75¢ COLBY Thursday January 9, 2014 Volume 125, Number 005 Serving Thomas County since 1888 8 pages FFREEREE PPRESSRESS Challenge kicks off with torch A Quinter doctor showed off mer Olympics. He ran through the the torch he carried for the 2012 English town of Ascot, near Lon- London Olympics as he gave a don, with athletes and nonathletes pep talk Monday to kick off the of all ages. Runners in the relay Thomas County Wellness Chal- pass the Olympic flame between lenge, urging everyone to live gas burners within their torches, healthy in the new year. Gruenbacher said, so they got to Dr. Doug Gruenbacher spoke keep their torches. His had 8,000 to about 35 people Monday in holes in it to represent each of the the Student Union at Colby Com- torchbearers that year. munity College to open the chal- “My kids always say, ‘Oh, this lenge, which starts Monday. The one’s you, Dad,’” he said with a audience heard about his efforts smile. at keeping himself and others The audience got to pass Gru- healthy and fit. enbacher’s torch around as he “Expectations are huge,” Gru- showed pictures of him and his enbacher said. “They (kids) don’t family in England and France. think twice about being physically He did not compete in the active.” games, but is an avid runner who After-school trip to China He said his son Eli had insisted regularly runs in races here. This on running a 10-kilometer race – summer, he said, he ran 50 miles SAM DIETER/Colby Free about six miles. Gruenbacher said near Leadville, Colo., in the heart Press he helped build a fitness center in of the Rocky Mountains. He fin- Sheila Frahm of Colby Quinter, where he and his wife ished in about 11 hours, going 4 talked Wednesday Shelly live with their four chil- to 5 mph. afternoon at Colby dren. They both work at the clinic Blood will be drawn for lab Elementary School there as family practice physi- tests for the challenge from 6 to 9 (above) about her visit cians. Gruenbacher is originally a.m. from today through Saturday, to China, with second- from Andale. and again on Monday, when the grader Alexa Carmi- In 2012, he said, the Ameri- event gets going. The blood work chael (left) and fourth can Academy of Family Practice will be done in the front lobby of grader Kaden Solaro invited him to represent it in the Citizens Medical Center. among those listening. Olympic Torch Relay at the Sum- Kids in the school’s after-school program heard of Frahm’s trip through China on a river boat while third- Mortgage fee grader Landen Clap- per (right) looked for the country on the globe. Her daughter, Janice Frahm, (below, battle coming at right), showed the kids the kind of money By Heather Alwin day supporting the tax and asking they use in China. Colby Free Press the governor and Legislature to [email protected] retain the registration fee, estab- lished in 1925. The change could Counties, banks and real-estate cost the county $120,000 or more, agents are set for a battle over they said. changes to the state’s mortgage The tax, .26 of 1 percent of the registration fee during this year’s value of a mortgage, is charged legislative session, with banks and in addition to mortgage and deed real estate people seeking to elim- recording fees under state law, inate an “unfair” tax and counties but the money goes directly into trying to preserve their revenue. counties’ pockets. The Thomas County commis- sioners passed a resolution Mon- See “MORTGAGE,” Page 2 Some insurers records missing By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar thusiastic about the pace of the Associated Press fixes. The companies also are see- ing cases in which the government INDIANAPOLIS – Record- has assigned the same identifica- keeping snags could complicate tion number to more than one per- the start of insurance coverage this son, as well as so-called “ghost” month as millions of people begin files in which the insurer has an using policies they purchased un- enrollment record but the govern- der President Barack Obama’s ment does not. health care overhaul. But orphaned files – when the Insurance companies are still insurer has no record of enroll- trying to sort out cases of so-called ment – are particularly concern- health insurance orphans, custom- ing because the companies have ers for whom the government has no automated way to identify the a record that they enrolled, but the presumed policyholder. They say Three charged in robbery insurer does not. They are wor- they have to manually compare ried the process will grow more the lists of enrollees the govern- By Roxana Hegeman said Wednesday in a phone interview with The preliminary hearing is scheduled for Jan. 23 in cumbersome as they deal with ment sends them with their own Associated Press Associated Press. “You are having to deal with the case. the flood of new customers who records because the government the tragedy of losing your wife at such a young Danielle Zimmerman was pulling into a Taco signed up in December as enroll- never built an automated system WICHITA (AP) – The husband of a woman age, but then it was like they stuck a knife in Bell on Dec. 29 when she suffered the brain ment deadlines neared. that would do the work much robbed at a fast-food drive-through as she lay and twisted it: ‘Really, somebody robbed her aneurysm, causing her truck to hit a speaker in The government says the prob- faster. dying said Wednesday that it felt as though the when she was like that?’” the drive-through lane. While unconscious in lem is real but under control. Offi- “It’s an ongoing concern,” said thieves had “stuck a knife in and twisted it” The three 19-year-old Wichita men charged her car, someone took her purse with $150 and cials say they are trying to resolve Robert Zirkelbach, a spokes- when they took his unconscious wife’s purse with robbery in the case, Daquantrius S. John- her credit cards in it, a cellphone and wedding about 13,000 problem cases out man for the industry trade group and wedding ring. son; Quanique D. Thomas-Hameen; and Keith ring. The 43-year-old Wichita woman died at a of more than 1 million enrolled America’s Health Insurance Kris Zimmerman learned about the robbery Byron Hickles, made their first court appear- through the federal insurance Plans. “Health plans can’t process from police at the hospital. He said it amplified ance Wednesday in Sedgwick County Court See “ROBBERY,” Page 2 market that serves 36 states. They enrollments they haven’t received an already unspeakable tragedy in a case that via video link from the jail. Their bonds were contend the error rate for new from the exchange.” has sparked widespread outrage in this Kansas set at $200,000 each. signups is close to zero. community. Defense attorneys did not immediately re- Insurers, however, are less en- See “INSURERS,” Page 2 “It is a bad wound anyway,” Zimmerman turn phone messages left at their offices. A Page 2 Colby Free Press Thursday, January 9, 2014 Area/State Weather Mortgage fee battle coming Briefly From “MORTGAGE,” Page 1 be quite lucrative for Kansas counties at the detri- The deadline for Briefly is noon the day before. Items submitted in the ment of the parties of real estate transactions who morning will be set up for the following day, space available. The deadline The Kansas Bankers Association and Kansas deal with local community banks.” for Monday’s paper is noon Friday. Association of Realtors oppose the fee because it On a $1 million land loan, the mortgage reg- is only charged if the purchase involves a mort- istration fee adds up to $2,600, money a farmer Legion offers biscuits and gravy breakfast gage. It does not apply to cash purchases or to would not have to pay if he purchased land with a Come to the Colby American Legion, 1850 W. Fourth, from 7 to 10 a.m. mortgages made by federally chartered banks. loan from a federally chartered bank. Saturday for a breakfast of biscuits and gravy, hash browns and scrambled While the law requires the bank to pay the fee to The Kansas Association of Counties opposes eggs. Donations will go to pay for new doors at the Legion hall and other make a mortgage valid, banks can pass the charge elimination of the fee because of the loss of rev- projects. For information, call Tracy Galli at 462-0450. on to the purchaser as a cost of the mortgage. enue it would cause. Brent Wiedeman, president of Farmer’s and The association sent information on the issue Merchant’s Bank in Colby, said he supports the to all Kansas counties earlier this month, asking Big Brothers offer soup, rolls at games banker’s association’s “push to bring equality to them to pass resolutions in support of the tax. Support Big Brothers Big Sisters of Thomas County at the fifth annual Kansas.” Commissioner Mike Baughn proposed the reso- “Soups and Cinnamon Roll Supper” from 4 p.m. to 8:30 Friday at the The bank supports the county, he said, but the lution for Thomas County. Community Building. The menu includes soup and rolls for $6 during the National Weather Service high school basketball games. Call Doug Finley at 462-3308 for questions. Tonight: Increasing clouds, fee should be removed unless all purchasers are The decreased revenue would hurt the county with a low around 25.