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THE IOLA REGISTER Thursday, May 18, 2017
Locally owned since 1867
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Which to tackle first?
Taxes, school funding dominate state’s to-do list By JIM MCLEAN Kansas News Service
Robert Mueller
Kansas legislative leaders working on a plan to end the 2017 session have what amounts to a chicken-andegg dilemma. They must satisfy members who want to set a schoolfunding target before voting
on the tax increases needed to fund it and those who first want to close a projected $900 million gap between revenue and spending over the next two budget years. “There are a lot of folks wanting one before the other. But at this moment I’m expecting the tax issue to be the next to move,” says Rep.
KANSAS NEWS SERVICE FILE PHOTO
Steven Johnson, the Assaria Republican who chairs the House tax committee. The timing issues are real. They played a role in last week’s Senate defeat of an in-
come tax bill that would have generated more than $1 billion a year in additional revenue. Only two of the Senate’s nine Democrats joined with 16 moderate Republicans in voting for the measure, leaving it three votes short of the number needed to pass and nine shy of what would have been needed to override a veto by Republican Gov. Sam Brownback. The governor vetoed a similar bill in February. The
Ex-FBI chief Mueller to lead Trump, Russia probe LaHarpe to celebrate new playground By ERIC TUCKER and SADIE GURMAN The Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — Robert Mueller has been given sweeping power to investigate Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign, an acknowledgment of growing public demands to place the politically charged inquiry into the hands of an outside investigator with bipartisan respect. The former FBI director has a broad mandate that could encompass any questionable actions of President Donald Trump’s associates and possibly even the circumstances of last week’s abrupt firing of James Comey. Trump tweeted that it is “the single greatest witch hunt of a politician in AmerSee TRUMP | Page A5
See STATE | Page A3
By RICHARD LUKEN The Iola Register
LAHARPE — A nearly yearlong effort to complete a playground in LaHarpe City Park should occur by the end of today. The final stage — adding rubber mulch at the foot of a climbing wall — was set for completion this afternoon. To celebrate, the LaHarpe PRIDE Committee, in conjunction with Thrive Allen County, is hosting a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 11 a.m. Saturday at the park. All youngsters are invited. Free hot dogs and drinks will be provided to the first 300 who arrive. In case of rain, the festivities will be held beneath the park’s shelter house. THE
PLAYGROUND
A ribbon-cutting ceremony is planned for Saturday to celebrate the opening of a new playground apparatus at the LaHarpe City Park. REGISTER/RICHARD LUKEN equipment project was a collaborative effort of many players, and was started in the summer of 2016 by former City Council member Sara’Nicole Prock. Thrive stepped in with a $10,000 grant, while the City of LaHarpe supplied about $13,000, including $7,000 or so
from its playground reserve fund. The final piece of the puzzle came from a $10,000 grant offered by Play & Park Structures, which designed and built the $33,000 apparatus. From there, a team of volunteers helped on several weekends and evenings in the
following months, including a trio of students from the University of Kansas, the LaHarpe Volunteer Fire Department, the Allen County Sheriff ’s Department (as well as Allen County Jail inmates), and Ray Maloney of Ray’s See LAHARPE | Page A6
Missionaries tackle area projects By SHELLIE SMITLEY The Iola Register
Three bikes placed in front of Thrive, Wednesday, became available for public use at no cost. REGISTER/SHELLIE SMITLEY
Racking up bikes for public usage By SHELLIE SMITLEY The Iola Register
The Allen County Bike Share Program, a collaboration of Thrive Allen County and Velo+, affords those without bikes the opportunity to take a spin. Sharing bikes is something that Thrive has been discussing for a while, Deputy Director Ben Alexander said. Frequently, major cit-
ies have programs in which users are charged by debit or credit card to rent a bike, but the infrastructure for those types of programs can be costly, he said. As part of a $3,000 pilot program, 10 bikes will be placed at three Iola locations; Thrive, Velo+ and Wavefire. The bikes may be checked out for a day or a weekend at a time. The See BIKES | Page A3
Quote of the day Vol. 119, No. 143
Chance Gardner, 20, and Taylor Regis, 20, are missionaries from Utah helping Thrive Allen County with a number of community service projects. Regis is from Layton, Utah and Gardner is from Midway, Utah. As members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the men’s mission is to teach the gospel while completing acts of community service throughout various communities. The church has missionaries all over the world, according to Regis, and they serve wherever they are placed. It is a voluntary experience but once they have made the choice to serve, men must complete a two-year service and women 18 months. Each person who chooses to serve contributes a flat-rate dollar amount. The church then provides all of the missionaries’ living expenses. “The reason they do that is that someone serving in South America versus someone serving in England is going to have extremely different expenses,” Regis said.“This way they can just flat-rate it across
Elder Taylor Regis trims weeds on the Lehigh Portland Trail. REGISTER/SHELLIE SMITLEY
the board and redistribute it to everybody.” Whether the missionaries transfer to another town is decided by a mission president every six weeks. It is up to the missionaries to find
“Hate is not the opposite of love, it’s indifference.” — Elie Wiesel, author 75 Cents
their own opportunities for community service. After serving in the Kansas City area since June 2015, Regis arrived in Chanute in FebruSee HELPERS | Page A6
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