Recently by Ryan Elder

Susan Cade, Lawrence, knows how dangerous a snow-covered sidewalk can be. Last January, Cade walked from her front door to the edge of her driveway to get the mail. On the way, she lost her footing and fell. A trip to the hospital revealed a sprained left wrist, but nothing more.

"I'm a healthy person, but at my age, I'm getting frail," the 83-year-old said.

As the winter season bears down on Northeast Kansas, the city of Lawrence has teamed up with Douglas County Senior Services to make sure the elderly and disabled have their sidewalks cleared of snow and ice. The Safe Winter Walkways program is intended to make winter conditions safer, as well as reduce the chances that those who can't shovel their property aren't at risk for city fines.

Dacia McCabe Maher, student intern for Douglas County Senior Services and director of the Safe Winter Walkways program, said many elderly people are not able to shovel their sidewalks for a variety of reasons.

"Some of our clients come to us because they are just too weak to shovel the snow, while others have an illness or disability that prevents them from getting out of their house," she said.

This year, the program has 12 returning clients from last year, in addition to eight new clients. However, there are only five returning volunteers from last year, so at least 15 more volunteers are still needed to remove snow. The deadline to apply for the program, either as a client or volunteer, is January 1, 2009.

McCabe Maher said that the program is operated solely on trust. Douglas County Senior Services doesn't run any background checks on the clients who have applied for the service. Instead, it trusts that the people who claim to need the assistance really do need help shoveling their sidewalks.

Men and women of all ages have have helped with the program in the past, but one demographic has been missing: college students. McCabe Maher said some students have expressed interest in the program, but none have officially signed up to participate.

"I think this is a really good opportunity for college-aged kids. Most students are physically able to handle the cold for half an hour, and I know a lot of students are looking for philanthropy work anyway," she said.

If the program doesn't get enough volunteers, then the employees at the Douglas County Senior Services center bundle up and grab a shovel. One way or another, McCabe Maher said, all the clients' sidewalks are shoveled so they don't face fines.

On December 2, city commissioners approved plans to make a new and stricter city ordinance regarding the timeliness of snow removal. The current ordinance, 7456, gives property owners six days to shovel snow from the sidewalks that go through their property before a $20 fine is issued. Under the new ordinance, owners will only have 48 hours to clear the snow before receiving a fine. McCabe Maher said the new ordinance creates more urgency for the program to get more volunteers.

"It's important that the sidewalks are shoveled. The elderly are some of the most susceptible to suffering an injury on slippery sidewalks," she said. "One of our new clients this year, her husband died last year while shoveling his driveway. This program is important."

Cade is new to the program this year. She said her accident last winter was the main reason she applied for the service. She considers herself a relatively healthy person, but she doesn't want to take anymore chances when he sidewalks are covered in snow or ice.

"I'm excited about it," she said. "It will help me save energy and allow me to stay away from the cold weather, but I will also be able to get my mail without worrying about slipping."

Jun-Tack Oh wanders around the Underground, trying to decide what's for lunch. Uncertain, Jun passes on Pizza Hut and Chick-fil-A and settles on Chinese. Struggling through the lunch-hour rush, he pays for his food and manages to find an open table in the crowd.

 

Jun sits comfortably in his chair, slowly poking at what remains of his lunch. The General Tso's Chicken was good, but not spicy enough. Hardly anything he finds to eat has the same kick of spices that his mother's homemade Korean meals do.

 

He speaks confidently, with only a modest Korean accent audible. Everything about Jun shows that he is a laid-back college student, but he seems tense. When he talks about plans for after college, he isn't sure what he'll do.

 

For Jun, almost nothing has been certain for the past eight years.

 

Jun, a junior originally from South Korea, has lived with uncertainty since he was a junior high student in Seoul, South Korea. As a young teenager growing up in South Korea's capital and largest city, his parents struggled with a difficult decision. Should Jun move to the United States for his high school education, as his brother did, or should he stay in Seoul? It turned out to be the first of a series of choices Jun would have to make - none of which were easy, all of which have left him somewhere between two cultures.

 

The decision was ultimately his own, he said. His brother, Seoung-Tack Oh, attended high school in Hays in the late 1990s, so that helped Jun with his decision. He said he and his brother talked about the benefits and difficulties of going to school in a foreign nation.

 

"I like how school works here. There is more freedom, such as playing sports and extra curricular activities," he said. "And most importantly, there are no after school institutions."

 

In Korea, the school day starts at seven in the morning and doesn't end till four or five in the afternoon. Once classes are out, the students have the option to stay at school longer to study, or go to a college preparatory institution for a few hours each day. Korean students only get one chance to take the Korean equivalent to the ACT or SAT in the United States. Jun said there is immense pressure on high school students in Korea.

 

Jun decided to follow his brother and come to the United States because he didn't want to feel the pressure he would feel if he stayed in Korea. Arrangements were made for Jun to live with a Korean family in Topeka. His mother, Myung-Ja Keum, traveled to Topeka and Lawrence in 1999 to visit the University of Kansas and met Jun's future host family during that trip. She said she never tried to convince Jun to stay home for high school.

 

"I had been to Kansas before, so I knew Jun would do well in Kansas. The people are friendly, and I understood how much stress Jun would have if he studied here in Korea," she said through Jun's translation.

 

In August of 2002, Jun said goodbye to his family and boarded a plane to the United States. His ticket was one-way. There wouldn't be a return flight - at least not in the foreseeable future. He remembers his first impressions of the United States as he took the hour and half ride from the Kansas City airport to Topeka, where he would spend the next four years.

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This map shows the places Jun has lived. Image by Ryan Elder

 

"There was so much more open space here than in Korea. In Seoul, all there are only buildings," Jun said.

 

Space was the easiest thing for Jun to adjust to. He was in a different country, speaking a language he had only studied for 18 months, had no friends, and was going to live with a family he didn't met till they picked him up at the airport. He was scared, nervous, and not certain he made the right decision.

 

Jun was only in the United States for a week before his first day as a high school student arrived. He remembers how nervous he was on that first day, especially when he introduced himself to his classmates as part of an ice-breaker game. Students were instructed to say their name and an animal that started with the same letter as their first name. Jun didn't understand the instructions.

 

"I said 'Hi, my name is Jun, and my favorite animal is a dolphin,'" he said while hardly controlling his laughter. He was embarrassed as his puzzled classmates tried to temper their giggles.

 

Jun attended a soccer camp at his high school that week before classes began, but his host family prohibited him from being a part of the team. He was devastated. He had the talent to be on the varsity team, but all his time was to be devoted to studying and improving his English. Jun said the language barrier between he and his classmates made it even more difficult to make friends. The first couple months of his time in Kansas were by far the toughest.

 

"Meeting friends was the hardest part. I was so lonely most of the time," he said.

 

Jun was allowed to join the soccer team his sophomore year of high school, where he was immediately placed on the Varsity squad. He quickly gained popularity in the school of about 500. His senior year he was nominated for Homecoming King. His struggles of freshman year were long behind him, yet he still didn't feel at home.

 

Home would always be in Seoul. He missed seeing his family regularly. Most years he would return home for a week over Christmas break, and for one month during the summer. He communicated with his parents through email and occasionally on the phone. The distance from family, and the loneliness that accompanied it never went away.

 

Jun no longer had trouble making friends, but instead faced the peer pressures common to all teenagers. He said he was surprised by the easy availability and widespread use of drugs in American culture, even in high school. It was also his mother's biggest concern.

 

"Jun has been affected by American culture in a lot of positive ways, but before he left, I worried about the drugs and sex that seem so popular in America," she said.

 

As college loomed in the future, Jun was uncertain what he would do.

 

He could go back to Korea, or choose four more years away from his family to earn a degree from an American college. Hardly a day went by that he didn't ponder what he would do after graduation. Some days the decision was easy; he would stay in the United States. Other days Jun was sure he would attend college in South Korea - he just wanted to be closer to home.

 

Jun is pursuing a major in health science at KU. He isn't sure what he wants to after he graduates. One thing, however, is certain. He will, at some time, have to return home to South Korea, and serve in the South Korean military for at least two years. By law, all adult males must do so. Jun's brother served in the military from 2002 to 2004. At the time, he was struggling with college work in the United States, so he decided then was the time to serve in the military.

 

Jun faces a different situation, however. Tensions between North and South Korea at the 38^th Parallel are higher than they were six years ago when his brother served. Jun, who has always been a good student, is excelling in his college courses.

 

Despite his academic achievements, Jun will probably leave KU after the 2009 fall semester, and enter the military in early 2010. After his military service is over, he hopes to come back to KU in fall 2012 to finish his degree. He wants to be a physical therapist, which presents another uncertainty.

 

The level of physical therapy in South Korea isn't very good, Jun said. If offered a physical therapy job in the United States, he will take it. However, Jun doesn't think many employers will be interested in hiring him. If Jun took a job in the United States, he said he will seek U.S. citizenship.

 

"That would be a weird feeling, not being a citizen of my home country. But I would be ok with it, and I think my family would be too," Jun said.

 

Jun faces a promising future, but an uncertain one.

 

In a way, Jun has established some roots in Kansas. What started as a journey to a foreign country in the pursuit of education has manifested into a tug-o-war between two nations, cultures and identities. For now, he said he takes it one day at a time, and tried to enjoy the college lifestyle - while he still has it.

 

Adam McGonigle, Wichita junior, understands the value of good communication.

As Student Senate President, McGonigle communicates with many individuals and special interest groups on a daily basis, but he has never worked with the University Student Issues Advisory Board.

"I honestly had never even heard of it until you brought it to my attention just recently," McGonigle said.

The University Student Issues Advisory Board has not met since the 2006 academic year. The committee was created to discuss city issues that affect students at the University of Kansas and Haskell Indian Nations University, as well as the Lawrence community. Communication between the groups has been infrequent since the last time the board met.

City Commissioner Sue Hack, who was part of the board the last time it met, said there was a lack of desire on all parts to see it continue. City Manager David Corliss speculated that scheduling conflicts also prevented the group from establishing a regular meeting time.

The city does work with Student Senate from time to time on specific issues. The Oread Inn and the proposed changes to the transit system are the most recent examples.

"We are meeting with KU student transportation board representatives on a weekly and monthly basis as we discuss possible cooperation opportunities for transit," said Corliss.

McGonigle said that it is important to create planning committees for specific issues, such as the transit system. However, he thinks it would be more beneficial to have an ongoing dialogue with the city.

"I would agree that it would be helpful to do so," he said. "To be able to sit down formally on some sort of regular basis would be great. It's important to keep an ongoing conversation between the city, KU and Haskell."

Right now, there is very little conversation between those organizations. Community Affairs Director Ryan Lawler, Bolingbrook, Ill. senior, attends city commission meetings weekly, but it isn't often that he speaks in front of the commission. Lawler's predecessor, Rachel Barnes, left notes that mentioned the advisory board, but that was the extent of Lawler's knowledge of the University Student Issues board.

The mayor's office sent congratulatory letters to McGonigle and Vice President Michael Gillaspie after they were elected into their offices in April, but the city didn't receive any response.

"I'm not pointing fingers," he said, "but that is just an example of how communication has been almost nonexistent. The good thing is that it's something that can and should be easily fixed."

McGonigle said that there could also be better communication between KU Student Senate and the Haskell Student Senate. However, he has not met Haskell's Student Senate President. McGonigle said that the only current group that directly interacts with Haskell students is the First Nations Students Association.

"The two schools are in very close proximity to each other, so they have a lot of the same community needs," he said. "Also, it's always a benefit when students from different universities can meet and work together."

McGonigle and Corliss expressed interest in bringing back the advisory board in some form. Lawler said he would look further into the advisory board, and plan to contact the city after he has gathered sufficient information. If all parties express some interest in the committee, McGonigle and Lawler will start the process, which would include getting approval from both the Student Senate and the city commission. McGonigle said other issues, such as off-campus housing laws, are concerns that students sometimes have, but can't be voiced to the city in an effective manner. He believes an advisory board could resolve such problems.

Hack said some changes must be made to eliminate problems that inhibited the group in the past. In her experience with the board, she said most of the discussion was directed toward homecoming planning and to touch base with Student Senate.

"If it were to be reorganized, I think there needs to be a clear direction for the group with specific goals and objectives," she said.

Click here to contact your City of Lawrence commissioners 

To contact your Student Senate officers, click here

Breaking bread just might bust your budget these days.

 

Doug White never thought being a bread enthusiast would have an effect on how he budgets for food. Food prices have been on a steep rise the past year, but bakery items such as a loaf of bread have risen even more drastically.

 

"It's not a real big deal, but sometimes I don't let myself buy that cup of coffee on the way to work, or stuff like that," he said.

 

White isn't buying any more bread than he has for the past 15 years, but his favorite food is costing him more. The prices at local bakeries and pizza shops have skyrocketed in the past year and a half by as much as 46 percent. Local businesses in the Lawrence area are finding new ways to adjust to the rising costs of food.

 

Bob Garrett, owner of Great Harvest Bread Co. in Lawrence, said his business has taken a financial hit from high wheat prices. His store produces 6,000 or 7,000 loaves of bread per month at a cost of roughly $1 per loaf. A year ago, a loaf of bread cost about $0.80 to make. That means Garrett spends about $1,400 extra per month on making bread. He said it has become increasingly difficult to make a profit, but they are constantly thinking of new ways to cut costs wherever possible. The store has scheduled labor tighter and started shopping more competitively for the cheapest Hard Red Spring Wheat, the type of wheat almost every type of bread is made with.

 

"One thing we decided months ago is that we would not reduce the quality of our product," Garrett said.

 

The bakery has raised its menu prices three times in the past nine months to keep up with the rising cost of wheat. A $5.50 loaf of honey whole wheat bread only cost $3.75 last December. That 46 percent increase in menu prices has changed the way Garrett operates his bakery.

 

 "Our prices should be higher, but we have continually stayed behind the average price of a loaf of bread," said Garrett.

 

Terry Kastens, professor of agriculture economics at Kansas State University, said wheat prices 15 months ago were under $5 per bushel. This month prices have been floating between $8 and $9. Three months ago one bushel of wheat went for more than $12.

 

Kastens said the price of every crop has risen because of the soaring cost of energy, especially crude oil. The increased production of ethanol in 2006 and a massive world demand on limited supplies have caused wheat prices to rise more than other crops.

 

"The crops are in concert with each other," Kastens said. "When ethanol became more popular, a lot of the acreage for wheat was converted into corn fields and soy bean fields."

 

Although the rise in grain prices has severely affected businesses and consumers who use large amounts of wheat, the agriculture industry has benefited.

 

"Generally, anybody connected to agriculture is making a pretty good profit," Kastens said. "It has really provided an economic boom for all the rural areas."

 

According to the Kansas Wheat Commission, wheat will have a $2 billion economic impact on Kansas in 2008. Farmers, mill operators, and farm implement businesses see the biggest impact. Not everybody has been positively affected, however.

 

At Munchers Bakery, owner Mike Tennyson has been forced to raise the price of every item on the menu by 20 percent. The price change was made in April, but there hasn't been in drop off in business since then. Tennyson said he believes most customers understand that increasing prices was necessary to keep the business open.

 

"It's something you just have to do," he said. "We had no choice. Once red flour went from $8.95 per bag to $29 per bag in one month, we had no option but to raise the prices. It would have devastated us."

Pizza restaurants have also been directly affected by wheat prices. Papa Kenos Pizzeria employee Emma Golden said that Papa Kenos had a staff meeting a month ago about the rising cost of wheat. To save money, employees have been instructed to not put as much toppings on the pizzas.

 

Kastens said that wheat prices have started to go down the past couple weeks, but prices will never return to $5 per bushel. However, he doesn't expect prices to reach $12 per bushel again anytime soon.

 

"It's very tough to predict because the market is extremely volatile right now," he said. "My guess is that the prices will rebound and start to go back up sooner than later."

 

Regardless, White will still buy two to three loaves of fresh baked bread a week, just as he has for the past 15 years. Garrett and Tennyson say they will wait as long as possible to raise their prices again, but think it's just a matter of time.

 

"Since I love the fresh bread, I try to cut out other expenses that aren't necessary," White said.