Multimedia Reporting (Bradford)

Increased construction this summer has caused obstacles for incoming freshmen during orientation.

While construction is an important part of university upkeep and the summer is an ideal time to do it, the work has caused street closings and changes in tour routes for visiting students this summer.

“We used to start all of our tours during orientation at the Union, but because of the construction at the Danforth Chapel, we don’t even go past there anymore,” Jennifer Hout visit coordinator said.

In addition to the chapel, construction is soon beginning on the east traffic booth, which will close part of Jayhawk Boulevard. Students have had to adjust to campus construction all year round, including construction next to the Union, at Wescoe, Fraser and several other places just during the past school year. However, there are some projects that are saved specifically for the summer, when they have the least amount of impact on students.

“We generally don’t interfere with the academic schedule, but we do a lot of the noisy activities during the summer, such as the demolition of the lower level of Wescoe, and then a lot of the exterior work during the year,” Robert Rombach University Fire Marshal said.

Wescoe and construction on other main campus attractions this summer, such as the football fields, Student Recreation Center and the Multicultural Resource Center next to the Union, can decrease incoming student excitement during orientation, which brings new students to campus all summer long.

“I was excited to see the football field at orientation, and then I saw everything going on and was like ‘where are we going to tailgate?’” Alex Huebner an incoming freshman said.

Campus tour guides who walk prospective students around campus have also had to change the route that they are originally trained with since the construction at Wescoe began.

“We can’t walk behind Wescoe anymore, so it’s hard for students to see buildings like Malott and the Rec Center,” Jay Benedict a campus tour guide said. “You can walk them down there, but then you have to walk up like 80 steps.”

While Benedict said he doesn’t get too many questions about the construction, he tries to explain to the students what is going on, and has received a lot of comments on projects such as the Fraser doorways, which were repaired last semester from the Microburst.

Despite the inconvenience to students, the University likes to look at construction as a good thing, because they are improving and helping students by adding new classrooms, new roads and making campus more accessible.

“We want to help students in the classroom environment, and everything always needs improving,” Rombach said. “I think when we are doing nothing; that’s when you should start to worry.”

Complaints about downtown parking meters have city commissioners considering giving first-time offenders a warning instead of the usual $2 ticket.

This idea has been brought up in City Hall meetings, however has not received a great deal of support yet, because of the importance of getting cars in and out of those spots.

“We almost have what I call premiere parking on [Massachusetts street], and we have to make sure that people can do their shopping, and have turnover in those spaces,” Mike Amyx a city commissioner said.

Around Massachusetts, there are two, five and 10-hour meters. One step that businesses have taken to open up spaces is making employees park in long-term parking.

“I think the meters are a good thing, because they prevent people from parking there all day,” Joe Flannery President of Weaver’s Department Store said. “We never let our employees park in the free lots. We have them park in long-term lots or meters that are five or 10-hours.”

However, not all stores have conveniently placed long-term parking.

“I used to work downtown, and there weren’t any five-hour parking meters around, so I would park in the two-hour meters and got a ticket basically every time I worked,” Lisa Lipovac, Shawnee, KS, junior said.

The parking meters, which Amyx said have been in place since the 1940s or 50s, are also important for the city, because the money from tickets is used to pay for additional parking and parking lot construction. He said the fines were increased from $1 to $2 about ten years ago.

“We have to walk a fine line, because we need the money for parking, but we don’t want to run people off,” Amyx said. “Also if they are going to do a new system, what type of equipment will they have to get downtown to know if it’s a first time offender?”

Lawrence Police Department spokesperson Kim Murphree said that they usually have a complaint about the meters every couple of months. However many stores are willing to pay for customer’s tickets, and some will automatically take them off of shoppers’ cars and pay them.

“We would be happy to pay anyone’s ticket who is upset about it,” Flannery said.

One problem is tickets for people who go downtown frequently can begin to add up. When tickets aren't paid within 10 days, the fee is increased to $10.

“I have a couple of unpaid tickets right now, and nothing has ever happened when I don’t pay them,” Lipovac said.

Despite complaints, Amyx feels that most of the time the parking situation downtown is positive.

“There are a lot of people doing a lot of goodwill downtown, and some of it we just don’t see,” Amyx said.

Kansas Journalism Institute teaches high school students new media. Click the image above for an audio slideshow of KJI.

Bonnie Henrickson, the Kansas University women’s basketball head coach, not only stressed the importance of basketball skills at the Individual Basketball Camp June 24-27, but also the importance of grades and respect to other campers.

“The number one, most important thing for our players at KU is their commitment to graduating,” Henrickson told campers in a lecture.

Henrickson takes time out of each of the four summer camps to lecture about topics besides basketball. She told campers how the KU players use tutors, are up at 5 a.m. to workout and how important it is to be a “decent person.”

“This is a big focus with our program, because not only do these girls play basketball, but they are at KU to get a degree and grow as a person,” Katie Capps, camp director, said. “It’s not just about basketball, there’s so much more that goes into it then putting the ball in the hoop.”

Girls at the camp ranged from grades fifth through 12th, and the majority of them stayed at the Ellsworth Hall during the camp. At the dorm they were able to spend time with the KU players, which also showed them the dedication that the players have.

“We make sure that our players look presentable and act presentable, and hopefully the campers will follow,” Capps said.

Each evening campers participated in a fun activity with the players such as carnival night, contest day and all-star night. During the day, campers were split up into three leagues, depending on age, and worked on fundamentals and played 5-on-5 games.

“I felt like I improved on my dribbling a lot, and I think these camps are important because you meet new people, and can take back the things you’ve learned to the younger kids,” Whitney Shipp, Winnetonka High School, junior, said.

Most of the approximately 200 campers were from Kansas and Missouri, but the camp also brought in participants from other states such as Texas, Oklahoma, Minnesota and Colorado. Each day the girls worked in stations to improve the dribbling, shooting, and defense.

“If all you’re doing is playing and playing games, you might be practicing bad habits,” Henrickson said. “We try to work on fundamentals and things that you don’t improve on if you’re only playing games.”

The camp brought in mostly local coaches from high schools, AAU leagues and some coaches from Missouri to help the campers. Campers were split up into teams, each with a different coach, to scrimmage against each other.

“It was very fun, and pretty tiring,” Shipp said. “But we worked a lot on footwork and dribbling skills and I’ll use that a lot back home.”

The ongoing storm drainage problem in North Lawrence is expected to start improving in the next couple of years as construction projects begin. Currently, all of the water in North Lawrence has to be pumped out through one nine-inch pump at fifth and Maple. This can take from an hour up to a couple of days, and sometimes causes flooding at Lyons Park. A study done a year ago revealed that the total storm water improvement needed in North Lawrence was $16 million in the residential area, and another $25 million north of Lawrence to keep the water out of the area. “We don’t really have a drainage system; it’s all just open ditches, and there’s no curbs or gutters in the residential areas,” Ted Boyle, North Lawrence Improvement Association president, said. “Most of the water just sits in these ditches until it’s finally pumped out.” Boyle said North Lawrence needs two 30-inch pumps to replace the one nine-inch pump to help solve the problem. Installing the new pumps would cost approximately $3.9 million, and this amount increases each year that it doesn’t get done. The plan has been proposed to the city budget, but there are no official plans to begin work. “This is our top priority, because it would benefit the residents the most. We want to get this done before we do anything else in the area,” Boyle said. City Manager Dave Corliss said there are not any plans for providing funding for improving storm drainage in residential areas of North Lawrence. However, construction will begin this Fall on the second and Locust intersection, which will widen the traffic lanes, and Corliss said will help drainage at the underpass near the intersection. Construction on a 900-acre airport industrial park in North Lawrence is likely to begin at the end of the year. Anthony Santaularia, developer of the industrial park, said that this construction would help with the storm drainage problem. “There’s not a drainage problem where we want to build the park, but in North Lawrence there is,” Santaularia said. “We plan to work with the city and county to upsize the pumps, and will handle what comes up during our development.” Boyle said the area where the industrial park is to be built needs to install a $9 million storm water pump, and the Improvement Association feels the developer should pay for it. However, Santaularia had not heard these figures. For now, Boyle is mainly worried about flooding in the neighborhood, and the increasing cost these projects will require as each year goes by. “We aren’t even as worried about the river flooding as we are about the actual water problem in our neighborhoods, and so it’s really our number one concern right now,” Boyle said.

Lawrence twins Bryan and Ryan Heyer began their modeling career last month, after completing an eight-hour photo shoot for Mardi Gras Publishing, which publishes erotic and romantic novels.

The photos were taken by photographer Ben Lamb at several locations around downtown Kansas City, and will likely be used for the covers of romance novels. Most of the photos featured the twins shirtless, and sometimes even less.

The Heyers have been involved in bodybuilding for about two and a half years, and just became interested in modeling last year. They Heyers went to Nowata High School in Oklahoma, but had lived in Lawrence before then, and eventually moved back. It was in Oklahoma that they became interested in bodybuilding.

“Our football coach in high school is the one who made us want to go toward bodybuilding, because he had done it in the past,” Bryan said. “But now we’ve started modeling, and are getting some great opportunities.”

The twins trained for five months before the photo shoot with an intense exercise and diet regimen. Their diet consisted mainly of chicken, tuna, salad and rice. They also consumed protein and amino acid drinks each day to help build muscle. The Heyers worked out at Lawrence Athletic Club, doing weight lifting and 20 minutes of cardio five days a week, along with interval training and water resistance training.

“The photo shoot took a lot of gym time; we were in here every night,” Ryan said. “We did a lot of cardio, dropping weight two months before the photo shoot.”

Right before the photo shoot, the twins were also taking water pills, to decrease their water retention and get the most definition in their muscles as possible.

“I felt like I was going to faint a couple of times during the photo shoot, because I didn’t eat or drink anything all day long, and we were out in the sun,” Ryan said.

The twins had to find gym time around their daytime jobs at NCS Pearson and GNC. Usually they got off work at 9:30 p.m. and then were in the gym until close at 11 p.m. The twins both lost more than 20 pounds for the shoot, and are now back in the gym, trying to add muscle again.

“The twins are in here almost every night, sometimes twice a day,” Connor Barnes, Lawrence Athletic Club employee, said. “They worked hard for that photo shoot, and we’ve gotten to know them pretty well around here.”

The Heyers are planning more photo shoots, one in two months with a photographer from Connecticut that is coming to Kansas to photograph them. They are also beginning their own personal training business at realtwinfitness.com, and some of the photos from their shoot will be used for their new Web site. They hope that in the future, they will be able to pursue their business, helping others get in shape, along with modeling.

“It’s all about the energy and the benefits you get when you leave the gym,” Ryan said.