Sports: Fillies knock off Wellsville See B1
The Weekender Saturday, January 17, 2015
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ROTARY
ACRH physical therapy thrives in new facility By BOB JOHNSON The Iola Register
A two-day training session at Iola Fire Department wrapped up Friday with 25 firefighters learning the intricacies of vehicle extrication. Above, Iola’s Jeremy Ellington uses a circular saw to cut into an overturned car’s sheet metal. At left, Spencer Hart uses the Jaws of Life device to pull metal away from a car’s tire. Below, instructor Rick Diebert shows Ashley Robb the proper way to pry on a door. See related story on A3. REGISTER/ RICHARD LUKEN
In 2005 physical therapy procedures totaled 6,800 at Allen County Hospital, the most of any year through 2013. During the past year at Allen County Regional Hospital the total was 22,000. Hospital CEO Ron Baker laid much of the increase at the feet of Ben Taylor, who directs a staff of eight in the hospital’s therapy department. Taylor gave Iola Rotarians an assessment Thursday; Baker listened and couldn’t help but crow a bit. RehabVisions, Omaha, Neb., provides therapy services at ACRH. Taylor is the director. He completed a physical therapy degree at the University of Kansas Medical Center, and then worked with an Iola doctor and care home before taking his expertise to ACRH when it opened. That he came to Iola is because of his wife, the former Jen Greenwall and a native of Iola, whom he met at a college in Utah. Also, Taylor said, when he completed course work at KU, jobs were not plentiful, but an opening in Iola existed.
Taylor made the move over to ACRH about the same time it opened its new facility on North Kentucky Street. He found the oppor tunities to explore work in outpatient, i n p a t i e n t , Ben Taylor swingbed and home health fields enticing. Three of the four are selfexplanatory. Swingbed involves care of patients who usually have had surgery, often elsewhere, but need a few days more care before moving to a home setting. “Typically, swingbed patients have had joint surgery,” Taylor said, and until the past few years that usually was knee replacement. Now, “we’re seeing a lot more shoulder surgeries.” Recovery from shoulder surgery has much improved in recent years, Taylor said. “They’re going very well. The outcomes are much better.” Other areas that demand attention are work-related and sports injuries. Taylor and his staff deal See ROTARY | Page A4
Jump in tobacco, alcohol taxes to buffer Kansas budget TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas would dramatically raise its tobacco and liquor taxes and slow the implementation of promised income tax cuts to help close a projected deficit under Gov. Sam Brownback’s budget proposals for the next two fiscal years, which were unveiled Friday.
The state’s cigarette tax would be nearly tripled, from 79 cents to $2.29 a pack, and the tax on packaged alcoholic beverages would go from 8 percent to 12 percent under the Republican governor’s budget plans. Brownback also proposed making future personal in-
Winter Homecoming 2015
See A3 for related state stories come tax cuts more gradual than promised under reductions enacted in 2012 and 2013 at his urging to stimulate the
economy. The governor outlined his proposals the morning after saying in his annual State of the State address Thursday evening that the state would continue to phase out income taxes, despite its budget problems. The state faces budget shortfalls totaling more than $710
million in its current budget and the budget for the fiscal year that begins in July. The tax proposals are designed to help close those gaps and keep the budget balanced through June 2017. The increases in tobacco See STATE | Page A4
‘Unplugged’ to connect with audience By KAYLA BANZET The Iola Register
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Iola High School’s Sarah Gonzalez and Garrett Prall were crowned 2015 Winter Homecoming Queen and King Friday. The dance is set for tonight. REGISTER/SPENCER MICHELSON
Quote of the day Vol. 117, No. 56
n Iola alumni trio will bring their diverse talents home to the Bowlus Fine Arts Center tonight. Jasmine Bannister, Jordan Strickler and Maggie Wilson will perform “Unplugged and Unrehearsed,” at 7 p.m. in the Creitz Recital Hall. The event is free to the public. The show will feature music and improv acting. Bannister and Strickler began working together in middle school at the Children’s Summer Theater Workshop. Throughout their high school careers they did improv together in Forensics, an acting competition. Bannister graduated from IHS in 2011 and went off to Kansas State University to major in music education. Strickler joined her at KSU after he graduated in 2013. Now the duo is acting together at K-State with “On the Spot,” a college improv group. When Susan Raines, executive director at the Bowlus, asked the duo to come back to perform they were more than happy to say yes. “The Bowlus is a second home to me,” Strickler said. “I spent a lot of my evenings there and I took as many classes as I could during school
Jasmine Bannister and Jordan Strickler
Maggie Wilson
See UNPLUGGED | Page A4
“Life is 10 percent what happens to you and 90 percent how you respond to it.” — Lou Holtz 75 Cents
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