade de France stadium north of Paris during a France-Germany friendly football match. It is unclear if the explosions were linked to the other events. A police official confirmed one explosion in a bar near the stadium. It is unclear whether there are casualties. An Associated Press reporter in the stadium Friday night heard two explosions loud enough to penetrate the sounds of cheering fans. Sirens were immediately heard, and a helicopter was circling overhead. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity beSee PARIS | Page A8
cause The major lent pr Emi tauran started then ra “It s Fran uary o dead, i The borhoo The cludin elers t
Author reflects on illness, inner strength By SUSAN LYNN The Iola Register
There’s a subculture for those who experience chemotherapy. The long hours of sitting with what begins as a small group of strangers while the medicine drips into your veins; week after week, month after month. Each has their own story and while they are unique, their cancer brings them all to the same place, physically, as well as emotionally. “Cancer is the great equalizer,” said Jackie Witherspoon, who now knows, after undergoing treatments herself. It was while she sat in such a room receiving chemo that Witherspoon discovered a story existed not only about the insidious disease of breast cancer, but also the strength that emerges from
Quote of the day Vol. 118, No. 16
those who battle back. “The Survivors’ Walk” is Witherspoon’s book, a novel about five women and their journey, both together and separately, in and out of the land of cancer. For Witherspoon, 64, it See AUTHOR | Page A5
Jackie Witherspoon, author of “The Survivors’ Walk,” will sign copies of her book from 4 to 6 p.m. Thursday at McGinty-Whitworth in Iola.
“To give anything less than your best, is to sacrifice the gift.” — Steve Prefontaine, runner 75 Cents
Hi: 67 Lo: 48 Iola, KS