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Tuesday, July 28, 2020
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Infestation frustrations aired Neighbors sound off on cockroaches
Kelly may push to close bars
By RICHARD LUKEN The Iola Register
By JOHN HANNA The Associated Press
A small group of Iolans aired their frustration Monday to City Council members about cockroaches. The little critters have become such a nuisance, former Mayor Bill Maness said, that his wife avoids working in their garden, lest she be inundated by the invaders. “And this is in broad daylight.” The source of the Iolans’ exasperation is a two-story house at 223 S. Buckeye St.— ground zero for the neighborhood’s roach infestation Maness joined David-Paul and Laura Cavasos and Chad Reeves in illustrating just how troublesome the pests have become. Reeves said it’s to the point he can count hundreds of the roaches in his yard on a daily basis. “We can’t even sit on the front porch any more,”
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Gov. Laura Kelly said Monday that she is considering recomm e n d i n g that Kansas counties shut down bars again and limit public Laura Kelly gatherings to 15 people in hopes of reversing a resurgence in reported coronavirus cases that is making the state’s previous work to check it “for naught.” Kelly said she will push next week to close bars and lower the limit on gatherings from 45 people if the state doesn’t get the spread of the novel coronavirus under better control. The Democratic governor
Former Iola Mayor Bill Maness speaks to City Council members Monday. REGISTER/RICHARD LUKEN he said. “I’m having to spray every night.” “We have worked to improve our neighborhood,” Maness said. “This property is a continuing nightmare. The cockroaches have become totally unbearable.” The two-story home in question is rented out as apartments. The owner has had the house sprayed multiple times in recent weeks, to no avail, Code Enforcement Officer Gregg Hutton said, with the pest control company sched-
uled to spray the home again every two weeks. The problem, Hutton explained, is the spray only kills live roaches. “It doesn’t do anything to the eggs,” which take about a week to hatch. “It’s not alleviating the problem at all,” Maness noted. If anything, the infestation has worsened over the past month, Reeves said. Reeves recounted that he recently set up glue traps to every entrance to his house while away for a See ROACHES | Page A5
The American cockroach FLICKR.COM
See KELLY | Page A3
Presentiments of coming sorrow Sheltered from the incinerating blast of noonday summer sun, I was walking down the dry gravel bed of Vegetarian Creek listening to the insects whir and grind in ecstasy.
Trevor Hoag Just Prairie Hundreds of dragonflies were spinning about, and I was in awe at the sight of an enormous owl that launched from the dark trees overhead. I watched as long brown feathers winged her southwards toward the Neosho River, as she surveyed the site below where teacher Miriam Davis Colt and her family endured countless
Traveling east on Alaska Road then south on 1300th Street, one finds the historical marker to the Vegetarian Colony on Alabama Road. REGISTER/TREVOR HOAG sufferings on the prairie in 1856. A British journalist (and perhaps unrepentant swindler) named Henry S. Clubb had promised the Colt family they’d find a utopia in the
On a dry summer’s day, one can walk down the moss-covered rocks of Vegetarian Creek to the Neosho River. Vol. 122, No. 190 Iola, KS 75 Cents
Kansas Territory, surrounded by others who not only practiced “abstinence from the flesh of animals,” but likewise purified themselves by resisting coffee, tea, tobacco and alcohol. A city was to be laid out in southern Allen County according to what Clubb had termed the “Octagon Plan,” a 2,500-acre plot bounded by eight equal sides, with an additional interior octagon set aside for those who had yet to build homes. When Colt and her family arrived, however, despite having bought shares in the Vegetarian Kansas Emigration Company, they found the site nearly as desolate as it is today. As I walked the settlement area, I dreamed them See COLONY | Page A6
Angela Henry, foreground, and Donna Houser place photos in the Mary L. Martin Art Gallery within the Bowlus Fine Arts Center Monday. The photos are part of a planned Smithsonian exhibit depicting the changing lives of rural America. Below, Diana Asher types labels for each of the photos that will be displayed. REGISTER/RICHARD LUKEN
Exhibit to explore changes By RICHARD LUKEN The Iola Register
Hundreds of photos documenting the earliest days of Allen County, are being prepared for an upcoming Smithsonian Institution Exhibit. The Mary L. Martin Art Gallery and Creitz Recital Hall will serve as the starting point for “Smithsonian Crossroads: Change in Rural America Exhibit,” which runs Aug. 29 through Oct. 10. The exhibit offers small towns a chance to look at events that affected their fortunes — for good or ill — over the past century. It includes programming to prompt discussions about what happened when America’s rural population became a minority of the country’s population and the ripple effects that occurred.
The exhibit covers themes such as identity, land, community, persistence and managing change with photographs, hands-on activities, and audio and video clips provided by the Smithsonian. Iola is one of six Kansas communities to host the traveling exhibition, along with Alma, Greensburg, Independence, North Newton and Norton. Locally, the visit is being See EXHIBIT | Page A3