Multimedia Reporting (Noland-Volek)

The completed, final plan for the new sewage plant, better known as the Wakarusa Water Reclamation Facility, was approved 10-0 in a recent planning commission meeting. This facility will include many entities in the 537 acres of agricultural land it will be using in southeast Lawrence along the Wakarusa River.
According to project engineer Mike Lawless, this project is being planned proactively so the city can be ready when growth in the Lawrence area occurs. “In a situation where we are planning for the future of the city, it will be more cost effective as opposed to reacting to it when the growth comes,” Lawless said. If the city were to react to growth when it comes, there would be many more problems for the community.
Richard Hird, the county appointee for the Lawrence-Douglas County Metropolitan Planning Commission, was interested in what would be built on this large amount of agricultural property. Many of the residents in the southeast Lawrence area are also concerned. “I am curious to know why the builders will need 537 acres for the facility,” Hird said.
Mary Miller, current planner for Lawrence, is mainly on the planning side but is invited to all the meetings for the people working on the construction. She believes the project has been very thorough and all the background work has been done in order to make this project a successful one. “They have been looking for years to pick the best places and this location does not disrupt any residents,” Miller said, “they (the planners) have definitely been doing their homework.”
Lawless said that the water reclamation facility will be a more improved version of the current system. “We are going with a little bit different plan to help reduce nutrient loadings on the river,” he said. The new structure will have a slightly different process of water to help meet both the current and future plans.
The facility will only take up a small portion of the land. The builders have also left space to expand if needed in the future. Another concern is the homes surrounding the area. Builders left cushion area in their plans so that neighbors around the area will not be affected by the facility. The agricultural land will be another buffer to take the in products in case of heavy rain and bad weather. If trucks are not able to get out on the land, facility workers will have the resources there in order to bring in the necessary crops.
The community will also be benefiting from the establishment of this facility for its own enjoyment. Mark Hecker, the Parks and Maintenance Superintendent for the Parks and Recreation Department, has shown an interest in using part of the land. “With that amount of land there is a lot of potential for new trials and parks because there is so much room, but we have to wait and see what the utility personnel say before we can start making plans,” Hecker said.
The current facility is at East Eighth Street and serves only 100,000 people. The new facility will be able to serve Lawrence and have extra space for its growth in the future. This project is expected to accommodate the Lawrence area until 2025. The new Wakarusa River Water Reclamation Facility should be constructed and in service by the year 2011.

Bob was your average young boy. He loved sports and his goal in life was to be a basketball coach and an algebra teacher, just like his high school coach. Today, Bob is an assistant professor in sport administration. But beyond that, he has made a lasting impression on students, student-athletes and co-workers at the University of Kansas.
Dr. Bob Frederick is the former athletics director for the University. He spent 14 years working 70 to 80 hour weeks, changing the sports world from the town of Lawrence, Kansas and impacting student- athlete’s lives across the country. Frederick has worked everywhere from The University of Kansas to Stanford University in California to Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah to a junior college in Coffeyville, Kan. to high schools in Olympia Fields, Ill. and Lawrence and Russell, Kan. “We created a culture that people treated each other with dignity and respect. Those values are more significant than winning games and championships,” Frederick said. Although winning the national basketball championship in 1988 was exhilarating, Frederick came to find out there was more to the job of athletics director. Frederick believes that in the long run, winning is not as significant. Acting with honor, integrity and living a life that matters is all much more important. “30 years ago, I would have had a different answer,” he said.
The recent firing of the University of Nebraska’s athletics director did not shock Frederick. He knows there are many challenges that go along with the job. Frederick knows Nebraska legend Tom Osborne very well and says that people will always worship him. Osborne returned as the interim athletics director after the firing of Steve Pederson last week. “In Nebraska, that one football team is everything, so it’s a good thing Tom is back,” Frederick said.
Frederick spent sleepless nights worrying about the financial issues he confronted as KU’s athletics director. These issues never went away and are challenges for every athletics program. “A challenge now is the proliferation of sports talk shows and blogs,” he said. Any opportunity for people to say anything and have it show up anywhere has made it difficult for athletics directors and coaches. Everything the athletics director and coaches say and do is the subject of commentary. “I have the physical energy for sure, but I don’t know about the emotional energy (to return as an athletic director),” Frederick said.
Frederick is exceedingly physically fit for a 67-year-old man. “My doctors think I’m an anomaly,” he said. In the summer of 2005, he completed the California Death Ride, an altitude climbing endurance event that he trained for for six months. This was a one-day event in which he rode 129 miles and climbed 16,000 feet over five mountain passes. He has been competing in these biking events the past three summers. It all started as a result of his mother and father. They both had a history of high blood pressure and died of strokes when Frederick was only 32. He then made a commitment to physical fitness. For 24 years, he was a serious runner competing in 10Ks, marathons and triathlons until arthritis in his knee forced him to stop. But then he found biking. “That’s been such a great joy,” he said.
Dr. Bernie Kish, director of facilities and lecturer in the KU health, sport and exercise sciences worked for Frederick when he was the athletics director. “I don’t think I’ve ever worked for someone who cared so much for people,” Kish said. Kish said that Frederick is an absolute professional and very knowledgeable. His classes are very interesting; he is a superb teacher and has received several teaching awards. Students are always coming to see him and seek advice. “Students want to pattern themselves after him,” Kish added.
Frederick thanks his wife, Margey, for being so helpful and encouraging him because he is generally not an assertive person. Margey supported job opportunities that Frederick said he might not have done on his own. “She jokes with friends that I would still probably be an elementary school teacher,” he said laughing.
He was standing on the corner by Allen Fieldhouse on September 20, 1971 when they met. Margey and Bob were married in May of 1972. Since their first date, they have not been apart. “He’s certainly my best friend, he’s my hero, the most wonderful person I know,” Margey said. Bob’s most important accomplishment is partnering with his wife to raise four sons to be productive members of society. Of their four sons, two were athletes. Bob did not want to push the other two. Margey knows the boys really appreciate him because he is such a strong role model and does not let his ego get in the way. “Bob is an incredibly honest person who always has the ability to do what is right and see the big picture. It’s not just about winning, it’s about graduating student-athletes,” she said.
In fact, one of Frederick’s major achievements was that he developed the $8.1 million Wagnon Student Athlete Center at the University which added 45,000 square feet of new space, the central part being the Academic Achievement Center. He cares about giving students opportunities and this center was just the thing to facilitate that wish. In the 1990s, the University had 43 academic All-Americans. The Academic Achievement Center continues to help KU student-athletes achieve their goals and aspirations in all walks of life. “It’s really satisfying,” Frederick said.
After leaving as KU athletics director in 2001, he missed his interaction with students so he took on the role of assistant professor in the KU sport administration department. He may be most remember for hiring coach Roy Williams and proving everyone wrong or for being athletics director during the national basketball championship, but Frederick has done much more than that. He is a very unique and genuinely caring individual. He puts others before himself and touches the lives of everyone around him. Bob Frederick is anything but ordinary.

A new state oral health plan is improving the dental health education and services within communities, schools, the elderly and the underserved across Kansas. The Kansas Department of Health and Environment recently released the plan at the Oral Health Kansas annual conference in Wichita. The goal is to provide access to education and services to all Kansans in the future. Parts of the plan will take longer than others. The plan lays the framework for improving oral health care statewide.
Katherine Weno, director of the Office of Oral Health, says the plan only took about a year to come up with – the officials started it last fall. “We started with a site team from a group of dental directors across the nation,” Weno said, “To help improve the infrastructure of oral health in Kansas.” Meetings were held over the spring and summer with private groups.
Weno says there are definitely some challenges to following the plan that will improve the oral health in Kansas, but some objectives will be easier to complete. “We have a long term goal to help the underserved,” Weno said. Short term plans include a data collection system and making sure oral health screenings are completed in every school. “I can see that happening in the next two or three years,” Weno said. According to Kansas law, public schools are required to give oral health screens every year. This is not necessarily the case in all public schools.
Mary Baskett, executive director of Kansas Head Start Association, says her association would like to make sure all young children are getting a full range on education, prevention and treatment services. The vision of Kansas Head Start Association is: Kansas is the best state in the nation in which to raise a family. In order to keep their vision, the association has a mission statement - KHSA strengthens early learning programs through advocacy, education and leadership.
Kansas Head Start Association wants to make sure that all Kansans have a source, whether it is a private dentist, a dentist clinic or a dental hygienist with an extended care permit (ECP). Dental hygienists with an ECP extend their services when people do not have access to the other options. According to the Kansas Oral Health Plan, dental hygienists are being provided educational opportunities about ECP practice and encouraged to get their ECP. “We want young children to have tremendous opportunity for access,” Baskett said.
The new plan gives realistic actions that the school teachers can take to incorporate oral health into all areas of education. Oral Health Kansas also came up with a set of strategies that classroom teachers can use to educate different age groups on dental health and how to incorporate it into every subject. Oral Health Kansas and Kansas Coordinate School Health, an approach to help young children establish healthful behaviors and attitudes, will implement oral health education into the curricula for all grades, kindergarten through twelfth.
Carol Carnahan, school nurse at Hillcrest and Cordley Elementary Schools, used to do a lot more with educating the school children about dental health and taking care of themselves. She says there is not enough time anymore, so the classroom teachers do the educating on oral health. In February, her schools participate in Dental Health Month, which raises awareness about oral health. “We have posters up around the school and I order the packets,” Carnahan said. Crest sponsors Dental Health Month and sends schools free toothbrushes and videos so that children can learn about the importance of taking care of themselves, even at such a young age.
The Kansas Oral Health Plan is the first statewide, comprehensive action plan aiming at oral health in Kansas. This plan will organize oral health efforts across the state to protect the health and quality of life for every Kansan.