Transit Systems Seek Input for Next Highway to Take
The rain pummeled cars as people struggled for shelter outside of Lawrence’s downtown Public Transit office—a block away from the 9th and New Hampshire bus stop.
On a rainy Tuesday in early October no one sat at the front desk of the Lawrence Transit Office. Suddenly, a figure with straight slicked-down black hair approached—Cliff Galante, the Lawrence Public Transit Administrator.
Lately, the city of Lawrence and the University of Kansas have been in talks about better coordination between the two bus systems. “Merger” has been on the lips of citizens and the media alike.
However, speaking on behalf of the city, Galante said, “A merger is at one end of the spectrum, keeping the status quo is at the other end. We don’t know [what we’re going to do] at this point.”
Galante stressed the importance of coordination between the two systems, though he said most people don’t know that the two systems already coordinate (to some extent). For instance, “the University is now using the same contractor we’ve been using the past five years,” and “the park and ride buses were purchased by the city.”
Another example of coordination is that city routes put KU on Wheels routes on their buses. In addition, KU students can ride any city bus for a reduced fare of 35 cents with a KU On Wheels bus pass. “People are wrong about lack of coordination,” Galante said.
However, coordination can be difficult as the city bus system and KU bus system have different priorities.
“The main goal of KU is to get students to and from class. Our mission is more broad-based. We take them [people] to school, work, and social events. We’re always trying to learn more about university needs,” Galante said.
May Davis, transport coordinator for the University of Kansas, disagreed with Galante that the two systems are coordinated.
“Everything’s separate right now. Everything that could be shared isn’t,” Davis said. She also said bus shelters and bus routes were two areas of concern.
As for a merger, Davis echoed Galante, “Nobody wants to jump in and say ‘let’s merge.’ The first step is changing routes.” Davis said a route like KU on Wheel’s 31st & Iowa route should be combined with the one the city runs, which she said is “nearly identical.”
Also, because of their different missions, problems within the city and University systems could be what is putting the brakes on better coordination between the two systems.
One problem the city is dealing with is in attracting “choice riders.” Galante defined such people as those who can make it to a destination by other means, but could ride the bus instead. He said attracting new riders is all about convenience. Although, until the city can make its routes more convenient the city can “try to offer financial incentives to keep it [the bus system] an affordable option.” Though the city system raised its fares to 75 cents a ride on July 1st because of rising costs, Galante said riding the bus is still cheaper than driving or especially taking a cab.
KU is dealing with more basic problems—like keeping riders happy with buses running, and those that are running, on time.
Olathe transfer sophomore Garry Stieham said the buses on campus are often late and “sometimes they don’t show up at all.”
The problems are especially frustrating to Stieham because he relies on the KU bus system to get him to and from campus Monday thru Friday. Stieham bought a bus pass because he didn’t want to have to pay for an on-campus parking pass to save money. However, Stieham said he doesn’t think his input matters in improving the system at all. “The University of Kansas isn’t going to listen to one guy,” he said.
Lenexa fifth-year senior Tyler Lamb has had similar problems to Stieham’s. “I’ve been late to a number of classes because buses haven’t been showing up on time, or just passing me up.” Lamb said the problems were habitual. In fact, he said he’s lost track of how many times each happened. “I’ve had to wait 40 minutes to an hour on a number of occasions.”
According to Davis, buses breaking down have been the cause for the delays. She said this year they’ve experienced far more breakdowns than usual because the fleet is now using bio-diesel fuel. She said the bio-diesel increases the rate of breakdowns for the buses for the first couple of months. She said the fuel filters on the buses still contain debris and particles from the diesel fuel, which cause the buses to breakdown. However, she said eventually the new fuel would flush out these particles. She said there was nothing the Transit Department could do but wait for the buses to adjust.
As for other University transit issues Davis said it’s difficult to know what they are because of a “lack of student interest in transport.” She said, “I just do what students say.” In fact, she said, “We’ve changed a route based on one student’s input.”
Davis said a lot of students aren’t interested because they have cars or friends with cars. Also, she said it’s difficult to change someone’s lifestyle when so many people “grew up driving their cars to high school.
However, possible major changes go up for a vote—like last year’s plan to give all students unlimited free KU on Wheels rides (by simply showing a student I.D. upon boarding) for a $15-$20 student fee increase.
The referendum passed, but enough students didn’t vote so the change could not be instituted. Davis said that only about 1200 people voted—about 40 percent of what the Student Senate requires to pass a referendum (about 10% of the student body she said).
As both the city of Lawrence and the University of Kansas are still unsure what the next road to take will be, administrators on both sides have invited the public to participate in the process.
The University will look toward students and the KU community to decide the next course of action for the transit system on 1:30 p.m, October 23rd, in the English Room in the Kansas Union.
Via e-mail, the KU Parking & Transit office said of it, “The purpose of the meeting is to hear your comments on the Parking & Transit departmental policies, rules, or fees. Individuals may speak at the meeting or send comments in written form to Margretta de Vries, Parking Commission secretary, at mdevries@ku.edu. General issues included in these comments will be summarized and shared at the hearing. You may also e-mail comments to kupark@ku.edu.”
As for the city of Lawrence’s system, it will next meet at 4:10 p.m., December 11th, at 933 New Hampshire. The city website said, “This committee advises on all matters regarding the city public transit system, such as proposed routes, service changes, ridership policies, fare structures, funding and budgets.” The city meets the second Tuesday of each month every other month at the above time and location.
October 16, 2007
No big change due to the resource problem for Lawrence Transit System
Pema Deki can’t go anywhere on Sundays.
Pema Deki, a senior Geology student at KU, is an international student from Bhutan. For most of the past three years, she has always tried to get her shopping or going out activities done by Saturday. Since she doesn’t have a car, the Lawrence transit System has become her major mean of transportation, and there is no bus on Sundays.
“Sometimes my friends take me to go shopping or go out, but not always,” Deki said. “I don’t want to bother them.”
Since the Lawrence Transit system was established in the winter of 2000, the service has improved a lot and it has provided a lot of convenience. Although it still needs improvements on a lot of aspects, because of the resource problem, it won’t make any dramatic change in a short time.
The Lawrence Transit System has two branches: the T bus is mainly for the general public and the T lift is mainly for people who can’t use T bus because of the disability. The ridership of the system is increasing all the time. In 2001, it provided 155,737 one-way trips on the “T” fixed route service and 44,408 one-way trips on the T Lift ADA complementary paratransit service. In 2006, five years after it was established, the Lawrence T bus provided 421,864 one-way trips, and the T Lift provided 55,176 one-way trips. In September 2005, the “T” received the FTA award for highest ridership increase for a small urban system in Kansas.
In 2006, it added Carpool Connection on its website, helped the University of Kansas start its Park & Ride system, improved passenger amenities by adding trash bins and route map decals in the shelters, and partnered with the University for the Coordinated Public Transportation Development Plan.
The Lawrence Transit system has been improving all the time. But on the website of the Lawrence Transit system, the two most frequent comments about what the system should improve is that the buses need to be more frequent and the riders want the system to increase bus times from 6am to 10pm or later instead of 8pm.
“I heard that there was no public bus seven years ago,” Deki said, “I do appreciate that it’s here while I am here, but I hope they could do better than that.”
“We realize that we need to add more shifts,” said Cliff Galante, the public transit administrator.
According to the survey that is provided on the website of the Lawrence public Transit system, 47% of the riders are for employment purposes and about 18% are for education purposes, which is mainly for the University of Kansas. And that already occupy two thirds of the total riders.
“A lot of riders are complaining about no late night buses,” Galante said. “Since a lot of riders are using T bus to go to their second shift, they can get there by bus but they can’t come back because there is no bus available after eight.”
Another problem is that the public transit system is available from Monday to Saturday, and KU on Wheels is available from Monday to Friday, which means there is no public transportation available on Sundays. So when people who don’t have cars want to go somewhere on Sundays, they have to walk there or ask for a ride.
“I don’t have a car and I don’t want to buy one since I’m graduating next year. So if I want to go to downtown on Sunday, I have to walk there and it takes more than 40 minutes from campus,” said Xiaosen Zhou, a senior Architecture student at KU.
Either more frequent buses or buses on Sundays and at night means more convenience and flexibility to Lawrence local people.
“There are a lot of things that could affect a person’s decision about what kind of transportation he is using, like gas prices and parking prices. They might change to bus because the gas prices are too expensive. We call these people choice riders, and we need better service to make choice riders become regular riders,” Galante said.
According to the 2006 Annual Report of the transit system, the revenue resources for the Lawrence transit system are mainly from four places: the Kansas state government, the federal government, the fare box and pass sales revenue and the local property tax.
“We have about $3 million dollars for transit system every year. If we want to increase the frequency, which means we make the Rout No.7 and Rout No.8 40 minutes once instead of 80 minutes once and the rest of other routs 20 minutes once instead of 40 minutes once, it requires double the amount of money we have right now, which is $6 million,” said Anson Gock, the senior transportation planner.
“It’s hard to get the money,” said Galante. “We understand them. We want to give people more transportation choices, but the city needs a balanced finical structure.”
According to Galante, because of the lack of resources, the public transit system won’t make any dramatic changes in the near future, but they are always trying to improve on small things.
“We always talk to the student representatives from KU about rout No.8, which goes through campus,” Galante said. “We are trying to coordinate with them and provide a better service.”
“I’m graduating next year,” Deki said. “I know that the T bus won’t change before I graduate, but I do hope that it could provide students who come to KU after me more convenience.”
October 17, 2007
Annual inspections change some hotels’ cleaning standards
A cart sits in the hallway. It is filled to the brim with clean towels, coffee, shampoo, trash bags, duster, cleaning solution and a mop. Inside room 506, Maria goes through her cleaning ritual. She folds a washcloth in an accordion pattern and fits it neatly into a newly changed towel. She progresses through the bathroom, washing the tub and sink, cleaning the mirrors and mopping the floor. Then she moves to the bedroom, remaking the king-size bed and fluffing the pillows. No detail is overlooked; she even changes all the blinds to the same angle. After quickly vacuuming the floor, she is finished. She puts all her cleaning supplies back in her cart and wheels it to the next room, leaving 506 locked behind her.
Maria is a housekeeper at Lawrence’s historic Eldridge Hotel, 7th and Massachusetts streets. She is one maid of many who clean the hotel’s 48 rooms every day. Unlike other hotels, the Eldridge has a special policy: the general manager must check the rooms for cleanliness every day.
“The girls will do a better job if they know someone is checking their rooms,” said Nancy Longhurst, the Eldridge Hotel’s general manager.
The Eldridge’s stringent and unique approach to overall cleanliness means that no one has complained about the hotel to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment this year.
This is not the case for some other lodging establishments in town. Guests have reported exceptionally dirty and unkempt rooms in nine hotels in Lawrence since January 2007. For these hotels and others that may not abide by such careful cleaning rules, a harsh reality may soon set in. In the past, hotels have only been inspected if a guest complained to the state. Now that has changed. The state health department began annual inspections of all hotels in Kansas this year.
Previous years have meant hotel inspections only when needed. Before now, these inspections fell to people already employed as restaurant inspectors because the funds were not available to hire specialized inspectors. But in May 2007, the Kansas Legislature passed the Omnibus Appropriations Bill, allocating $246,616 and four inspector positions specifically for hotel inspections. Mary Glassburner, Director of Bureau of Consumer Health for the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, supervises the new program.
“We asked for funds so we could inspect our lodging establishments the way we feel they should be inspected: they should be clean, safe and comfortable,” Glassburner said. “We have discovered several problems that have popped up. We have a bed bug problem in the state and we want to establish education about the subject.”
The program will have four inspectors based in Lawrence, Wichita, Salina and Topeka. Each will inspect roughly a fourth of the 780 lodging establishments in Kansas, or 195 hotels a year. The inspectors will follow training and field-testing the state health department provided in their inspections.
Springhill Suites, 1 Riverfront Plaza, is one of the hotels inspectors checked this year. Although the manager said the reason for the visit was the statewide bed bug infestation, inspectors discovered other problems in this Marriott-owned hotel. Hairs on mattress pads, trash on floors of rooms and low water pressure are among the items listed on the state health department’s inspection report. These issues are not as problematic as they may seem, insist general manager Michael Moore. The trash was probably a small piece of paper in a corner that the vacuum missed and the hairs weren’t plentiful, he said.
“It’s not like the mattresses looked like a dog had been dragged across them,” Moore said.
Moore thinks the inspections will make hotels a little more aware of how clean their rooms are, pushing employees to look for smaller items like trash in the corners or a smudge on a light switch that may not be on a normal cleaning list. Hotels can’t spend too much more time on rooms, he said. They have to find a balance between spotless rooms and long hours for maids.
“I don’t think any hotel will ever be 100 percent clean,” Moore said.
The Hallmark Inn, 730 Iowa St., is another hotel inspected in 2007. In January, stains were found on chairs, box springs and mattresses and mold was on the caulking. Since this report, the hotel’s management has changed. Now the hotel is working on renovations, partly because of the inspections.
“We are taking into consideration inspections from different agencies. The purpose of our renovation is to improve overall appearance and quality of our product,” said Art Kato, vice president of the hotel.
Kato said the hotel is reinforcing the structure of the hotel before updating the vanity items like bedding and chairs. Tile, sheetrock and walls are the hotel’s first concern. Once that renovation is complete, the hotel will buy bedding, drapes, chairs and lamps, the items that were listed as stained on the inspector’s report.
Both hotels are taking steps to clean up after less-than-favorable inspections. Now these hotels and every other hotel will be held accountable each year with an unannounced inspection from the state department. Eldridge Hotel manager Nancy Longhurst is not worried.
“I think annual inspections will be a great thing for the hotel industry,” Longhurst said. “For us, it would be great because we already adhere to all the standards they would inspect.”
She was right. Last week, inspectors visited the Eldridge Hotel. They checked eight rooms, and none had violations.
Maria will keep cleaning hotel rooms the way she always has, but now she cleans not only for the guests and a manager but also for the state health inspector. Every time she cleans a room, her work could be inspected and the hotel could be written up. As long as she keeps up her quality work, follows her routine and the manager checks her room, the Eldridge Hotel and Maria should be just fine. The annual inspections mean other hotels will have to start matching her standards.
Lawrence fire department evaluates effectiveness
In the event of a fire, a few precious seconds could represent the difference between life and death. The importance of responding quickly to emergency calls is something Lawrence firefighters realize, and something they hope to improve upon in 2008.
While most fire departments measure response time using a raw average time, the Lawrence-Douglas County Fire/Medical Department is shifting to a new method of measurement. The new, more precise way of gauging response time is called “fractile response time measurement” and could help the department arrive at emergencies more quickly and achieve international accreditation later this year. Instead of measuring effectiveness by computing a raw average response time for all scenarios, the department has started taking into account the exact locations of emergencies relative to its stations and evaluating its efficiency while taking factors such as distance and traffic into account.
“As part of our improvement process, we’re looking at each piece of our response procedure,” Division Chief Bill Stark said. “We’re specifically looking at three things: the alarm processing time, our turnout time and our travel time.”
The alarm processing time is the amount of time it takes the 911 dispatch center to get in touch with the fire department. The turnout time is the time between the notification of the fire department and when the fire truck leaves the station. The travel time is measured from the time the truck pulls away from the station to when it arrives at the scene of the emergency. The way the fire department measured response time in the past merely clocked the time from 911 call to arrival at the scene. The fractile response time measurement breaks the total time into alarm processing, turnout and travel phases and provides more accurate information than older methods.
The department could improve the most in the turnout phase, Stark said. While the alarm processing period is dependent upon the dispatch center and the travel time can change depending on traffic and the location of the emergency, turnout time rests squarely on the department’s shoulders. Stark said the department could not expect firefighters to man trucks 24 hours per day, but possible changes in fire station design could expedite the department’s average turnout time.
“Traditionally, chiefs put trucks on one end of the building and living quarters on the other,” Stark said. “We’re looking at putting the trucks in the center of the building, closer to everything, so we can get to the trucks and out the door quicker.”
The department hopes to have a complete assessment of its fractile response time finished by November, when it is scheduled to undergo testing by an international fire accreditation service. But whatever immediate steps the department decides to make will be without the help of a new ladder truck.
The department currently has two engines and one ladder truck that exceed the recommended age and wear threshold. In the 2008 budget, the city approved the replacement of the two engines but denied funding for a new ladder truck. Each engine will cost $840,000, which will come entirely from property taxes, according to the Lawrence city budget. The ladder truck would have cost over $1 mil – a cost the city cannot afford at the moment.
“It really extends beyond our control,” Stark said. “We always want our trucks replaced once they are past a certain point, but it all boils down to money and how much the city is willing to spend.”
There are several reasons for the city’s budget shortfall. Pay raises in the department coupled with a loss of grants cut the funding pool a bit, but the biggest drain on the department’s available resources was a reduced tax base, Lawrence Budget Manager Casey Liebst said.
“This year there were no program improvements included in the budget because we’re facing some pretty significant revenue issues,” Leibst said. “We just don’t have the resources we thought we’d have to spend. We haven’t been able to grow on the expenditure side because we’re not growing our revenue fast enough.”
The department’s new-found focus on in-depth measurement of response times is part of its recent decision to apply for accreditation. In order to achieve accreditation, the department must meet specific response time criteria – criteria measured by fractile analysis. If the department achieves accreditation, it could see immediate benefits. Accreditation could help the Lawrence-Douglas County department become more goal-oriented, forward-looking and well-organized, according to Commission on Fire Accreditation International Program Manager Rick Black.
Even before making improvements in anticipation of accreditation, the department has been working efficiently, said Leibst. The city chose to devote funds brought in by property taxes to improving the Lawrence transit system instead of funding the fire department because it received high marks on a recent citizen survey. Leibst said the department brought in “stellar ratings” that encouraged the city to spend its money on more pressing needs.
Stark said the department was pleased with its performance but could always stand to improve response times. Purchasing two new fire engines should provide the building blocks for improvement, and performing an in-depth survey of fractile response times could give the department the information it needs to streamline its performance and snip seconds from its response times.
“We’re continuing to study and improve on each piece of information,” Stark said. “Ultimately we want to bring our percentage up and get to 9 of 10 cases in time. We’ll never get to 100 percent – that’s impossible in our business – but we’d like to lower our times.”
Light-rail system from Lawrence to Kansas City being discussed
When Kelli Wurfel, a 20-year old University of Kansas student, travels to Kansas City via K-10 highway she doesn’t have to worry about much.
Wurfel uses the route frequently throughout the year. She drives to Kansas City to visit her sister, to go shopping or to surprise friends at Johnson County Community College. Wurfel said traffic on the highway is minimal.
“Usually, it’s not that bad except during rush hour. I haven’t had too much trouble getting to wherever I’ve needed to go,” Wurfel said. “As more people begin to drive, I can see how it could become more crowded.”
Wurfel’s sentiments on the issue nearly mirror those of the Lawrence-Douglas County Metropolitan Planning Committee. A subdivision within the planning committee, the Transportation 2030 committee, has devoted itself to identifying and addressing the transportation problems that loom in Lawrence’s future.
The committee concerns itself particularly with Lawrence’s own streets quickly becoming too small to handle increased traffic congestion and how to fix it long-term. But it also pays close attention to the long-term traffic problems in commuting to Kansas City from Lawrence.
According to the Planning Committee, the Lawrence population will increase by 74 percent in the next 20 years. The growing community mingled with the continued expansion of Johnson County will cause more difficulties for drivers traveling between the two locations.
“There’s a trend in the past few years that there are more commuters coming out of Lawrence and even more people commuting in,” Transportation 2030 Committee Head Anson Gock said. “Johnson County has such a larger population and also jobs so they are going to generate a lot more traffic.”
According to Transportation 2030’s forecasted roadway congestion models, K-10 is going to generate enough traffic in the next 20 years to become a major problem. Currently, the highway meets none of the criteria to be considered the least bit congested. But by the year 2030, the end of each side of K-10 will be heavily congested and the middle will be nearing congestion.
To combat the issue, the transportation committee has presented several possible changes or alternatives at recent open meetings. Some citizens have responded surprisingly by suggesting a desire for a light rail system connecting Lawrence to Kansas City. When Transportation 2030 asked the question of what gives Lawrence residents the best opportunity to get more access to the area in stakeholder interviews, a light rail system climbed to the top of the list as the most popular response.
“I think it would be a really good idea because it would save gas, save money, make it more easier to take care of roads, make there be less wrecks,” Wurfel said. “Yea, it sounds pretty cool.”
Although committee members chose to share the thought of a light rail system with the public, they are worried about all the obstacles it would have to overcome. Davonna Morgan, Lawrence planning coordinator, said that choosing where to put tracks easily turns into a controversial issue and especially when two separate cities are involved.
Gock thinks there’s an even bigger problem than working together with another city. He said that in 2009, the Kansas Department of Transportation would lose $150 million after a federal funding cut. But still the commissioners aren’t ready to abandon the light-rail talk quite yet.
“I think in the future because traffic will increase, it’s a viable option and we’ll look at that with the next update,” Morgan said. “It’s kind of far away but we see this congestion coming and by the next update we’ll have something more we can look at.”
The committee’s goal is still to find a solution for the incoming problem that can be completed within the next 20 years. If it can leap past the hurdles and figure out the details for a light rail system, the committee will have to soon.
These systems take a long time to construct. The Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority built a light rail system in Buffalo, N.Y. in 1978 after deciding it was the best transit option. It wasn’t completed until 1985 and NFTA-Metro rail only covers seven miles of ground. Lawrence to Kansas City rails would account for substantially higher mileage.
The building time for the Buffalo rail system isn’t the only warning sign that it may not be the best alternative. According to the American Public Transportation Association, only 17,000 people per day ride the Buffalo Metro Rail. A successful light rail system, like ones in Portland and San Diego, average more than 100,000 per day. The nation’s top rail system by ridership resides in Boston, where 235,000 people use it to travel per day.
NFTA put in the rail system in Buffalo figuring that the population would continue to ascend upwards. But that didn’t happen and the rail system in Buffalo never quite reached the goal of a top transit choice for citizens. Over the past two years, ridership on the metro rail has declined at a rate of eight percent per year.
But Gock said there are ways to measure how successful a light rail system would be. He said Transportation 2030 and the Kansas Department of Transportation monitored current Lawrence to Kansas City transit methods to evaluate the demand.
“We’re not getting a rail system immediately but the Johnson County K-10 connector, we are running those buses to see people’s levels of interest,” Gock said. “To build a future rail system, we are kind of needing to use buses as a gauge.”
He is referring to a current bus that connects the University of Kansas to Johnson County Community College. Gock said that the connector has received positive feedback. Morgan said the success of the route could serve as a precursor to establishing a stronger relationship with Johnson County officials, which would enable bigger projects like a light rail system to take shape.
“It’s just like any type of business. You put out a product, you see how well it does and you produce more,” Morgan said. “It’s the same theory and with this doing so well, we hope to see more coordination between Johnson County.”
Not everyone is convinced that a light rail system is a practical endeavor to help fight traffic congestion in the future. Two years ago, the Kansas Department of Transportation released a study on K-10 that concluded widening the highway would be the best option. Gock and Morgan said it would have to start in Johnson County but had some promise to fulfill one of Transportation 2030’s goals.
The talk of a light rail system may have just begun and it will likely be years before more specific plans are laid out. But Gock said he expected the idea to mature as the population continued to rise.
City cuts put squeeze on WRAP program
Terry Johnston works at Schwegler Elementary School, located at 2201 Ousdahl Rd. But Terry isn’t a standard teacher or school administrator. Johnston works with the WRAP program, designed to help keep students from acting out. Unfortunately for Terry, the children she helps aren’t the only thing she has to worry about. Financial cuts from the City of Lawrence have caused the WRAP program’s budget to shrink drastically.
“If we don’t have any money, there won’t be any WRAP program,” Johnston said. “Every child in the world is at risk, and we need to be able to help them.”
The Working to Recognize Alternative Possibilities, or WRAP program, aimed at the mental well-being of at-risk students in the Lawrence public schools, has long been funded by the Lawrence School District, City of Lawrence and grants and private donations. But effective January 1, the city will no longer fund the program.
The WRAP program began in 1997 as a way to help kids in the Lawrence Public Schools. Instead of targeting kids who needed help in the classroom, the program set out to help kids that acted out or were thought of as “at-risk” in terms of mental health. The program focuses on prevention of mental health issues as well as intervention for kids who are already troubled.
According to the City of Lawrence budget, the city funding for the WRAP program has come from two sources: general funds and the special alcohol fund. In 2007, the WRAP program received $250,000 from the city’s general funds, and $100,000 from the special alcohol fund. The special alcohol fund is money collected from taxes on alcohol sales in the state of Kansas that can only be used for drug and alcohol prevention. The WRAP program will receive no money from either the city’s general fund or the special alcohol fund in the year 2008.
The cut in funding will mean a cut in staff. The program will have less people to go into the schools and meet with children. Currently, each high school and junior high in the district has a WRAP coordinator at each school, while most elementary schools have a WRAP coordinator or share one with another elementary school. According to WRAP Program Director Charlie Kuszmaul, this will probably mean less time will be spent on preventing mental health issues and more time will actually have to be spent fixing mental health problems that have already developed. Kuszmaul says that while the cut in funding won’t endanger the existence of the program, it will certainly hamper its success. The program has already lost 25% of its staff, and Kuszmaul says losing up to 25% more is a possibility.
“There are fewer workers. Because there are fewer workers, there are less kids we can work with,” Kuszmaul said. “As you lose funding, you decrease prevention, and you have to put your resources toward intervention.”
Kuszmaul said the success of the program lies in its ability to take some of the negative stigma away from the idea of needing mental health counseling.
“We can see kids for five minutes because their dog died all the way to kids that have been brutally raped,” Kuszmaul said. “By seeing a kid in a natural school setting, we’re able to keep away that stigma, and the kids will be more comfortable asking for help if they need it in the future.”
Kuszmaul said the program planned to apply for city funds again in the future, but it was unable to tell if they would ever receive money from the city again.
“Once our portion is out of the budget, it’s much less likely for it to be put in,” Kuszmaul said. “We’re currently preparing as if we won’t have that money back.”
City of Lawrence Budget Manager Casey Liebst said some of the reason for the city’s cut in funding was due to the Lawrence School District’s questions about whether or not they would continue funding the program. According to Liebst, the school district first considered cutting the program from its funding, which led the city to consider the same.
“There were preliminary conversations indicating that the school district was going to put their priorities elsewhere,” Liebst said. “If the school district was changing their priorities on the WRAP program, we felt that we needed to examine that as well.”
The school district eventually decided to continue funding the WRAP program, while the city did not. Lawrence School Board President Linda Robinson said the decision was made to continue funding the program because of its importance in the district.
"It's one of those programs that the school system really needs to have," Robinson said. "It came down to more than money. We wanted to work things out with the WRAP program because we felt it was an asset to kids in our schools."
In the absence of the WRAP program, the city decided use the money from the special alcohol fund to increase the funding for school resource officers in the public schools.
Liebst agreed that the WRAP program could possibly return to the city budget in the future. She said that the program was welcome to apply for city funding for the year 2009, and it would be considered for funding like every other program that applied.
“When resources are limited, decisions have to be made,” Liebst said. “There just isn’t enough money to go around for everybody that wants it right now.”
But Kuszmaul believes that despite the decreased amount of money spent on the program, the city actually will not see any money saved in the long run.
“I see the money spent on the WRAP program not as an expense, but as a cost-saving measure,” Kuszmaul said. “These kids that have problems don’t go away. They have less education, so they’ll have worse jobs. This means they’ll have less money. They end up getting pregnant faster, abusing substances more and using the emergency room more. If we do interventions earlier, you save yourself money in all these places later on.”
Fire Dept. Purchasing New Engines
Imagine that your neighbor is hosting a party. The patrons are loud, some of them are unconscious on your fence, and your can hardly get to sleep over the earth-shaking bass beat. Somewhere in your neighbor's house, a party-goer falls asleep with a cigarette in his hand, and a fire starts. The blaze grows, and your intoxicated neighbors do not notice until it is too late. The fire breaks up the party, sending people running, and the wind starts blowing the flames toward your house. Naturally, you call 911 for the Fire Department, hoping that they will save your home from this blaze. The firefighters suit up, slide down the fire pole, and run to the truck.
But nothing happens. The truck has broken down again.
Lawrence Fire StationsPhoto: Samuel Lamb
Two of the Lawrence-Douglas County Fire and Medical Department's fire engines attracted attention this year. They are each 21 years old, and have garnered 101.13 replacement points between them. According to the budget, "vehicles with 30 or more points are considered as needing immediate consideration for replacement."
21 years is a long running time for any vehicle, but even more so for vehicles on which lives depend. Steve Stewart, fleet manager for the Department, said he would like the engines to be replaced more often.
"We are trying to reach a 15 year life cycle," Stewart said.
Repair and operating costs rise with the age of the machine. That reason alone does not encompass the issue, however, considering the $1.6 million cost of replacing the two engines. Bill Stark, chief of the Department's administrative division, said that cost is not the main concern.
"The reliability of having a rig that is ready to be used at a moment's notice and not break down on the way to a call is key," Stark said, "and difficult to measure."
The new units also have safety features to protect the firefighters themselves. Some of those new features include rollover protection, airbags, and harness belts.
"We will be able to respond more efficiently and safely," Stark said.
With more than 2000 incidents and five deaths in 2006 because of fires in Douglas County, the importance of a reliable fire service is undeniable. When the neighbor's party goes up in smoke, the Lawrence-Douglas County Fire and Medical Department will be on the road with their new engines.
Stormwater offers no easy solutions
For resident Jack Curry, driving through the streets of North Lawrence after it rains might be comparable to trying to drive his car through a lake.
“ I might be better off in a boat,” Curry said.
The flooding in North Lawrence has been a problem now for over a decade and despite what potential North Lawrence businesses claim, the ongoing flood problem in North Lawrence doesn’t look like it is going to improve any time soon.
Next time the skies open up, if one drives across the bridge over to North Lawrence, they will notice standing water on lawns, streets flooded, and even water seeping into basements. North Lawrence Neighborhood Association President Ted Boyle explains that the problem started in 1994 when low-income homes started popping up in the North Lawrence landscape. With over 140 houses being constructed in the last 13 years, the development led to new streets and sidewalks being built. Anytime a community gains more surfaces, it also means more stormwater as well.
“We never had a problem before all the new development came,” Boyle said.
Besides the flooding, a potential hazard with the standing water in home owner’s lawns is the risk of increased mosquitoes carrying infectious diseases. This leaves some Lawrence residents worried for their families.
“ I won’t let my kids play in the backyard after it rains some times because I don’t want them getting bit by all the bugs,” Curry said.
Matt Bond, director of storm water runoff for Lawrence, realizes the extent of the problem north of the river, but because of the current lack of money in the city government, Bond’s hands are tied. In a North Lawrence storm water drainage study done in 2005, over $41 million was estimated to be needed to create and improve new infrastructures to make storm water runoff more efficient. Such items recommended were an entirely new pump station, plus bigger pipes and tunnels to alleviate some of the excess water. Bond has had to think of new ways to find the money to pay for the improvements.
“We have bonds running through 2009, but I don’t see any debt being taken until then.”
One group that recently stepped forward to help aid the stormwater problem is the developers of the proposed new business park by the Lawrence Municipal Airport. Developer Jes Santualaria, thinks the park, which had its stormwater plan approved by the government, will benefit the residents of North Lawrence.
“ With all the tax revenues that the business park will bring in, that money can go to fix the infrastructure for the rest of North Lawrence,” Santualaria said.
Count Ted Boyle as one resident who isn’t impressed with the Business Industrial Park’s plan. Boyle points out that any tax revenue that is made, probably won’t be seen for at least 20 years. Boyle also knows that the business park will want the city to help pay for their own stormwater infrastructure.
“I think it will help crap,” Boyle said. “ How is the city going to pay for that, if it can’t even give us a $4 million pump?”
As the years have passed, business after business has offered their own solution to solving the storm water problem. Boyle is tired of talk and wants something to be done.
“There hasn’t been a developer in 12 years that has stuck behind their proposals. They arrive, build their business, then leave. It is the residents that have been stuck with the problems,” Boyle said.
There is also the feeling among North Lawrence residents that this problem would never have escalated to this point, had its location been in a more prominent part of Lawrence. North Lawrence still lacks such amenities as a coin laundry center and a grocery store, and Boyle notes that no major growth can really happen until they solve the drainage situation first.
“They did it all backwards, they built new houses and businesses before the infrastructure was ready. They need to fix the drainage situation before they do anything else,” Boyle said.
The city is planning to put in a new left turn lane in front of Johnny’s Tavern in the next year to help make it easier for the stormwater to go directly into the Kansas River. While not the big solutions that resident of North Lawrence hoped for, it should help.
While it only takes 2-4 inches of water to flood the streets of North Lawrence, city government officials fear that a big rainstorm and a flood could severely damage the North Lawrence economy. City planners hope the problem is fixed in time.
“While I think most in the city government are aware of the problem, some forget about it until a big rain storm happens,” Bond said.
For now though, North Lawrence residents can only hope the weather forecast is bright and sunny, even if the immediate future of their storm water problem is not.
USD 497 food services budget feels effect of healthier menus
During 20 years serving breakfast and lunch to students at Central Junior High School, Dixie Workman made it her job to understand the eating habits of the students who occupied her cafeteria daily.
Although the cafeteria has moved and the menu has been altered more times than she can remember, Workman said students’ tastes remain the same after two decades. Dictated by the simple tastes of students, Workman routinely helped stock the cafeteria at Central Junior High with pizza, French fries, chicken nuggets and hamburgers. Despite meeting the fickle tastes of adolescent diners, increased health concerns in children and teens forced lawmakers to make drastic changes to the composition of school menus.
Concerned by skyrocketing rates of obesity in children and adolescents, U.S. senators passed legislation in 2004 forcing federally funded schools to alter menus to ensure that the meals served met proper nutrition guidelines. Since the beginning of the 2006-2007 year, Workman and food service employees of USD 497 and school districts across the country have begun the transition from high calorie to high nutrient-based offerings. Much to the dismay of students, the result is the disappearance of traditional favorites packed with fat and sugar in exchange for whole grains, fruits and vegetables.
“They miss their desserts,” Workman said. “Because of the wellness program, cookies are about the only thing we can have. We used to have apple crisp, strawberry shortcake, chocolate cake and stuff like that, but they can’t have any of that anymore.”
Despite their good intentions, lawmakers might have unwittingly created a whole new set of obstacles for schools to overcome. Students’ reactions to the changes have been predictable, but what legislators did not predict is the loss of $137,000 in revenue last year that is threatening USD 497 food service’s self sufficient status.
Paula Murrish, food services director for the district, said she knew revenue would be down as a result of the changes. She attributed the loss of funds to lackluster a la carte sales as well as the increased costs associated with health conscious foods. A la carte sales had previously generated as much as $1,000,000 per year in revenue for food services but fell to $484,000 last year, leaving the district in a financial deficit it might not be able to recover from.
“We will probably get to a point where we will not be self sufficient anymore,” Murrish said. “We have always been self sufficient and not had to have general fund money reimburse food services. I don’t know how long we can hold out, but we are trying.”
Food service’s budget crisis doesn’t seem likely to end anytime soon either. Even thought the district has downsized staff members from 151 to 108, become more aggressive in bidding processes for ingredients and services and raised meal prices by 10 cents, the decline in revenues continues to force administrators to make ends meet while providing flavorful foods students demand. Murrish said she believes offerings will get better as the district becomes better suited to providing the new menu items.
“We can always step it up and make it better,” Murrish said. “It’s just what kids will tolerate and what they get used to eating because I have to have meal sales to sustain my labor.”
Workman said she was not surprised by students’ unwillingness to try the new entrees and a la carte offerings made with less fat and sugar. She said students didn’t care for the baked chips and reduced fat snacks now offered, especially after having grown accustomed to the chips and sweets previously available. The culprit is no mystery to Workman and her young patrons; the flavor just isn’t what it used to be.
“The kids at first did not like them at all,” she said. “They liked their homemade cookies because they were bigger and more flavorful. They are starting to come around because some of this group doesn’t know what they are missing. It’s getting better as each year goes along but there just isn’t the flavor from before.”
Murrish said she understands students’ frustrations with the changes but also said she believes that with proper nutritional education and more time the district can begin to have a positive effect on the way its students eat at school and at home.
Without focusing on the reasons the changes are being made, the message will never get through to students, Murrish said. Although the program seems to be headed in the right direction, she said significant progress will not be made until students as well as parents are exposed to the nutritional education aspects for a considerable period of time.
“We know you have to start somewhere and hopefully after elementary kids have gone through the process [results will come],” Murrish said. “It takes time, it won’t happen overnight.”
And for Workman, one innocent comment said it all.
“I was surprised when one of the students came up and said ‘do they really think by changing your menus here it’s going to change the way we eat?’” she said. “And I thought, you know, that’s a smart child.”
For now USD 497 must be content with a slight increase in meal sales while waiting for the long-term results lawmakers hoped for when initiating the program. For students accustomed to the previous menu, true change remains a challenge.
As Workman said, only one aspect of her job remains the same; student taste buds. Regardless of the district’s efforts, those aren’t apt to change anytime soon.
Lawrence Ponders Ice Rink Options
Susan Jansen sat in the lobby of the Lawrence Arts Center Sunday, waiting for her daughter, Erin, to come out of a dance rehearsal. As Erin walked down the stairs to meet her mother she sighed, remembering what she used to do on Sunday afternoons. Up till a few months ago the Jansens drove into Kansas City so that Erin could practice ice dance.
The Jansens belong to a subculture of figure skaters and their parents that outsiders might find obsessive. Erin’s mother home-schooled her for two years so that she could skate more sessions at the far away ice rink.
“She wanted to skate and so there wasn’t really another option.” said Jansen.
The trip between the Jansen’s home and Ice Sports Kansas City where Erin skated took 45 minutes and with many skating sessions starting around 6:00 am the families options were few.
“We would have had to get up at 3:00 in the morning.” said Jansen.
Once Erin was started Internet schooling she could practice during the day with fewer people to compete with for space on the ice. Not to mention the extra sleep she and her mother enjoyed.
But the distance, the cost of skating, and Erin’s desire for a more active social life brought her back to normal school and out of skating.
The City of Lawrence Parks and Recreation Department has looked into a new building program that would solve the Jansen’s problem.
In the recently released Partners for Lawrence Athletics and Public Youth Feasibility Study, the PLAY committee conducted a survey of 412 random Lawrence residents and found that when provided with potential new building plans the most respondents wanted the department to fund a new ice rink. The list of potential plans contained 13 new indoor recreation facilities and 33 percent of the surveyed favored the rink.
The proposed rink would be approximately 40,000 square feet and cover seven to nine acres of land. In that space there would be a single hockey sized ice rink, 200 feet by 85 feet, locker rooms, and seating for up to 1,000 spectators.
The PLAY Committee found problems with the proposed rink, however. The rink would cost a staggering $10.6 million. In 2006 the Parks and Recreation actual budget only included $595,000 in total expenditures for maintenance and new projects. The 2007 budget gave only $3.4 million for the entire department to operate on. The committee’s research also found that the rink would not likely be able to make enough money to pay for its day-to-day operation, much less recoup the cost of building it.
Instead of building the costlier indoor rink suggested by the survey, the PLAY Committee recommends that the city look into a much cheaper, outdoor, seasonal ice rink. Crown Center in Kansas City has run an outdoor ice rink during the winters. Oklahoma City has a pair of outdoor ice rinks as well. But both of these cities already support a number of indoor ice rinks.
“With that population you had better not build.” Said Dmitri Logoutine, owner of Ice Challenge Enterprises.
Ice Challenges runs two outdoor rinks in the Oklahoma City area and contracts out equipment to other individuals and cities as far away as Kentucky.
Logoutine suggested that the PLAY Committee was right in their decision to support an outdoor rink over and indoor facility. On top of the inevitable problems posed by Lawrence’s lower population as compared to other cities with ice rinks, Logoutine suggested that the city would find an outdoor rink more suitable to their needs.
Ice Challenges normally builds outdoor rinks at 60 feet by 100 feet, roughly half the size of a normal, hockey style, ice rink. Logoutine stressed that this size was merely a suggestion that any size or shape could be fashioned.
“When you are talking about outdoor, you become an artist.” said Logoutine.
Outdoor ice rinks cost less than a tenth of what an indoor facility would run. A city looking to open up the construction and operation of the rink to an outside company, such as Ice Challenges, could expect for bids to start at $100,000 to $200,000. All of the necessary equipment could be purchased for $200,000 or a little more, should the city decided to run the rink on its own.
“I would be surprised if someone found the project quoted over $500,000.” said Logoutine.
Another strength Logoutine sees in outdoor ice rinks is their mobility. An outdoor rink can be set up in about a week and it takes a bit longer for the ice to freeze. Any open area with sufficient power and water can be transformed into an ice rink. One of the ice rinks Ice Challenges runs in Oklahoma City is in a park downtown and the Ice Terrace in Kansas City is in the heart of Crown Center.
Outdoor rinks usually open in November, as the weather gets colder. Ice Terrace at Crown Center will open its season on November 2. That makes building an outdoor rink to be used this year a little out of the question, but Logoutine sees next year as a real possibility.
That hope for next year excites Erin Jansen and her mother.
“I think there are other people who don’t know who would enjoy it.” said Jansen.
For now the Jansen’s will have to continue their long trips to ice rinks in other towns.
Lawrence Ponders Ice Rink Options
Susan Jansen sat in the lobby of the Lawrence Arts Center Sunday, waiting for her daughter, Erin, to come out of a dance rehearsal. As Erin walked down the stairs to meet her mother she sighed, remembering what she used to do on Sunday afternoons. Up till a few months ago the Jansens drove into Kansas City so that Erin could practice ice dance.
The Jansens belong to a subculture of figure skaters and their parents that outsiders might find obsessive. Erin’s mother home-schooled her for two years so that she could skate more sessions at the far away ice rink.
“She wanted to skate and so there wasn’t really another option.” said Jansen.
The trip between the Jansen’s home and Ice Sports Kansas City where Erin skated took 45 minutes and with many skating sessions starting around 6:00 am the families options were few.
“We would have had to get up at 3:00 in the morning.” said Jansen.
Once Erin was started Internet schooling she could practice during the day with fewer people to compete with for space on the ice. Not to mention the extra sleep she and her mother enjoyed.
But the distance, the cost of skating, and Erin’s desire for a more active social life brought her back to normal school and out of skating.
The City of Lawrence Parks and Recreation Department has looked into a new building program that would solve the Jansen’s problem.
In the recently released Partners for Lawrence Athletics and Public Youth Feasibility Study, the PLAY committee conducted a survey of 412 random Lawrence residents and found that when provided with potential new building plans the most respondents wanted the department to fund a new ice rink. The list of potential plans contained 13 new indoor recreation facilities and 33 percent of the surveyed favored the rink.
The proposed rink would be approximately 40,000 square feet and cover seven to nine acres of land. In that space there would be a single hockey sized ice rink, 200 feet by 85 feet, locker rooms, and seating for up to 1,000 spectators.
The PLAY Committee found problems with the proposed rink, however. The rink would cost a staggering $10.6 million. In 2006 the Parks and Recreation actual budget only included $595,000 in total expenditures for maintenance and new projects. The 2007 budget gave only $3.4 million for the entire department to operate on. The committee’s research also found that the rink would not likely be able to make enough money to pay for its day-to-day operation, much less recoup the cost of building it.
Instead of building the costlier indoor rink suggested by the survey, the PLAY Committee recommends that the city look into a much cheaper, outdoor, seasonal ice rink.
Crown Center in Kansas City has run an outdoor ice rink during the winters. Oklahoma City has a pair of outdoor ice rinks as well. But both of these cities already support a number of indoor ice rinks.
“With that population you had better not build.” Said Dmitri Logoutine, owner of Ice Challenge Enterprises.
Ice Challenges runs two outdoor rinks in the Oklahoma City area and contracts out equipment to other individuals and cities as far away as Kentucky.
Logoutine suggested that the PLAY Committee was right in their decision to support an outdoor rink over and indoor facility. On top of the inevitable problems posed by Lawrence’s lower population as compared to other cities with ice rinks, Logoutine suggested that the city would find an outdoor rink more suitable to their needs.
Ice Challenges normally builds outdoor rinks at 60 feet by 100 feet, roughly half the size of a normal, hockey style, ice rink. Logoutine stressed that this size was merely a suggestion that any size or shape could be fashioned.
“When you are talking about outdoor, you become an artist.” said Logoutine.
Outdoor ice rinks cost less than a tenth of what an indoor facility would run. A city looking to open up the construction and operation of the rink to an outside company, such as Ice Challenges, could expect for bids to start at $100,000 to $200,000. All of the necessary equipment could be purchased for $200,000 or a little more, should the city decided to run the rink on its own.
“I would be surprised if someone found the project quoted over $500,000.” said Logoutine.
Another strength Logoutine sees in outdoor ice rinks is their mobility. An outdoor rink can be set up in about a week and it takes a bit longer for the ice to freeze. Any open area with sufficient power and water can be transformed into an ice rink. One of the ice rinks Ice Challenges runs in Oklahoma City is in a park downtown and the Ice Terrace in Kansas City is in the heart of Crown Center.
Outdoor rinks usually open in November, as the weather gets colder. Ice Terrace at Crown Center will open its season on November 2. That makes building an outdoor rink to be used this year a little out of the question, but Logoutine sees next year as a real possibility.
That hope for next year excites Erin Jansen and her mother.
“I think there are other people who don’t know who would enjoy it.” said Jansen.
For now the Jansen’s will have to continue their long trips to ice rinks in other towns.
Planned Parenthood forced to raise prices
Jennifer Taylor, an Overland Park senior, began going to Planned Parenthood when she started college at age 18 for all her personal needs.
“My boyfriend and I had been dating a year, and my Mom refused to get me birth control,” says Taylor, “So when I was old enough I took it upon myself to go and take care of myself.”
Now Taylor receives her yearly checkup through Planned Parenthood and any other healthcare need she might have. However, recently Planned Parent of Kansas City and Mid-Missouri (PPKM) has fallen under hard times financially due to several anti-choice Legislators who want to keep family planning funds away from Planned Parenthood. PPKM has now had to raise some of its prices, because of the immense amount of energy and money that has been spent in court trying to protect women’s rights.
“We want to give our customers the best care they can receive, and in the past we have prided ourselves on being the most affordable, having to raise the prices even a little has been very disheartening,” said Lori Blank, vice president of clinical services.
Planned Parenthood helps women with all private needs from checkups to counseling, offering several educational seminars for young boys and girls and offering abortions at some clinics. The mission statement of planned parenthood is as follows:
“ To ensure that every individual has the knowledge, opportunity and freedom to make informed private decisions about reproductive and sexual health.”
However, even with the best intentions PPKM clinics have been under intense scrutiny and had to undergo tremendous hardships in order to keep offering their services to the public. In 2005 Former Attorney General Phil Kline began a campaign to discredit PPKM and stop them from offering several methods of pregnancy prevention to women in Kansas. Kline claimed that Planned Parenthood was providing unlawful abortion services and violating certain reporting requirements regarding victims of abuse. After a three-year legal battle and thousands of dollars spent defending and keeping clinics open, the new Attorney General Paul Morrison has made the decision to dismiss the investigation started by Kline. This is just one instance of hardship that PPKM has had to face, and was lucky enough to resolve it without much incident.
“Phil Kline has spend years wasting taxpayer money pursuing his extremist ideological agenda. Now that these allegations have been discredited, we look forward to redoubling our efforts to address the healthcare needs of the community,” said Peter Brownlie, President and CEO of Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri, at a press conference in late June.
It has become apparent, however, the years of legal expenses and stress on the corporation, which is funded mainly by donations, has left it’s toll on PPKM. Several resources have been depleted and prices have risen for certain services. The price of the morning after pill has gone up to $30 from $20, and a yearly set of birth control pills is now $25 more expensive.
“If it not one thing it’s the next. As soon as something is settled, someone else throws a curve-ball right at us, it really drains enthusiasm and moral when you always feel like your on the defense and in reality your just trying to help people,” said Sheila Kostas, the public affairs coordinator for PPKM.
Raising prices puts people like Johnson and other people with low socio-economic status at a major risk of losing the ability to provide themselves with quality care and education.
“It’s said to think that people are so anti-choice they can’t even see the other really important things that Planned Parenthood does for people,” said Taylor, “Abortions are just a fraction of the services that Planned Parenthood provides, I can only hope that there are enough people who support good, quality healthcare and people will keep donating.”
PPKM is very proud to be able to give basic health services, such as a well-women exam, to women under the poverty line free of charge. Last year 50% of the people treated at a PPKM clinic received care at a reduced rate or were unable to pay at all. 75% of patients that use Planned Parenthood services are uninsured.
“It’s for the uninsured in Kansas and Missouri that PPKM helps the most, raising the prices of our services just puts those people’s health in jeopardy,” said Blank.
Now Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri is facing another threat to their organization. A newly proposed House Bill no. 1055 is requiring all health centers that provide more than five abortions a month to be labeled as surgical center. This bill intends to shut down at least two health clinics in Missouri. Although this legislation would not affect any clinics in Kansas it is the same affiliate and pocketbook.
“This onerous legislation has nothing to do with protecting women’s health and safety. This is a blatant attempt to close down clinics and deny women their right to health care,” said Browlie in August, “...the law should be declared unconstitutional because is it unreasonable, burdensome and discriminates against abortion providers.”
Planned Parenthood has asked for an injunction to stop the state law from being enforced until the court decides whether the law is constitutional. All these setbacks add to the frustration and stress on the corporation’s staff, CEOs and financial planners. The PPKM website has made it a priority to educate it’s supports and clients of the threats against a woman’s right to choose and what the public can do to help.
“To us, as a company and healthcare provider, we just want to give the good reliable service at an affordable price. Hopefully with the help of the community and the State we can move forward and continue to serve the public as well as we have in the past,” said Kostas.
For more information about Planned Parenthood of Kansas City and Mid-Missouri, visit these websites:
www.ppmissouri.org
www.pkm.org
Survey to Help Solve Curbside Recycling Issue
Fire marshal catches landlords leasing unsafe rooms
Patrick Menihan’s attention was drawn away from the TV. He thought he smelled something burning. No big deal he thought. Someone is probably just cooking a pizza downstairs. His attention returned to the TV. Then the stench of smoke intensified. He opened his bedroom door to see a cloud of smoke rising up the staircase. He ran down the stairs and saw one of his roommates dumping water on a small fire in the oven.
Luckily the house did not catch on fire that day. However, in the event of a fire Menihan did not have the proper means of evacuation at his disposal.
His room was one of two rooms in the attic at 1122 Ohio St. He lived in the house from August 2006 until July 2007. Both rooms failed to meet current fire codes in Lawrence, which state that any third floor or higher bedroom must have at least two exits. In this case no such exit existed.
“I never realized how unsafe I was living in that attic, fortunately the worst thing that happened was a close call,” Menihan said.
Landlords renting out unsafe rooms and renters not realizing the lack of safety has become a common occurrence in Lawrence. Rich Barr, Lawrence Fire Marshal, said he is sure landlords rent out many houses, especially older houses in and around the Oread neighborhood, that do not meet fire codes.
“I know there are a number of them [houses that do not meet fire code] out there. Some landlords are great, but some try and fly under the radar until they get caught,” Barr said.
Finding the houses with unsafe rooms and forcing the landlords to make the necessary adjustments is the challenge for Barr.
Right now no mechanism exists for finding the unsafe houses. The fire marshal only has jurisdiction over multifamily dwellings, but the only way Barr can find out whether or not a house is a multifamily dwelling is by talking to the residents.
“Obviously if we see multiple names on the mail boxes than we know it’s a multifamily house, but we are not going to sit out on the street and watch people going in and out of houses,” Barr said.
Barr suggests that renters need to be responsible for notifying his office if they suspect that their house might not meet fire codes because he does not have the right to barge in and start snooping around unless the tenants invite him.
“Landlords do not want us to find out because it could be expensive for them, so we need to hear from the tenants,” he said.
Elizabeth Grosspietsch, Barrington, Ill., senior, currently lives in one of the rooms in the attic at 1122 Ohio St. She took the initiative and called the fire marshal’s office.
“My mom heard I was living in an attic and she asked me if there was a fire escape. When I said no she flipped out and told me that was not right,” Grosspietsch said.
Grosspietsch arranged for Barr to inspect her living situation right away. After his inspection he found that the two rooms in the attic did not meet fire code.
Barr said he contacted the house’s owner Serina Hearn and informed her that she needed to build a fire escape immediately.
Hearn, who was not available for comment, owns Rainbow Works, LLC and rents out more than 25 houses to hundreds of students at KU. She moved immediately on the fire escape project. Her crew erected a fire escape within a couple of weeks according to Grosspietsch.
“Our landlord was not reluctant at all; she finished the job really fast. I was just annoyed that we had to call the fire marshal in the first place. When I am paying a lot of money to live somewhere I expect that it’s a safe place,” Grosspietsch said.
Rainbows Works constructed the fire escape at 1122 Ohio St. out of wood, but Barr said the code allows wood as long as it meets certain guidelines.
“Metal is ideal for fire escapes, but wood is permitted as long as it is treated lumber or cedar because those types of wood are not prone to rotting,” he said.
Barr said that any person who lives in a multi-storey house should have their attic and basement checked out to make sure it meets fire codes. Basements can be problematic in older houses because they tend to have small windows that do not make for an easy exit.
“The situation we want to avoid is to have anyone trapped in a basement or on a roof where we can’t get to them in an emergency,” he said. “If people let us know than we can put houses on our radar screen and make the landlords accountable.”
After an inspection the fire marshal notifies the landlord. If improvements need to be made the landlords are granted what Barr referred to as a “reasonable amount of time” to make the necessary adjustments. If landlords do not comply then unsafe rooms are not allowed to be rented out.
Concerning the future, Rich Barr wants to find better ways to keep an eye on landlords and the houses they rent out. He said he is trying to get multiple groups together in order to notify him about potential problem houses.
“We are trying to get a handle on it, but we need groups to come together,” Barr said.
Elizabeth Grosspietsch said she sleeps much easier at night knowing she can escape safely in an emergency, but she knows not everyone can say the same thing.
“I encourage anyone who lives in an old house around campus to call the fire marshal. Fires are rare, but I would rather be safe than sorry,” she said.
Lawrence budget crunch affecting city parks
Lawrence budget crunch affecting city parks
On Oct. 26 the Parks and Recreation Department will dedicated its newest development, DeVictor Park. Nearly two years in the making, the original master plan included areas for an outdoor classroom, a footbridge bridge and a playground. However, when the park finally opens at the end of this month, the dedication will go on without the playground or footbridge in place.
Currently the park sits on a 42-acre lot bordering Langston Hughes Elementary School. The absent pieces ar