IHS volleyball: Fillies open at Prairie View tourney.
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THE IOLA REGISTER Locally owned since 1867
www.iolaregister.com
Monday, August 29, 2016
Saving Humboldt’s field of dreams By BOB JOHNSON The Iola Register
HUMBOLDT — Humboldt’s answer to The Mighty Casey, Gary Larson, shanked a looping hit down the field line Saturday during an old-time baseball game at Walter Johnson Field. At 51, he puffed into first, and allowed later he would have had a stand-up double when he was a crackerjack athlete at Humboldt High. Larson, who dreams of turning the abandoned football and baseball fields into a Southeast Kansas destination, filled in for the Topeka Westerns, who battled a Wichita team made up of Bulldozer and Blue Stockings players. The contest — more fun than competition — brought to life the 1930s Works Progress Administration park that has been dormant since Humboldt High opened its sports complex at the east edge of town. The baseball game featured players of several ages and included a Stacy “Sassy” Beebe, a gal from Viola. The players caught bare-handed and the pitcher delivered underhanded. Fans — a good number on a hot, sultry late afternoon — munched on the typical fare of hot-dogs and peanuts. Most were riveted to what Larson had say, because they came to support “Saving the Field.” Humboldt Historical Preservation Alliance has joined with Larson in the effort, a gaggle of citizens rarely denied when they take on a
Sid Fleming is Iola’s new city administrator. REGISTER/RICHARD LUKEN
Fleming finds niche in Iola By RICHARD LUKEN The Iola Register
T
o call Sid Fleming’s first two weeks on the job as a whirlwind is an understatement. “It’s still going pretty fast,” Fleming said Friday after introducing himself to the community as Iola’s new city administrator via the monthly “See, Hear Iola” session at Riverside Park. His first day on the job was Aug. 15. “I’m still trying to meet everybody and get names with faces,” he said, “to get an idea of what each department does.”
And then, as his wife jokes, Fleming must let this new knowledge “marinate” in order to fully grasp Iola’s strengths and challenges as a city. But for now, each day remains something of a blur for Fleming, who grew up not even considering a job in city governance. “I have to laugh to myself,” he said. “I’d just never thought I’d work in a local government.” But in retrospect, such a career was never far away. Fleming’s mother was city clerk in his native Coldwater for more than 20 years. His father served a couple of terms on the Coldwater
City Council. His brother is EMS director of Hoisington (and served a stint on Allen County’s ambulance crew) and his sister works for Kiowa County. “Maybe it’s a family thing,” he joked. FLEMING, 42, grew up in Coldwater, a small speck on the map in south-central Kansas, 23 miles south of Greensburg. He graduated from Southwestern College in Winfield and then took on with the City of Wichita. Fleming said after a few years he learned that he See FLEMING | Page A4
Steve Dobson, Carbondale, holds the ball aloft before delivering an underhand pitch at an old-style baseball game at Humboldt’s Water Johnson Field Saturday. REGISTER/BOB JOHNSON
project. SOMETIME in the next two months Larson expects to take ownership from USD 258 of the spacious park enclosed by a tall concrete and rock wall, laid up by men who during the Great Depression were eager for any work, regardless of pay. See FIELD | Page A4
New IMS teacher realizes life’s ambition By RICK DANLEY The Iola Register
Bumper crops for Kansas farmers By AMY BICKEL The Hutchinson News
HUTCHINSON, Kan. (AP) — A 5-million-bushel mountain of wheat is growing on an old Naval runway near Yoder. At Minneola, a crew is bagging wheat to make room for corn harvest. And, at Oakley — already full of wheat — the cooperative has purchased land for ground piles and is trying to acquire more. It’s a similar story across the entire state, The Hutchinson News reported. Four seasons of record crops plus low prices equal a temporary mountain range. While there has been growth in storage capacity in recent years, almost every elevator, bin and farm grainSee HARVEST | Page A2
Jenna Higginbotham, the new sixth-grade teacher at Iola Middle School, may contain in her person the genetic secret to being a great teacher: She likely picked up from her mother, a longtime employee at the Department of Children and Families, a focused capacity for helping kids. And from her father — the knack for keeping them in line. “My dad, he was the warden at Hutchinson Correctional Facility,” explained Higginbotham. But whatever her lineal gifts, the fervor for teaching is hers alone. Higginbotham grew up in Buhler, the middle of three children, and cannot recall ever wanting to do anything else. “I would play teacher in my bedroom when I was little, pretending to teach all my stuffed animals. It’s just always been my thing.” From there, her career ambitions never wavered. And it was probably this confidence of purpose that propelled Higginbotham through Ottawa University at a rate that saw her graduating from college around the time that most of her classmates were only just finding their feet. “I did the fast-track,” re-
Quote of the day Vol. 118, No. 211
Iola Middle School teacher Jenna Higginbotham poses with her daughter Eliana. Higginbotham was hired as a new instructor this year for USD 257. REGISTER/RICK DANLEY calls Higginbotham. “I never took breaks. I did college all through summer and everything. I couldn’t wait to get to the real world.” And now? “And now I’m like: Why!” laughs Higginbotham, “I should have stayed in college longer!” But her get-up-and-go didn’t pass unnoticed. Higgin-
botham graduated in December of 2007 and was offered a job in Ottawa the following month. She’s been teaching ever since: in Ottawa, in Garnett, and, most recently, in Chanute. The 30-year-old hopes to have found a longer-term home in Iola, though. Her husband John — the assis-
“The more articulate one is, the more dangerous words become.” — May Sarton, American poet 75 Cents
tant technical director at the Bowlus Fine Arts Center — is an Iola native, and it’s where the pair plan to raise their three children, the youngest of which is only 10 weeks old. This will be Higginbotham’s first year teaching middle schoolers. She is licensed to teach K-6, and has See TEACHER | Page A4
Hi: 87 Lo: 71 Iola, KS