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The Weekender Saturday, December 27, 2014
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COUNTY COMMISSION
Sales tax collections on the rise in county By BOB JOHNSON The Iola Register
Allen County’s financial support of Allen County Regional Hospital indicates 2014 was a good year for local merchants. County commissioners adjusted their 2014 budget to provide up to $750,000 to the hospital from a quarter-cent countywide sales tax after being told collections were exceeding expectations. When the 2014 budget was constructed, commissioners put the hospital sales tax distribution at $500,000. As of Tuesday, with sales tax from much of Christmas shopping yet to be recorded, the county had received a touch over $694,000 from the quartercent tax, County Clerk Sherrie Riebel told commissioners. Meanwhile, the full extent of 2014 sales tax collections won’t be known until several weeks
into the new year. If the tax generates $750,000, that would translate to retail sales and services of about $300 million during the year. Commissioners also were given an assessment of Iola’s ambulance service for all of the county from Ryan Sell, its director. Sell said ambulances — two in Iola and one each in Humboldt and Moran — were operated by a staff of 28, including one person who has been on leave of absence because of a vehicle accident and Fire Chief Tim Thyer. The service has openings for three paramedics, but being short in that area hasn’t had an adverse effect on providing type I service, which requires advanced medical procedures, Sell said. It has, he added, created enough overtime to be a concern. “We’re striving to do better very day, and we are,” Sell concluded.
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’Tis the season of giving
Iola woman wins award, donates $5,000 By RICHARD LUKEN The Iola Register
Samantha Larney’s dedication to community has paid off in more ways than one. Larney, who works for the H&R Block offices in Iola and Chanute, was named a recipient of the Henry W. Bloch National Award for Outstanding Community Service. The award brings with it a $5,000 check, which Larney in turn handed over to the Allen County Community Foundation. The foundation then distributed the money Tuesday to three local groups dear to Larney’s heart: Iola Boy Scout Troop 55, McKinley Elementary School Parent-Teacher Organization and Iola Rotary Club. Larney has been a Cub Scout den leader for the past
Iolan Samantha Larney was named a recipient of the Henry W. Bloch National Award for Outstanding Community Service this month. REGISTER/RICHARD LUKEN year, meeting with a handful of Scouts twice or more a week for meetings and other activities. Larney has been secretary of the McKinley PTO for the past two years, and recently signed on to the Iola Rotary. Her civic involvement also extends to Chanute, where
she’s been active with the Main Street Chanute program the past several years, an organization dedicated to preserving Chanute’s downtown business district. Larney also serves as an ambassador for the Iola Area Chamber of Commerce. See AWARD | Page A6
Driver in double trouble Jesse J. Vail had the misfortune of wrecking his vehicle twice this week. His problems, however, were compounded, when he failed to report either one, Allen County Sheriff ’s officers alleged. Deputies said Vail was southbound on U.S. 59 Monday when his vehicle sustained a flat tire, left the roadway and struck a hedge fence post. Vail allegedly left the scene without reporting the accident, deputies said. Then on Tuesday, Vail was westbound on Georgia Road, just west 2200 Street, when he made an evasive maneuver to
Three local groups will benefit from Samantha Larney’s Henry W. Bloch National Award for Outstanding Community Service, to the tune of receiving a combined $5,000. Representing those groups are, from left, Iola Rotarian Mike Waldman, Boy Scout Troop 55 leaders Jared Sigler, Andy Dunlap and Scoutmaster Stacie Sigler, McKinley Elementary School Principal Lori Maxwell, Rotarian Shelia Lampe, Larney, Allen County Community Foundation director Susan Michael and ACCF board member Gary McIntosh, Rotarian Karen Gilpin, Melody Snesrud of Iola’s H&R Block office and Rotarians Donna Grigsby and Bob Hawk. REGISTER/RICHARD LUKEN
Foundation still in need of funds By BOB JOHNSON and RICHARD LUKEN The Iola Register
The Allen County Community Foundation remains in need of necessary funds to attract a $50,000 grant, organizers said Tuesday, and time is running short. Susan Michael, foundation director, told the Register the foundation has attracted about $80,000 in donations dedicated for health care needs — still about $20,000 short of the $100,000 threshold necessary to earn an additional $50,000 grant from the Kansas Health Foundation. While the Foundation has more than $80,000 coming its way, not all is dedicated for health care, and doesn’t meet the Health Care Foundation’s criteria.
County commissioners on Tuesday said they would decide at their year-end session, at 11 a.m. Wednesday, whether to support the foundation and, if so, by how much. Commissioners were asked on Dec. 16 to make up the difference between what foundation members had raised to ensure a $50,000 grant from the Kansas Health Foundation, Wichita. Tuesday they talked in terms of $20,000, as the amount needed, but also expressed reservations about where a county contribution would originate. Commissioner Dick Works said he was reluctant to expend tax money in such a manner. Commissioner Tom Williams said in principle he agreed. Commissioner Jim Talk-
Quote of the day Vol. 117, No. 43
ington added that perhaps consideration should be given to a making a contribution to Allen County Animal Rescue Foundation. He mentioned $3,000. Works again had pause, saying it, as well as the foundation, were started without input by elected officials, but now, with financial needs mounting, had petitioned the county to help out. THE FOUNDATION got another boost Tuesday when Samantha Larney, who works at H&R Block, turned over a $5,000 grant from her company’s foundation to benefit three local agencies, Iola Rotary, Boy Scout Troop 55 and the McKinley Elementary School Parent-Teacher Organization See FOUNDATION | Page A4
“We all need each other.”
avoid striking a deer in the roadway. His vehicle left the roadway to the south, struck a mailbox and its post and a utility box. Upon further investigation, deputies found Vail’s vehicle in the B&W Trailer Hitches parking lot in Humboldt. He was located and arrested on suspicion of failing to report an accident, failing to remove debris from the roadway following his accident, not having liability insurance and having illegal registration. He was taken to Allen County Jail and later released on bond.
Celebration, skepticism greet opening of U.S. relations HAVANA (TNS) — Down Prado boulevard, lined with wide-topped trees and pastelcolored 19th century buildings, men and a few women were hawking homes, cars, just about anything you could want. Business, they said, is only bound to get better. “A lot of families will be returning,” said Jesus Parra, the street representative of the Habana-Yunior real estate company, offering apartment trades and small houses for the equivalent of a few thousand dollars. “A big salute to Obama! To Raul! It’s the best thing they could ever do.” Reinaldo Riesch, who sells cars along the boulevard, had a different opinion. “The mentality still has not changed,” he said, loung-
— Leo Buscaglia
75 Cents
ing on a bench and dressed in shorts. “The people need proof that real change is coming. Until I see someone saying something strong against the government, without anything happening to them, I won’t believe it.” With the opening of diplomatic relations between the United States and Cuba after more than 50 years of rupture, change will come to the Communist-led island only in fits and starts. Cuban President Raul Castro has made it clear that for all the overtures by President Barack Obama, his pace is his own. “We must not expect that in order for relations with the United States to improve, Cuba will abandon the ideas that it has struggled for,” See CUBA | Page A4
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