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‘It’s awful that we have to lose the tree’
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Special patrol aims to keep lid on unruly KU students ———
More than 180 citations and 14 arrests have been recorded in the past few weeks By Ian Cummings icummings@ljworld.com
Nick Krug/Journal-World Photo
KEN BOWEN OF CUSTOM TREE CARE watches as workers cut down an estimated 80-foot-tall cottonwood tree Wednesday on the lawn of the Kappa Sigma fraternity house in the West Hills subdivision. The tree was removed after its primary root system was damaged during a contractor’s digging for a drainage pipe.
Giant cottonwood cut down after roots accidentally damaged By Giles Bruce gbruce@ljworld.com
Lawrence lost one of its oldest trees this week, not all at once but piece by piece. The buzzing sounds in the West Hills subdivision Wednesday weren’t locusts but chainsaws taking
down a roughly centuryold cottonwood in front of the Kappa Sigma fraternity house on Emery Road. Dave Steen, president of the Kappa Sigma Corporation Board, said a contractor doing work on the nearby Kappa Delta sorority had accidentally severed some of the tree’s roots
while digging for a drainage pipe in June. Local tree experts, including some from the city of Lawrence, examined the cottonwood and couldn’t rule out that it wouldn’t one day fall over, whether by heavy winds or an ice storm, he said. Kappa Sigma officials weren’t willing to leave
the frat house and cars and pedestrians on the street at risk. The contractor, Ottawa-based Loyd Builders, agreed to remove the cottonwood and replace it with new trees, Steen said. The project supervisor, Seth Martin, hadn’t
By now, many college students have had run-ins with a police detail aimed at curbing dangerous behavior associated with partying. Not all of them have enjoyed the experience. Some have been ticketed for consuming alcohol or urinating in public — or both. Others have been arrested for battery or cited for illegally walking into traffic in front of cars on Massachusetts Street. In all, the special detail has cited more than 180 people since Aug. 14, for offenses ranging from possession of alcohol by a minor to using a fake ID. Fourteen have been arrested, including several for DUIs. It’s hard to know how much of an impact the new enforcement tactic has had so far, said Sgt. Trent McKinley, a Lawrence Police Department spokesman. One night last week, about a half-dozen patrol officers assigned to the downtown area had their hands full at some point but said fewer people were carrying alcohol openly on the
Please see TREE, page 2A
Please see PATROL, page 7A
Police looking for suspect in bank robbery By Ian Cummings icummings@ljworld.com
A man robbed the U.S. Bank at 1807 W. 23rd St. Thursday afternoon, escaping with an undisclosed amount of cash. The robbery was reported about 1:20 p.m. Thursday by bank employees who told police that a man entered the bank and gave a teller a note demanding money. Employees complied with the demand and the man fled on foot with the money, said Sgt. Trent McKinley, a Lawrence Police Department spokesman. Police described the suspect as a thin black man, about 40 years old and 6-foot-3 with a mustache, McKinley said. Immediately after the robbery, officers canvassed the neighborhood im-
mediately southwest of the bank, in the direction the suspect was last seen running. The robber did not show a weapon during the incident, and no one was hurt. McKinley said police had leads on The suspect a potential suspect but had not made an arrest Thursday afternoon. The robber was reportedly wearing a dark pullover shirt, plaid pajama pants and a camouflage “Gilligan-style” floppy fishing hat, McKinley said, in reference to the titular character of the 1960s television program
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“Gilligan’s Island.” FBI agents were on the scene to help the Lawrence Police Department in the investigation, as is customary in bank robberies. Police distributed an image of a suspect from the bank’s surveillance cameras after the robbery, and asked anyone with information about the case to call the Lawrence Police Department at 785-832-7509 or CrimeStoppers at 785-843-TIPS (8477). The incident would be the third bank robbery in Lawrence this year. In June, a 55-year-old Lawrence man was sentenced to 52 months in prison after being convicted of a Feb. 20 robbery at the Midwest Credit Union, at 1015 W. Sixth St. Lawrence Bank, at 100 E. Ninth St., had also been robbed earlier that month.
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LAWRENCE POLICE detectives respond Thursday to U.S. Bank, at 1807 W. 23rd St., after a reported robbery. Mike Yoder/ Journal-World Photo
Pension gap growing The gap between assets and liabilities in KPERS rose by $1 billion last year, even though the fund reported a 14.5 percent net return on investment. Page 3A
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Vol.155/No.249 20 pages