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Locally owned since 1867
Police chief nearly run over Humboldt’s police chief escaped injury after someone attempted to run him over Wednesday, according to a report from the Allen County Sherif f ’s Department. C l i n ton David Johns, 37, Humboldt, was ar- Clinton Johns rested on suspicion of aggravated assault, Sheriff Bryan Murphy said in a press release. Assistant Allen County Attorney Jacqie Spradling later decided to amend the charges to aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer with a deadly weapon. Humboldt Police Chief Brian Dillow was out for a jog Wednesday when a vehicle attempted to run him over, witnesses told deputies. Johns was identified as the driver and taken into custody without incident, Murphy said. Johns is scheduled to appear at 9 a.m. April 18 at the Allen County District Court.
Report: Up to $2 billion to fix schools TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A new report from two out-of-state consultants says improving student performance in Kansas public schools could cost the state as much as $2 billion more a year. The report released Friday stunned some legislators. The Kansas Supreme Court ruled in October See SCHOOLS | Page A6
The Weekender Saturday, March 17, 2018
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Humboldt 2.0
Ornate streetlights and new sidewalks accentuate downtown Humboldt. REGISTER/RICHARD LUKEN
Residents come together to restore, renew community By RICHARD LUKEN The Iola Register
HUMBOLDT — There are differing opinions of when Humboldt’s rebirth started, if that’s how you want to describe it. Cole Herder points to an organizational meeting about 10 years ago, hosted by Terry Woodbury of Kansas Communities, Inc., to discuss community involvement. Paul Finney thinks the effort stretches back further, to the early 1990s. But while there’s some dispute as to when Humboldt’s downtown renaissance began, all parties involved agreed the excitement is building as each piece of the puzzle is put into place. “I describe it as a buzz,” Herder said. “Once someone gets started doing something, other people jump in. Then somebody else says ‘maybe I can do that,’ or ‘mine looks bad now.’ “There are a lot of things going on around town right now, with a lot of different individuals involved.” The Register will look at various areas of Humboldt’s resurgence, starting today with downtown beautification. (Monday’s topic will be the community’s burgeoning
the moment somebody starts complaining, and that’s what I expected, I was going home.” Walter Wulf Jr., chairman of the board of Monarch Cement Co., voiced similar concerns. “I’m not sure where we found him (Woodbury), but I went to the meeting thinking he was going to be a Pied Piper,” Wulf said. Both Herder and Wulf happily admit today their suspicions were unfounded. Instead, Woodbury’s engaging style reminded the crowd of Humboldt’s myriad assets, a community with two locally owned industries, a town whose deep historical roots might be surpassed only by its rich history of teamwork and helping others.
Cole Herder, Humboldt city administrator reputation as a low-key artisan’s utopia; Tuesday’s is the local economic boom, with new businesses opening in the weeks and months ahead.) HERDER, who was working in the private sector at the time, was skeptical when he heard about Humboldt’s
community meeting hosted by Woodbury. He’d seen other efforts derailed because of some trivial reason. “There were a lot of things against us,” he noted. “We almost lost our newspaper. We’d almost lost our grocery store. There were problems at the city level. I told my wife,
BUT LIKE too many other rural communities in southeast Kansas, Humboldt was slumping. “Shop local” became a punch line, driven home decades earlier when the U.S. 169 bypass meant hundreds of motorists no longer came through downtown Humboldt on a daily basis, instead bypassing the city a mile to the east. The downtown business district was evaporating. See HUMBOLDT | Page A5
Teen’s passion to help leads to bone marrow donation By VICKIE MOSS The Iola Register
Gabrielle White and her grandmother, Corky Lynes, with Punky the cat and Charlie the dog. White, a former Moran resident who visited her grandmother this past week for spring break, recently donated bone marrow that helped a 6-year-old girl with leukemia. REGISTER/VICKIE MOSS Vol. 120, No. 99 Iola, KS 75 Cents
MORAN — Gabrielle White, 19 and of Charlotte, N.C., didn’t hesitate when asked to donate bone marrow to a stranger. The teen’s willingness to subject herself to the two-day donation process — and the intimidatingly large needle that went with it — didn’t surprise her grandmother, Corky Lynes, of Moran. “She’s an angel,” Lynes said. “When she told me what she was doing, it was instant fright. Then I told her how proud I was.”
White feels passionate about helping people. Her actions show it. She’s a volunteer at her college and plans to earn a degree in special needs education to help people with autism, hearing problems and other disabilities. She’ll soon attend her third “Joy Prom” as a date for people with disabilities. She carries goodie bags with granola bars and peanuts to give away when she encounters those who are homeless. And now, she’s likely saved the life of a 6-year-old girl battling leukemia.
White donated bone marrow last month after a volunteer at Central Piedmont Community College, where she attends school, asked if she would like to be tested to see if she was a match for someone. She was. Hours after she finished donating, she was back on campus, asking if she she could test other students. She convinced about 100 to see if they were a match, too. WHITE MOVED to North Carolina from Moran when she was 2. Her mother, Melissa See DONOR | Page A3