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2017 1867
THE IOLA REGISTER Locally owned since 1867
www.iolaregister.com
Thursday, March 23, 2017
Step aside, Angie Dickinson Women working outside the box
The New Greenery Restaurant, a fixture for Iola diners for the past 56 years, closed its doors Wednesday. REGISTER/BOB JOHNSON
Greenery closes doors The New Greenery Restaurant, 1303 N. State St., closed Wednesday. The Register was unable to reach any of its principals today for comment. The restaurant was built in 1961 by Pat Close, Dale Stalnaker and Melvin Bell, for Glenn and Leona Menegay, who operated it as Menegay’s North. They also had a downtown restaurant, Menegay’s, at the corner of See GREENERY | Page A5
By SHELLIE SMITLEY The Iola Register
March is National Women’s History Month. The 2017 theme honors women who have successfully challenged the traditional role of women in the workplace. Andrea Umbarger, 25, Humboldt, is a local woman who has not only challenged the role of women in the paid labor force but also challenged herself to go outside her comfort level. Umbarger is a part-time patrol officer with the Humboldt Police Department. She works six days a month while earning a radiologic technologist degree from Labette Community College. Born and raised in Chanute, she said she dreamed of having as many as 10 different professions, including everything from veterinarian to cowgirl and from detective to spy. Umbarger is a self-proclaimed tomboy. “I’m the best of both worlds,” she said. “I love the tomboy side of things and be-
Andrea Umbarger, a part-time police officer for the Humboldt Police Department, believes that although women are capable of working in law enforcement, it is important to realize they have a different set of skills than their male counterparts. REGISTER/SHELLIE SMITLEY ing part of, I guess you can call it man’s world, but I love to dress up and do the girly things with my mom, too.” Umbarger also likes to keep her options open and create as many opportunities for herself as possible. Initially, she started out pursuing a degree in graphic design from Pittsburg State University. After one semester, she transferred to Neosho County Community College to play volleyball and earned an associate degree in general studies. After
that, she enrolled in Bellevue University, Nebraska. “I took a hard deep look at myself the next summer and decided that (graphic design) wasn’t really for me,” she said. She graduated with a bachelor’s degree in public and private sector investigations instead. “It was during that time period where I really started looking into the roles of police officers, FBI, CIA, as far as what I needed to do to get to where I wanted to be at that
point in time.” Umbarger had aspirations of working on a federal level and was eager to get started. “I wanted to go big and not start small,” she said. “I did not want to be on the streets, but I sat back and thought on it and realized I probably needed to start somewhere different.” She moved back to Kansas and in 2014 went to work for the Neosho County Sheriff ’s See WOMEN | Page A5
GOP’s health bill showdown vote today By ERICA WERNER and RICARDO ALONZO-SALDIVAR The Associated Press
Former Iola Mayor Bill Maness has been hired as economic development program manager for Thrive Allen County. REGISTER/ RICHARD LUKEN
Iolan tapped to oversee economic development effort By RICHARD LUKEN The Iola Register
Bill Maness has long contended Iola and Allen County could benefit by hiring a fulltime economic development director. As a former mayor, a founding member of Iola’s Community Involvement Task Force, an aide to Sen. Jerry Moran and finally as an executive with Haldex, Maness has seen what tools — and commitment — are necessary to build a local economy. “Economic development is not an overnight process,” Maness said. “It takes time to build relationships and trust, to form alliances and to devel-
op a network of folks working together to make good things happen.” And while Allen County for generations has had a cadre of leaders with those goals in mind, Maness noted one glaring shortcoming. “Everybody already had a full-time job, and on the side tried to do this,” he said. “And economic development is not a part-time position.” It wasn’t until recently, however, that Maness had ever considered taking on that responsibility himself. That changed in February, when Maness was named economic development program See MANESS | Page A5
Quote of the day Vol. 119, No. 103
WASHINGTON (AP) — The GOP’s long-promised legislation to repeal and replace “Obamacare” stood on the brink just hours before Republican leaders planned to put it on the House floor for a showdown vote. Short of support, GOP leaders looked to President Donald Trump to close the deal with a crucial bloc of conservatives, in the first major legislative test of his young presidency. The stakes could hardly be higher for a party that gained monopoly control of Washington largely on promises to get rid of former President Barack Obama’s signature legislative achievement and replace it
with something better. Now Republicans are staring at the possibility of failure at the very moment of truth, an outcome that would be a crushing political defeat for Trump and Hill GOP leaders and would throw prospects for other legislative achievements into extreme uncertainty. Frenzied last-minute
wheeling and dealing was under way on Capitol Hill and the White House, where Trump summoned the balky conservative Freedom Caucus to meet with him midday today, ahead of the planned vote. But concessions being offered to the conservatives, who sought to limit requirements for health plans to offer certain benefits including substance abuse and maternity care, appeared to be scaring off moderate Republicans. The Republican legislation would halt Obama’s tax penalties against people who don’t buy coverage and cut the federal-state Medicaid program for low earners, which the Obama statute had expanded. It would provide tax credits to help peoSee SHOWDOWN | Page A3
KanCare debated ahead of key vote By JIM MCLEAN Kansas News Service
A dispute about the cost and potential benefits of expanding Medicaid eligibility is heating up ahead of a Kansas Senate committee vote on a bill. In testimony Monday to the Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee, supporters of expanding eligibility for KanCare, the state’s privatized Medicaid program, said expansion would more than pay for itself. Former Kansas Senate See KANCARE | Page A3
Tom Bell, president of the Kansas Hospital Association, speaks in favor of Medicaid expansion during a hearing of the Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee. KANSAS NEWS
SERVICE/SUSIE FAGAN
“Motivation is the art of getting people to do what you want them to do because they want to do it.” — Dwight D. Eisenhower 75 Cents
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