Wildcat sweep: Yates Center squads roll plast Pleasanton.
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THE IOLA REGISTER Locally owned since 1867
www.iolaregister.com
Wednesday, January 25, 2017
USD 257
Engineer: Costly renovations needed By RICK DANLEY The Iola Register
Jacob Hurla of 360 Energy Engineers — a Lawrencebased engineering firm — appeared with his colleagues before the USD 257 board of education on Monday. “I know you guys dealt with a school bond issue a few years ago,” said Hurla, understating an issue that galvanized huge portions of the community in the fall of 2014, before eventually being voted down in the November election. “And so what we’re hoping to do is help you figure out
how to proceed from here.” The team from 360 performed a “preliminary engineering analysis” of all of the district’s schools and presented its results — with recommendations and cost estimates — to the board on Monday. The study focused mainly on the district’s aging heating and cooling systems, but also addressed its need for more efficient lighting and various building envelope improvements (i.e. sealed windows and doors).
The recommendations were, in most cases, for the complete overhaul, upgrade or replacement of the buildings’ HVAC systems as well the installation of new automation programs to control the new temperature systems. Doug Riat, the company’s vice president of business development, spoke last and encouraged the school board to reach out to a firm “that could help you promote the bond issue, someone who can go out into the community and validate the need for the district.
Knowing that you’re going to go out for a bond in order to finance these improvements, I think that’s what the community needs to hear. If they’re going to support a bond issue, what is the community going to get out of these improvements?” BOWLUS Fine Arts Center executive director Susan Raines announced the award of a $200,000 grant from the Sunderland Foundation (the Sunderland family owns Ash Grove Cement). “We’re thrilled to be able to get that See REPAIRS | Page A4
Lifesavers in training Above from left, Jessica Quinhones and Dimity and John Lowell review the proper way to administer chest compressions Tuesday if a patient requires CPR during a CPR and first aid class at the Iola Public Library. Sue Coester of the Southeast Kansas Community Action Program, at right, served as the instructor. The class was co-sponsored by SEK-CAP and the library as a means to provide free or low-cost instruction to local residents. Thirteen attended. REGISTER/RICHARD LUKEN
Senior Citizens group aids local organizations Local nonprofits, including schools, were beneficiaries of $21,400 during 2016, from the sale of such things as shirts and small household appliances at bargain-basement prices at the Iola Senior Center. Joe Hess, a director of Iola Senior Citizens, Inc., gave his annual accounting of donations made: $5,150 to the local schools; $2,500 to Elm Creek Community Gardens; $2,000 to hospice; $1,750 to Faith House, Chanute; $1,500 each to Hope Unlimited, and Iola Public Library: $1,000 each to CASA, Drug Court, Pregnancy Resource Center, ACMAT, and CURB; and $500 each to the Community Food Pantry and Project Care. Clothing by the truckload is sorted and put out for sale by volunteers at the center, 223 N. State St.
“We get a lot of quality clothes that we sell for cheap prices,” 20 cents for shirts, 25 cents for jeans, and 50 cents for suits and coats, Hess Joe Hess said. A pharmaceutical representative from Lawrence stops by occasionally, to buy “a number of suits for a theatrical group to use.” For those so inclined, Hess said volunteers can prepare itemized lists of donations so their worth may used as an income tax deduction. About 50 people carried hot meals, prepared in the county law enforcement center kitchen, to Meals on Wheels recipients during 2016. They will be invited to the county employees recognition luncheon on Feb. 21, on the proposal of Commissioner See HELP | Page A2
Quote of the day Vol. 119, No. 62
An updated version of a proposed agreement that would permit wind farms in Allen County will be discussed at a meeting of the Allen County Planning Commission Thursday evening, starting at 7 p.m. The meeting, open to the public, will be in the assembly room on the basement floor of the courthouse. EDP Renewables has proposed to construct a wind farm holding as many as 100 turbines in the northeast part of the county. The company, at last report, had negotiated leases on 12,000 of the 20,000 acres necessary. The agreement is not specific to EDP, but to any industry interested in establishing a wind farm in Allen County. Planners will make a recommendation to county commissioners on whether to make the agreement binding, giving commissioners final say.
Trump: ‘Major’ voter fraud probe coming
COUNTY COMMISSION
By BOB JOHNSON The Iola Register
Wind farm meeting Thursday
By JULIE PACE The Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump tweeted early this morning that he is ordering a “major investigation” into voter fraud, revisiting unsubstantiated claims he’s made repeatedly about a rigged voting system. The investigation, he said, will look at those registered to vote in more than one state, “those who are illegal and ... even, those registered to vote who are dead (and many for a long time).” Depending on results, Trump tweeted, “we will strengthen up voting procedures!” Trump has been fixated on his loss of the popular vote by almost 3 million and a concern that the legitimacy of his presidency is being challenged by Democrats and the media, aides and associates say. Trump’s own attorneys dismissed claims of voter fraud in a legal filing responding to Green Party candidate Jill Stein’s demand for a recount in Michigan late last year.
President Donald Trump delivers remarks after signing five executive orders Tuesday at the White House in Washington, D.C. SIPA USA/POOL PHOTO/TNS “On what basis does Stein seek to disenfranchise Michigan citizens? None really, save for speculation,” the attorneys wrote. “All available evidence suggests that the 2016 general election was not tainted by fraud or mistake.” Secretaries of state across the country have dismissed Trump’s voter fraud claims as baseless. After the president’s morning tweets, Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted wrote on Twitter, “We conducted a review 4 years ago in Ohio & already have a statewide review of 2016 elec-
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” — Martin Luther King Jr. 75 Cents
tion underway. Easy to vote, hard to cheat.” Trump’s exaggerations about inauguration crowds and assertions about illegal balloting have been distractions as advisers have tried to launch his presidency with a flurry of actions on the economy. His spokesman, Sean Spicer, has twice stepped into the fray himself, including on Tuesday, when he doubled down on Trump’s false claim See FRAUD | Page A4
Hi: 39 Lo: 25 Iola, KS