Come meet Fearless Fred at Farm-City Days Saturday.
That’s the name given to the newly acquired trolley by the Iola Area Chamber of Commerce.
The 31-seat trolley will be a part of Saturday’s parade through downtown Iola.
Donna Houser, who serves on the Chamber’s Trolley Committee, spoke Tuesday to Iola City Council members about the 2000 model.
Though the new decals won’t be in place by Saturday, “it still looks good,” Houser said.
The vehicle comes from an Ashland, N.C., tour company, whose owner, Jonathan Helmkin, is a descendant of Maj. Gen. Frederick Funston.
Helmkin’s mother, Debbie, is Funston’s great-niece, and was in Iola for a dedication ceremony when Funston’s boyhood home was relocated to the courthouse square in 1995 (Thus, the Fearless Fred moniker.)
After learning Iola was seeking a new trolley to replace the 1988 Molly Trolley, the Helmkins agreed to sell one of their vehicles — they recently acquired a fleet of brand new trolleys — at a discounted price.
The Trolley Committee spent about $11,000 to buy and transport the trolley, Houser said, much less than what they expected to pay for a similar vehicle.
Council members agreed to spend $2,104 out of the city’s convention and tourism fund to reimburse the committee for the cost of tags and insurance.
ALSO Tuesday, the Council voted, 7-0 (Councilwoman Sandy Zornes was absent), to extend City Administrator Sid Fleming’s contract for two years, through August 2019. Fleming receives a 2 percent pay raise, to $96,900.
