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Impacts of $250M freight facility awaited By Chad Lawhorn
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CHRIS PIPER, A BUSINESSMAN AND FORMER KANSAS BASKETBALL PLAYER, has come full circle since moving to Lawrence while he was in third grade. Piper, a Lawrence High graduate, went on to play basketball for Larry Brown and was a member of the 1988 national championship team. Currently, he is the owner of Grandstand Glassware and Apparel, 3840 Greenway Circle in the East Hills Business Park. See a photo gallery of Chris Piper over the years at LJWorld.com.
Piper finds business success off the court
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hris Piper graduated from Kansas University in May 1988 and by June he had bought his first business, a small Tshirt printing company. Maybe when you’re still full of adrenaline from winning the 1988 NCAA Basketball Championship, you move at a fast pace. Piper was on the championship team dubbed “Danny and the Miracles.” Piper, a forward who averaged 5 points a game, was never confused for Danny Manning, so he must have been one of the Miracles. He was set to prove it in the business world. “I had a great plan. I thought I could pay for our debt by doing the T-shirts for Late Night with Larry
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Brown,” Piper said, referring to the popular season-opening late night practice that Brown made into a KU tradition. “Then Larry decided he was going to San Antonio.” So, just a few months into his first business venture,
pany has produced 1.3 million amber glass growlers — the big, brown jugs that patrons of breweries such as Free State Brewing Co. use to tote beer home.
And yes, if he wanted to, Piper could break out the Hard to believe, but it’s “We’re No. 1” chant about been 25 years since that it. Grandstand is the largest magical season. One thing producer of the amber glass hasn’t changed. Piper still can growlers in the country. And legitimately chant “We’re No. while the city may not throw 1,” although it will sound a bit a parade on Massachusetts different these days. Street for the accomplishPiper’s three-person Tment, local leaders ought to shirt company has evolved care. As it has risen to No. 1, into Grandstand Sportswear the company has grown from and Glassware, a company three employees in 1988 to that may be under the radar 104 today. for some Lawrence residents. “We have grown at 45 It shouldn’t be. These days percent a year for the last the company is a powerhouse four years, and we see in the world of microbrewerPlease see PIPER, page 9A ies. So far this year the comPiper learned there was at least one miracle he couldn’t pull off: a business plan based on Brown, who has changed jobs 13 times, staying in one place.
Seven miles east of Baldwin City, in Edgerton, the focus these days is on trains and trucks, as the BNSF Railway begins operating its $250 million intermodal freight facility. But in Baldwin City, local leaders are betting houses are what the facility will produce for the southern Douglas County community of about 4,500. “The million-dollar question certainly is what it will bring here?” Baldwin City Administrator Chris Lowe said of the facility, which at about 1,500 acres is slated to be one of the larger rail yards and trucking centers in the country. “Our City Council has really wanted to know the answer to that over the last couple of years. “For Baldwin, I think it primarily will be rooftops.” Lowe estimates it is only about a 15-minute drive from Baldwin City to the facility, and he thinks there will be a significant number of workers at the facility who will be interested in Baldwin City’s school district and the community’s smalltown atmosphere. Railway officials have projected that about 7,400 jobs will be produced in the immediate area around the logistics center, which has large amounts of land set aside for private warehouses and trucking companies. “Even if we only get 5 percent of those people, that’s pretty significant,” Lowe said. Please see INTERMODAL, page 10A
MATURE LIVING
Class brings back joy of music for retirees By Caitlin Doornbos cvdoornbos@ljworld.com
When Hilda Enoch retired, she didn’t quite know what to do with herself. Instead of lounging away her days, she wanted to use her newfound free time to grow and explore new opportunities. It was her career that had
Many options for older residents to stay active By Giles Bruce gbruce@ljworld.com
After Grover Sanders’ wife of 58 years died in 2005, he became, like many widowers, extremely lonely. So he did Nick Krug/Journal-World Photo something about it. CLASS INSTRUCTOR KELLEY HUNT STANDS UP TO APPLAUD Sanders placed a clasher students during a performance by a group of seniors sified ad in the Journalenrolled in the “Joyful Singing for Everyone” course World seeking lunch comTuesday at the Osher Institute, 1515 St. Andrews Drive. panions at First Watch. When he showed up at the ended, not her life. ety of courses to commurestaurant on the date in Enoch started enroll- nity members of all ages question, he was surprised ing in classes at Kansas who crave knowledge to see that other people University’s Osher Life- but don’t need a degree. long Learning Institute, More mature Please see OSHER, page 5A which offers a wide vari-
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have to get closer to read the whole phrase. One of his favorite sayings: “There are no strangers in the world, only others waiting to be spoken to.” “If you smile, people will smile back,” said Sanders, who is getting ready to move into a local retirement community. “The human race is strange: They want to socialize, but they don’t want to break the ice.”
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did, too. The lunch group went on to meet for the next six years. “After my wife died, I started doing things I would have never done before,” said Sanders, 92, a Navy veteran and retired aviation employee who lives in Lawrence. He approached strangers in gift shops and grocery stores. He wore a hat that he put different sayings on. He would often make the first word biggest so people would
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Local artists have opened up their work spaces to the public during this weekend’s 19th annual Lawrence ArtWalk, continuing today. Page 3A
Vol.155/No.300 36 pages