Seahorses in action: Iola’s swim team competes at league meet. See B1
THE IOLA REGISTER Locally owned since 1867
www.iolaregister.com
Tuesday, July 26, 2016
Iola Council advances tax, garbage rate hikes By RICHARD LUKEN The Iola Register
Iolans will pay more for their trash service, and if a proposed 2017 budget is approved next month, will spend more in property taxes next year. City Council members on Monday scheduled an Aug. 8 hearing to discuss, and presumably approve, Iola’s 2017 $30 million budget. The spending plan is supported in part by an ad va-
Austin Sigg
Carl Slaugh
lorem tax rate of 44.899 mills, 2 mills above what local property owners are paying this year. For some perspective, the owner of a $100,000 home
City administrator hired
would spend a shade over $516 in property taxes to support Iola’s budget, or about $23 more than the $494 spent this year. In the end, Council members agreed that paring spending any more would prevent the city from replenishing its utility reserves. In addition to the 2-mill increase, the city has scaled back spending in other areas. For example, the city will eschew purchasing rock for its
By RICHARD LUKEN The Iola Register
Sid Fleming, former city manager for Yuma, Colo., has been hired as Iola’s next city administrator. Iola City Council members approved Fleming’s two-year contract at an annual salary of $95,000. Fleming replaces the outgoing Carl Slaugh, who was
See BUDGET | Page A3
planning to retire at the end of this month, but will see his employment extended a few weeks until Fleming is on board. Fleming, who had worked at Yuma since 2013, did not have his contract renewed in May. Prior to working in Yuma, Fleming worked in See HIRED | Page A3
Humboldt budget levy increased By BOB JOHNSON The Iola Register
HUMBOLDT – After well over an hour of discussion, Humboldt c o u n c i l members M o n d a y night approved for publication a 2017 budget that Cole Herder includes a 5-mill ad valorem tax levy, to 90.564 mills. It didn’t come easily. With the body seemingly on the verge of approving a 3-mill levy, Cindy Hollingsworth questioned whether it would be better to go with the higher levy of 5 mills, which would raise about $15,000 more in tax revenue. Her rationale, drawing on comments from City Administrator Cole Herder that the greater tax would benefit street improve-
ments, was that another 2 mills would not be a burden of consequence. An example: An owner whose home has market value of $100,000 — on the high side for many in town — would pay an additional $23, less than $2 a month. She argued financial advantage was meaningful for the city. No other council members signed on. Then, Mayor Nobby Davis, who has no vote and can’t offer a motion, stumped in favor of the 5-mill increase, noting businessmen, such as himself, anticipate cost increases each year and arrange to meet them, as should the city. His comments caught the attention of several, with Councilman Otis Crawford repeating Hollingsworth’s motion. “I don’t like to inSee HUMBOLDT | Page A3
257 opens online enrollment By RICHARD LUKEN The Iola Register
Parents enrolling their children for USD 257 classes no longer need to stand in line to do so. They need to go online instead. The school district on Friday launched its online enrollment program. The online enrollment replaces the two-day registration period held in the past in the Iola High School com-
mons area. All enrollees must do so online. For parents without computer or Internet access, stations are set up at the USD 257 board office at 305 N. Washington Ave. from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays. The Iola Public Library also has computers with Internet access. BECAUSE of the new Locus app system used for enrolling students, all parents
must create new accounts this year for their students. “You may not be new to the district but everyone is ‘new’ to the Locus system,” a message on the district website reads. The system is a relatively easy one for parents, although they need their child’s social security number in order for that child to be enrolled. Simply go to www. usd257.org, click the “Online Enrollment” link and See ONLINE | Page A2
History, hostility surround Dems’ party PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A glass ceiling is shattering at the Democratic National Convention as Hillary Clinton ascends to the presidential nomination with today’s roll call of the states, making her the first woman to lead a major party into a White House race. Clinton’s campaign hoped to use the history-making moment to bolster the candidate’s popularity — mindful that while many voters are happy to be nominating a woman, they’re not wild about this particular woman candidate. Former President Bill Clinton and other speakers will offer prime-time testimonials to her career highlights and advocacy, hoping to soften her image and resistance to her bid. But as history is being made, hostility is being heard, too. Bernie Sanders’ primary challenge has unleashed vitriol toward the party establishment that Sanders himself has been unable to rein in. His supporters spent much of Monday protesting his treatment by the party, even booing Clinton’s name.
19 killed in stabbing rampage SAGAMIHARA, Japan (AP) — A young Japanese man went on a stabbing rampage today at a facility for the mentally disabled where he had been fired, officials said, killing 19 people months after he gave a letter to Parliament outlining the bloody plan and saying all disabled people should be put to death. When he was done, Kanagawa prefectural authorities said, 26-year-old Satoshi Uematsu had left dead or injured nearly a third of the almost 150 patients at the facility in a matter of 40 minutes in the early today attack. It is Japan’s deadliest mass killing in decades. The fire department said 25 were wounded,
First Lady Michelle Obama claps toward delegates during the Democratic National Convention Monday at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia. PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER/CLEM MURRAY/TNS What was expected to be a tightly orchestrated convention, run with all the professionalism and experience that were lacking at Trump’s often-chaotic affair in Ohio, instead showed its rough edges in the early going, starting with chants of
Quote of the day Vol. 118, No. 188
“Bernie” during the opening invocation and boos at numerous mentions of Clinton’s name. First lady Michelle Obama gave a heartfelt endorsement of the candidate who See DEMS | Page A6
“It is legal because I wish it.”
— Louis XIV, French royalty (1638-1715) 75 Cents
20 of them seriously. Security camera footage played on TV news programs showed a man driving up in a black car and carrying several knives to the Tsukui Yamayuri-en facility in Sagamihara, 50 kilometers (30 miles) west of Tokyo. The man broke in by shattering a window at 2:10 a.m., according to a prefectural health official, and then set about slashing the patients’ throats. Sagamihara fire department official Kunio Takano said the attacker killed 10 women and nine men. The youngest was 19, the oldest 70. Details of the attack, inSee ATTACK | Page A3
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