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Questions arise regarding SRS funding increase By Scott Rothschild srothschild@ljworld.com
LEGISLATURE
Legislators and advocates on Tuesday voiced concerns over how the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services was handling a $6.6 million funding increase to provide services for people with disabilities.
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High: 95
For one thing, they said, SRS has failed to start spending the money yet, even though it was allocated for the fiscal year that started July 1, and for another, SRS determined the funds would be used only to get people off waiting lists for services while bypassing people who may receive some services but
are in need of more. Members of the House-Senate Committee on Home and Community Based Services spent several hours quizzing SRS officials over these and several other issues, including a new faith-based initiative. The dispute over the waiting list for people with develop-
mental disabilities centered on new funding approved by the Legislature to provide services, such as bathing, dressing and mobility, which are designed to help people remain in their homes and communities instead of nursing homes. There are currently nearly 2,500 on one SRS waiting list
for these services. SRS Deputy Secretary Pedro Moreno said the $6.6 million would help 285 people, who are not receiving services. Please see SRS, page 5A ! Other towns scramble to
keep offices open. Page 5A
Freshmen crowd into high schools
Low: 63
Today’s forecast, page 8A
INSIDE
CityCity to reCity seeks quire signs signage for special for taxing taxing disdistricts tricts By Chad Lawhorn clawhorn@ljworld.com
Rare quake jolts East Coast Millons of people from Georgia to Canada felt the magnitude-5.8 earthquake that shook the East Coast on Tuesday. It was the strongest quake to strike in that region since World War II. Not used to such occurrences, people in some of the most populated cities in the country first thought it may have been an explosion or terrorist attack. There were no reports of major damage to the nation’s infrastructure, according to the White House. Page 6A
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QUOTABLE
This could help almost every person on the planet. It’s really a quality of life issue at a very fundamental level.” — Jennifer Laurence, Kansas University associate professor of pharmaceutical chemistry, who is part of a team that received a $1.8 million, five-year grant from the National Institutes of Health to study enhancements to the polymer material used in fillings. Page 3A
COMING THURSDAY There are days that you don’t have to feed the parking meters in downtown Lawrence. We’ll let you know which ones.
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FREE STATE SOPHOMORE STEPHEN FULTON scans the vastness of the commons area before eventually finding his table of friends during the second lunch period on Tuesday at Free State High School. Among the growing pains of adding a class of ninth-graders to both Free State and Lawrence High are more crowded lunchrooms and more traffic congestion.
New class makes presence felt in lunchroom and in traffic jams By Mark Fagan mfagan@ljworld.com
Nyle Anderson hears plenty of whispers — some louder than others — in the halls of Free State High School. Freshmen are too small to be here. Freshmen are too young to be here. Freshmen are too immature to be here. He refuses to accept such nonsense, of course, but there is one complaint Anderson can’t help but acknowledge. There are too many freshmen here. “It is a big class of freshmen,” the freshman said, sharing a crowded table at lunch with six fellow freshmen. “But it does get annoying after awhile.” The annoyances of sim-
Free State freshman Nyle Anderson ply being a freshman are proving to be different this year in the Lawrence school district, as such students find themselves at the bottom of the student pecking order instead of ruling what had been their proverbial roosts in junior high schools.
And by simply showing up for school, attending classes, eating lunches and leaving campuses, freshmen are making their collective presence felt among upperclassmen in a few less-than-welcome ways: ! Additional traffic. More freshmen mean more buses and, perhaps even more disruptive, more parents dropping off students before school and picking them up at day’s end. Throw in plenty of roadwork along Sixth Street leading to and from Free State, plus reconstruction of a driveway behind Lawrence High, and it’s no wonder drivers are frustrated. Kelsey Van Ness, a junior at Free State, thought she was doing well to take back roads into school, but quickly discovered that her delays became even worse
because so many others had turned to the same solution — even before they had arrived at the congested campus. “Freshmen don’t drive, but that means they have to have someone drive them here, so that’s more cars,” Van Ness said. ! Languishing lunches. More tables, revamped operational plans and even additional access points all were put in place to handle the influx of additional students in the cafeterias at the high schools, but such benefits did prove mighty unpopular on day one. “You’d think 50 percent of the student body would know the drill in Please see FRESHMEN, page 5A ! Enrollment up in city’s schools. Page 3A
KU student featured in Time cover story By George Diepenbrock gdiepenbrock@ljworld.com
When Howard “Ford” Sypher, left the Army’s 75th Ranger Regiment after five combined deployments in Afghanistan and Iraq, he knew he was in for an adjustment. He returned to life as a Kansas University student and joined the ranks of a new generation of veterans leaving their military lives from the often stressful and dangerous periods of two difficult wars. “When you’re out, you’re out. No one is there to say here’s your next step,” said Sypher, 25, who returned as a KU junior in global studies. “It’s just you, and you’ve left this overarching organization that’s fed, clothed, paid you and given you a mission
your country dictated. You’ve kind of lost that self worth. To that extent, it’s almost like losing a famSypher ily.” But now Sypher, who attended Raintree Montessori School and Southwest Junior High before moving with his family, says he and other combat veterans have found a way to help fill that void by working with Team Rubicon, a nongovernmental organization disaster relief program co-founded by another KU graduate, William McNulty, a Marine. Sypher, Team Rubicon and other veterans and similar organizations are fea-
tured in the current issue of Time magazine’s cover story by Joe Klein, “The New Greatest Generation,” about Iraq and Afghanistan veterans using their leadership lessons at home. Sypher has found his skills to be useful in assisting with disaster relief for the spring tornadoes in Alabama and he helped orchestrate Team Rubicon’s response to the Joplin, Mo., tornado. “We kind of feel like that’s our niche,” said Sypher who says combat veterans generally can thrive in the chaotic situations in the aftermath of a disaster. Rich Young, a firefighter with Lawrence-Douglas County Fire Medical and former U.S. Navy petty officer 3rd class, assisted Team Rubicon in Joplin
and is pictured in a photo with Sypher in the Time story. Sypher is also preparing to direct the foundation for Team Rubicon in the Kansas City area. He hopes to pursue a career either in public service or the medical field and said he was proud to be associated with Klein’s article, but he said the story was also a reminder about work ahead. “People are coming back with skills that they would have never had otherwise,” he said. “We have a very large trained group of men and women, and we need to get them back in the work force to some degree. They’re coming back with skills no one has.” — Reporter George Diepenbrock can be reached at 832-7144.
Special taxing districts deserve special signs. City commissioners at their meeting on Tuesday directed staff to bring back a policy that will require any business in the city charging a sales tax above the standard community-wide rate to post a sign alerting customers of the higher tax. “I think we have to mandate signage,” said City Commissioner Mike Dever. “We have to ensure that shoppers know they’re choosing to shop at a location despite an additional tax.” Lawrence currently has two special taxing districts — the Bauer Farm development on the northeast corner of Sixth and Wakarusa and The Schumm Oread hotel development near Kansas University. But other proposals have come up in recent months, and the public has asked questions about whether the special taxes, which can be up to 2 percent, are being fairly communicated to shoppers. Under the proposal commissioners generally agreed to on Tuesday — no formal vote was taken — the two existing special taxing districts would be required to post signs, as well as any future taxing districts. But details about the signs were left undecided. Commissioner Bob Schumm said he thought businesses should be required to put a sign out on the public right-of-way, next to the business’ main sign, so that motorists would know about the tax before deciding to pull into a merchant’s parking lot. “I just think it is a transparency issue,” Schumm said. Previously, proposals for signs have called for them to be placed on the front door of a business or near the cash register. City Manager David Corliss said his staff would have to research what the city can legally dictate in terms of sign placement. Commissioners are expected to formally vote on a policy in the next four to six weeks, following staff research on the sign issue and other topics. In addition to the signs, commissioners asked staff members to bring back a policy that: !" Created more specific criteria for when businesses can qualify for a Community Improvement District or a Transportation Development District, both of which allow for a special sales tax to be charged; !" Adds language requiring businesses applying for the special taxing district to Please see CITY , page 2A