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The Weekender
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Saturday, August 16, 2015
A-maize-ing
Crenshaw makes himself home at IHS
By BOB JOHNSON The Iola Register
By KAYLA BANZET The Iola Register
In Scott Crenshaw’s office is a sign that reads, “Time is passing.... are you?” “I had a science teacher in high school who posted this in his room. He has since passed, but he had a large impact on me as a student,” Crenshaw said. “This is a reminder of his legacy.” Crenshaw is the new assistant principal at Iola High School and refers to himself as the “new old guy.” “I most recently came from teaching science in Baldwin City but I’ve only been teach-
C
urt Mueller is allergic to exaggeration, but when talk of this year’s corn crop comes up his mild-mannered disposition tends to melt — “It’s nice to have a year when corn matures naturally, and doesn’t die in August” from the throes of dry weather and heat. “The early corn looks good,” the crop planted in the sandwich of weeks of late March and early April. Rain came at opportune times and when pollination began daily temperatures had yet to settle into the 90s much less toy with triple digits. “That’s the most critical stage for corn, when it is pollinating,” which determines if ears will set on in good shape and fill with an ample number of kernels. If there was disadvantage, it was rain heavy enough to cause nitrogen to leach from the soil, rather than nourish plants. Evidence was corn with a yellowish tint, but “most of it came out of that,” Mueller observed. While early corn may have higher yields, much of that planted later also is doing well. A field not far from where Mueller and wife Alisha live east of Humboldt was nearing harvest late this week. Stalks were of the familiar tan that soon will envelope
Bumper corn crop boosts farmer’s spirits
Scott Crenshaw ing for eight years,” he said. He graduated from college with a degree in education after which he entered the world of business. He owned See CRENSHAW | Page A5
Shuck embraces change By SUSAN LYNN The Iola Register
For even the most seasoned teacher, every school year starts from scratch. With each new batch of students, the challenge begins anew. For Jan Shuck, a new fourth-grade teacher in the Iola school system, that includes finding “ways to draw students in and get them enthused,” she said. Shuck’s easy-going nature helps her remain flexible, an important trait that “helps me discover their learning styles and levels of abilities, until we all get on the same page,” she said.
See CORN | Page A4
Jan Shuck An admitted “late bloomer,” Shuck began her own journey in education once See SHUCK | Page A3
Air Force doc joins Community Health Center Iola City Council to consider hotel study By RICK DANLEY The Iola Register
As economic development coordinator for Iola and Allen County, David Toland has contended the community needs more hotel rooms. He hopes a market study will prove it. Iola City Council members will discuss Monday a proposal to fund half of a hotel market study for Iola. Iola Industries has offered to pay half of the $4,950 study, with Thrive Allen County requesting the city pay the other 50 percent. The study would evaluate the feasibility of a limited service, midprice hotel, likely in the 4560 room range. Toland told the Council earlier this year he has been in talks with a pair of national hotel chains about the prospect of building on property here. ALSO on the agenda Monday are discussions on See CITY | Page A5
One plausible way of improving the civic energy in a small town is to encourage its sons and daughters — once grown — to go out into the world, marry outsiders, and then bring those spouses back. “So, how did you end up in Iola?” an Iolan will often ask a newcomer. “My wife is from here,” answers the newcomer, or “my husband.” One of Iola’s newest doctors — Charles Wanker, the husband of Iola native Christine Tholen — comes by his Buchanan Street address after a similar fashion. But the Wankers’ story of young love, family, career accomplishment and homecoming charts an itinerary more eclectic than most young professionals’.
CHARLES WANKER was born in Bridgeport, W.V.a, a small middle-class town 40 minutes down the road from the university. His father is a dentist, his mother a teacher. He has two sisters. And they all bleed gold and blue — for the love of their West Virginia University Mountaineers. “I had season tickets starting in middle school,” said
Quote of the day Vol. 117, No. 202
Dr. Charles Wanker and his wife, Christine are the parents of, from left, Travis, 10, Lee, 3, Joshua, 6, and Madeleine, 8. REGISTER/RICK DANLEY Wanker, who, come fall, will have to rely on DirecTV to beam the Big 12 football games into his Iola home. One signal of Wanker’s devotion to WVU was his decision, after receiving his undergraduate degree, to stay on to complete his medical training at the same institution. Because Wanker, a member
of ROTC in college, received a military scholarship toward medical school, he was obligated — as a condition of the award — to attend one of the handful of military residency programs upon his graduation. He chose the University of Nebraska Medical Center, which placed him in the 55th Medical Group, at Offutt Air
“You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.” — Plato, Greek philosopher 75 Cents
Force Base, and put him in an ideal position to meet Christine, who had enrolled in the same program a year prior. By 2004, the pair of future family docs was married, nearing the end of their residencies and, according to Wanker, itching to get overseas. See WANKER | Page A3
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