[Forum] Thank you Allen County Hospital

Recently I found myself in dire need of emergency healthcare.
Subsequently, I wish to thank Iola emergency medical technician services for prompt response and transportation to Allen County Hospital.
I also wish to thank Allen County EMT service for healthcare and transportation from Allen County Hospital to Kansas Heart Hospital in Wichita.
I especially wish to thank Allen County Hospital for being there for necessary emergency care and for “being there” for the cooperation, consultation and coordination needed between EMTs, doctors and hospitals.
Although I did not need heart surgery, I am pleased Allen County Hospital was there.
I am voting YES for Allen County Healthcare.

Gerald Chester
Iola, Kan.

[Forum] Testimonial — ‘Yes! Allen County Healthcare’

We are about to vote on whether we would like to build a new hospital in Allen County.
Recently, while visiting with people about voting “Yes! for Allen County Healthcare,” several people said that they had one or more bad experiences at Allen County Hospital and they wouldn’t vote for a new one.
It made me think about the experiences I have had with the hospitals in Allen County, Neosho County and the University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City.
My time in ACH was a good experience, the one in Neosho County was not quite as good and my two experiences at KU Medical Center in Kansas City were like night and day. The first experience, in July, was actually wonderful and the nurses gave me excellent care. My second experience a couple of weeks ago was one I would not like to repeat. However, that would not make me dislike KU Medical Center — it would make me determined to help them change.
We all get surveys after our hospital stays and we can give our opinion on their care.
When I was young and having my children, I wanted the hospital close by and I imagine the young parents of today also want that. Now that I’m a senior citizen, I really want the hospital close by.
Please take the time to vote on Nov. 2, and I am asking you to vote yes for the new hospital.

Diana Asher
Iola, Kan.

Failure to build a hospital now the greatest risk

We live in a time when nobody trusts anybody.
If someone in authority says “A,” then a dismaying percent of the public say “B” must be the case. Worse yet, far too many of us also become quickly convinced that the “A”-sayer has an ulterior motive, and only said “A” to gain some personal advantage.
Those who say they have the public good in mind are not believed.
The Internet campaign against building a new Allen County Hospital is an example.
Allen County’s commissioners hired the Hospital Facilities Group of Wichita to make a study to determine the financial feasibility of building and paying for a new hospital to replace our aging and inadequate hospital. It did so and showed how it could be accomplished.
One of the important factors involved is the assumption that a new hospital would make a profit of about $1.5 million annually that could be used for debt reduction. That assumption is now being challenged on the basis of incomplete information. Did the challengers go to the administrator of the hospital and ask if the information was accurate and complete? Of course not. What fun would that be?
Much more satisfying just to assume that the Hospital Facilities Group — which depends upon its reputation for accuracy and integrity for its very existence — deliberately exaggerated the hospital’s potential earning power.
Let’s take another look. First, HFG had every reason to give Allen County its considered opinion. It wants to stay in business. Developing a reputation for integrity and good judgment based on careful research is its best life insurance.
Second, Joyce Heismeyer, administrator of Allen County Hospital, agrees that the HFG estimate is sound. Since her employer, Hospital Corporation of America, which leases the hospital from the county, has no interest in building a new hospital here, she would have no incentive to mislead the people of Allen County. She is, as a matter of fact, an honest and, yes, trustworthy person who is in a position to know what the facts are.
Third, the HFG estimate is conservative. It does not take into consideration the fiscal impact that a state-of-the-art hospital would have. Income — and profits — should rise because the new hospital would attract additional physicians and technicians and serve a greater percentage of the hospital needs in its service area.

THE POINT of the blogs against the hospital is that the income estimates might not come up to snuff and that the county would then be forced to find other revenue to retire the bonds.
Is that a concern? Of course. There are no certain things in this world, so choices must be made. There are risks in building a hospital. There are also risks in yielding to fear and deciding not to build.
Here are a few of the risks in not building now:
One, a continued decline in the quality of health care available in Iola. It will be more difficult to attract and retain health care providers. Physicians will send an increasing number of patients out of Iola to receive care un-available here. As this trend accelerated the hospital would receive less income and become even less able to meet local health care needs.
Two, building costs will never be lower. Interest rates are historically low, as are construction costs. A decision to put off building could prove enormously expensive.
Three, a decision to say no to a first-class hospital would set a negative tone for our community at a time when accentuating the positive is critically important. Good medical care is at the top of the list of “musts” for those looking for a place to start a business or buy a home. A new hospital standing beside an al-most-new doctors’ clinic on the entrance to Iola would be a powerful advertisement for Iola.
Four, health care is a job-creator. Allen County Hospital now provides 160 jobs. A new hospital would do more business, require more employees and also would be part of the community’s health care network: without an adequate hospital, fewer physicians and other providers would be able to thrive here. Not building puts existing health care jobs at risk and lowers the potential for additional ones.

INVESTING IN THE future is always risky. Failing to invest makes many other failures certain.

— Emerson Lynn, jr.

Wrestling clinic is Nov. 3-4

Allen County Kids Wrestling Club will hold its annual fall youth wrestling clinic next week at Iola High School.
Registration deadline is Thursday. The clinic fee is $10, which includes a T-shirt.
Next Wednesday the clinic is for kindergarten through fifth grade boys and girls along with middle school students. It will be from 6 to 8 p.m. on the mezzanine in the IHS gym.
Next Thursday is 6-9 p.m. for sixth- to 12th-grade students. Enter through the northeast doors to the school.
Featured at this year’s clinic is Terry Pack, founder of Legend of Gold Wrestling Camps in South Dakota. Pack is a former Neosho County Community College head wrestling coach.
Pack coached the NCCC wrestling team to its 2000 NJCAA national championship and was national coach of the year. He has coached 32 wrestling All-Americans and nine national champions.
Also helping with the clinic are Bodgan Ciufulescu and Aurel Ciufulescu, members of the Rumanian world wrestling team. Bodgan was a 1996 Olympic wrestler.
John Taylor, Allen County Mat Warriors coach, and former NCCC head wrestling coach for men and women, is helping with with clinic. He coached the Ciufulescus at NCCC.
Registration forms were handed out to the schools. They can be obtained at the Iola Recreation Office in Riverside Park.
For more information contact Stephanie McDonald at 620-228-2792.

Frightfully Fun Run Saturday at midnight

About 80 walkers and runners have signed on for the Frightfully Fun Run, a midnight event Saturday to raise money for the 2011 Iola High School after-prom party.
Those running will follow a five-kilometer course that starts at Waugh-Yokum and Friskel Memorial Chapels, 16 N. Buckeye St., then follows Cottonwood to the east entrance of Highland Cemetery. Runners will dash through the cemetery and return to the funeral home by way of Jefferson Avenue. Walkers will take a three-kilometer course that will cut short of the cemetery and go from Cottonwood to Jefferson by way of Buchanan.
Deanne Burris, one of the organizers, said cones and light towers would mark the course and “we’ll have ‘scare stations’ along the way.” Participants are encouraged to wear costumes, with the event starting at the crack of Halloween.
Entry fee is $15 and sign-up remains open at Iola High School, although those registering now won’t receive T-shirts until later, Burris noted.

Yes! Allen County Healthcare

Voters will decide Nov. 2 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: Much has been made of the new hospital being all on one level, will part of it be reinforced to serve as a storm shelter for patients?
A: Living in a part of the Midwest called “tornado alley” by meteorologists, people of Allen County are used to storm warnings and even tornado watches and tornado warnings. Most of the present Allen County Hospital is made out of reinforced concrete, and as it does have an extensive basement, it has ample room for patients and staff to take shelter during a storm. Has the risk of storms and providing shelter for patients been included in the building design of the new hospital?
Single story structures, unless they are reinforced structures, don’t offer the same protection. When asked, the consulting engineers who drafted the Allen County Hospital Master Plan indicated that an area for use by patients during storms had not been specified in the proposal, but certainly could and probably should be added in the final plans.
They indicated that in many one-story hospital designs the radiology de-partment would be de-signed and equipped to serve as a patient storm shelter since the walls there have more reinforcement and material in them anyway, due to the x-ray radiation. The radiology department in the proposed re-placement hospital is a large space and easily could be adapted to serve as a shelter, too.
In the proposal there is a contingency reserve of 5 percent of the construction cost that could provide ample funds for that en-hancement.
Finally, it should be pointed out that any storm shelter design enhancements only would be intended for patients and staff and not for the public. There are other designated storm shelters in the City of Iola that are available to the public.

Paging the AG: Here’s a chance to ding Derek

Tom Bowlus’s 105-year-old piano, made by Henry Miller of Boston, offers a campaign opportunity for Kansas Attorney General Steve Six.
It’s a bit complicated.
Bowlus left the piano to the fine arts center named after him. Or maybe one of his kin folks did. In any case, the Bowlus Center has it sitting in storage. It isn’t on the Bowlus stage or orchestra pit because it needs help. New sound board. Ivory for some of the major keys. The black minor ones were left alone. Would look better with its wonderful old wood stripped, sanded and refinished. Maybe the pedals need polishing, too.
All told, it needs $10,000 worth of expert help to again sound and look like the Carnegie Hall standout that it wants to be; and, besides, it did belong to Mr. Bowlus, who played it, and loved it and will be mightily pleased to look down in pride upon it.
The late Fern Marsh thought it worth saving, too, and left $1,000 in her will to get a fund drive started.
So what does this quaint tale have to do with Nov. 2 and Attorney General Steve Six and partisan politics?
It’s a bit complicated.
A week or so ago State Sen. Derek Schmidt was in the Bowlus Fine Arts Center and Center Caesar Susan Raines told him about Tom’s piano and the $10,000 repair bill and, at his request, showed the piano — Band-Aids and all — to him.
“Tell you what I’ll do,” Sen. Schmidt said, “be-cause Fern Marsh left $1,000 to start a refurbishing fund, I’ll give $1,000, too. Providing ( … if it’s a politician speaking, there’s always a ‘providing,’ ya know)  providing there are $1,000 of other gifts to match mine.”
It’s a matching money gift and that is where AG Six enters the picture.
Six, you see, has a personal reason to want Sen. Schmidt spend his money on that Henry Miller of Boston piano rather than on more political ads saying that Six isn’t sexy, or whatever Schmidt’s ads say about the AG. So the more money the senator spends in Iola, the less he’ll have to promote himself and put Mr. Six down. And that, patient reader, is why Attorney General Steven Six should sit down right now and send a check to the Friends of the Bowlus piano fund.

YOU CAN WRITE one, too. Whether you want Mr. Six or Sen. Schmidt to be the attorney general of Kansas for the next four years or just want to join Fern Marsh, God rest her musical soul, in honoring the memory of Tom Bowlus by fixing up his piano, is really beside the point. Write the check for a good cause — or because you’d like to see Derek dig down and cough up his $1,000. It’s a win-win deal.

— Emerson Lynn, jr.

Three area volleyball teams lose at Class 2A substate

YATES CENTER — Yates Center High’s Wildcats knocked Humboldt High’s Lady Cubs out of Saturday’s Kansas Class 2A Substate Volleyball tournament in the play-in match.
Then the host team, Yates Center, was ousted by top-seeded Jayhawk-Linn 25-11, 25-6. Marmaton Valley High’s Wildcats lost to second-seeded West Elk 25-12, 25-20.
The Lady Cubs finished at 8-25 for the 2010 season. Yates Center’s final record was 7-27 and Marmaton Valley ends up at 9-27.
West Elk went on to upend Jayhawk-Linn 26-24, 25-16 in the championship match. West Elk advances to the Class 2A state volleyball tournament in Emporia.

Works wants to continue

Editor’s note: A legal clause in a funding agreement between Allen County and the City of Iola disallows Allen County commissioners from speaking publicly about the local ambulance issue for five years. That topic therefore is not addressed herein.

HUMBOLDT — Twenty years after he was first elected to serve Allen County as a commissioner, Dick Works still has enthusiasm for the job.
Works represents Moran, Elsmore, Savonburg, Humboldt, and their environs as one of three commissioners charged with creating and administering policy for the county’s 13,000 residents.
“None of the issues are simple and they require complex answers,” Works said of managing the county and its $11 million annual budget.
“That budget has been the biggest challenge we’ve had to face over the years,” Works added. “Costs keep going up and the state cuts our share of revenue funds each year.”
Works, who ran unopposed for his last two four-year terms, faces a challenge this year from Don Mann, a Moran contractor. 
Works, however, be-lieves he still is the best man for the job.
“When I  ran 20 years ago, I only made one promise, and that was to be honest,” Works said. “I have kept that promise and will continue to do so.”
As for county issues, Works said, “When I was elected 20 years ago, the landfill was the No. 1 issue we had to address. We also needed a new jail and a new hospital. We’ve accomplished the first two,” and now are working on the third.
Commissioners looked into replacing the hospital five years ago, Works noted, but at that time, the only funding mechanism available would have been to significantly raise property taxes.
State law has since changed, he noted, allowing the creation of local option taxes such as the quarter-cent proposed sales tax for a new Allen County Hospital.
A big issue this past year, mowing county roads, may be easier addressed in the future, he said.
“We are looking at a chemical growth retardant to spray on roadsides,” Works said. “It doesn’t kill the weeds, but it really, really slows (their growth) down,” he said.
That move, Works noted, could save the county a good deal of money.
“We burn a lot of fuel” between the sheriff’s department and county road crews, he said.

OVER THE years, Works said he has gotten a reputation for being particular about the county’s budget.
“I focus on trying to find ways to be more efficient,” he said.
That expertise is especially important now, Works said, as the other two commissioners, Rob Francis and Gary McIntosh, took office in January of 2009. “The budget is very complex and it takes six to eight years to figure out.”
Works admits the job is stressful, but he still feels passionately about it.
“I’m very emotional about it because I believe all residents of Allen County deserve” equal representation, he said.
Works is the only commissioner who does not live in Iola, he noted.
“I think that’s one of my strong points,” he said. “I stick up for the county. I never forget that the farmers and rural people are who we represent,” he said, while adding that city residents are also county residents.
“Everybody wants to have their voice heard,” he said. And though he typically “keeps a low profile,” he said, “My number is in the book,” should a constituent want to reach him.
Works noted that, as a commissioner, “We have both administrative and policy duties. Most people think we only meet one morning a week, but we spend about two days a week in our administrative duties.
“The job is much more time-consuming than it was 20 years ago,” he said.
County commissioners are required to serve in an oversight capacity on those boards that receive any funding from the county, such as Tri-Valley Developmental Services, Allen County Extension Service and the Southeast Kansas Regional Planning Commission, Works noted.
“As a county commissioner, we have to serve on many boards because we give money to many groups,” he said.
The county also funds senior citizens’ centers and senior meals programs in each community, he said.
Other issues dealt with by commissioners include non-elected personnel and “we are often solicited for advice by other elected personnel,” Works said. “I get a lot more phone calls from staff than I do from constituents.”
Beyond being pragmatic about the budget, Works noted, “I’m an optimist. I tend to look at the bright side of things.”

WHEN NOT taking on county duties, Works farms about 1,400 acres of corn and soy beans in the Humboldt area.
“I sit out on a tractor and I have a lot of time to think about county business,” he said. “I find myself thinking about it more than I do about farming.”
Works also is a member of the Humboldt Rotary and leads the singing at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Humboldt.
“It’s part of my heritage,” to serve, Works said. “For more than 150 years, the Works family has been working to make Allen County a better place to live.”
A position on the Allen County Commission pays about $17,000 per year, plus health and retirement benefits, Works said.
He graduated with a bachelors in political science degree from Kansas State University in 1975.
“I still feel I can contribute,” he said.

[Birth] Alicia Vallejo

Isabel, Graciela, Isaiah, Marissa and Lucianna Vallejo announce the birth of their baby sister, Alicia Jayne, on Oct. 14, 2010, at Wesley Hospital in Wichita to Dana (Rush) and Jamie Vallejo of Augusta. She weighed 8 pounds, 9 ounces and was 20 inches long.
Her grandparents are Rick and Barb Rush, Iola, Nancy (Brown) and Jeff Bain, Pryor, Okla., and C.J. and Eileen Vallejo, Augusta. Great-grandparents are Myron and Betty Rush, Iola, Jean Brown, Garnett, and Ed Brown, Springfield, Mo.