Sports: Iola squads gear up for league play See B1
THE IOLA REGISTER Locally owned since 1867
Wednesday, December 30, 2015
www.iolaregister.com
Ambulance service about on budget By BOB JOHNSON The Iola Register
Revenue from ambulance runs is expected to come within about $30,000 of meeting Allen County’s $1 million obligation to Iola for provision of countywide ambulance service. Terry Call, who does billing and tracks daily ambulance statistics, told commissioners Tuesday $728,399.77 had been collected from billings of $1.536 million through Monday. Of billing, $576,569.17 was written off because of contractual obligations to Medicare and insurance companies. That left a balance due of $228,621.39, of
Winter wonderland
That there was barely enough snow to cover the ground mattered little to the Wanker siblings Tuesday, who found just enough snow and ice to make several trips down the Riverside Park dike via sleds and snowboards. Above, Madeline Wanker makes a head-first slide down the dike, while Travis Wanker, left, tries his luck on his snowboard. Below, Lee, left, and Joshua Wanker ride as a duo. Another overnight dusting of snow should give another day’s worth of sledding potential in the area. REGISTER/RICHARD LUKEN
which Call thinks at least 60 percent will be paid. When those figures are all rolled together, the meager $30,000 shortfall emerges. Meanwhile, the county has in its budget $738,000 for ambulance services — including to fulfill the subsidy to the city — but also for such things as new ambulances and other equipment. Call said ambulances had been dispatched — from Iola, Humboldt and Moran stations — 1,977 times, an average of 5.48 calls a day. Of the runs, 1,389 resulted in emergency transport, 58 non-emergency. Another 530 were dry runs, meaning See EMS | Page A3
Lawmakers spar over hospital safety issues By JOHN HANNA The Associated Press
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A Democratic legislator called Tuesday for firings at one of Kansas’ two state mental hospitals because of safety problems reported by critical federal surveys, but a key Republican senator said lawmakers need to learn the facts before assessing blame. Democratic Rep. Jim Ward, of Wichita, sparred publicly with GOP Sen. Mary Pilcher-Cook, of Shawnee, over Osawatomie State Hospital. The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services notified the hospital earlier this month that Medicare would stop paying for patients’ care. The federal agency’s no-
tice came after a survey in November found a “systemic failure” to protect suicidal patients, adequately supervise care and perform required safety checks. It noted that an employee reported being raped in October by a patient who now faces a felony criminal charge. A follow-up survey this month said a male patient, “a known sex offender,” wasn’t supervised properly and engaged in inappropriate sexual behavior. Officials at the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services, which runs the state’s mental hospitals in Osawatomie and Larned, said they’re addressing the safety issues and considering whether to appeal some See SPAR | Page A3
Drugmaker Flood steals hope from families as they return home files for bankruptcy By SCOTT CANON The Kansas City Star
NEW YORK (AP) — Kalobios, the troubled drugmaker taken over by Martin Shkreli last month, is seeking bankruptcy protection less than two weeks after his arrest on securities fraud. It is the second pharmaceutical with ties to the former hedge fund manager now in turmoil following his indictment on charges unrelated to his involvement with them, though the drugmakers are not lacking for problems of their own The other, Turing Pharmaceuticals Inc., is cutting jobs and seeking a new CEO after Shkreli resigned the position See DRUGMAKER| Page A3
CARTHAGE, Mo. (TNS) — By Tuesday, the panicked evacuation that came a few days after Christmas had faded to something that felt more like some awful See A4 nightmare. Brittany Cole stared down the dreary, sodden, pressing reality of what’s next after the flooding that had hit so much of Missouri. “Oh, no,” she said time and again as her body shivered from the late December chill and the on-and-off sobbing that came with each new discovery in the mess of a trailer that had been home. She and her husband,
Erie man among flood victims
Quote of the day Vol. 118, No. 44
Spring River flooding Sunday displaced William Stanley and his extended family from their trailer homes in Kendricktown, near Carthage, Mo. Here, family members look over the damage Tuesday. Brody, a Labrador retriever, rode out the flooding inside Stanley’s son Jeremy Rickman’s home. KANSAS CITY STAR/JILL TOYOSHIBA/TNS Kenny, had just put in new flooring in the kitchen. The couple — he’s 31 and she’s 28 — had recently spent $10,000
on materials to remodel the place. That’s a fortune to them. They’d also put an incalculable investment of
“Never give up, for that is just the place and time that th e tide will turn.” — Harriet Beecher Stowe 75 Cents
sweat and toil to transform it into a home for themselves and their four children. See FLOOD | Page A4
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