Iola may get high-tech rec

A vacant warehouse just north of the Allen County Critical Response Center, 410 N. State St., soon may be home to interactive computer-based recreation opportunities.
Iolans Rick Vink and Kevin Sullivan laid out plans Tuesday morning for Allen County commissioners, who said they would have the building appraised to determine rent or lease-purchase figures. Roof and ceiling damage and heating are concerns that will affect whatever financial deal may be struck.
“We’ve been looking for six or seven months and this would be a good location,” Vink said. “We’ve had possibilities in Chanute, Garnett and other places, but we’d would like to have it in Iola.”
Focus would be on baseball and softball, while golf and even archery might be added to the inventory of high-tech interactive recreation, he said. The systems require physical exertion to computer-based stimuli.
A similar facility opened recently in Baxter Springs, with the owner also building four ball fields where tournaments frequently are held, Vink said.
“There are 41 traveling (baseball and softball) teams in the area that I can think of and the kids take the sports seriously,” he said, which he and Sullivan think would translate to heavy use of the training and recreation facility they have proposed. “I think there’s a market.”
Vink added that professionals would be involved, in clinics and private instruction.
“We just need a building” to bring their plans to life, Vink said.
Equipment sales may be associated with the center, Vink added, pointing out that area team sponsors and coaches often have to go to Kansas City to find equipment.
Commission Chairman Dick Works embraced the proposal but thought it better to put off a decision until next Tuesday’s meeting, when the third commissioner, Gary McIntosh, could participate in a decision. Commissioner Rob Francis agreed.

BECKY GRAY, representing Southeast Kansas Community Action Program, told commissioners SEK-CAP’s focus had shifted to working more with other agencies meaning to help the poor and disadvantaged.
About 15 agencies are in an Allen County coalition “to help those in need,” she said.
Advantage, Gray noted, is that collaborative efforts are more likely to draw federal financial support. But, said Dick Horton, also of SEK-CAP, such county groups aren’t cookie-cutter models, rather adjust to local needs.
Gray also said she was the southeast Kansas regional homeless coalition coordinator and a survey would be taken in January to determine homeless numbers.
The survey will focus on the night of Jan. 23, and will include information compiled by local law enforcement, hospitals, schools and others that might come in contact with the homeless. Dorothy Sparks will coordinate efforts in Allen County.
The survey will help in directing local resources, Gray said.
She defined the homeless as those sleeping in a place not meant for him or her and those about to lose their homes and with no where to go.
“I’ll assemble the data and report back to you in March,” Gray told commissioners.

COMMISSIONERS put off approving a three-year extension of Iola’s Neighborhood Revitalization Program.
Shonda Jefferis, city code enforcement officer, told them it would run from the first of this month through Oct. 31, 2015, and target, as originally intended, blighted areas.
The program provides property tax breaks for improvements to residential, business or industrial properties of $5,000 or more. Owners get a rebate of 100 percent — less 5 percent the county retains for administration — of taxes for five years, with them then restored in 20-percent increments.
Francis moved to accept the program’s renewal, but Works didn’t provide an enabling second.
“I don’t see it as an incentive,” he said, suggesting that many who enroll would have done their projects regardless of getting a tax break. “I don’t think it’s fair to the rest of the county,” where incentives aren’t available.
Works said with McIntosh’s return to the table next week, the issue could be considered again and likely would fly with “him representing most of Iola.”
The revitalization plan has been available for parts of Humboldt and LaHarpe, as well as Iola.