Like local history? Then you’ll love Southeast Kansas History Online. Simply navigate to the SEK History homepage at sekhistory.com, on either desktop, tablet or mobile, and you’re ready to start exploring. Did we mention that it’s absolutely free, thanks to a generous grant from the nonprofit organization Humanities Kansas? Humanities Kansas is a cultural organization that connects communities with history, traditions and ideas to strengthen civic life. Source: The Iola Register

The Kansas Senate late Friday rejected an agreement between committees from both chambers on a property tax bill after including a highly scrutinized property tax exemption for health and fitness clubs. House Bill 2313 includes provisions to provide financial relief for smaller retailers hurt by temporary shutdown orders during the pandemic, and expands a law exempting Kansans in the military from paying property taxes on two vehicles. The bill also includes an extension of a 20-mill property tax levy that generates $750 million annually for K-12 public schools. In a tradeoff, the House contingency offered to support a Senate-backed section of the [...]

Republicans pushed a plan through the Kansas Legislature early Saturday that could provide roughly $500 million to small businesses to offset losses tied to state and local restrictions meant to check COVID-19’s spread last year. The measure would require the state, cities and counties to set aside part of their federal coronavirus relief funds to pay claims from small businesses. It was the last bill lawmakers considered before shutting down their annual session except for a formal adjournment May 26. The Republican-controlled Legislature approved a bipartisan public school funding bill and finished a $21 billion state budget for the fiscal year [...]

Kansas has requested less than 9% of its federal allocation of COVID-19 vaccine doses for this week, as Republican state lawmakers try to revive proposals to ban government vaccine passports and restore limits on tracing the close contacts of people exposed to the virus. Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s office said Thursday that the state asked for fewer than 14,000 vaccine doses for the week, out of a federal allotment of almost 162,000. While the state sought its full allotment of 6,400 doses of a one-shot vaccine made by Johnson & Johnson, it requested only 7,510 doses of its allocation of 155,540 [...]

Allen County residents gathered to discuss issues related to housing. Several key areas of need were identified, including the availability of financing and recruiting builders. Housing was the talk of the town in Allen County yesterday. Specifically, how to get more.  In the morning, Atlas Community Studios and McClure Company hosted an online “visioning session” to collect data on housing needs. And in the evening, the Renaissance Design Group (RDG) and the Kansas Housing Resources Corporation (KHRC) facilitated a public meeting at the North Community Building in Iola. Quite a few residents were in attendance, with over 30 tuning in online [...]

Gov. Laura Kelly was in Humboldt Thursday morning to tour the Monarch Cement plant and learn its history. The extensive outing included seeing the plant’s massive rotary kilns, its sophisticated control room and towering silos. Kelly said, “It’s companies like Monarch that are the bedrock, literally, of our state, along with agriculture.” Not content with the status quo, Kelly said, “We’re working ferociously to grow our economy here in the state of Kansas,” adding, “Last year we set a record for new capital investments in the state. Over $2.5 billion.” Kelly said she was “very, very impressed” with her tour of [...]

Iola’s new city administrator Matt Rehder has been touring city facilities and getting to know the city and its people. Matt Rehder’s first month on the job as Iola City Administrator has been thankfully routine. There have been no emergency meetings called to address some unforeseen crisis. “On the good side, it’s been kind of quiet,” Rehder said, rapping his knuckles on his wood desk. “My experience tells me that something will pop up at some point.” For now, Rehder is content to immerse himself in all things Iola, as he’s done since his arrival in March. Source: The Iola Register

When it comes to building and repair work this year, everything is going up. The number of permits are up as well as prices. In fact, they’re setting records. And that’s not likely to change anytime soon.  “This year has been crazy. Prices are rising throughout our whole industry, and supplies are hard to come by,” Ron Boren, president of Boren’s Roofing in Iola, said. “It’s going to be an interesting summer.” Bill Weston, with H & H Roofing, agreed. Supplies are limited and costly. But his crews are busier than ever, thanks to a hail storm last May that damaged dozens [...]

Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly announced Friday that anyone in Kansas age 16 or older will be allowed to get a coronavirus vaccine starting Monday because the state expects to get enough of the medicine to speed up its inoculation process for the second time in two weeks. Kelly’s announcement means the state will enter the fifth and final phase of its vaccine distribution. The move to make vaccines available to another 400,000 people comes after weeks of criticism from Republicans in the GOP-controlled Legislature that the effort is not moving quickly enough and not organized enough for people to easily learn [...]

Thrive Allen County’s transportation program is changing lives. “To me it’s been a godsend,” said Iolan Loren Mitchell, in reference to the local initiative. The 83-year-old said his daughter had been giving him rides to his dialysis treatments in Chanute, but her busy schedule often makes that impossible. Fortunately for Mitchell, while attending dialysis one day, an employee there told him about Thrive’s free, non-emergency transportation program, which is currently being piloted. In no time, he was getting a lift to Chanute pro bono, sometimes multiple days per week. Source: The Iola Register