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FRIDAY • JULY 29 • 2011
LJWorld.com
Judicial nomination doomed by opposition
Construction work coming soon
Staff and Wire Reports
John English/Special to the Journal-World
A DRY YANKEE TANK LAKE is shown in this aerial view of western Lawrence. Expect to see some construction work in the area soon. Lawrence Parks and Recreation leaders have been told the two baseball fields — shown just to the left of the dam — will be bulldozed in early August. The fields formerly were part of the privately owned Sport 2 Sport Complex. The fields now are owned by Kansas University, which has its tennis facility on adjacent property. The university recently donated the lights from the field to the city of Lawrence for use at the Youth Sports Complex in west Lawrence. The fields are expected to become unusable in the future as work begins to repair the Yankee Tank dam.
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District, teachers agree on pay, benefits Educators to receive $1,250 raise By Mark Fagan mfagan@ljworld.com
Teachers and their bosses reached a tentative agreement Thursday evening on a work contract for the coming school year, one that would include a $1,250 raise for each and every licensed educator in the district. Now all teachers need to do is find enough folks to cast ballots to approve it. “I don’t think the voting ‘yes’ will be a problem,” said a smiling David Reber, a biology teacher and Free State High School and lead negotiator for the Lawrence Education Association. “But getting enough people to vote might be.” The LEA, the bargaining unit
for the district’s 926 licensed educators, needs at least half of those educators to cast ballots, and then for the majority of those voters to vote “yes.” Union leaders aim to have the contract ratified by Aug. 5 so that members of the Lawrence school board could approve it Aug. 8.
‘Excellent job’ If all goes according to plan, such educators — teachers, counselors, librarians, speech therapists, nurses and other licensed professionals — would start seeing a share of their $250 annual raises reflected on their regular paychecks beginning in September. Teachers would receive the remaining $1,000 in the form of a one-time, lump-
sum payment either Dec. 21 or 22. “Pretty nice Christmas bonus,” said Laurie Folson, a communications teacher “Our teachers do at Free State who was an excellent job. among about We can’t give 50 educators to them what they attend Thursdeserve, but we day’s f inal can give them as negotiating much as we can.” session at district headquarters, 110 — School board McDonald member Bob Byers Drive. “It recognizes what the teachers in the district have been asked to do throughout the year. Before this, I don’t know
U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., on Thursday said he couldn’t support former Kansas Attorney General Steve Six’s nomination to the federal bench because of Six’s position on the new federal health care reform law and an abortion investigation. “Based on the nominee’s own testimony and responses to questions, I found significant difficulty in recommending the nominee to this lifelong appointment to the appellate court position,” Roberts said in a statement Six to the Lawrence Journal-World. While attorney general, Six, a Democrat, said after analyzing the health care reform bill signed into law by President Barack Obama that he could find no constitutional defect in it. Six declined to file a lawsuit challenging the law, a move that many
that we feel we had been recognized.” Such educators started the 2010-11 academic year with fewer teachers, and then spent the year planning for a switch from junior highs to middle schools, and preparing to go from three- to four-year high schools. All while continuing to help students meet increasing assessment standards and post improved academic success. Which they did, said Bob Byers, one of two board members on the district negotiating team. “Our teachers do an excellent job,” Byers said. “We can’t give them what they deserve, but we can give them as much as we can.”
Heat wave can make our tempers flare By Karrey Britt kbritt@ljworld.com
Honk! Honk! “Come on, hurry up!” If your fuse has been running a little short lately, you’re probably not alone. And maybe you can blame the heat. Marciana Vequist, a psychologist at Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center, said the hot, humid conditions cause most of us to be uncomfortable, and that leads to fatigue, stress and irritability. “We just get kind of crabby,” she said. She said studies have shown an increase in crime and violence during heat waves. Please see TEACHERS, page 2A “It’s going to bring out characteristics that usually when we are comfortable, we can control better. When we become uncomfortable, it sometimes will be an exaggerated version of our bad characteristics,” she said. Her advice: ● Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate. Drink plenty of water. Horniman said it’s not always ● Avoid the heat if possible. Stay indoors. easy to get them trimmed. ● Take care of yourself. “We still realize there are For example, Vequist said she really wanted to take sentimental values to certain a bicycle ride Wednesday night, but she opted to ride trees,” Horniman said about a stationary bike indoors instead. “I just wanted to trimming people’s property. take care of myself. Self-care is important.” “We hate to leave ugly trees, ● Be mindful of behavior. though.” If you feel like you’re going to snap at someone, Westar hopes to have what take a deep breath and refocus your energy. remains of the project near “We do have control over our behavior, so we completion by the end of the need to use the logical part of the brain to remind year, weather allowing. In the ourselves that we are just uncomfortable and maybe meantime, McKee said, they’ll feeling a little stressed and to behave appropriately keep on doing what needs to be and to put a little extra effort into that,” she said. done. ● Think crisp, cool autumn. “We just try to react and get “We have cool weather coming. We know it’s people out to get the power back coming and we just need to get through this part,” on,” he said. “As soon as we can.” she said.
Westar acknowledges unacceptability of recent outages By Joe Preiner jpreiner@ljworld.com
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Representatives from Westar Energy shed a little light on the company’s recent service issues and discussed plans to improve during an open house Thursday evening. Westar, which provides power to nearly 45,000 customers in Douglas County, has had reliability issues in recent months. Power outages, the majority caused by equipment failures, have affected many area residents, who have let the company know of their displeasure.
“It’s frustrating,” area resident Robert Lewis said. “This is an embarrassment.” Westar employees worked to explain the processes in action to help resolve the service issues. Among them are plans, nearly 70 percent complete, to replace cable from the Sixth Street substation. The cables are made with superior materials and are thicker, making them less likely to fail or break, according to Jeff McKee, director of operations for Westar’s Lawrence division. He said Westar services needed to improve. “Basically we’ve had some issues with reliability,” he said. “These issues do not meet
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— Reporter Joe Preiner can be reached at 832-6314.
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Westar Energy standards.” Plans are in place to help alleviate the problems, many of which are coming out of the Sixth Street substation, which serves about 7,500 customers in Lawrence. While equipment failure accounts for the majority of outages, it is not the only cause. Lightning, wildlife, public damage and trees are also among the culprits responsible for power outages each year. Mike Horniman, the vegetation management supervisor, said trees are like roads, with constant maintenance necessary to keep things functioning. Trees often cause shorts in circuits when they come into contact with power lines.
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— Health reporter Karrey Britt can be reached at 832-7190. Read her health blog at WellCommons.com, and follow her at Twitter.com.
COMING SATURDAY As KU students return and traffic increases, we’ll update you on major road projects.
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