The Weekender
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Saturday, October 31, 2015
Locally owned since 1867
Senate OKs budget deal
WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress sent President Barack Obama a bipartisan budget accord Friday that staves off a destabilizing U.S. default, eases the threat of a federal shutdown and spotlights the pitfalls — and opportunities — posed by the current brand of divided government. The Senate used a postmidnight, 64-35 vote to ship the package to the White House. The House approved the measure two days earlier by a similarly comfortable 266-167 margin, and Obama plans to sign it Monday. Kansas Sen. Pat Roberts See BUDGET | Page A6
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DOWN SHE GOES Hospital demolition stays on schedule By RICHARD LUKEN The Iola Register
J
eremy Smith likes looking for weak points. With a few wellplaced pokes and prods, Smith can turn a reinforced concrete structure into a pile of rubble — sometimes in a matter of minutes. It speaks to the engineering and workmanship used to build the old Allen County Hospital in the early 1950s, Smith noted. “There are parts of that
building that are like trying to tear down a bank vault,” Smith said this week, as demolition of the old hospital progressed. Smith works for Remco Demolition in Kansas City, a company that specializes in removing structures large and small. “We’ve done silos, bank vaults, hospitals,” Smith said. “This building has been hard, but we’ve fought harder ones.” The hospital’s different wings have required varying degrees of effort to re-
move, Smith noted. “The east side is going to be the toughest,” he said. “I’m probably going to bring in a wrecking ball, just to get it started. With wide columns, I’ll be able to do the rest from here.” “From here” is the cab of his Hitachi ZX35LC excavator, a brand new machine never used before it rolled onto the ACH demo site. The machine was almost too new, Smith joked. The start of the project was delayed for more than a week because he had to await a
part. “The part wasn’t available yet, so we had to go through the dealer,” Smith said. “But it’s working great now.” The hospital, one of Iola’s landmarks for half a century, is being demolished to make way for a G&W Foods grocery store, with plans in the works for a number of nearby apartment complexes and townhouses. Even with the early delays, Smith is optimistic See DEMO | Page A5
U.S. says it will send advisors into Syria By W.J. HENNIGAN and CHRISTI PARSONS Tribune News Service
Inside today’s Iola Register The Iola Register’s 2015 Progress Edition, features 144 businesses and other organizations. Get your copy today!
WASHINGTON (TNS) — The Pentagon will deploy several dozen U.S. special operations forces into Syria for the first time to advise moderate rebel fighters, facilitate coalition airstrikes and gather better intelligence on the Is-
lamic State, U.S. officials said Friday. The U.S. teams are expected to operate in Kurdish-controlled northeast Syria with vetted rebel groups arrayed against Islamic State and other extremist groups in the country’s bitter civil war, the officials said. The small force — fewer than 50 — will operate as ad-
visers and will not engage in direct combat, officials said. The move represents a limited escalation for the Obama administration even as it intensifies efforts to find a diplomatic solution to the civil war, now in its fifth year. Secretary of State John F. Kerry met diplomats from Russia, Iran and other countries Friday in Vienna to discuss Syr-
ia’s future. The Pentagon has sent several thousand military advisers and trainers to Iraq since August 2014 but none — at least publicly — to Syria until now. A Pentagon program to train and equip Syrian rebels was largely abandoned last See SYRIA | Page A5
Students, young and old, praise endowment’s work By RICK DANLEY The Iola Register
This year’s Allen County Community College Endowment Association’s Scholarship Luncheon featured two keynote speakers, Trent Johnson and Robert Thompson, who listed their experience at ACC as formative in their life’s journey. For Trent Johnson, a traditional student in his first year at the college, the journey is just beginning. “Going up through high school,” reflected Johnson, “I always thought I would be going right up to K-State.” Nearing the end of his high school career, however, Johnson was encouraged by an acquaintance at church to complete his general studies courses at a community college, where the classes are smaller and the instructors’ attention is more at hand. Doing so would also allow Johnson to con-
Ted Clous’ Red Devil Jazz Band performs at the Allen County Community College Endowment Association’s annual banquet. The event drew dozens of scholarship recipients and their benefactors to the ACC gymnasium. REGISTER/RICK DANLEY
Quote of the day Vol. 118, No. 5
“Storms make trees take deeper roots.” — Dolly Parton 75 Cents
tinue laboring on his family’s farm in rural Moran. According to Johnson, his time at ACC has helped him refine his professional ambitions. The native Allen Countian plans to transfer to Kansas State, where he will major in animal science with a business option. “Definitely all the scholarships and small class sizes that we can get here are a big plus over going to a state four-year college right out of the gate.” Johnson ended by thanking all of the attending scholarship donors who made his ACC career possible. Friday’s second speaker, Robert Thompson, enrolled at ACC in 2002. He was well into his middle years at that point. He’d worked a variety of jobs across the years, in a variety of states, and had by then accumulated a large family. Leaving high school, Thompson never felt that college was See ENDOWMENT | Page A6
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