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The Mass Street Music Man
Dredging plan may become Kan. model By Peter Hancock phancock@ljworld.com
State water officials are recommending a multimillion-dollar plan to dredge out John Redmond Reservoir in Coffey County to remove sediment and extend the life of the 50-year-old lake that has been gradually filling up with silt over the decades. If approved, some officials say, the pilot project could become My belief a model for is we need managing other federal lakes to convince in Kansas that (legislators) are starting that investing to face simibefore there is lar problems. But questions a crisis is the remain about politically and how the projeconomically ect would be funded, and responsible some officials thing to do.” say the state would do bet— Kan. Rep. Tom Sloan, ter to invest R-Lawrence in prevention measures that would keep problems like those at John Redmond from happening in the first place. “If dredging were a cheap and efficient methodology, it might be best,” said Galen Biery, general manager of a water assurance district that uses John Redmond
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Please see DREDGING, page 7A
Reservoir sustainability key focus of long-term water plan By Sara Shepherd sshepherd@ljworld.com
Two-thirds of Kansans rely on water from the state’s federal reservoirs, for everything from drinking and bathing to irrigation and power, the Kansas Water Office estimates. And as decades worth of sediment flows into them, those reservoirs are shrinking — some drastically. Reservoir sustainability, including dredging and streambank stabilization efforts, is expected to be a key focus of a new long-term water policy plan ordered by Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback. Lawrence City Manager David Corliss, a Kansas Water Authority member who also serves on the state’s Reservoir Advisory Committee, said there’s a sense of
Nick Krug/Journal-World Photo
THROUGHOUT HIS CAREER, LAWRENCE RESIDENT JIM BAGGETT has worked on guitars for musicians such as Johnny Cash and Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones. Besides being a national authority on vintage guitars, Baggett is the owner of Mass Street Music, 1347 Massachusetts St., which is approaching its 30th year of operation.
Guitar expert surrounds himself with instruments
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had never heard a $13,000 chord before. Of course, I had never sat in a room full of guitars that could pay off my mortgage. The adjacent closet full of six strings could buy me a beach house. Jim Baggett goes from one vintage guitar to the next like a carpenter sorts through his tool chest. His perfectly calloused hands wrap around one model and strum a few chords. It sounds beautiful. Then he grabs an older guitar from a stand — a 1930s model by C.F. Martin & Co. — and strums a few more. It sounds better. The first guitar has a $12,000 price tag. The second one is marked at $25,000.
Lawhorn’s Lawrence
Chad Lawhorn clawhorn@ljworld.com
Thirteen thousand differences, all hard to explain but so easy to hear. “It is hard to describe sweetness,” Baggett says. For at least 30 years now, Baggett has been trying to
Please see GUITAR, page 6A
2006 leak still contaminating groundwater By Chad Lawhorn clawhorn@ljworld.com
want to ensure that the vapors from the gasoline aren’t sucked into homes through sump pumps or leaky foundations. The fumes, once inside the house, could become a combustion threat. “That has not happened, and we want to make sure it doesn’t happen,” said Randy Carlson, the KDHE section chief that oversees underground gasoline storage tanks. The gasoline is left from a leak that was discovered in 2006 at the unJournal-World File Photo derground tanks of the Presto Convenience Store, 602 W. Ninth Street. A BACKHOE REMOVES GASOLINE-CONTAMINATED SOIL from The tanks, which likely had been the Presto Convenience Store No. 25, 602 W. Ninth St., in slowly leaking for years, allowed 2006. Seven years later, Kansas Department of Health and Environment officials want to install three more trenches in Please see LEAK, page 2A the area to catch contaminated groundwater.
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that nearly cover his office floor in the 1880s building that serves as store and office. “That one is $35,000,” he says. “That one is $18,000. That one is $9,000...” Eventually, he picks up another one and strums some more. “The difference between an ordinary guitar and a great guitar is that a great guitar has dynamic range,” Baggett says. “When you play it softly, it sounds beautiful. When you play it hard, it just explodes.” I can hear it. But why? Why does a great guitar sound that way? Is it the wood, is it the strings, the
State plans more steps to stop spread of gasoline
Seven years after a major underground leak of gasoline was discovered at a central Lawrence gas station, it is creating new concerns for the surrounding neighborhood. Officials with the Kansas Department of Health and Environment gave details Friday about a plan to contain a spreading plume of gasoline left from a 2006 leak that still contaminates groundwater in the Old West Lawrence neighborhood near Ninth and Ohio streets. KDHE officials are confident the gasoline is not putting any properPlease see WATER, page 2A ties at risk, but officials said they
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figure it out. As the owner of Lawrence’s Mass Street Music, 1347 Massachusetts St., he’s not only become Lawrence’s Mr. Guitar but he’s also become a true national expert on the instrument. He’s an appraiser of stringed instruments for the popular “Antiques Roadshow” program on PBS, and it’s nothing for him to casually mention how he’s done repair work for the guitars played by the Rolling Stones and other icons. I kind of want to hear more about The Rolling Stones, but it becomes obvious that’s not the group that really interests him. He’s infinitely more interested in the group of guitars
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The Kansas University football team’s familiar formula of costly mistakes and poor offense added up to another loss, 35-13, against Texas. Page 1B
Vol.155/No.307 36 pages