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Volunteers of the year
Breezy
Low: 52
High: 78
Today’s forecast, page 10A
INSIDE Report: Brown next coach of SMU Former KU and NBA head coach Larry Brown has agreed to become the next head men’s basketball coach at Southern Methodist University, according to ESPN reports. But Brown has said no deal has been finalized, and no announcement is scheduled. Page 1B
LJWorld.com
County workers to pay more ——
Health insurance coverage to look more like that in private sector By Christine Metz Mike Yoder/Journal-World Photo
JIM MCMURRAY, LEFT, A VOLUNTEER WITH HABITAT FOR HUMANITY who was named the Wallace Galluzzi 2011 Outstanding Volunteer of the Year, and Logan Brown, center, a Free State student who was selected youth category Volunteer of the Year, meet and visit Tuesday at Carnegie Library after they were both honored. Both participated in the Celebration of Volunteers to recognize United Way agencies’ volunteers of the year. At right is McMurray’s wife, Vicki.
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QUOTABLE
This is 80 feet long, three feet wide, and 4,600 pounds.” — Rick Brown, general manager of Kansas Athletics’ food vendor, Centerplate, talking about the planned size of a nacho plate to be served Saturday at Memorial Stadium during the Kansas Relays. If successful, it would be a world record. Page 10B
COMING THURSDAY We’ll be at a contract negotiation session between Lawrence teachers and the school district.
SCHOOLS
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Ceremony honors those who help make difference in community “
By Alex Garrison
acgarrison@ljworld.com
ONLINE: See a complete list of volunteers honored at the ceremony at LJWorld.com
Sixteen-year-old Logan Brown started volunteering at the district attorney’s office because she wants to be a lawyer when she grows up. Last summer, she started working with GaDuGi SafeCenter, giving 20 hours per week to help victims of sexual assault. “I really enjoy seeing victims get back on their feet and thriving,” Brown said. Now, the young advocate is the 2011 Wallace Galluzzi Outstanding Volunteer of the Year in the youth category, the highest honor the United Way Roger Hill Volunteer Center gives out.
of helping agenI’m always humbled by how many won- way cies recognize the great derful people are helping our community.” work their volunteers
— Marie Galluzzi-Potter Brown and 15 adult Galluzzi award nominees, plus more than 50 agency-nominated volunteers of the year, were honored at an event Wednesday afternoon at the Carnegie Building. It was the second annual Volunteers of the Year award ceremony and 27th year of the Galluzzi awards, named for “Wally” Galluzzi, the first president of Haskell Indian Junior College (before it was a university) and a former United Way chairman. Marie Galluzzi-Potter, Galluzzi’s widow, said she was honored to oversee the award committee. “I’m always humbled by how many wonder-
ful people are helping our community,” she said. Jim McMurray, a retired Air Force colonel, won the award for his work with Habitat for Humanity, where he served as interim director and helped get the organization back on better financial grounds. Like many at the event, he recognized the large number of people in Lawrence and Douglas County who give their time and talent to nonprofit organizations. “Lawrence is a wonderful town if you’ve got the interest in volunteering,” he said. The Volunteers of the Year awards and ceremony are the center’s
do, associate director Micki Chestnut said. Mary Boatright won in the board service category for Douglas County CASA and agreed that nominees and winners represented the great people of the community. “It’s a lot of people who work very hard,” she said of the award recipients. The volunteers, for agencies of many different types and services, work largely in the background, but recognition such as the Galluzzi and Volunteers of the Year awards help shed a little light. “We don’t do it looking for recognition,” McMurray said, “but, of course, I’m honored.” — Reporter Alex Garrison can be reached at 832-7261. Follow her at Twitter.com/alex_garrison.
cmetz@ljworld.com
The health insurance coverage that Douglas County offers its employees — the single biggest driver in the county’s budget — will be more on par with what private sector employers offer. Starting in June, Douglas County employees will have to pay more in monthly premiums, co-payments for visits to the doctor’s office and emergency room and the maximum amount of money they have to spend each year on medical bills. The inHEALTH creases will bring the county more in line with what other businesses are offering their employees, assistant county administrator Sarah Plinsky said. While the cost of health care plans everywhere have passed more responsibility onto employees recently, Douglas County has been reluctant to make changes to its plans because it was already reducing pay raises. “They didn’t want to make a whole lot of changes to the plan design because they were cutting back on other benefits to employees,” Plinsky said. “They were looking at a total package of compensation.” This year the county, which is self-insured, was facing an estimated 6.9 percent increase from the $7.4 Please see COUNTY, page 2A
Officials say storm chasers hindered emergency response Professionals in the weather business say criticism is unfair SALINA (AP) — So many people were chasing severe weather in parts of central Kansas during the weekend that roads were jammed and emergency responders were hindered from doing their work, some central Kansas safety officials said. The criticism brought a strong reaction from professional storm chasers, who said they provide valuable information to public safety officials and The National Weather Service during severe weather, The Salina Journal reported. Chancy Smith, director of Dickinson County Emergency Management, said some roads in the northwest section of the country were like “a funeral procession” Saturday and some storm chasers would not allow
emergency vehicles to pass or drove over downed power lines. And Dickinson County Administrator Brad Homman, from Solomon, said he saw bumperto-bumper traffic near Solomon. “It was outrageously stupid. People were driving crazy. It was dangerous,” Homman said. “I’ve never seen anything like it in my 27 years of working in emergency service.” The criticism is not fair to professional storm chasers, said Lanny Dean, who operates a Tulsa, Okla.-based business called extremechasetours.com. Professionals educate the public and provide information to law enforcement, emergency workers and the National Weather Service, Dean said. “We give ground truth re-
ports. Radar doesn’t reach all the way to the ground,” Dean said. “I wonder if none of us had been on that event, if there would have been any more deaths (six were killed in Oklahoma). Veteran chasers really participate in getting the warnings out.” He acknowledged that traffic was so heavy north of Solomon on Saturday that he changed locations. “If we had been caught in the convergence, it could have been a dangerous situation,” Dean said. “I personally did not witness any altercations or incidents where emergency vehicles were not alOrlin Wagner/AP File Photo lowed to pass. We pulled over to A TRUCK DRIVES ALONG I-70 as let them pass. That’s what we do.” a tornado moves on the ground Saturday north of Solomon. Please see STORM, page 2A
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