Locally owned since 1867
Worker died of natural causes By RICHARD LUKEN The Iola Register
Juan Carlos Mendez-Alvarado died of natural causes while working at the new elementary school construction site, Iola Police Chief Jared Warner said. Mendez-Alvarado’s body was found the afternoon of Jan. 31 in a portable restroom at the school construction site off North Kentucky Street after coworkers realized he had been missing that afternoon. Preliminary autopsy reports indicate Mendez-Alvarado died of an aneurysm, Warner said. He worked as a painter for a subcontractor and had done painting work at the science center at Iola High School, which opened in the fall. The new elementary school is slated for completion later this year and will open in the fall.
Allen County COVID-19 Case Count
Active cases ...........61 Total cases* ...........3,918 Deaths ..................46
Thursday, February 17, 2022
iolaregister.com
Zirjacks of all trades By RICHARD LUKEN The Iola Register
and taken apart so he can make it shorter. “It looks too tall for something that wide,” he said, “so I’m gonna shave about an inch and a half from the bottom.”
Paul Zirjacks runs his finger along the freshly sanded checkerboard. He winces a little. After hours of meticulously cutting, gluing and finally sanding the surface of his latest woodworking project, Zirjacks still isn’t satisfied. “Who wants to move pieces that go bumpity-bump?” he said. A visitor compliments him on the piece, and his craftsmanship, pointing out any such “bumpity-bumps” were long ago eliminated. “I’m glad you think so,” he replies. “When I look at it, I see flaws. I don’t like flaws.” Zirjacks posits his German heritage leads to an unrealistic pursuit of perfection. He’ll spend hours, even days, on projects that he admits should take a fraction of the time. “Being a German, I’m a perfectionist,” he said. “And perfect is the opposite of good.” Oh, and there’s one other reason Zirjacks is rarely satisfied with his own workmanship. “I make a lot of mistakes,” he laughs.
Paul Zirjacks made this checkerboard and bookshelf from recycled wood scraps. REGISTER/RICHARD LUKEN
ZIRJACKS, 86, continually finds ways to fill his spare time to keep his body and mind focused. He’s a regular attendee at Iola City Council and Allen County Commission meetings and remains as civically engaged as whippersnappers half his age.
He’s a voracious reader, with shelves filled with World War II history books. “Every book in my house I’ve read,” he says proudly. “A few I’ve read many times.” And, when the mood is right, he’ll tinker in his garage/woodshop for hours on end.
ZIRJACKS figures he inherited his love of woodworking from his father, Martin, who had a saw mill in Missouri until it went bankrupt in 1929, during the onset of the Great Depression. “I don’t know if he ever fully recovered from that,” he said. The elder Zirjacks’s pursuit of a job eventually took him to Humboldt, where he found work at Monarch Cement. Paul was born not long after. Evidence of his father’s workmanship sits prominently in Zirjacks’ living room, a table he made 1927. “It’s made entirely of cherry,” Zirjacks said. “That was his favorite wood.” Zirjacks’s home has other homemade furniture, including a small table he made in high school. “I think everyone in class made one,” he chuckled.
A handful of projects — including the checkerboard — still are not complete. “I’ve got a couple of unfinished tables,” Zirjacks said. And a recently assembled bookshelf — made from wood Zirjacks acquired when he disassembled a discarded table — will soon be emptied
*Since the start of the pandemic
Allen sweeps Fort Scott
By RICHARD LUKEN The Iola Register
Humboldt resident Paul Finney requested the 2022 Legislature amend tax law to create an opportunity for him to claim a state income tax refund after he renovated an old hotel in Humboldt that was later sold at a loss. (KANSAS REFLECTOR SCREEN CAPTURE FROM KANSAS LEGISLATURE YOUTUBE CHANNEL)
Crest kids ‘Never Give Up’ PAGE A2
MV FFA students earn grants PAGE A4 Vol. 124, No. 97 Iola, KS $1.00
See WOOD | Page A3
MV cuts business classes
Sources: Southeast Kansas Multi-County Health Departments, Kansas Department of Health and Environment
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FAST FORWARD a generation. Following an extensive military career, he retired in 1988 and settled with wife Judy and sons in Iola. One of the first purchases for his garage was a Craftsman table saw, which he still uses on a regular basis. His woodshop also has a number of shelves filled with
Humboldt’s Finney seeks tax break By TIM CARPENTER Kansas Reflector
TOPEKA — Acupuncturist Paul Finney leveraged inherited farmland to finance renovation of a small historic hotel in downtown Humboldt. Finney can be blunt about how that venture from 1998 to 2006 turned out: “The hotel was not a success. I closed it and put it up for sale. Nobody
wanted to buy it.” Unraveling himself from the Bailey Hotel quagmire led to a series of transactions. Finney sold the farmland, at a healthy capital gain, to pay off the hotel bank loan. The hotel was sold to a Catholic organization at a loss. He received a federal income tax refund that took into account Finney’s loss on the hotel, but he was thwarted from doing
the same at the state level. He asked the 2022 Legislature to make room in state law for someone such as himself eager for a state tax refund after absorbing a capital loss on investment in an historic hotel in rural Kansas. A bill pending in the Kansas Senate would carve an exemption so narrowly defined the Kansas DepartSee TAX | Page A4
MORAN — With enrollment numbers dwindling, Marmaton Valley High School will no longer offer a number of business classes. “It was a tough decision to make,” USD 256 Superintendent of Schools Kim Ensminger said. “We tried to entice students to take the business courses, but there just wasn’t enough interest. We couldn’t justify the numbers to maintain that position.” Eliminating the courses also puts business instructor Rayna Kidd out of a job at the conclusion of the school year. “We hate to do that,” Ensminger said. “It’s like saying goodbye to a family member.” IN
OTHER
business,
See CLASSES | Page A3
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