Inside: LaHarpe talks electric funds
2017 1867
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Sports: Humboldt’s Mauk earns state honors See B1
THE IOLA REGISTER Thursday, June 15, 2017
Locally owned since 1867
www.iolaregister.com
SOLAR FAR, SOLAR GOOD
Donald Mann provides electricity to his farm south of Moran with a state-of-the-art solar panel system that tracks the sun during daylight. REGISTER/RICHARD LUKEN
Moran’s Mann turns to solar energy to power farm By RICHARD LUKEN The Iola Register
MORAN — Don Mann never realized how much fun it would be watching an electric meter. The meter, just outside his farmhouse south of Moran, is nothing special. It’s like countless others; a simple series of dials measuring the electrical current his farm consumes on a daily basis. But look closely enough at the bottom of the meter — the thin disc that rotates in correlation with the amount of power being consumed — and you’ll see something dif-
ferent. It’s usually rotating backwards. The phenomenon was made possible through Mann’s latest foray into solar energy. A 16-foot by 10-foot solar panel, affixed atop an 8-foot pole in Mann’s yard, should generate enough electricity on most days to keep his meter running in reverse. That is, he’s producing more electricity than he’s consuming “and giving power back to the power company.” THE SOLAR panel was
installed this week by The Stitt Group of Rogers, Ark., a construction company that specializes in building energy efficient homes. Unlike other traditional solar panels, this apparatus is affixed atop the pole with a dual tracking system to follow the sun from dawn to dusk. (At night — and in times of strong wind — the panel lies flat.) A light sensor helps orient the panel, explains Orlo Stitt, founder of The Stitt Group. The sensor sends signals to a motor that connects the panel to an adjoining metal pole. The motor can tip the
panel up or down, left or right. So like a sunflower, the panel will continuously face the sun as it rises, goes overhead, then sets in the west. “We’re kind of proud of it,” Stitt said. “This technology has been around for a while, but they keep improving it.” THE ESSENTIALS of solar power remain the same, although the components and materials involved in photovoltaics — converting sunlight into energy — have advanced rapidly in recent See SOLAR | Page A5
Lawmakers commend protectors
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — The business of the House was resuming a day after a rifle-wielding attacker opened fire on Republican lawmakers practicing for a charity baseball game, critically wounding House GOP Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana and hitting aides and Capitol police. The assailant, who had nursed grievances against President Donald Trump and the GOP, fought a gun battle with police before he, too, was shot and later died. Colleagues said Scalise, who had been fielding balls at second base, dragged himself away from the infield, leaving a trail of blood before they rushed to his assistance. He was listed in critical condition Wednesday night at a Washington hospital, which said he will require several more operations. The shooter was identified as James T. Hodgkinson, a 66-year-old home inspector from Illinois who had several minor run-ins with the law in recent years and belonged to a Facebook group called “Terminate the Republican Party.” Capitol Police officers who were in Scalise’s security detail wounded the shooter, who was taken into custody. He later died of his injuries, Trump told the nation from the White House. “Everyone on that field is a public servant,” Trump said, his tone somber, America’s acrimonious politics set aside for the moment. “Their sacrifice makes democracy possible.” After visiting Scalise Wednesday evening at MedStar Washington Hospital Center, Trump tweeted: “Rep. Steve Scalise, one of the truly great people, is in very tough shape - but he is a real fighter. Pray for Steve!” See SHOOTING | Page A5
Living on a Prayer By SHELLIE SMITLEY The Iola Register
A diagnosis of cancer can be both a test and a testament of strength for the patients and the partners who see them through the greatest challenges of their lives. “There is a lot of unforeseen changes that take place,” Licensed Social Worker Susan Hawk of Allen County Regional Hospital’s Home Health and Hospice said. “Role changes and changes in responsibilities can turn your whole life upside down.” Dimity Lowell, Iola, and Laura Houk, Humboldt, know first hand of the toll acute illness can take on a marriage. In 2008, during a routine pelvic examination, Lowell’s doctor detected a cyst. She was told to come back in a year, but she underestimated the destruction of what a cyst could mean to her life and to her body.
Jan Wilkerson, Scott City, remembers the trauma of an April snowstorm to his livestock. Photo by Kansas Farm Bureau Dimity Lowell, seen here with her husband, John, was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2008. REGISTER/SUSAN LYNN “I missed that next year,” she said. She began to experience abnormal menstruation cycles, frequent urination and fatigue. She could feel a small ball that was painful to the touch on her right side. There was bloating that did not go away. She went to a local doctor in 2010 and was told she needed to get a CT
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scan that day. On her 40th birthday she got a phone call from her doctor’s supervisor. “He said ‘this isn’t going to have a good outcome,’” Lowell said. She telephoned her husband John and cried. Lowell, like Houk and 20,000 other women a year, See PRAYER | Page A3
Spring blizzard’s heavy toll By JOHN SCHLAGECK Kansas Farm Bureau
No cattleman ever wants to lose a single calf, yearling or momma cow. When a handful perish, the pain and anguish multiply. And when hundreds of cattle die in a late spring blizzard, it’s catastrophic. Such a weather event occurred during the last weekend of April in southwestern
“Do not take life too seriously. You will never get out of it alive.” — Elbert Hubbard, American writer 75 Cents
Kansas. With snow moving into their ranch northwest of Scott City at daybreak, Jan and Kim Wilkinson rose from their beds with apprehension in the air. They just turned out nearly 1,000 head of momma cows, calves and yearlings on summer grass in five different pastures. The nearly 4,000 See BLIZZARD | Page A5
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