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SATURDAY • APRIL 25 • 2015
Assistant city manager to be interim leader Search for Corliss’ replacement a top priority for new City Commission
By Chad Lawhorn Twitter: @clawhorn_ljw
The search for a new top executive at Lawrence City Hall is heating up. Lawrence city commissioners are set to appoint Diane Stoddard, a current assistant city manager for Lawrence, as interim city manager. Commissioners are scheduled to approve
her contract at Tuesday bled by it,” evening’s meeting. The apsaid Stoddard, pointment will be the first who was born major step in the process of and raised in finding a replacement for Lawrence. “It City Manager David Corlis a special CITY iss, who is resigning to take COMMISSION community a town manager job in Colowith great city rado. employees, and I’m very ex“I’m very honored by the cited to be a part of it.” opportunity and very humStoddard, 45, has been an
assistant city manager at Lawrence City Hall since 2007. Prior to joining the city, she spent about 15 years in various city government positions in other communities across northeast Kansas. She came to Lawrence after serving as a deputy city manager in Manhattan, where she
‘Why weren’t measures put in place?’
played a strong role in that community’s economic development efforts. Mayor Jeremy Farmer said Stoddard’s tenure at Lawrence City Hall has shown that she can keep the day-to-day operations of the city functioning smoothly Please see CITY, page 2A
Diane Stoddard has been in her current position since 2007.
BOND ISSUE UPDATE
Final stretch nearing for most school projects By Elliot Hughes Twitter: @elliothughes12
Nick Krug/Journal-World Photo
STUDENTS LEAVING BROKEN ARROW SCHOOL and South Junior High approach the crosswalk Friday at 27th Street and Belle Haven Drive as school lets out. Many residents in the Indian Hills neighborhood have expressed safety concerns about the high volume of traffic that has been diverted to 27th Street because of construction on the South Lawrence Trafficway.
Residents’ safety concerns mount after traffic diverted to 27th Street By Caitlin Doornbos
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stead of 23rd Street, they do now,” Gloeckner said. Gloeckner said she thinks that because the neighborhood is near Broken Arrow Elemen— Indian Hills neighborhood resident Diane Gloeckner tary School, South Middle School and Naismith and Broken Arrow parks, the and diverted city traffic to bypass for drivers look- children present on neigh27th Street. Resident Lau- ing to avoid the stoplights borhood streets should ra Gloeckner said their and traffic on 23rd Street. make traffic concerns a formerly kid-friendly “If anybody in Law- priority for the city. neighborhood street has rence didn’t know they Please see TRAFFIC, page 5A turned into a dangerous could use 27th Street in-
I know it’s more convenient, but it’s a neighborhood street and they need to take Residents of the Indian 23rd Street. Drive like your kids live here.” Twitter: @CaitlinDoornbos
Hills neighborhood near 27th and Louisiana streets are asking city officials to take action to make their streets safer, and at a neighborhood meeting this week those officials vowed to try. Construction on the South Lawrence Traffic Way closed 31st Street
With students just under a month away from deserting their classrooms and hallways, the final stretch of construction is nearing for more than half of the Lawrence school district’s buildings. Two years after voters approved a $92.5 million bond issue to give all 20 schools a facelift and build a new technical education center, 12 of those projects are expected to be completed by the end of August. “This summer’s crazy,” Superintendent Rick Doll said. Doll So far the only school that’s finished is Langston Hughes Elementary, which was largely done with its $2.9 million worth of work in November. It received four new classrooms, expanded office space and a more secure entryway — something every building will also receive.
Cordley Elementary “Probably Cordley will be the one people are most amazed with,” Doll said, when asked for the most anticipated project. Students and staff who report to Cordley, built in 1915, have spent the last year at the otherwise unoccupied East Heights Please see SCHOOLS, page 2A
Obama uses hospital funds to leverage Medicaid expansion Florida’s hospital funding is the first of the nine states — which include Tennessee, California, Massachusetts, Miami — The Obama admin- Arizona, Hawaii, Kansas and New Mexico — to expire istration is dialing up the pres- on June 30. By Kelli Kennedy
Associated Press
sure on a handful of states that have resisted expanding Medicaid coverage for their lowincome residents under the federal health care overhaul. The leverage comes from a little-known federal fund that helps states and hospitals recoup some of the cost of car-
ing for uninsured patients. The administration says states can just expand Medicaid, as the health care law provides, and then they wouldn’t need as much extra help with costs for the uninsured.
INSIDE
Mostly cloudy Business Classified Comics Deaths
High: 67
Low: 43
Today’s forecast, page 10A
Two top targets so far are Florida and Texas, with large numbers of uninsured. Both have received several billion dollars in recent years from Washington under the so-called low-income pool, or LIP.
Florida’s hospital funding is the first of the nine states — which include Tennessee, California, Massachusetts, Arizona, Hawaii, Kansas and New Mexico — to expire on June 30. But the hospital funds are an optional program, not entitlement programs like Medicaid, meaning the federal government has broad discretion whether to grant them, experts say. “There’s no doubt that other states that haven’t expanded
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Medicaid are watching this,” said Joan Alker, Alker, executive director of the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families. Hospitals say even with the low-income pool funds, it still doesn’t cover their costs for caring for uninsured and Medicaid patients. Several hospitals have said they would be forced to cut services or shut down
Free seeds Gardeners in Douglas County have new options for acquiring seeds thanks to the Lawrence and Baldwin City libraries. Page 10A
Please see MEDICAID, page 2A
Vol.157/No.115 26 pages