ELIJAH JOHNSON’S CAREER-HIGH 26 POINTS LEADS KU PAST A&M
Sports 1B
L A W R E NC E
JOURNAL-WORLD ®
75 CENTS
&2)$!9 s -!2#( s
Making Lawrence a recreation destination
LJWorld.com
Incentives sought for downtown development ———
Mike Yoder/Journal-World Photos
TONY EDWARDS, A JUNIOR AT FREE STATE HIGH SCHOOL, shoots hoops Thursday at the Holcom Park Recreation Center. Kansas University men’s basketball coach Bill Self supports a public-private partnership to build a new youth fieldhouse and recreation center in northwest Lawrence.
Coach Self supports partnership to build new recreation center By Chad Lawhorn clawhorn@ljworld.com
Kansas University men’s basketball coach Bill Self has thrown his support behind a proposed publicprivate partnership that would build a new youth fieldhouse and recreation center in northwest Lawrence. In a statement released Thursday by the city of Lawrence, Self said the Bill and Cindy Self’s Assists Foundation is among the partners working to construct a multicourt field-
“
It has been our goal to be a part of a project that benefits our community and that is accessible and beneficial to everybody, especially our youth.” — KU men’s basketball coach Bill Self
house and recreation center at the northwest corner of Sixth Street and the South Lawrence Trafficway. “Cindy and I founded Assists out of the desire to help our community meet
a need for recreational and wellness space. It has been our goal to be a part of a project that benefits our community and that is accessible and beneficial to everybody, especially
our youth,” Self said in the statement. “This particular project has the potential to be even more impactful than anything we’ve been working towards to date. “Through the generosity of partners, we believe we’ve been given an avenue to help make Lawrence not only a great place to live for our citizens but also a destination. In terms of recreational space, public accessibility and economic impact for our community, this project is very, very Please see SELF, page 2A
Group wants special 1 percent sales tax By Chad Lawhorn clawhorn@ljworld.com
A proposed multistory hotel and apartment building at Ninth and New Hampshire streets will need several financial incentives to become reality, according to new information provided by the developers. The development group, led by Lawrence businessmen Doug Compton and Mike Treanor, is seeking a special 1 percent sales tax on purchases made inside the building and the use of tax increment financing to help pay for a below-ground parking garage and other infrastructure items. “This is just a recognition that it is very, very difficult and expensive to provide off-street parking in downtown,” said Bill Fleming, an Compton attorney for Treanor Architects and the development group. The project proposes to build two levels of below-ground parking that would provide more than 100 parking spaces for hotel guests and residents of the apartments. The parking lot would not be open to the general public. But this is not the first time developers have sought financial assistance to provide Please see HOTEL, page 2A
Schools gear up for severe weather season By Christine Metz cmetz@ljworld.com
MICHAEL BURGESS, LEFT, AND CHRISTOPHER CURLEY, both of Lawrence, play a game of pool Thursday at the Holcom Park Recreation Center, 2700 W. 27th St.
Public library picks KU grad to be director By Chad Lawhorn clawhorn@ljworld.com
A branch manager of a suburban Seattle library, who stresses how the library of the future should become a center of creativity, will become the new director of the Lawrence Public Library. Brad Allen, branch manager and programming coordinator for Everett Public Library in Everett, Wash., has been hired by the Lawrence Public Library board to serve as the library’s director. Allen will take over as construction work is set to begin on a $19 million expansion of the downtown library.
“I’m so excited the community is behind moving the library into the future,” Allen said Thursday. “I Allen want to do everything from having great story times, to having every book every kid wants to having the best technology we can.” Allen was in Lawrence in late February to interview for the position and delivered a public presentation about how the library could add “content creation stations” and
INSIDE
More sun Business Classified Comics Deaths
High: 56
Low: 31
Today’s forecast, page 10A
other technology to foster creativity. “I see Lawrence as a community that likes to create things, and I think the library ought to be there to help,” Allen said at the time. Allen, 37, is a Topeka native who was the adult services supervisor for the Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library before taking his job in Everett in 2010. He has his undergraduate degree from Kansas University, and a master’s in Library and Information Science from the University of Illinois and a master’s in Afro-American Studies from the University of Wisconsin. Library board chairwoman
7A 6B-10B 9A 2A
Events listings Horoscope Movies Opinion
10A, 2B Puzzles 9B Sports 4A Television 8A
Deborah Thompson said Allen has the library management experience and leadership skills to guide the upcoming library expansion. “The board was impressed with his responses during the interview and his public presentations, and looks forward to working with him,” Thompson said. Allen will begin his duties on May 1. His salary will be $88,000 per year. Allen replaces Bruce Flanders, who retired and then took a job with an area library in October. — City reporter Chad Lawhorn can be reached at 832-6362. Follow him at Twitter.com/clawhorn_ljw
St. John School Principal Pat Newton still gets emotional talking about the day nine years ago when she stood on stage during a spring performance of “Alice in Wonderland” and told the crowd to take cover. “They were so orderly,” Newton said of the fourth-, fifth- and sixth-grade students as they left the stage. “They went down into the hallway and, like they practiced, crouched down with their hands behind their heads.” She then dismissed the parents. “We had to take cover. I don’t know for how long, maybe an hour,” Newton said. “It was scary.” The May 8, 2003, tornado didn’t hit the school, but it did do significant damage to an apartment complex and SCHOOLS homes in southwest Lawrence. The night was one of the few times the veteran educator can remember putting all those years of tornado drills to use. “You can’t plan enough. It is so important to come up with a plan and follow it and talk about it. It is just really important,” Newton said. Last week’s devastating series of tornadoes throughout the Midwest raised tough Please see TORNADO, page 6A
COMING SATURDAY
9B 1B-5B We’ll head over to 3A, 2B, 9B the Lied Center and see what Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul has to Join us at Facebook.com/LJWorld and Twitter.com/LJWorld say.
Vol.154/No.69 36 pages
Energy smart: The Journal-World makes the most of renewable resources. www.b-e-f.org