Multimedia Reporting (Bradford-Noland)

The weather changes its mind

A sudden dip in temperature, a dangerous ice storm, and a threat of severe snow at the end of November and beginning of December gave the people of Lawrence and the Public Works Department their first challenge of the season.

According to the National Weather Service, the temperature dipped down 46 degrees from 73 degrees on Nov. 28, to 24 degrees on Nov. 30. During this dip, a rainstorm passing through turned into sleet and ice.

This was coupled with a threatening snow system that only dusted Lawrence. Other Kansas towns south and east of Lawrence were hit much harder.

“We’re in a place that the weather changes on the hour, it’s just our location.” saidDave Braaten, associate professor of atmospheric science at the University of Kansas. “I can remember not too long ago when the weather was 86 degrees with tropical storms at midday, and snow fall by night. That’s Kansas.”

According to Professor Braaten, this weather would be uncommon for any other state but Kansas is a fickle and capable of changing temperatures very quickly. He said that Kansans shouldn’t expect this winter to be any worse than previous winters.

Dennis Feltgen, a meteorologist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association—which runs the better known National Weather Service—also said that this winter should be no different from any other winter in the past

“Kansas has a continental climate the way it is set up,” Feltgen said, “It’s a battle ground for many different fronts and winds. That makes it very volatile; almost an atmospheric tug-of-war.”

Feltgen went on to explain that this winter will be an El-niño winter, meaning that higher climates near the equator will bring more moisture up from the gulf area. This can provide for a very moist and possibly very warm winter.

Feltgen assures that the recent teeter-tottering of temperature isn’t characteristic of winter or any particular season, it’s characteristic of Kansas. He said that Kansas should simply expect ice and snow in the winter, along side days of temperate weather.

Lawrence Strikes back

When ice hits the streets, so does the Lawrence Public Works Department crew. They spread a combination of sand and salt. Salt provides a chemical reaction that melts the ice, and sand provides traction for tires.

Just to be sure they were prepared for the weather that hit, Charles Soules, Director of the LPWD, had his crew do a test run of the plows and salt spreaders.

Soules said this is to ensure that the workers would know their routes, plows, equipment and what to expect when winter hit, said Charles Soules, Director of the LPWD.

“We wanted to make sure that the crew was comfortable with their routes and any new streets out there,” said Soules. “So they drove their trucks around to get to know what they’re doing.”

Soules said that, had it not been for this preparation, the ice storm and snow flurry that hit last week would have caused a lot more harm considering how quickly the temperatures dropped.

Soules also said that he doesn’t expect this to be a horrible winter. He said that this was just Kansas showing off its dramatic weather patterns that the National Weather Service described.

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A local organization has been chosen by the Social Welfare Bachelor’s program at the University of Kansas (BSW) to be the recipient of a non-profit fund raising event.

Each year the BSW group chooses an organization that helps out the Lawrence community and puts on an event that will raise money for the recipient’s funds. According to Stephen Kapp, Associate Professor of Social Welfare and director of the student run program, previous recipients have been the Ballard Community Center, LINK, and RVSS. This year the group chose the the Douglas County AIDS Project.

“Some of the students do volunteer work for DCAP and we have decided that they are a good organization and can use the support,” Kapp said about how they chose this year’s recipient.

The Douglas County AIDS Project, located at 2518 Ridge Ct., Suite 101, is the only facility in Douglas County that not only does free testing, but also takes on clients and provides relief funds for clients infected with the HIV/AIDS virus.

According to DCAP’s Client Care Coordinator, Gerald Downs, their organization cares for 59 HIV infected clients whose ages range from eight-years-old to 57-years-old. DCAP first works with clients in counseling and gets them to a doctor to start them on medications that help combat the disease.

HIV Educator, Heath Harding said that along with counseling and direction, the organization also gets their clients signed up for their Ryan White Card. This provides each client with funds for basic medical services and medications. DCAP also provides emergency funds for those in great financial stress. As these funds are limited, benefits such as the one being put on by BSW are very important to DCAP.

“We are the only organization that works with clients directly,” Harding said. “This money will go mainly to the emergency funds, which goes towards diagnosed clients who can’t afford medical bills.”

The benefit is being planned mainly by the social welfare group that elected them. The event will be at Abe and Jakes on E. 6th St on November 16, will begin at 6 p.m. and feature a silent auction, a raffle and two live bands. Donations will be taken at the door for those who want to contribute money towards DCAP.

“We’re so very grateful for them choosing us,” said DCAP Executive Director, Kristin Brumm. “They’ve done all the planning so far. I’ve just been trying to advertise it a little to help out.”

According to Brumm, this money could also go toward licensing and preparing for a cut in funds to free HIV testing. Kansas is cutting back this year on funding that has afforded free testing in their clinic, Brumm said.

The Lawrence-Douglas County Health Departmentalso relies greatly on DCAP

“We immediately refer patients tested positive for HIV to DCAP,” said Sue McDaneld, STD charge Nurse at the Health Department. “After that we do refer them to infectious disease specialists.”

According to McDaneld, having DCAP in the community helps raise the awareness needed to educate and prevent more infections. Most citizens in Lawrence are fully aware of AIDS and HIV and its causes, but most people don’t believe it can affect them, she said.

DCAP is also preparing for the Dec. 1, World AIDS Day. Emily Collins, an intern from KU at DCAP assisting in outreach, has been cutting long red ribbons and placing them in coffee shops, schools, stores, and health centers so that people in the Lawrence community can write down messages, prayers, or personal stories about how they’ve been affected by HIV. This is in preparation for a display they’ll construct in South Park on World AIDS Day.

DCAP plans to get the community involved for World AIDS Day by having the KU Horn Quartet play “Seasons of Love” from the Broadway show, RENT, as well as having two local bands perform and other members of the community speak.

“We all have to acknowledge that AIDS is a disease that is there in every community,” said Sue McDaneld. “It’s in something that we all do if you’re sexually active.”

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Four small girls bundled up in their coats and scarves and huddled together, stand in a line that stretches below the 12th St. Bridge. It’s difficult to tell whether it’s the 30 degree weather or their fear, but the four of them are shivering in unison. Trying to keep their mind off where the line is heading, they discuss Laguna Beach and where Ashlee Simpson has disappeared to.

When the topic begins to turn again, the girls realize a man with mangled hair and darkened eyes is standing behind them with a rat in his hand. As if out of a roadrunner cartoon, the girls take off in a flash, leaving a trail of shrill screams and laughter from the crowd in line behind them. The man with the rat pursues them and manages to chase them two more blocks to Liberty St. before giving up and heading back to the line to look for his next scare.

When September and October roll around, the haunted houses call to thrill seekers. For Kansans, the biggest scares are at the 12th St. Bridge haunted houses: The Beast, The Edge of Hell, Fear, and the Catacombs open every year to long lines.

The houses don’t just call patrons though. For the iconic “Rat Man,” every year the houses seem to call to him. When September hits, he naturally knows it’s time to get to work.

Harry Leweszow (pronounced loo-wet-so), a man in his thirties, living in Kansas City, Kan., has been filling the shoes of Rat Man for nearly 15 years now.

“It’s an addiction. After you do it for the first few years you just can’t stop and you find yourself back here every fall,” Leweszow said as he stood outside the Edge of Hell with a young girl. He’s wearing a purple Simpsons t-shirt and jeans which he says is just the top of five layers that he’d put a jacket and pants over.

Nobody seems to know who the man behind the rat is though. For as widely known as the character is (some come to see him from all over the country), very few have gotten to know him. Rumors circulate that he lives alone in a slum-like apartment living with fifteen rats. Some say he still lives at home with his mom.

“I’m getting married in December actually,” he said, “and I have four daughters.”
Leweszow, whose hair is still matted from the previous night’s haunts, said he doesn’t even have a fetish for rodents. For him, it’s just a great gig he’s been playing for a long time now.

He got mixed up in the haunted house business when he was seven, working in a 4H haunted house where he would rattle a cage of snakes as people passed by. He moved to the big houses (Edge of Hell and the Beast, both owned by Full Moon Production Co.) when his sister’s boyfriend, the original Rat Man, suggested he come work with him.

“Since I was young, I started out in a closet moving a candlestick and a pillow,” Leweszow said, “and I was in a room with a couple of big “scarers” so no one would (mess) with me.”

After his sister got married to the original Rat Man, Leweszow began to learn the character. He said that some if his Rat Man is from his brother in law, but a lot of the character is what he puts into it and what he feeds off of the patrons.

“I go person by person,” Leweszow said, “If there’s a bunch of little girls, that’s nothing. If it’s some big tough guys I’ve got to switch it up a bit.”

People have done everything from pass out, to abandoning their car in the middle of the road and running for blocks he said.

The young girl with him, his second oldest daughter Allison, rolled her eyes at this.

“I don’t know, it’s alright I guess. My friends think it’s cool, ‘Hey, your dad’s the Rat Man! Can we have free tickets?’” she said jokingly.

“They all think it’s lame until they want tickets,” Leweszow said taking a drag on his cigarette.
His oldest daughter doesn’t seem to think it’s weird. Leweszow says that she’s been talking about wanting to do it too.

After asking his daughter to go get his cigarettes out of the car he explained his “day job”. November through August he runs a floor laying business. He’ll wake up at 6 a.m., grab some breakfast, get to his shop by seven, and spend 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on whatever job site he’s working at.

“I’m just like anybody else,” which he says is the thing that people find most surprising about him, “my life is boring as hell.”

When he talked about his fiancée and kids, he mentioned how it was the best and worst thing to come out of working there. He met her in line and they eventually began dating. They had kids way too early, he said, and it’s put a lot of strain on them.

After starting his business, it put a lot of ease on them and now they’re getting married in December. The very idea of marriage makes him look at the future of his career as Rat Man, and whether it would end up the way his brother in law’s career as the character did.

“I’d like to think I’ll be doing this for a long time,” Leweszow said before going in, “I’ve been scaring people here for so long, I imagine they’ll buy my body when I die and have me stuffed and put me at the front door for decoration. Get as much scare out of me as they can.”

As it got close to 6:30 p.m. Leweszow and his daughter went to his old, dirty maroon Mercedes and pulled his costume and book bag filled with makeup and baby powder out of the trunk. He put out his cigarette and took a quick drink of his Mountain Dew for some needed energy. Together they walked, father and daughter, into The Edge of Hell for another night at work.

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Considering Lawrence’s steady growth and an ever-mounting desire to expand south, the city has set plans in motion to build a second water reclamation facility.

The facility and all other acquired land would span a 600 acre plot of land in South Lawrence, framed off by the Wakarusa River and a “39 Street” border, and would provide a way for future housing and business developments to have waste water carried away.

“The new facility will serve two functions,” said Dave Wagner, Director of Wastewater Utility Treatment and Collection. “First, it would alleviate an impending congestion on the current and only other [reclamation] facility, which is capable of serving up to 100,000 people, as well as enhance current treatment.”

Wagner said that the other function of the new facility is to allow service for up to 150,000 people. Coupled with its location in southern Lawrence—referred to by the city as the Urban Growth Area (UGA), an area located south of the Wakarusa River—this facility would be a large step in the direction of expansion for Lawrence.

“Since our population is projected to exceed that number [the 100,000 that the current facility can comply with], providing treatment facilities that will meet that growth is a basis for the project” said Debbie Van Saun, assistant city manager and supervisor to the production of the facility.

Any reservations the community may be having, are being addressed and considered in great detail. Mike Orth, project director from Black and Veatch Corporation, says he has been heading up several public meetings and has even organized a public advisory committee made up of peer groups, city hall members, stakeholders, and other environmental, governmental and neighborhood organizations.

“We realize this plan isn’t just for today or tomorrow, it’s for many many tomorrows from now,” Orth said about how important it is to make sure that all citizens know all the facts about the project and all concerns are relieved.

Amongst the concerns that have arisen are flooding impacts, traffic generated, property values, and the general smell of a facility built to handle wastewater which includes human excrement. Orth assured not only citizens but also board members at a meeting on Wednesday at city hall.

Another concern raised is the possible contamination of the Wakarusa River; the facility’s emptying site. Dave Wagner assures that there are strict guidelines set by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) that they have to adhere to, and in all actuality, the facility they plan to build could actually improve the quality of the Wakarusa River.

“There are a few standards to siting and building a wastewater facility, but the city has put a lot of time and effort into the facility, so they’re in really good shape so far,” said Rob Geisler, Chief of Municipal Programs at the KDHE.

Currently Mike Orth and his company say that they are working on acquiring the land needed to build the facility. The first step is only a 20-acre “fingerprint” of land in which the actual facility will be built on. They keep in mind that they don’t want to relocate any residents, keep distant from neighbors and still fit in with the future growth and projected future land use.

From here, Orth says that his team will have land acquisition done by the end of this year, start zoning in the beginning of 2007, design the facility into late 2008, and begin excavation in early 2009.

“We want to start moving dirt in one way or another within the next 12 to18 months,” said Dave Wagner. The only thing that could slow the project down is problems with acquiring land, and getting pipe laid to run to the new facility as well as hook into the old facility.

The city’s only other wastewater treatment facility is located at 1400 E. 8 St., and is capable of treating 12.5 million gallons of water each day according to the Lawrence utilities website. Mike Orth says the new system will be capable of treating 7 million gallons of water a day when it initially opens. The original facility will be able to deal with the majority of north and central Lawrence, and the new will handle southern Lawrence and all developments in the UGA.

The board members in charge of the new facility are excited and consider this, “one of the most significant recommendations.” Debbie Van Saun said that the project, in all, will cost roughly $90 million and will be funded by ratepayers both present and future.

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Students passing through the fourth floor of the Kansas Union at the University of Kansas have had to fight the crowded lines that form at The Pulse café. After moving from the third floor Market, sales have gone up 12% and the figures just keep rising.

Students, faculty and visitors who knew the Pulse when it was on the third floor of the Union, have seen a noticeable increase in popularity.

“We get so much more business up here,” said Jessica Weavner, a barista at the Pulse for two years now. “It’s just so convenient, and, I mean, more people come in the front entrance than down to the Market.”

The move has made it very clear that location plays a big part in the success of a coffee shop. It wasn’t always apparent to Dining Services, which operates and runs the Pulse, that a move to the fourth floor would do the business good.

Alecia Stultz, assistant director of dining services, said the idea was born out of a market research team’s suggestion that there was a dead space on the fourth floor that could attract business. The idea never turned into a plan, instead, it sat on the shelf. On Oct. 5 the idea resurfaced when dining services decided to expand the salad bar in the Market.

The Pulse opened in its new location on Aug. 13 during Union Fest and business boomed.

“People are just drawn to that smell,” said Stultz. “I know I am!”

In its new location, The Pulse has steadily increased their business. On a typical day an average of 375 customers will purchase something, bringing its sales to an average of anywhere between 11 and 13 hundred dollars.

This compares to other businesses quite well. The Pulse’s main competitor, Milton’s (on the first floor of the Kansas Union), serves anywhere between 200 and 400 customers a day. At an average of $2.50 a cup, that comes just short of the business The Pulse has seen lately.

A representative from Milton’s said that business is doing very well.

“We’re having the best semester we’ve had in years,” said Stefanie Tracy, Dodge City senior and Manager of Milton’s.

It seems that The Pulse’s move from the third to the fourth floor actually benefited both companies. They aren’t competing for customers nearly as much as they did when they were closer together. Milton’s location improved and they didn’t even move.

Nona Golledge, director of KU Food Services, said The Pulse does 35 percent to 40 percent of its business in smoothies.

“They aren’t big on specialty coffees like we are,” Tracy said. “We’re very similar but we offer something that The Pulse doesn’t and vice versa. It has specified what kind of businesses we are and our customers reflect that.”

Local business owners understand the situation. Eric Schmidt, owner of Dunn Bros. Café on 23rd street, took advantage of both views of the coffee shop business.
Schmidt opened his business tucked away off a busy road that not many people detour off of. He, like Milton’s, draws them in with quality products and uses convenience just like The Pulse.

“Our coffee is ground and roasted fresh every day,” Schmidt said. “We provide quality beans from around the world, including Free Trade organizations. That’s the quality we provide.”

Schmidt also agrees with KU Food Service’s idea that there has to be a high level of convenience such as The Pulse provides. They provide free wireless Internet, drive through service, local art and performers, and a fireplace, which Schmidt says, comes in handy in the winter.

“I realize we’re not technically in the best location of a busy street that people don’t stop off of much, but people immediately saw the drive through and high quality products we provide.” Schmidt now sees more than 400 customers a day.

Another coffee shop that demonstrates the importance of location is La Prima Taza, downtown on Massachusetts Street. Its location next to the Liberty Hall Theatre, Free State Brewery and higher end shops brings in 300-350 customers without much fluctuation at all, the owner said.

Owner, David Millstein said that La Prima Taza’s location is the key to its success. La Prima Taza’s manager Sarah Richardson said she can definitely see how a good location is the most important thing for a coffee shop to have. She said it brings immediate success and lots of customers.

The Pulse is taking advantage of its newfound growing success. It’s offering other convenient things such as snacks, sandwiches, and “dinner and a movie” combos where it offers a buy one get one free snack and drink when the Union shows movies.

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