Lawrence Journal-World 04-29-13

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County pursues study of food hub

Meaningful jobs a challenge for developmentally disabled

Family support key to business success

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Grant would fund research on local farm sourcing

By Shaun Hittle

By Peter Hancock

sdhittle@ljworld.com

phancock@ljworld.com

Ryan Banning is in every sense of the word an entrepreneur. For more than a decade, Banning, 36, has operated his own business, Ryan’s Vending Service, managing a dozen or so vending machines in Lawrence. He’s always looking to expand, he said as he loaded the soda and snack machines at the Lawrence Municipal Airport recently. And the bottom line for Ryan, who has Down syndrome, is that he enjoys the work and turns a profit. “He’s earning, he’s paying taxes,� said his mother, Martha, who helped conceive of the business idea when Ryan finished high school. “It’s been a really good fit for him.�

‘School to the couch’ Ryan needs a little help with his small business. A job coach drives him to pick up supplies at Sam’s Club and to several local locations, including Visit-

Disabilities, only 14 percent of adults with a developmental disability are employed in the competitive workforce. Overland Park woman Tracey Dickey knows the struggles firsthand. Her son, Cole, a student at Blue Valley Northwest, has one year left in school, and she’s been fighting for the past several years to find Cole a job when he graduates. “It’s scary,� she said. “He has one year left, and then what? It keeps me up at night.� Tracey and her son have explored a variety of options, such as supported employment programs, but such programs have

Douglas County officials took another step last week toward establishing a “food hub� that would make it easier for area restaurants, grocery stores and other institutions to offer locally grown fruits, vegetables and meats to their customers. The county’s Food Policy Council said it was applying for a $58,250 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to study the feasibility of establishing the hub to bring local food suppliers and customers closer together and to reduce costs of locally sourced food. “This idea of the lack of a food infrastructure has been building through several things,� said Eileen Horn, sustainability coordinator for the county and the city of Lawrence. Over the past couple of years, she said, the Food

Please see BUSINESS, page 2A

Please see FOOD, page 2A

Richard Gwin/Journal-World Photo

RYAN BANNING LOOKS THROUGH ONE OF HIS VENDING MACHINES at the Lawrence Municipal Airport as he refills it. Ryan, who has Down syndrome, has made stocking vending machines into a successful business venture, something rare in the developmentally disabled community. ing Nurses Association and a Kansas University fraternity. Ryan’s father, Bob, helps obtain the vending machines and supplies and runs the financial side of the business. While Ryan has found work that he enjoys, he’s the exception for those with developmental disabilities, said Judith Gross, a research associate with the Kansas University’s Beach Center, which advocates for those with disabilities. “They graduate from school to the couch,� missing out on socialization and a general sense of self-worth, Gross said. “Work is an important part of everyone’s life.� And it’s the type of work that

makes a big difference, according to Rocky Nichols, executive director of the Disability Rights Center of Kansas. While many with developmental disabilities find subminimum wage work in very structured workshop settings, that shouldn’t be the goal, Nichols said. The focus should be on employment in a typical job setting where those with developmental disabilities work alongside those without disabilities. But finding jobs, and employers willing to work with those with developmental disabilities, isn’t easy. According to a 2011 report from the National Association of Councils on Developmental

EDGERTON

Rail center to deliver dramatic growth By Giles Bruce gbruce@ljworld.com

A sprawling warehouse campus going up east of Baldwin City is expected to make the area a major distribution center for the nation — and beyond. BNSF Railway Co. is building a 443-acre, state-of-the-art intermodal center in Edgerton. Now, when businesses ship their products by rail to the Kansas City, Mo., area, they will no longer have to send the empty containers back. Instead, companies near the intermodal facility will put them to use.

“That will potentially save millions of dollars in logistical costs,� said Nathaniel Hagedorn, CEO and president of Kansas City, Mo.-based NorthPoint Development, which recently took over the lead on the project from San Diego developer Allen Group Inc. “It’s a pretty compelling business opportunity for companies.� And those companies are going to need a place to store their products. Enter NorthPoint, which just started building vertical warehouse space on 558 acres of nearby industrial land. Logistics Park Kansas City, as the project located in Johnson

Classified Comics Deaths Business

High: 83

County is called, will be able to unload 500,000 containers a year to start, with developers planning to one day triple that capacity. The facility is expected to attract agricultural exporters, e-commerce companies, and traditional retailers and product distributors. The first phase of NorthPoint’s development is a 500,150-squarefoot speculative warehouse — Inland Port I — being built on 11 acres of land across the street from the intermodal facility. It Richard Gwin/Journal-World Photo will have 7 million square feet of vertical warehouse space and is CODY WYSLER TOOK ADVANTAGE of a sunny day last week to wash off two deck chairs at his home at 822 Maple St. For Please see INTERMODAL, page 2A this week’s weather forecast, see page 12B.

INSIDE

Warm

Low: 61

Today’s forecast, page 12B

7B-11B 11A 2A 5A-6A

Events listings Horoscope Movies Opinion

Spring cleaning

2B, 12B Puzzles 11B Sports 4A Television 10A

Program develops leaders 11B 1B-6B 2B, 11B, 12B

Vol.155/No.119 36 pages

For more than 30 years, Leadership Lawrence has been training people in a wide range of professions how to contribute to building a stronger community. Page 6A

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