Lawrence Journal-World 12-03-13

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Festival of Trees lights Liberty Hall

Library wins NEH grant matching $275,000

By Elliot Hughes ehughes@ljworld.com

Richard Gwin/Journal-World Photo

SUNNY HEPNER AND HER SON, Gunner Hepner, and Shirley Scheaffer, all of Perry, look over the decorated trees on display Monday at the Lawrence Festival of Trees at Liberty Hall.

From festive to funky By Elliot Hughes ehughes@ljworld.com

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nyone willing to branch out for their Christmas tree this year will once again have plenty to choose from at the 27th annual Lawrence Festival of Trees at Liberty Hall, which opened its doors Monday morning. The imaginative wreaths and trees donated by the public will be on display from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. tonight and 10 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday. Tonight also will feature a live tree auction at 7 p.m., with a silent auction for wreaths concluding at 8:30. The suggested donation to attend is $3.

The trees: Nearly 60 trees — many of them alight — are on display. Some contain the standard Christmas articles such as snowflakes, angels and candy canes. Others are festooned with odd ornaments, from crayons to spiders to ties. Themes range from Kansas Jayhawks athletics and aquatic life to the Mexican holiday The Day of the Dead. Some trees are shaved of their pine needles, and some are constructed out of paper and other materials. The donors: Those who constructed the trees are about as diverse as the trees themselves. Families, artists, clubs and organizations of various kinds make up this year’s donors. The Lawrence

High Geography Club, Lawrence Women’s Network and the Clements and Soto families are among them. The prices: Judy Culley, executive director of The Shelter, Inc., said auctioned trees can range from $100 to several thousand dollars. The proceeds: Culley said The Shelter had a net profit of over $50,000 last year and has done better and worse in year’s past. The Lawrence-based nonprofit provides emergency assistance to families, children and juveniles. It supplies emergency residential care, on-call law enforcement assistance, crisis intervention and foster care services for those in Douglas County northeast Kansas.

The National Endowment for the Humanities announced Monday that it will award a $275,000 grant in matching funds to the Lawrence Public Library for various humanities programs. For now, the grant is, in theory, the largest donation in the library’s history. The grant is not an outright contribution, but is instead contingent on the library’s fundraising efforts over the next several years, according to Kathleen Morgan, executive director of the Lawrence Public Library Foundation. Morgan said Monday the grant gives the library five years to raise enough money to max out the match. The NEH will meet 30 percent of Allen all donations up until it has contributed the $275,000 maximum. “We were very hopeful for this,� said Brad Allen, director of the library. “We’re glad the NEH saw the value of what we’re trying to do. We feel like public libraries are really able to get that whole idea of what the humanities are out to a broader group of people. “We’re over the moon.� The money will go toward a speakers’ series, community reading programs and technology purchases that would enable the library to digitize local records and place them online. There is also an allowance for administrative funds, Morgan said. The NEH is an independent federal agency that supports research and learning in Please see LIBRARY, page 2A

Kansas making a play to land Boeing manufacturing plant “

By Scott Rothschild

srothschild@ljworld.com

TOPEKA — Kansas is making a pitch to persuade the Boeing Co. to brings its new 777X jet plant to the state. “We’re back in it,� said Gov. Sam Brownback recently. “We’re going to take a shot at it. I don’t know if we are going to be able to get anywhere.� In Missouri, Gov. Jay Nixon called a special legislative session starting today to approve an economics incentive package to lure Boeing. “Building this next-generation commercial aircraft in Missouri would create thousands of jobs across our state

We’re back in it. We’re going to take a shot at it. I don’t know if we are going to be able to get anywhere.� — Gov. Sam Brownback

and secure our position as a hub for advanced aerospace manufacturing — and that’s why I am committed to competing for and winning this project,� Nixon said.

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Kansas officials were tight-lipped about any proposals they were working on. Eileen Hawley, a spokeswoman for Brownback, would say only that Kansas has “world-class aviation capability� and would be an excellent location for the plant. Boeing initially offered to build its 777X in Washington state but sought concessions from union machinists. After the union rejected a proposed contract, Boeing started considering other locations. Officials in Washington still plan to compete, and the state approved a package of tax breaks valued at $9 billion through 2040 during

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a November special session. Several other states have reportedly made proposals. Boeing has said it would make a decision early next year. Last year, Boeing stunned Kansas officials when it decided to relocate all of its Wichita operations to various locations outside Kansas, affecting 2,100 employees. At that time, Brownback said the decision was “very disappointing to all of us. Dedication and hard work of generations of Kansans built the success that the Boeing company enjoys today.� — Statehouse reporter Scott Rothschild can be reached at 785-423-0668.

New leader for honors program A Kansas University history professor will take over as head of the University Honors Program at KU in January, when outgoing director Kathleen McCluskey-Fawcett retires. Page 3A

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Vol.155/No.337 24 pages


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