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KU going full speed ahead on business building
Ghoulish preparations
By Scott Rothschild
srothschild@ljworld.com
Nick Krug/Journal-World Photo
LAWRENCE RESIDENT TAMMIE BELL and her 4-year-old son, George, decorate their front yard for Halloween.
Audit cites aging equipment, growing cost of insurance as concerns for city By Chad Lawhorn clawhorn@ljworld.com
Financial challenges associated with both aging equipment and aging employees are going to eat up more of the city’s resources in future years, a new audit prepared for Lawrence city commissioners suggests. A recently released financial indicators report gives the city of Lawrence’s finances generally strong marks. But it does highlight a pair of line items that are going to need more atten-
City Manager David Corliss says the city has contracted for a new actuarial study to provide updated estimates on the city’s unfunded health care liabilities. When that study is complete next year, he will ask commissioners to consider a variety of options to “respond to these future cost increases and liabilities.” tion: the growing cost of health insurance for retired city employees and a long list of city equipment that is
favorable trend or a neutral trend for the city, so that is a good thing,” said City Auditor Michael Eglinski. But employee health insurance costs are an exception. The latest estimates are that the city has an unfunded obligation of about $3.2 million in employee health care. That’s up from an unfunded obligation of about $190,000 in 2008. “The point of all this is quickly reaching the end of that it is growing quickly,” its useful life. Eglinski said. “Most of the measures Please see AUDIT, page 2A I’m looking at either have a
Shutdown jeopardizes KU projects in Antarctica David Braaten, a KU professor of atmospheric science and deputy director of CReSIS, learned the projects could be in jeopardy when the National Science Foundation posted a notice about shutting down its Antarctic Program.
By Ben Unglesbee bunglesbee@ljworld.com
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Museum improvements planned. Page 2A
support for most scientific fieldwork in the Antarctic. That could delay or even upend a handful of KU projects in Antarctica that were — until now — slated to begin in the coming weeks. KU’s Center for the Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets, or CReSIS, had two projects planned for Antarctica for the season, one of them a collabora-
Most research at Kansas University will continue as normal for now during the federal government shutdown, but one area of research, several thousand miles south of campus, is in limbo. The National Science Foundation announced Tuesday that when its Please see SHUTDOWN, page 2A funding runs out on Oct. 14 it will cut most of its staffing at Antarctic research stations, including McMurdo See more on the federal Station, a critical hub of logistical government shutdown. Page 6A
Balmy
TOPEKA — A proposed $65.7 million business school at Kansas University will move a step closer to reality next week. KU is asking the Kansas Board of Regents to authorize the KU Endowment Association to construct the 166,000-square-foot school. KU has already raised a substantial portion of the cost of the project, according to a memo to the regents. “Rather than selling bonds for the project, the KU Endowment Association has agreed to advance funds for the project and will be repaid as the pledges mature over several years,” the memo said. Private gifts will fund the design and construction costs of $55.7 million, while $10 million in university resources will be used to equip the building, and move some popular tennis courts else- Bendapudi where on campus. When the new building is finished, Summerfield Hall, which houses the current business school, will be used for other purposes. The regents, which approved the project in concept last year, will take up the issue again on Wednesday. KU is seeking approval for the KU Endowment Association to act as the contracting authority for the project, which will then be overseen by the University Design and Construction Management Office. Last year, John B. Dicus, the chairman and chief executive officer of Capitol Federal Savings in Topeka, and a KU alumnus, announced a $20 million “lead” gift from the bank’s Capitol Federal Foundation to go toward the new building. The six-story structure will be on Naismith Drive across from Allen Fieldhouse. Neeli Bendapudi, dean of the business school, has said construction could start in 2014 and the building could open in time for the 2015-16 school year.
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A PRELIMINARY RENDERING from the architecture firm Perkins + Will shows the new business school viewed from across Naismith Drive to the northwest.
Moratorium called for
Vol.155/No.284 36 pages
Douglas County commissioners may put a hold on issuing any new agritourism permits until they have a chance to review, and possibly change, a new zoning code. Page 3A
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