Locally owned since 1867
Tuesday, July 20, 2021
iolaregister.com
Meeting to address housing
Allen County COVID-19 Case Count
Current cases.............23 Total cases*...............1,297 Deaths......................20 *Since the start of the pandemic
By TREVOR HOAG The Iola Register
Sources: Southeast Kansas Multi-County Health Departments, Kansas Department of Health and Environment
tion in November, when the sisters began working with their steers on a daily basis. “I just jumped right in,” Marlee laughed. “They’d be a little stubborn, but as soon as they learned to start trusting us, they’ve gotten a lot better.” The sisters help the animals overcome any sort of anxiety by working with them, usually an hour or longer each morning, despite having several other things on their plate. (Both are just now wrapping up a busy summer softball schedule.) Marlee’s softball season concluded earlier this month; Mylee’s on Saturday, freeing up valuable time in the runup to the fair. “We work with them pretty much every day we can,”
“Everybody has a role to play in developing their communities,” said Alex Holland, vice president of Atlas Community Studios. In that spirit, Holland and others from the team at Atlas/McClure, a national development firm, will be in town We d n e s d ay and Thursday Alex Holland to meet with community members to get their input on a range of issues, especially regarding housing and economic development. The community meeting is scheduled from 5 to 6 p.m. Wednesday in the Stadler Conference Room at Allen Community College. “You cannot put together a strategic plan in any region or community without the public’s input,” Holland noted. “Perspectives might be different, but it’s still really important for us to know what people believe or perceive is the state of housing in the area.” Holland also said that Atlas is especially interested in getting participation from folks who might not typically attend public meetings, such as students and others in “the next-generation workforce.” “What we’re here to do is
See MILLERS | Page A6
See HOUSING | Page A6
Swim team ends season at League Mylee, left, and Marlee Miller show off their steers they will enter in this week’s Allen County Fair. REGISTER/RICHARD LUKEN
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Unvaccinated kids may need masks when school starts
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Warmer weather poses health risks PAGE A5
GOP plans to block vote on infrastructure WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden said his infrastructure and families agenda must be passed to sustain the economic momentum of his first six months in office, aiming to set the tone for a crucial week of congressional negotiations on the two bills. But a Wednesday deadline set by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on the bipartisan infrastructure bill was in doubt as Republicans signaled they would block a procedural vote, for now, while details are still being worked out. Senators are wrangling over how to pay for the new spending in the $1 trillion package of highway, water system and other public works projects. At the same time, Democrats are developing the particulars of a separate bill that would invest a stunning $3.5 trillion nationwide across Americans’ lives — with support for families, education, climate resiliency and other priorities that they aim to ultimately pass with solely Democratic See ECONOMY | Page A3
Vol. 123 No. 179 Iola, KS 75 Cents
Steered toward success By RICHARD LUKEN The Iola Register
HUMBOLDT — There’s a sense of accomplishment in getting a 1,200-pound animal to obey your every command. It wasn’t always that way, sisters Mylee and Marlee Miller explained, as they discussed the steers they will show at the upcoming Allen County Fair. It’s old hat for Mylee, 15, who is entering a steer for the fourth straight year. But for Marlee, 12, this year’s fair is the first time she’s worked with a bovine. “It’s not that they’re mean, or scared,” Marlee said. “They’re just stubborn sometimes.” The sisters are members of Prairie Rose 4-H and have high hopes for purple ribbons — perhaps a grand champion
— for their steer or arts and crafts entries. “The closest I’ve gotten was a reserve champion pig one year,” Mylee said. They’ve been around animals pretty much all their lives. Still, Mylee admitted to being scared around them in her first years of 4-H. “I was scared to touch them,” she said. So the first few years usually meant working with smaller animals — goats in particular. “The goats were difficult,” Mylee chuckled. “They were the stubborn ones.” So what changed for the younger sister? “All my cousins have entered steers in the past,” she noted. “I figured if they could do it, I could reach that goal.” There was little trepida-
COVID hospitalization numbers spike again By CELIA LLOPIS-JEPSEN Kansas News Service
For six straight months, COVID-19 hospitalizations dropped steadily. Kansans let down their guard. They stopped wearing masks. Most didn’t bother to get the vaccine. Then the highly contagious delta variant arrived. It took root, and is fueling a surge of the coronavirus worse than anything in the past several months. That’s led to steep increases in hospitalizations and fresh outbreaks in long-term care. Kansas reported 3,000 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the past week. The state hasn’t seen an increase like that since February. The daily count of COVID inpatients hit 275 last Wednesday — the highest since early March. Nursing homes and other long-term care sites are battling nine outbreaks this week, four times as many as three months ago. And this is before school-
Low vaccination rate
Kansas reported 3,000 new COVID-19 cases in the past week. CARLOS MORENO/KCUR 89.3
children and college students head back to classes in August. “It is scary,” Fredonia, Kansas, family doctor Jennifer Bacani McKenney said. “Because we don’t have people wearing masks in the community. Pretty much here nobody’s wearing masks except for us in health care.” The delta variant recently found its way into an assisted
living center in rural Wilson County in southeast Kansas, where Bacani-McKenney is the local health officer. About two dozen people got sick. Most of those people were vaccinated and got only mildly ill, Bacani-McKenney said. She declined to disclose whether any of the center’s residents died, but said her county has had three recent COVID-19 deaths.
Fewer than half of Kansans have gotten fully vaccinated against COVID-19. With so many still unprotected, the delta variant has no shortage of hosts to choose from. It can also affect those who’ve gotten the shots, though vaccination significantly cuts the risks of hospitalization and death. How did the delta variant get into the Wilson County assisted living center? Confirming that is difficult. As far as health officials can tell, they believe a vaccinated staff member unwittingly carried in the germs from a side gig cleaning the home of an unvaccinated couple who got sick. Topeka physician Erin Locke, health officer for Shawnee County, urged anyone with even mild symptoms to get a free COVID test instead of assuming it’s just a cold. “We have just over half of our county that are not proSee COVID | Page A6