Voters will decide Tuesday whether to increase a countywide sales tax by 1⁄4 of a cent to go toward a new Allen County Hospital.
Members of the Allen County Healthcare Committee address questions about the issue.
Q: Besides “a new look” with a new hospital, why is replacing the old one so important?
A: Just as the Iola Register, as a daily news provider, needs to stay up-to-date to keep its readership and advertisers and has decided to transition to a full-color format, our Allen County Hospital, as a healthcare provider, must stay up-to-date to continue to attract patients and doctors with the important improvements that come with a new hospital.
Print media is changing and healthcare is changing. In both cases, organizations that fail to keep up with change means such organizations won’t be able to keep customers and as a result, such organizations won’t be able to stay in business. Keeping up with change is a matter of survival.
There are many other reasons to recommend building a replacement hospital:
1) The present facility is near the end of its useful life;
2) Renovation is 15 percent more expensive, takes eight months longer, solves only 85 percent of present flaws, and yields much less Medicare reimbursement money to pay for the project;
3) A larger site is needed;
4) Construction costs and financing costs are at historic lows;
5) Current hospital profits and Medicare reimbursement as a critical access hospital make financing the project affordable;
6) Patient market size and Allen County population, though declining, are more than adequate to support a new 25-bed facility;
7) The quarter-cent sales tax piece of the financing is a bargain;
8) Family-oriented birthing suites are included;
9) All patient spaces will be wheelchair accessible and a majority of the rooms will be private;
10) Expanded outpatient services would feature more space for physical, occupational and speech therapy;
11) Separate walk-in and ambulance entrances are planned for the emergency room, which will be located close to the surgery suites;
12) Operating costs will be reduced with energy efficient mechanical and electrical equipment and a smaller footprint than the present three-story structure;
13) Staffing efficiencies, im-proved access and convenient layout for patients, staff and the public would be designed;
14) Local control of the hospital by an appointed local board of trustees would be achieved;
15) Keeping jobs in Allen County and attracting new ones becomes easier with up-to-date healthcare — employers insist on it;
16) The City of Iola is helping with the financing by using $350,000 of its sales tax income for ten years — it reduces the sales tax needed from 1⁄2 cent to 1⁄4 cent; and
17) Allen County Hospital is a major employer and a new facility assures those jobs will be around for a long time to come.

WWCFST? What would Charles F. Scott think? ACS? or EELJR?
Charles F. Scott bought the weekly Iola Register in September of 1882. It was printed from handset type on a press that was fed, a sheet at a time, on a belt-driven press located on the second block of South Washington, just off the square. What would granddad have thought about printing the Register at the Lawrence Journal-World?
He wouldn’t have been surprised, but it’s just as well he didn’t live 72 years longer and been forced to make the decision. Granddad was as forward-looking as anyone. He built the Register building in 1926, convinced that Iola would grow into one of the larger cities in Kansas. He grew the weekly Register into the daily Register. He went from handset type to Linotypes.
But technology wasn’t his long suit. The managers he hired looked into the grubby business of producing a better newspaper and making more money while he practiced politics, studied history, wrote, traveled and fished for trout in Colorado. So WWCFS think about today’s new Register? It is very attractive, he would have said. “I’m glad we can afford it.”
Angelo Campbell Scott, who took over in 1938 and was its publisher until 1965,  would have said: “That was a well-thought-out decision, Susan. The pictures are spectacular. It isn’t practical for newspapers our size to have their own four-color presses. You have found a way to give our readers quality printing without charging them an arm and a leg. Good for you.” And then he may have reminisced about the tough times the newspaper endured through the 1930s, when the farm economy slowed to near zero and the business was still paying off the loan made to build the building and install the new press. Light was hard to see at the end of that tunnel.
Emerson Elwood Lynn, jr., generation three, takes no credit for Susan’s decision but agreed with it at every turn. He has had practice changing technologies. He bought the Register, with Jack Hastings as a partner, in 1965. The newspaper still was being printed on the eight-page Cottrell press that his granddad bought in the 1920s. (The great bull gear that ran that press sits on its axel in his patio today, serving as a table.) Linotypes produced the lead type slugs from which the news and advertisements were printed.
The air in the back two-thirds of the ground floor was always heavy with fumes from the molten lead and the sharp, but reassuring smell of printer’s ink. When you walked through the door and that bouquet of odors hit your nostrils, you knew you were home.
It took five men working a full week, or longer, to do the mechanical work involved in printing the daily Register.
Then the changes came faster. By the 1970s, hot metal was yesterday’s technology. Offset printing took its place. The old press went to the junk yard. A new press, a new mortgage, took its place.
Just as printing required a new technology, so did creating the news and advertisments. Gone were the Underwood typewriters and the Asssociated Press teletype machine.
Over a short period of time, at least four generations of typesetters, each better and far less expensive than its predecessor, were purchased and then junked. Today the type is created by computers that cost about 5 percent a Linotype’s cost in 1950 — and do a better job far faster. The news staff took over the newpaper-making that the men in the back shop once did.
Today EELJR thinks that giving Register subscribers four-color pictures, crisper printing on better quality paper, at the same price charged for last week’s black and white edition is the only way to go and congratulates SL for having the gumption to make the move.

— Emerson Lynn, jr.

For years, we have worked with Derek Schmidt in support of Kansas law enforcement.
As Senate majority leader, Derek Schmidt has fought for legislation to protect cops, such as sentencing enhancements for criminals who wear ballistic armor or who carry guns to drug deals. He has fought for needed funding for law enforcement, such as his successful efforts this year to better fund the KBI laboratories and to pay for a critical upgrade to our statewide law enforcement communications network. And he has fought for tough, sensible public safety law, such as leading the charge for Jessica’s Law, which puts violent child molesters in prison for life, and the Sheriff Matt Sam-uels Act, which cut meth production sharply in Kan-sas.
Derek Schmidt’s leadership for law enforcement earned him the Friend of Law Enforcement award from the Kansas Sheriffs Association.
As a city prosecutor, Derek Schmidt personally prosecuted crimes against people and against property. This is important day-to-day work of public safety. Derek Schmidt has personally prosecuted crimes such as battery, domestic battery, theft, assault on a law enforcement officer, possession of drug paraphernalia and DUIs to keep his community safer.
In recent days, we have been deeply troubled by televised political attack ads paid for by out-of-state special interests trying to convince Kansans to question Derek Schmidt’s commitment to law enforcement and public safety. Don’t believe them. We know Derek Schmidt. He is a highly qualified leader for public safety. We urge you to vote for Derek Schmidt for Kansas attorney general.

Sincerely,
Tom Williams
Iola, Kan.

(Six other current and former law enforcement officials from across the state also signed this letter.)

Iola Industries has existed for over 50 years with its sole purpose being to attract, maintain and support jobs in Allen County. As a community, we have faced difficult times before and almost certainly will again in the future. Our viability as a desirable location to do business will continue to be determined by how we react to the challenges we face.
The most immediate challenge before us is the vote for a new hospital next Tuesday.
It is extremely important that we make the right choice.
We can, if we choose, let Allen County Hospital continue to age and slowly lose the services it has provided and lose its several million dollar payroll to Chanute, Parsons and Fort Scott. Or, we can choose to invest in our own medical community and reap the benefits within Allen County.
Choice number one would not be lost on our current employers and would undoubtedly make recruiting new ones more difficult. Choice number two will give us a fighting chance to compete in the future.
The Iola Industries Board strongly supports building a new Allen County Hospital.

John McRae, president
Iola Industries, Inc.

The race for Kansas secretary of state generally is not a campaign that we get overly excited about. This year is different, however, because Chris Biggs is one of the candidates for this office.
Chris is our good friend. We have known him for over 30 years. We know him well. We know him to be a down-to-earth, smart, hard- working, guitar-picking, regular kind of guy. His campaign motto of “Common man, Common sense” could not better describe him.
We also know Chris as someone who has proven himself to be an exceptionally capable and dedicated public servant, having previously served as the Kansas securities commissioner and now as the current Kansas secretary of state. His public service has never been motivated by political agendas or to further any personal political aspirations. His goal has always and only been to effectively serve the citizens of Kansas.
This unpretentious, common sense approach to public service is both refreshing and commendable in today’s political climate, and this, together with his demonstrated abilities, makes him deserving of our support.
We encourage you to vote for Chris Biggs for Kansas secretary of state on Nov. 2.

Fred and Judy Works
Iola, Kan.

On behalf of the Iola FFA, I would like to thank the community and all of those who donated goods or worked to make our garage sale successful once again this year.
I would like to especially thank Vicki Vaughn, Le-nora Lind, Marvin and Nellie Rose and Marla Wilson for the extra hours put in to help with the sale.
The money raised will be put to good use within the Iola FFA.
Thanks once again,
Emily Clark
Iola FFA vice president