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County sharpens its pencil for 2014 budget
‘If we are one campus, what are the possibilities?’
KU looks west to the future
By Peter Hancock phancock@ljworld.com
Douglas County commissioners will not have to raise local property taxes next year in order to fund county services at their current levels. But a slight tax increase would be needed if commissioners decide to go along with requests for enhancements in several areas of the budget, including pleas by some outside agencies to make up for recent cuts in state funding. Commissioners will begin sifting through those requests on Monday as they begin a series of budget meetings that are expected to continue at least through Wednesday.
Nick Krug/Journal-World Photo
AN AERIAL VIEW LOOKING WEST shows Kansas University’s West Campus on Monday. As planners think about how KU will grow in 10 to 15 years and the university’s need for space, the comparatively undeveloped West Campus is becoming increasingly important in KU’s master plan.
Planners try to map out next 2 decades By Matt Erickson merickson@ljworld.com
It’s a tough enough task to guess how Kansas University’s campus might need to change to teach future students who are now in high school, or even perhaps middle school. But the consultants working now on a KU master plan are thinking beyond that: What about
future Jayhawks who are still toddlers? What will they need on campus? And what will KU scientists be researching by then? These are the sorts of questions on the minds of the consultants forming KU’s first new master plan since 1997. The master plan will be a map for how the KU campus will serve the university over the next 10 or 15 years.
KU has a $1.17 million contract with Norfolk, Va.based planning firm Hanbury Evans Wright Vlattas & Co. to help develop the plan, and the yearlong process should be done sometime in December. They’ll have to consider factors such as how technology will change how students learn over the
Public forum KU and its master planning consultants will have a third round of public meetings about the process this fall. Watch the JournalWorld for an announcement of the date and time later this year.
Base budget County officials had been expecting a slight drop in property values this year, mainly because of an ad- Weinaug justment the county had to make because real estate in the county had been overvalued in the past. That would have forced the county to raise property taxes to continue funding county services at their current levels. But County Administrator Craig Weinaug said a rebound in the local housing market, combined with new construction, resulted in the total real estate valuation holding steady. And while there was a slight decline in the value of personal property, mainly business machinery and equipment, that was more than offset by an unexpected increase in the assessed valuation of the Westar Energy power plant. Overall, according to county documents, the total assessed valuation grew almost 1 percent over the last year to $1.156 billion. Using that, county officials have prepared a base budget totaling $69.6 million from all funds, including $39.5 million from the county’s general operating fund. That would represent about a one-half percent increase
Please see KU, page 2A
Please see COUNTY, page 2A
Golf instruction gives kids more than a good swing
T Richard Gwin/Journal-World Photo
JEFF BUREY, proprietor of Twin Oaks Golf Course, helps fourth-grader Javier Romero with his golf swing recently.
Hot, humid
here’s a solitary tree behind the No. 1 green at the Twin Oaks Golf Course just east of Lawrence. Golfer Cooper Cottrell is making an unusual boast about it. “I’ve hit that tree,� he tells me. Well, Cooper, I would offer you membership in a special club for duffers who have planted a golf ball into the trunk of a tree, but the seats seem to be a bit full at the moment. But I guess you have to un-
Low: 71
Today’s forecast, page 8B
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I’ve certainly never seen a golf pro so enthusiastic about golfers trying to hit his pro
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Lawhorn’s Lawrence
63-year-old proprietor of Twin Oaks Golf and the lead teacher of the program. “And I think enthusiasm is contagious. Golf has been a vehicle for me to vent that enthusiasm, and I hope that’s what these kids take away from it.�
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derstand that Cooper isn’t your ordinary golfer. He’s part of a group of about 20 fourth- and fifth-grade students of the Lawrence Boys & Girls Club who come to the course once a week to learn the basics of the game. They play the game with special clubs, special balls, special tees, but most importantly, with a special attitude that isn’t seen in abundance either in fairways or classrooms. “I’ve always been enthusiastic,� says Jeff Burey, the
Please see GOLF, page 2A
Chad Lawhorn clawhorn@ljworld.com
Career center change?
Vol.155/No.188 28 pages
The Lawrence school board plans to discuss other locations besides the Holcom Center for a new career and technical education center at its meeting Monday. Page 3A
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