The Iola Seniors, Inc. group, which sells clothing, shoes and household items at bargain-basement prices, contributed $16,500 to local nonprofits during 2017.
Joyce Adair, the group’s president, announced the benevolence to Allen County commissioners Tuesday morning, and gave a brief accounting of the center’s purpose.
“We sell most clothes for 20 cents each — shirts, dresses, blouses — or $1 for a paper bag” filled with whatever the customer selects, Adair said. Shoes also are 20 cents, although “we get more for nice cowboy boots,” up to $3.
Lower quality clothing is left outdoors in plastic bags, free for the taking.
Merchandise marketed through the senior center, 223 N. State St., comes from donations, all of which qualify as a tax deduction for contributors. “We are a 501(c)3 charitable organization,” Adair noted.
Commissioners, in their turn, are benevolent to the seniors, providing the building they use and picking up the tab for utilities.
Joe Hess, whom Adair succeeded as president, estimated the center’s distributions average $20,000 a year, with 2017 being less than usual. “We have given away as much as $25,000 in one year,” he said.
PROPOSALS for a new rock crusher for the county quarry are due by Feb. 21, and will be reviewed by commissioners at their Feb. 24 meeting.
Mitch Garner, director of Public Works, said five companies were contacted, one in Wichita, the others in the Kansas City area.
The crusher to be replaced dates to 1987, and was purchased used by Allen County in 1993 for about $500,000, according to Garner’s predecessor, Bill King.
While the county could buy a new machine outright by tapping Public Works and general funds, the likelihood is it will be acquired on a lease-purchase agreement with interest rates relatively low. If that is the path for crusher purchase, with price of about $1 million expected, amortization will be for eight or nine years, Garner said.
County Counselor Alan Weber, within sight of retirement, asked commissioners to reduce his weekly workload to 30 hours and consider someone else to deal with zoning issues, which crop up rarely; “sometimes we go a year without one.”
