Lawrence Journal-World 02-01-2015

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F E I L E R D N A PAYBACK o eir loss a year ag th d e g n e v a s k w ver The Jayha ith a 68-57 win o w ts ca d il W g o rd to the unde house. SPORTS, 1B ld e Fi n e ll A at te K-Sta

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SUNDAY • FEBRUARY 1 • 2015

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Questions pile up ahead of Rock Chalk audit By Chad Lawhorn Twitter: @clawhorn_ljw

More questions have emerged about the Rock Chalk Park sports complex, following a Journal-World review of financial documents related to the project. The Journal-World reviewed a set of documents and canceled checks delivered to the city by the Kansas University Endowment Association earlier this month. Some of the documents appear to contradict statements

Missing documents, signature worries, staking confusion among issues made by KU Endowment going through the city’s officials, who largely standard bid process. have been responsible for Mayor Mike Amyx ensuring that expenses said he is hopeful a reand receipts reconcile on cent audit ordered by nearly $12 million worth the city will provide anof infrastructure that a swers to such questions. CITY Thomas Fritzel-led firm COMMISSION “I want to make built at Rock Chalk Park. sure the public sees The city of Lawrence is pay- that there was a thorough auing for nearly all of the $12 mil- dit done, and that the monies lion worth of work, which was we owe are only on that porawarded to Fritzel’s firm without tion of the development that

we agreed to pay,” Amyx said. “My goal is to assure the public that what they are paying for is what they agreed to pay for and nothing more.” In addition to the nearly $12 million in infrastructure work at Rock Chalk, a Fritzel firm built about $40 million worth of stadium and athletic field improvements at the site. The city is not responsible for paying for any of that work.

ONE CAN

By Peter Hancock Twitter: @LJWpqhancock

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Dedicated volunteers turn aluminum into tons of charitable donations, and you can help them

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Richard Gwin/Journal-World Photo

LINDA KLINKER, SHOWN AT THE 12TH AND HASKELL RECYCLING CENTER, is known as the “Can Lady” for her role as one of the founders of the Lawrence-based nonprofit Cans for the Community. The group recently passed the $150,000 mark in charitable donations from recycling aluminum cans. “I’ve embarrassed all of my family at this point,” Klinker says. But they may overlook all the embarrassments now because Klinker these days has another title: magician. As the leader of Cans for the Community, she’s pulled off quite a trick since the organization was founded in 2005. She and a group of about a dozen volunteers have taken the simple idea — col-

lect cans, sell them and give the money to local nonprofits — and turned it into an organization that just recently topped the $150,000 mark in donations given to local charities. They estimate they’ve collected 10 million aluminum cans in the process. And you thought that trick you do with an aluminum can on your

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Today’s forecast, page 6B

Please see CANS, page 4A

Lawhorn’s Lawrence

Chad Lawhorn clawhorn@ljworld.com

INSIDE Arts&Entertainment 1C-6C Events listings Books 4C Horoscope Classified 1D-7D Movies Deaths 2A Opinion

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Fresh off its sweeping electoral wins in the 2014 campaign, the Kansas Republican Party turned its focus this weekend to 2016, when U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran will be at the top of the state ticket. Moran’s reception at the party’s annual state convention in Topeka on Saturday drew one of the What largest crowds party officials Republicans do could remember, with their majority bolstered by the fact that the Kan- has a determining sas University vs. effect upon Kansas State Uni- elections in versity basketball game was also be- Kansas in 2016.” ing projected on a big-screen TV behind the stage. — U.S But the crowd Sen. grew even more Jerry excited at halftime, Moran, when Moran took R-Kansas the stage, all but kicking off his 2016 re-election campaign. Joining him on stage was Sen. Joni Ernst, the freshman Republican from Iowa who gave the GOP response to President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address Jan. 20. Ernst gave Moran, who headed the National Republican Senatorial Committee last year, credit for her winning a seat formerly held by Democrat Tom Harkin, and for Republicans winning back a majority in the U.S. Senate last year. “He served in such a difficult position in such a tough, tough time,” Ernst said. “But because of Jerry Moran and all the assistance he was able to give, in my race in particular, I am now serving in the United States Senate.” The 2014 campaign proved especially tough in Moran’s own back yard, where his colleague, Sen. Pat Roberts, barely survived a tea party primary challenge, and then trailed in many of the polls leading up to Election Day against independent candidate Greg Orman. A surge of nearly $17 million in independent expenditures in the final weeks of the

inda Klinker has one of those cars. “It is so smelly,” Klinker says of her Honda CRV. “Before people ride with me, I have to spray it down with Febreze. And there are always hand sanitizers in both doors.”

Morning snow

Please see AUDIT, page 2A

GOP turns its eyes to Moran in 2016

at a time

Linda Klinker: Pig Farmer? No. Linda Klinker: Fishmonger? Of course not. Anybody who has ever heard the jingle that comes from the hatchback of Klinker’s car knows her true identity. Linda Klinker: The Can Lady. Because Klinker is one of the founders of the Lawrence-based nonprofit Cans for the Community, it is a good bet that when you ride with her you also are going to ride with a pile of cans en route to a recycling center.

The city has hired an independent auditing firm to review accounting records of the project. The firm, Tennessee-based McDonald & Associates, is expected to provide a report to the City Commission by Feb. 26, although the commission has said it would extend the deadline if auditors need additional time to answer all the questions.

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Please see GOP, page 2A

Youth of the Year Six area students are officially in the running for the Boys & Girls Club of Lawrence Youth of the Year award. Page 3A

Vol.157/No.32 28 pages


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