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Tuesday, March 29, 2022
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Hospital projects top $1.6 million By VICKIE MOSS The Iola Register
A group tasked with taking care of Allen County’s hospital facilities approved two major remodel projects, even though the $1.6 million total cost was about 50% more than expected. One project will convert the former labor and delivery department at Allen County Regional Hospital into a specialty clinic for outpatient services. The other will remodel the Medical Arts Building at 825 E. Madison, in order to move an existing health clinic at 401 S. Washington. A lease on the Washington Street clinic ends this summer; the county owns the Madison Street location, so it made more sense to
Terry Sparks, chairman of the Allen County Regional Hospital facilities board, listens to a report from ACRH Administrator Elmore Patterson. REGISTER/VICKIE MOSS renovate and move the clinic there. Costs — particularly the Medical Arts Building remodel — came in higher than expected when the projects were first proposed in June 2021. That’s partly attributed to
an increase in labor and supplies, as inflation and costs have gone up significantly since then. The cost for the specialty clinic came in at $1.1 million; initial estimates were around $838,000.
Work at the Medical Arts Building will cost $538,442. Last June, costs were unknown, but the facilities board thought it might cost $150,000. The scope of the project at the Medical Arts Building, though, turned out to be more than anticipated. The facility was built in the 1970s and hasn’t had a lot of updates since then. The costs were also higher than expected because the building must meet stringent specifications as a rural health clinic. “This one took on a whole life of its own,” Terry Sparks, chairman of the hospital facilities board, said at a meeting Thursday when the projects were approved. “This one was really hard See PROJECTS | Page A3
Iola Mustangs defeat Chanute
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The slap heard ‘round the Oscars PAGE A2
Make your tax return work for you PAGE A4
Zelenskyy: Native American artifacts return home Open to compromise By BOB JOHNSON Special to The Iola Register
LVIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine is prepared to declare its neutrality and consider a compromise on contested areas in the c o u n t r y ’s east, President Volod y m y r Zelenskyy said ahead of another round of talks set for Volodymyr Tuesday on Zelenskyy stopping the fighting. But he said only a face-to-face meeting with Russia’s leader can end the war. While hinting at possible concessions, Zelenskyy also stressed that Ukraine’s priority is ensuring its sovereignty and its “territorial integrity” — preventing Russia from carving up the country, something Ukraine and the West say could now be Moscow’s goal. Russia has long demanded that Ukraine drop any hope of joining the Western NATO alliance, which Moscow sees as a threat. Zelenskyy has also repeatedly stressed that Ukraine See UKRAINE | Page A6
In early summer 1971 someone mentioned while having their hair cut by John Zahm, at his shop next to the Iola post office, they had seen some flint chippings in disturbed ground along Deer Creek north of Iola. He and I had started hunting artifacts lost or discarded by early American people, now politically correct referred to as American Indians, for about two years and decided after the next rain we’d take a look. We did. Not long after arriving we split up and John, with a keen eye, immediately found a very nice knife with beveled edges made from gray flint. A few minutes later I noticed a piece of white flint protruding from the ground. On closer inspection I saw the edge was chipped to fashion a simple knife or scrapper. I dug it up and in so doing was met by two or three other pieces of worked flint. By the time I was done digging, and with warning to John I had found something special, I had a pile 66 tools, including several nicely fashioned cleavers, a scrapper larger than any I’ve seen in 53 years of hunting artifacts and a very large oval piece of flint that had not been turned
Bob Johnson looks at artifacts with Kurtis Russell, director of the Allen County Historical Society. At right are large pieces of flint that were meant to be traded or used as tools. REGISTER/RICHARD LUKEN
to a tool. State archaeologists think it may have been raw material meant to be traded – a common practice – or had been set aside for later use as any number of tools. A disappointment for those who may view these tools is See ARTIFACTS | Page A3
Kansas jobless rate shrinks to 10-year low By TIM CARPENTER Kansas Reflector
Cases since 3/25 .....3 Total cases* ...........3,955 Deaths ..................49
Vol. 124 No. 124 Iola, KS $1.00
TOPEKA — The Kansas unemployment rate dipped another 0.1% in February to reach the lowest level in the past decade, at 2.5%. The jobless figures reported by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Kansas Department of Labor showed 5.9% of the state’s workforce were jobless 10 years ago, in February 2012. At start of the
The Kansas Statehouse. administration of Gov. Laura Kelly in January 2019 the rate stood at 3.3%. Onset of the COVID-19 pandemic took unemployment in
Kansas from 3.1% in March 2020 into double digits. It gradually fell to 3% by September 2021, just below the pre-pandemic mark. In the subsequent five months, Kansas’ jobless figure was reduced to 2.5% in February. “Kansas estimates indicate that strong job growth continued in February as private sector employers added 8,100 jobs over the month,” said Emilie Doerksen, an economist with the state Depart-
ment of Labor. “With this continued growth, the construction, information and trade, transportation and utilities industries are all above pre-pandemic levels.” The January unemployment figure was 2.6%, while the number for February 2021 was 3.6%. In Allen County, the jobless rate stood at 2.7% in both February and January, In February of 2021, the unemployment rate was 3.4%.