50 Years Ago
January 1970
A new era in junior college education in Allen County began yesterday when students started classes on the new campus. Moving from the Iola High School to the new complex was done during the two-week holiday break which proved too short to accomplish the task. Most rooms still have one or more cardboard boxes full of equipment and classroom materials yet unpacked and put into place.
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Guy Pees, 90, a longtime Iola attorney, died this morning at Sterling Heights manor. He had been in failing health for several years. Pees, a 1905 graduate of the University of Kansas, practiced law in Iola for 61 years, retiring in 1966.
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Construction will start Monday on a new processing plant for Thompson Poultry, Inc., which will lead to the hiring of about 130 employees by the end of the year. Corbett Thompson, Jr., is owner and manager of the fast-growing firm. The new plant will have 20,000 square feet of floor space and will accommodate three production lines, boosting capacity from the present 2,600 birds per hour to 7,800 an hour. The payroll is expected to grow to over $1 million a year by next fall. Employment is now at 125 and is expected to reach 250 by late fall. The present plant will be converted to a cutting and packaging operation as the company moves from selling whole chickens to cut-up fryers, Thompson said.
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Allen County faces a new ambulance problem. The Price Funeral Home in Humboldt and the Ralston-Hutton Funeral Home at Moran have announced they want out of the ambulance business, leaving no one to serve those communities or the rural areas surrounding them. The city of Iola is served by a city ambulance operated by the fire department. Thought is being given to having Humboldt and Moran operate ambulances that the county provides.
