2 1
THE YEAR IN FOOD
Plus, cocktail ideas for New Year’s Eve Pulse 10B
L A W R E N C E
JOURNAL-WORLD
®
75 CENTS
LJWorld.com
WEDNESDAY • DECEMBER 29 • 2010
City vehicles adding GPS for efficiency, accountability
Hats on to a new year
————
$50,000 system will allow supervisors to monitor locations and speeds of vehicles and equipment By Mark Fagan mfagan@ljworld.com
performed illegal abortions and falsified reports about some procedures to the state, which it denies. Stegall also initially represented Kline in professional disciplinary proceedings stemming from his investigations of abortion providers. Kline, a Republican, was attorney general in 2003-07, and, after he lost his bid for re-election, Johnson County district attorney in 2007-08. He filed the criminal case against Planned Parenthood’s clinic as district attorney, and it’s still pending, though legal disputes kept it from moving forward. A disciplinary hearing for Kline is scheduled for February on allegations that he made false statements and allowed subordinates to mislead other state officials during investigations of abortion providers. Kline strongly disputes the accusations, calling
The hands-on work of collecting trash, plowing streets and plugging broken waterlines is about to get a high-tech assist. Beginning next month, new GPS units will be installed on dozens of trucks and other pieces of equipment owned and operated by the city of Lawrence for basic municipal services: collecting and disposing of solid waste, repairing and clearing public streets, and We’re replacing and using unplugging the separate pipes technology that carry water to better, and sewage. more The intent: Work faster, plan efficiently better and, per- deploy our haps, spend less resources. That’s doing it. increasingly important “We’re using technology to when we have limited better, more effi- resources.” ciently deploy our resources,” — Lawrence City Manager David Corliss said David Corliss, city manager. “That’s increasingly important when we have limited resources.” Lawrence city commissioners voted Tuesday to spend $50,199 on the system for 2011. The total includes buying actual GPS units — 35 for trash trucks, 32 for utilities vehicles and 26 for street division trucks and equipment — and a year’s worth of monitoring service through Networkfleet Inc., based in San Diego. The units will allow supervisors to monitor the precise locations, speeds and, in some cases, even activities of GPS-equipped vehicles and equipment. The street division’s dump trucks, for example, will have special “diagnostic” units that will sense when a snowplow is scraping ice or snow from a road surface, and when a spreader is spraying salt and sand to improve traction. At some point, the city may make such information available to anyone with Internet access, said Chuck Soules, the city’s director of public works.
Please see BROWNBACK, page 2A
Please see CITY, page 2A
Nick Krug/Journal-World Photo
VINCENT OTCHERE, 7, casts a glance at Patrick Soo, 7, as he feigns aggravation while the two construct New Year’s Eve party hats during the Holiday Happenings camp Tuesday at the Holcom Park Recreation Center. The kids will get to sport their party hats at the end of the weeklong camp when they attend an overnight party at Holcom on New Year’s Eve.
“
STATE GOVERNMENT
Brownback picks Kline’s former attorney to be general counsel for governor’s office Caleb Stegall is a Lawrence native and KU grad currently serving as Jefferson County attorney By John Hanna Associated Press Writer
TOPEKA — A northeast Kansas county prosecutor who’s previously represented missionaries detained in Haiti and former Attorney General Phill Kline will be Gov.-elect Sam Brownback’s top staff lawyer. Jefferson County Attorney Caleb Stegall will become the general counsel for the governor’s office when Brownback is sworn in Jan. 10. He referred questions Tuesday to Brownback’s transition team, after the governor-elect issued a statement saying he’s pleased that Stegall agreed to join the administration. “Caleb will bring strong legal experience to the governor’s office,“ Brownback said.
It’s the second time in less than a week that someone with a tie to Kline, a Republican who became a national figure for investigating abortion providers, has been named to an important job in state government. Last week, Secretary of State-elect Kris Kobach announced that he’d picked Kline’s former top deputy as assistant secretary of state. But Stegall, a Republican like Brownback, also received national attention earlier this year for representing four Baptist missionaries detained in Haiti after being charged with child trafficking for trying to take 33 children out of that nation. His clients included a youth pastor from Topeka. Most of the missionaries, including Stegall’s clients, were
Brownback
Kline
jailed for three weeks in Haiti but released, returning to the U.S. without facing the charges. They said they were told the children were orphans whom they’d planned to take them to the Dominican Republic to care for them at a hotel there. The Associated Press determined that the children still had parents, however. Stegall represented Kline in a legal dispute with a Planned Parenthood clinic in the Kansas City suburb of Overland Park, over Kline’s attempts to pursue criminal charges that the clinic
Berry Plastics, Plastikon Industries to be major business projects next year By Chad Lawhorn clawhorn@ljworld.com
Lawrence’s business environment in 2011 is expected to be twosided — and that’s a good thing, local economic development professionals say. Beth Johnson, vice president of economic development for the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce, said she’s looking forward to major projects on both the east and west sides of Lawrence. On the west side, Berry Plastics is expected to begin construction on a new 675,000-square-foot distribution center. On the east side, Plastikon Industries is expected to com-
plete its move into the East Hills will end up being the largest in DouBusiness Park. glas County. The site for the distri“Those projects definitely give us bution center, which is just west of something new to talk the Lecompton interabout with site selectors,” change on the Kansas Johnson said. “The conTurnpike, is expected to sultants want to hear and add momentum to efforts see new information. They to use the interchange as a don’t want to just hear the way to attract companies same old things about how that want easy access to we have a great communiInterstate 70. Two other ty and a great education sites have been proposed Part 5 in a series: system, and a great work for industrial uses near the force, which is all true, but interchange, although both BUSINESS it is not new.” have faced opposition from Both projects are neighbors. expected to make a splash. The “I-70 is a huge benefit to the comBerry Plastics deal is estimated at munity, and we have to learn to take $20 million, and the building likely advantage of it,” Johnson said.
2011
A look ahead
Low: 40
Today’s forecast, page 10A
The Plastikon project is expected to make a different kind of impact. The company plans to move into a vacant East Hills Business Park building to start manufacturing plastic medical vials. The company is expected to employ 126 people over the next three years, with aver-
INSIDE
Rain chance
High: 48
The biggest question in the Lawrence business community may be whether consumers will join the fun in 2011. City Commissioner Aron Cromwell, right, who, if tradition holds, will take over as mayor in April, said he thinks the city’s retail scene will pick up steam in 2011.
Business Classified Comics Deaths Events listings
7A 1C-4C 9A 2A 10A
Food Horoscope Movies Opinion Poll
10B 5C 7A 8A 2A
Puzzles Sports Television
Join us at Facebook.com/LJWorld and Twitter.com/LJWorld
5C 1B-7B 4A, 2B, 5C
age salaries of about $47,000 per year. It also will give the city a highprofile project to tout in its efforts to land companies in the bioscience arena. “The building hadn’t been used Please see BUSINESS, page 2A
COMING THURSDAY What does 2011 hold for the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility that's planned in Manhattan?
Vol.152/No.363 26 pages
Energy smart: The Journal-World makes the most of renewable resources. www.b-e-f.org