Sports: Allen women drop four games See B1
THE IOLA REGISTER Locally owned since 1867
www.iolaregister.com
Monday, March 23, 2015
Moderation Thompson’s approach Sees increase in statewide sales tax as a possibility By BOB JOHNSON The Iola Register
Rep. Kent Thompson’s pragmatic nature is a burr under the saddles of ultraconservatives in the Kansas House, but he’s comfortable with positions taken, he told the Register Friday afternoon. Thompson, a Republican, represents the 9th District, which contains most of Allen and parts of Neosho counties, including Iola and Chanute. When the House vote on block grant funding for public schools occurred, Thompson was opposed “because it was going to hurt schools in my district,” in both years that it apparently will be the law. Passage occurred with 63 votes, the barest of minimums. Political arm-twisting, more than it ever had seen, was a constant exercise leading up to the vote, Thompson
Rep. Kent Thompson said. With Brownback touting block grant funding and the need for a new funding formula, the measure becoming law is assured. Proponents claim the block grant funding would make more money available for
the classrooms and increase school funding, although the increase apparently will come through the Kansas Public Employment Retirement System (KPERS), and not classroom enhancement. Also, Thompson has said several times, the formula in place isn’t broken, just underfunded. He also thinks the screed that the current formula is difficult to understand is nonsense. “I understand it,” he said, and is certain many others do as well. Late last week the House Health and Human Services Committee, of which Thompson is a member, heard pleas from proponents for Kansas to embrace federal funding that would substantially increase the number of the state’s poor who would receive Medicaid assistance. Two years ago Brownback turned down 100 percent federal funding for
three years, with 90 percent funding beyond that. In early campaigning last summer, Thompson softened a bit on that approach, he recalled, but then drop-kicked any change of heart with reelection. A House initiative, subject of the committee hearings, would have reversed Brownback’s decision. However, Thompson lamented, it appears a dead issue. “We didn’t even take a vote in the committee,” Thompson said, which left the measure as written dead in the water. That occurred, he said, after “the most impressive hearing I’ve sat in on” with “good Kansas people wanting to do the right thing.” The only chance for a hearing on the House floor would occur if an amendment were See THOMPSON | Page A4
Westar to send rebates
WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Westar Energy will be sending rebates to customers after collecting $38 million too much last year. The rebates, which will average about $1.26 a month, come from Westar’s Retail Energy Cost Adjustment rider, which pays for fuel for Westar’s generating plants. The rebates were detailed in filings with the Kansas Corporation Commission. The Wichita Eagle reports a fuel charge means customers essentially pay the cost of Westar’s fuel, and the charge fluctuates every month. If Westar collects too much, customers get a rebate. If the utility collects too little, customers pay more. In 2014, Westar charged customers just over $510 million for the fuel charge. But the company spent a little over $479 million.
Sigg: Civic service comes naturally Myrick: Efficiencies remain priority By RICHARD LUKEN The Iola Register
By RICHARD LUKEN The Iola Register
Austin Sigg notes he is the exception. The 2005 Iola High School graduate native left town briefly for college and a one-year stint in Iraq with the Kansas Army National Guard, intent on returning to his hometown with his young family. “I’m definitely one of the few in my class that moved back,” he said. But were it not for his full-time job as a supply sergeant for the Guard, “we wouldn’t be able to make it here,” he said. “And my job really doesn’t have anything to do with my degree.” “We need to have younger people come back; young, educated people,” he said. “I hadn’t thought too much about it until I had a daughter. Now I think, when she moves off, she’ll never want to come back.” Finding ways to entice growth in Iola, while still keeping the community an affordable place to live, will be one of Sigg’s priori-
Eugene Myrick reflected on the at-times painful negotiation — and then renegotiation — of the emergency medical services contract service between Iola and Allen County over the last two years. “It was probably the most stressful thing we’ve had to deal with,” the Iola City Council member said. That was particularly so when the council voted last fall, then rescinded, a notice to terminate its EMS contract with the county. But as they say, what doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger. Myrick is confident the new countywide pact makes Iola and Allen County stronger. “We all pulled together and the county finally pulled together,” said Myrick, a vocal opponent of ending the contract prematurely. “When you start a new business, you can’t just fold up when things look bad,” he said. “You have to gut it out. I wanted to keep working and not give up.”
Austin Sigg ties if he’s elected to a seat on the Iola City Council. Voters in Iola’s third ward will choose between Sigg and incumbent Eugene See SIGG | Page A4
Eugene Myrick Myrick, 50, says he’ll continue to serve Iolans with such doggedness if he’s reelected to the council seat in the April 7 general election. Voters in Iola’s third ward will choose between Myrick and See MYRICK | Page A4
Novel explores Westboro Baptist Common Core standards hold forth for KS schools By KAYLA BANZET The Iola Register
Kansas is home to one of the “most hated families in America,” the Fred Phelps family of Topeka, according to Susan Kraus, a Lawrence author. The late Phelps and his family are famous for their Westboro Baptist Church and their picketing at funerals and other events. The church preaches against all forms of what they regard as sin, including gay rights. Kraus writes about the fam-
ily and its church in a book published last fall, “All God’s Children.” Kraus’ fascination with the family began when she worked as a therapist at a counseling center at Susan Kraus Washbur n University in Topeka. Washburn is where many of the Phelps family members attended college. Most of the picketing began locally before it caught fire in the national media.
Quote of the day Vol. 117, No. 98
“I think people have an icky fascination with them,” she said in a phone interview. “You want to look away but then you look back.” Kraus has graduate degrees in English and social work. She has written for the Kansas City Star and has numerous writing awards. Her background helped form the idea of a story about the Westboro Baptist Church. “A part of me wondered what it is like to be a child in that environment,” she said. “The story idea fermented See WESTBORO | Page A4
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A push to repeal Common Core education standards in Kansas faltered again Friday when opponents of the multistate academic guidelines disagreed over tactics and couldn’t get a proposed ban out of a legislative committee. The House Education Committee voted 10-7 against a bill to prohibit school districts or officials from giving up “any measure of control”
“Indecision and delays are the parents of failure.” — George Canning 75 Cents
over academic standards to any group outside Kansas. The bill would have effectively banned the use of Common Core standards for reading and math adopted in 2010 by the State Board of Education, because they were developed by the National Governors Association and education groups. The measure also would have blocked multistate science standards adopted by See COMMON | Page A4
Hi: 71 Lo: 52 Iola, KS