Wednesday, January 15, 2020
Locally owned since 1867
MV Wildcats fall in tough fourth quarter
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State lawmakers briefed on threats
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Two popes, two different opinions
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Commissioners deny pay hike for themselves
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Russell Stover to add jobs at Iola plant By RICHARD LUKEN The Iola Register
A reshuffling at other Russel Stover Candies facilities across the Midwest will mean more jobs for Iola’s production plant. The Kansas City-based company announced Tuesday it was closing several of its lowtraffic stores across the country as well as its production facility in Montrose Colo., and distribution centers in Butler, Mo, and Cookeville, Tenn. Most of the changes are slated to occur over the next 15 months. “We still don’t know the number of employees we will be adding” to the Iola facility, Russell Stover spokesman Robbie Vorhaus told the Register in an email. “Our plan is to incorporate those employees from Montrose who wish to See CANDY | Page A6
In this 2001 file photo, Ann Gandhi sorts through chocolate hearts, destined for Valentine’s Day gifts, as they stream along a conveyor at Iola’s Russell Stover Candies plant. REGISTER FILE PHOTO
By TREVOR HOAG The Iola Register
Allen County commissioners voted to deny themselves a raise at their meeting Tuesday. Commissioner Bruce Symes said that was the intention of commissioners when they set the budget last summer, but had yet to make the decision official. At the beginning of the year county employees received a 2% cost of living raise and became eligible for up to 2% merit raises. Current pay for a commissioner is $22,000, with the ability to accrue COLA increases over their tenures. Symes said he believed in “leading by example” in denying the body a raise. According to Kansas law, county commissioners must receive a salary of some sort. They can also take advantage of the county’s health insurance program and the state’s reSee COUNTY | Page A6
Kansas State University students Nate Williams, left, and McKenna Doyle, right, assist Iolan Dave Fontaine in clearing out small trees and undergrowth from grassland near Elks Lake Tuesday. REGISTER/RICHARD LUKEN
Wildcats lend a hand By RICHARD LUKEN The Iola Register
Kansas State University’s Clara Bing tosses a pile of limbs onto a burn pile Tuesday as part of an effort to clear trees from land near the Lehigh Portland Trail complex south of Iola.
District promotes principal By RICHARD LUKEN The Iola Register
MORAN — Principal Kim Ensminger, a 22-year educator at Marmaton Valley USD 256, has been named the district’s next superintendent of schools. Ensminger replaces Kenneth McWhirter, who is retiring at the end of the school year. Her hiring Kim Ensminger was approved Monday by the Marmaton Valley Board of Education. “I’ve been thinking about
this for quite some time,” Ensminger told the Register. “I had to decide whether it was the right move for the district, and for myself.” Ensminger started at Marmaton Valley in the fall of 1998 as a physical education and science instructor. She was hired as high school principal in 2014, then became K-12 principal last year. As part of her superintendent duties, Ensminger will relinquish her duties as principals for the junior high and high schools, but remain elementary school principal. The district will begin a search for the next high school principal.
Damp weather this week did little to douse the efforts of a handful of Kansas State University students to help with projects around Allen County. On Tuesday, the students spent about half the day working at the Lehigh Portland Trails south of Iola. They assisted trails manager Randy Rasa and volun-
teer extraordinaire Dave Fontaine in clearing out scores of young trees south of Elks Lake. The trees have grown unabated for decades, to the point they have choked off what otherwise could be fertile native grassland, Rasa explained. That led to Tuesday’s project. Both Rasa and Fontaine manned chainsaws to cut down the trees at ground levSee STUDENTS | Page A6
Search continues for chase suspects By RICHARD LUKEN The Iola Register
Authorities are still searching for three suspects believed to have led police on a car chase in Woodson and Allen counties before crashing in a rural area in northern Allen County. Officers remain on the lookout for William “Bill” Theodore Patton, Kaitlyn Marie McMurry and Tanner Williams Adams. The trio have been on the lam since Jan. 8, when Woodson County sheriff ’s deputies were called to an incident in Neosho Falls, where a weapon reportedly was
William Patton
Tanner Adams
brandished. The call led to a vehicle pursuit that made it to Allen County before the supsects’ vehicle, which had been stolen from Crawford County, crashed near the intersection of 1000 Street and Utah Road. The suspects fled on foot. The Allen County Sheriff ’s Department assisted,
as did Kansas Highway Patrol, along with its air unit and K-9 units. Iola and Chanute police officers helped in the Kaitlyn search as well. McMurry A day later, on Thursday, a John Deere tractor near the crash scene was reported stolen. The tractor was recovered later in Neosho Falls. Subsequent interviews of witnesses led to the discovery of other thefts in the area, including a pair of firearms. See CHASE | Page A6
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