Iola’s loss of population means Allen County commissioners will determine how almost $26,000 in state funds garnered from the sales of alcohol will be used.
Because Iola’s population has fallen below 6,000, the county will manage the funds. The state sets a minimum population of 6,000 to administer the funds. Iola’s current population is 5,704.
In past years, Iola has directed its share of the state funds, about $21,000, to the Southeast Kansas Mental Health Center, the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program and to its Parks Department in equal amounts.
Iola Administrator Judy Brigham encouraged county commissioners to keep a portion of the money to the city’s parks, specifically the soccer program, which has teams from across the county using the fields.
Commissioners said they would consider the request. They agreed to direct $7,000 to the mental health center.
All together, the county received $25,940.06 from taxes levied on alcohol sales last year, said Treasurer Sharon Utley.
ALLEN COUNTY ambulances will have power-assisted cots in about 30 days.
Commissioners approved a request from Ambulance Director Jason Nelson to spend $36,021.76 on three of the cots, one each for ambulances stationed in Iola, Humboldt and Moran.
Nelson thinks they will alleviate occupational hazards faced by ambulance personnel.
“We have two employees off work now because of injuries they suffered lifting patients, including one employee who is expected to miss about 1,500 hours (three-quarters of a work year),” Nelson said.
Nelson also asked commissioners to consider paying for county ambulance personnel to join a fitness center — he mentioned Cedarbrook Golf and Fitness at the east edge of town — to better prepare them for the physical rigors of their jobs. Commissioners said they would consider the proposal.
They accepted bids from Van Diest Supply Company, Iola, to provide a variety of weed- and brush-killing chemicals, which ranged from $9.39 to $135.17 a gallon. Van Diest’s was one of four bids.
J.R. Crow & Co., Derby, was the only bidder for large-diameter pipe, used for road and field entrance work. The county will pay $15.95 a foot for 12-inch pipe in lengths of 38 to 40 feet and $16.75 for pipe 13 3/8 inches in diameter of the same length.
Bill King, director of Public Works, estimated about 40 pieces of each diameter pipe would be purchased this year.
