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Clintons paid state department staffer for email server work. 1B
JAYHAWKS STUMBLE
RECAP IN SPORTS, 1C
Passing game, defense come up short in opening day bummer as David Beaty era begins.
L A W R E NC E
Journal-World ®
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SUNDAY • SEPTEMBER 6 • 2015
LJWorld.com
School safety concerns prompted resignation By Karen Dillon Twitter: @karensdillon
Cut corners led New York Elementary construction supervisor to quit “
Last November, Scott Besler said the gates were Besler, who was the consupposed to be installed struction supervisor of a no later than January, the major remodeling projmonth he quit his job in part ect at New York Elemenbecause of his concerns over tary School, was watchsafety violations. ing when four heavy SCHOOLS But the gates weren’t gates weighing 350 pounds installed, and in August one each were delivered. of the gates, which were lean-
ing unsecured against a brick structure, fell on an 8-year-old boy who had wandered into the construction site, breaking bones and collapsing the top part of his lungs. “We were behind the eightball from day one on New York,” Besler, 52, told the Jour-
nal-World in an exclusive interview. “There is a lot of stuff that didn’t get done in a timely manner. There were safety violations. I would go home and be stressed out as if I physically pounded a nail all day.”
Please see SAFETY, page 5A
Different spokes for different folks
They literally said, ‘(Expletive) off, we are done for the day.’”
— Scott Besler, former construction supervisor of New York Elementary project, on workers at site
Kansas town once held 4,000 enemy combatants
Scary Larry polo club brings ‘chill’ to East Lawrence park
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History of Camp Concordia offers contrast to today By Peter Hancock Twitter: @LJWpqhancock
Concordia — As political leaders in Kansas are speaking out against the possibility of moving enemy combatants being held in Guantanamo Bay to the military prison at Fort Leavenworth, another Kansas town is celebrating its history of housing prisoners of war. Only a few buildings remain of Camp Concordia, which was located about 3 miles outside of Built: In 90 days the town of ConCost: $1.8 million cordia and once Opened: July 1943 held more than Closed: 4,000 German November 1945 POWs during Buildings: 304, World War II. But including a 177-bed community leadhospital ers there have restored what’s left and turned the former prison into a tourist attraction celebrating that time in the city’s history. Lowell May, who has written a book about the camp’s history and is a member of the POW Camp Concordia Preservation Society, said people of the town initially had many of the same concerns being expressed today about the danger of housing enemy prisoners. But he said they soon got over that fear as the camp became an integral part of the community. “One woman told me, we didn’t know if we were going to be murdered in our beds at night. But after a few months, those fears started dying down,” he said. “You have to remember, though, the Germans were members of an organized army that had been captured in combat,” he said. “They operated by rules. So once they were put in a camp, they accepted that and pretty much went along and rode out the rest of the war.” Paul Rimovsky, who also volunteers for the preservation society, said few people
Camp Concordia
Nick Krug/Journal-World Photos
THE PLAYER REACHES BACK TO SWING as a defender blocks the net during a bike polo game Aug. 13 at Edgewood Park in East Lawrence. Members of the Scary Larry club say they have been well-received by the neighborhood and by those who feel safer in the park at night with regular activity going on. TOP: A close-up view of one of the polo bikes.
I
f you don’t have the small fortune it requires to play polo but do have the urge to compete, then you’re in luck. But leave the horse tied up in the barn and don’t forget your bike if you want to play this sport of kings. Since 2009, members of the Scary Larry Kansas Bike Polo club have been running their thoroughbreds, which often come in the form of free-wheel bicycles, in a hybrid version of one of the world’s oldest games popularized
Hot, humid
Look
Nick Krug nkrug@ljworld.com
and played by the wealthy elite, then adapted by Seattle bike messengers in the late 1990s. Please see POLO, page 6A
THE RESPECTIVE POLO MALLETS of six different players lie together to be shuffled randomly and tossed with three on either side of the court to determine the teams before a game.
INSIDE Arts&Entertainment 1D-6D Horoscope Classified 1E-8E Movies Deaths 2A Opinion Events listings 2C, 6D Puzzles
High: 94
Low: 74
Today’s forecast, page 8C
4D Sports 2D Television 9A USA Today 4D, 5D
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1C-8C 2C, 6D 1B-8B
Please see TOWN, page 2A
Judges sue Four judges, including one from Douglas County, have filed a new lawsuit against the state’s judicial budget provision. Page 3A
Vol.157/No.249 48 pages