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Refurbished KU parking lot almost a paved paradise ————
Design incorporates energy-efficient features such water-recycling system, rain garden By Ben Unglesbee bunglesbee@ljworld.com
Sometimes to build sustainably you have to bulldoze something first. So it is with Kansas University’s Lot 54, a parking lot between Naismith Drive and Green Hall, which houses the School of Law. Construction workers have ripped it up, recycled its parts, and are preparing to build an entirely new sort of parking lot in its place. With a water-recycling system, rain garden, energy efficient lights and other
Storm chance
High: 80
green features built into the design, the $1.8 million overhaul of Lot 54 will, officials hope, transform it into a model of eco-friendliness and sustainable construction for parking projects to come. With work expected to last through the end of September, faculty and staff accustomed to parking in Lot 54 have been moved to nearby lots, including the Allen Field House garage. Graduate students, who in the past were waitlisted for additional spots in Lot 54, will have to find somewhere
farther away to park. The lot was badly in need of some sort of makeover. Paul Graves, deputy director for Construction and Design Management at KU, said that before demolition began in early June, Lot 54’s surface had “deteriorated way past its useful life.” Its asphalt was broken and cracked, in need of repair. The lot itself contributed to a traffic jumble at the busy intersection of Irving Hill Road and Naismith Drive. One entryway was so close to the intersection that getting in and out created head-
aches for drivers. And with two entryways on Irving Hill, neither of them near to the entry for the fieldhouse parking garage, drivers could easily get confused about whose turn it was to turn where.
A ‘park’ in the lot Now as the pavement has been ripped apart and ground into gravel. In its place are mounds of dirt and muddy trenches full of waMike Yoder/Journal-World Photo ter from the weekend’s rain. While construction sites WORK IS UNDERWAY ON KU PARKING LOT 54, locattypically fill up with giant ed northwest of the intersection of Irving Hill Road and Naismith Drive. Please see PARKING, page 2A
Back-to-school preparations
Low: 66
Today’s forecast, page 12A
INSIDE
Glitch hinders Medicare billing ——
Health department can resubmit claims later
GOING OUT
Sandbar plans block party The Sandbar’s annual summer bash on Saturday will close down part of Eighth Street for a party featuring food, drinks, music and the grand opening of the Sandbar Sub Shop across the street from the bar. Page 5A
By Peter Hancock phancock@ljworld.com
someday,” Altenbernd said. Altenbernd plans to give away 100 of the bandanas to elected officials, local leaders, museums and others who have a special tie to Lawrence’s history. He is selling the other 200 for $10 each at several retailers in town, including Weaver’s Department Store, Cottin’s Hardware, Downtown Barbershop and Stoneback’s Appliance. “We weren’t moneydriven to do this,” Altenbernd said of himself and his girlfriend, Judy Green, who helped design the bandana. “It was fun. I learned more about the raid.” Altenbernd said stories of the raid came up from time to time from members of his family. His great-grandfather Konrad Altenbernd came to Douglas County in 1858 from Germany and set up a farm along the banks of the Kansas River between Lawrence and Eudora. “I had heard the sto-
The Lawrence-Douglas County Health Department is currently unable to bill Medicare for health care services it provides to seniors who go there for immunizations and other services, a problem that is currently costing the agency thousands of dollars a year in reimbursements. But agency officials say they expect the When we problem to be re- became aware s o l v e d of it, we got soon, at that turned which point the around ASAP.” department can — Dan Partridge, execresubmit utive director of the c l a i m s health department, on that have the problem of losing b e e n p e n d i n g account validation for a year or more. “As for Medicare, our account was not revalidated sometime in 2012 due to a personnel issue, and so the director of administrative services is in the process of getting the Health Department revalidated,” Karrey Britt, the department’s spokeswoman, said in an email this week. According to Britt, the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS, issued rules in 2011 requiring certain providers, including the local health department, to “revalidate” their accounts so they could continue submitting claims for Medicare, the federal health insurance program for seniors. Britt would not comment on why the health department did not get revalidated, except to say that the paperwork was not submitted on time. Officials at the regional office of CMS in Kansas City, Mo., did not respond to requests for information. Dan Partridge, executive director of the agency, said the problem is being addressed and he expects it to be resolved soon.
Please see BANDANA, page 2A
Please see HEALTH, page 2A
SPORTS
LHS 1984 team inducted into hall The Lawrence High School 1984 girls basketball team, which went undefeated and won the Class 6A state title, was inducted into the Kansas Basketball Coaches Association’s Hall of Fame on Wednesday in Topeka. Page 1B
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QUOTABLE
This is the new normal.” — Cheryl Whelan, general counsel for the State Department of Education, on an effort to crack down on criminal activity by teachers and administrators. Page 3A
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INDEX Business 2A Classified 6B-10B Comics 12B Deaths 2A Events listings 10A, 2B Horoscope 11B Movies 4A Opinion 11A Puzzles 11B Sports 1B-5B Television 10A, 2B, 11B Vol.155/No.220 24 pages
Richard Gwin/Journal-World Photo
PINCKNEY SCHOOL KINDERGARTEN TEACHER CHRISTINA SCHEER works on getting her classroom ready Wednesday for the first day of school while her daughter Olivia, 4, passes the time with an iPad.
Bandana commemorates Quantrill’s Raid
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By Chad Lawhorn
I just want to do my part to make people aware of what happened in the little town that they live in now.”
clawhorn@ljworld.com
When Missouri ruffian William Quantrill raided Lawrence 150 years ago this month, Conrad Altenbernd III’s great-grandfather and his family spent the day and night hiding in their farm’s cornfield. So Altenbernd figured he could at least do a little something to help Lawrence residents keep the fateful day at the top of their minds for a moment or two. And what rests at the top of your mind more than a bandana? Altenbernd has designed and printed 300 commemorative bandanas that recognize the 150th anniversary of the raid, which occurred on Aug. 21, 1863, and left more than 180 residents dead. “I just want to do my part to make people aware of what happened in the little town that they live in now,” Altenbernd said. The bandana includes a reproduction of a somewhat famous drawing that ran in Harper’s Weekly showing the ruins of The Eldridge Hotel. The bandana also includes: a picture of a young John Speer Jr., who was killed in the raid when he was sleeping at the newspaper offices of his father; a map of Quantrill’s route
— Conrad Altenbernd III
Richard Gwin/Journal-World Photo
CONRAD ALTENBERND III HAS DESIGNED and printed 300 bandanas commemorating the 150th anniversary of Quantrill’s Raid on Lawrence. Altenbernd said he thought the bandana, which includes old Lawrence photos and a map of the raid route, would be an easy way for people to remember one of the more important moments in the city’s history. He’s giving away 100 of the bandanas to various city leaders, and plans to sell the remaining 200 for $10 each. into and out of Douglas County; and a picture of Civil War troops to represent the group of Union recruits who were killed by raiders near Ninth and New Hampshire streets. Altenbernd said he had seen several commemorative bandanas of western figures like
Wild Bill Hickcock, Buffalo Bill Cody and others. Then he saw one celebrating the anniversary of a small Pennsylvania community, and he decided it might be a neat way to mark Quantrill’s Raid. “It is something easy for people to carry or maybe even pass on
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