Sports
Mustangs fall at state tourney See B1
THE IOLA REGISTER Locally owned since 1867
www.iolaregister.com
Monday, June 1, 2015
Senate stalls on tax plan amid veto threat By JOHN HANNA and NICHOLAS CLAYTON The Associated Press
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Aggressive messages from top aides to Republican Gov. Sam Brownback and the prospect of furloughs for state workers still couldn’t push a new plan from GOP leaders for raising taxes to close a budget shortfall through the state Senate
early this morning. Top Rep u bl i c a n s outlined a plan for See related raising article on B2 $411 million during the fiscal year that begins July 1, aimed at unifying the Senate’s fractured GOP supermajority so it would pass at the
end of a marathon debate on tax issues. The plan would increase sales, cigarette and business taxes and borrowed elements from a package Brownback unveiled Saturday. But GOP leaders ended the Senate’s debate early today without a final vote on any proposal. They took a postmidnight break to have Republican senators review the new plan and were quickly on
the defensive. “You can take this plan and shove it,” said Republican Sen. Greg Smith, of Overland Park. Unable to resolve tax issues, lawmakers have yet to pass a budget for the next fiscal year. Today was the 102nd day of their annual session, and, according to legislative researchers only two sessions have been longer — 1991’s, at
103 days, and 2002’s, at 107. Lawmakers traditionally set sessions for 90 days. Budget Director Shawn Sullivan told GOP senators that all nonessential state workers will be immediately furloughed if the Legislature does not pass a budget by June 7. He said the state isn’t authorized to pay workers beyond See SENATE | Page A4
The world — and her home — is her canvas By RICK DANLEY The Iola Register
O
Jaime Westervelt
Group touts community safety By KAYLA BANZET The Iola Register
Promoting community safety is a top concern for the Allen County Multi Agency Team. Jaime Westervelt, co-chairman of the ACMAT, explained at See, Hear Iola Friday how the team got its start in the county. The organization started as a referral service in the early 1990s. Since then it has grown and includes 12 community sectors and now has 50 members. ACMAT has organized the Family Safety Night, Sticker Shock campaign and Drug Take Back Day. Westervelt said they also organized Bucks for Buckle. The group would stop drivers coming into the school parking lot and passengers wearing their seat belts received a Smarties candy. Those who weren’t received a Dumb Dumb sucker. “We noticed a majority of the kids were wearing their seat belts but the adults weren’t,” Westervelt said. In an effort to get prescription drugs off the streets ACMAT hosts a Drug Take Back Day. So far they have collected 150 pounds. Residents who have old prescriptions medications in their home can drop the medication off with ACMAT at Iola City Hall or Moran City Hall on Saturday so it can be properly disposed of. “This keeps medications from being flushed and getting in the ground water,” See ACMAT | Page A4
ne evening, years ago, when Thelma Cook was still working as a club manager and bartender at the Holiday Park Motel in Chanute, a man from Georgia walked into the club, eyed the oil paintings on the wall and decided to purchase the lot. He had to settle up with Cook first; she was the artist. Sales on this order don’t happen most years, but in the three decades since the talented hobbyist learned to paint, she’s sold a few pieces here and there. Mostly, though, she gives them away. Aside from a handful of lessons held in the basement of her ex-motherin-law’s home in Le Roy 30 years ago, Cook is selftaught. She doesn’t dismiss the importance of those ad hoc classes, though; they exposed in Cook a talent which otherwise might have remained untapped. A life in the fine arts wasn’t an automatic next step for a girl from the hollers of southwest Missouri. “I grew up different from kids nowadays. We didn’t have a TV until I was seven. I grew up back in the back. I had a .410 shotgun since I was 12, and a dog. I was a dead shot. And we had a fishing pole. That was it.” That would have been a great way to grow up. “Oh, no it wouldn’t have been,” Cook corrects. “It was boring as hell. You go to bed with the chickens and get up with the ... Now, here,” she says, changing the subject, “my friend liked hummingbirds, so I
Thelma Cook’s Iola home is filled with her artistry, inside and out. Above, Cook holds an oil painting in her now-grown daughter’s bedroom, which she also painted years ago. At right is the garage door Cook recently painted as well.
REGISTER/RICK DANLEY
painted this for her and sent it to her for Christmas.” That’s beautiful. Did you paint or draw as a little girl? “What? God, no,” Cook says with an emphasis that points up the naiveté of the question. “I never even had art in school, because we didn’t have art. Now, look at this. I did this on glass for a lady.” Cook points to a photograph in a scrapbook showing a perfectly rendered lighthouse painted onto the face of a detached window pane. There is a cabinet in the 63-year-old’s home where she keeps a tall pile of scrapbooks — photographic evidence of her past work, each picture a
testament to her range. “See, I paint on everything,” says Cook — rocks, mailboxes, water tanks, milk cans. “Look here,” she says, running a finger down a page of photos, “gourds, gourds, gourds, gourds. I poke a hole in them, dry them up, paint them, and now you’ve got birdhouses hanging in the trees.” COOK is an unpretentious artist. She marks little distinction between the delicate brushwork she commits to a
canvas and the coats of paint she periodically slaps on her house and garage. The act is her passion. “I painted this house here and the biggest brush I used was four inches,” boasts Cook. And yet, like any painter, Cook has definite ideas about the visual world she wants to inhabit. “I have a very weird, weird color combination. I’m not dull. I’m not a brown person; I don’t like brown very See COOK | Page A4
Westphalia to celebrate 135th anniversary Sunday Westphalia patrons will celebrate the town’s 135th anniversary Sunday The town dates back to September 1879 when Smith P. Cornell settled on a farm 1½ miles east of the Coffey County line at the head of Thomas Creek. I In November of that year railroad tracks were laid across Anderson County to the Coffey County line. A railroad station was located
Quote of the day Vol. 117, No. 146
on the Cornell farm and a post office was opened in Cornell’s home. The town plat for the city of Cornell was filed in January 1880. Two brothers, Carl and Emile Flusche, German immigrants from Westphalia, Iowa, arrived in Cornell later that year. They liked the area and brought their family to the area and purchased the Cornell farm. The brothers built a store
and later requested the name of the railroad station be changed to Westphalia. In September 1881 the name was officially changed to Westphalia through the District Court of Anderson County. THE 135TH anniversary celebration will begin at 10:30 a.m. with the Biennial High School Reunion at St. Teresa’s with a potluck din-
“Beware of false knowledge; it is more dangerous than ignorance.” — George Bernard Shaw, Irish playwright 75 Cents
ner at noon. A parade will begin at the elementary school at 3 p.m. Kids’ activities will follow in the church yard and pictures from the past will be shown in the church basement at 4 p.m. A free-will donation dinner will begin at 5 p.m. in the church basement. The menu will consist of pulled pork, See 135TH | Page A4
Hi: 74 Lo: 55 Iola, KS