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THE MUR R AY STATE
NEWS
of excellence
October 26, 2017 | Vol. 92, No. 9
Kentucky’s REAL ID Act receives extension DRIVER’S LICENSE License No. M11-261-922 Exp. Date 01-01-2019 Birthdate: 01-01-1976
Dunker 102 Curris Center Murray, KY 42071 Calloway County
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Graphic courtesy of Austin Gordon
Kentuckians will have to purchase new enhanced IDs in 2019 if they want to board domestic flights. Ashley Traylor News Editor
atraylor@murraystate.edu
Sabra Jackson Staff Writer sjackson30@murraystate.edu The REAL ID Act goes into effect starting in January 2018, but for those with a Kentucky driver’s license, that doesn’t mean you will have to reach for your passports just yet to board a domestic flight. The Department of Homeland Security granted a one-year extension to the Commonwealth of Kentucky. This will allow the state time to get in compliance with the federal act. In 2005, Congress passed the REAL ID Act which requires each state to meet certain standards when it comes to issuing licenses and other identification sources. Currently, Kentucky driver’s licenses do not meet those standards; however, the extension allows federal agencies to accept current identification cards including driver’s licenses until October 10, 2018.
Linda Avery, Calloway County circuit clerk said while there is currently no difference in travel, she suggests calling military bases and other federal buildings before visiting to make sure the proper identification is obtained. “A lot of bases have their own form of ID,” Avery said. “It might be wise to call the base.” Kentucky lawmakers passed the ‘Voluntary Travel ID’ bill in March in order to make required changes to bring the state into compliance, but Kentuckians cannot update their driver’s licenses until 2019. Circuit clerk offices will not be able to get the equipment until then. Avery said the Kentucky Department of Transportation has put out a proposal to different vendors whose product and process meets the standards regulated by the federal government. This proposal allows the office to get new equipment that allows the new licenses to be printed. One of the requirements under the REAL ID Act is that states must have a secure facility to produce identification
cards. The 133 circuit court clerk’s offices, one in each county in Kentucky, are not considered secure facilities. Therefore, lawmakers have designated the Department of Transportation in Frankfort as that secure facility where future identification cards will be printed. Starting in 2019, Kentuckians wanting the voluntary travel ID will have to provide certain documents that will be scanned in and sent to the DOT in order to obtain new ID. “If you want the voluntary travel ID, you must bring your birth certificate and social security card and proof, mail or two pieces of mail, dated in the last three days that you live in Calloway County,” Avery said. Once an individual’s information has been sent to the DOT, they will receive a temporary identification card that will expire when the new enhanced ID arrives in the mail. Current driver’s licenses are $20 and must be renewed every four years. The new standard driver’s license, the equivalent of what Kentuck-
ians currently have, will be $43 and good for eight years, although it will not be in compliance with the federal act. Those wanting to board domestic flights or visit federal facilities will need to purchase the enhanced ID which will be $48 and will need to be renewed after eight years. While the cost of the new IDs will impact Murray State students wallets, it will not have much of an impact on those studying abroad. Melanie McMCallon Sieb, education abroad director said international students would not have to obtain the new voluntary ID because they already have approved identification. “A lot of students do not necessarily have a driver’s license, so those students will typically use a passport,” Sieb said. “This is the one time where I think it is not going to impact our programs.” Kentucky will need to apply for another extension next year, since the law does not take effect until January 2019. For more information about the REAL ID Act visit TheNews.org.
New science building brings students more opportunities Ashley Traylor News Editor atraylor@murraystate.edu The completion of the new Engineering and Physics Building provides students the opportunity to capitalize on experiential learning by using industry-standard equipment and technology. “How do you do research if you don’t have the equipment to do research on?” Danny Claiborne, chair of the Institute of Engineering, said. “Within just two months, we’ve seen the expanding of opportunities for our students to do undergraduate research and undergraduate application toward industry engineering.” The expansion of opportunities for engineering and physics students results from the building’s enhanced features. For example, students can build their classroom designs in a high bay engineering laboratory equipped with 3-D printing and production equipment. The building also includes laboratories, such as standards-measurements, digital electronics, optics, mechanics physics, fluid mechanics and electricity magnetism physics. The second floor of the building houses the Gary W. Boggess Science Resource Center, which is complete with computer labs, presentation studios and multimedia and interview rooms. Claiborne said the cost of the building was about $35 million. The state allocated $30 million, and Murray State and other donors invested $5 million into the project. “It’s rare for a university to be able to spend that kind of money on not just a building, but putting really super cutting edge technology in this building,” Claiborne said. Construction broke ground two years ago on the Engineering and Physics Building, as the third and final phase of the Gene Wells Ray Science Campus.
Claiborne said the vision for the science complex began nearly 20 years ago, when the capital campaign crossed the governor’s desk. “Honestly, with the state financial arrangements and state budgets and things like that, we were not confident that the third phase of this science complex was going to be completed,” Claiborne said. After seeing the completion of the building, he credited former Gov. Steve Beshear for allocating funding to universities to build new facilities on college campuses before he left office. The first phase of the Gene Wells Science Campus was the Biology Building and the second phase was the Chemistry Building. When construction began, Claiborne said they started visualizing and “programming” what the labs would look like. He said they placed priority on student engagement; therefore, the building has study and collaboration rooms for just the students to utilize. “We want the students to engage in the engineering program and feel like this is their building, so you’ll see a pretty high priority on student ownership of this building,” Claiborne said. Another priority was research spaces for faculty. “We told faculty they need ownership,” Claiborne said. “They have designed their own research spaces. They’ve designed their own labs. Because we had good funding, they were able to select equipment, with limited constraints, and buy some pretty nice pieces of equipment both for the classroom and research.” The building allows more space for students to build and design projects with the institute’s corporate partners, and Claiborne said it will grow the engineering depart-
see ENGINEERING, page 2
Coffee shop brings ‘big city feel to small town’ Lindsey Coleman
Assistant News Editor lcoleman7@murraystate.edu
Murray natives and business owners Mike and Kellie Harlan are beginning a new adventure this fall: the making of the perfect cup of coffee. “Who are we trying to target? All coffee lovers,” Kellie said. “The ones who aren’t, when they drink our coffee, we want to make them coffee lovers.” Shaffer Coffee Co., located on 4th Street, will have an industrial, rustic vibe, which Kellie said will be completely different than anything in Murray. Mike said they’re trying to provide a good atmosphere where people can hang out, relax and enjoy the moment and bring the community together. “I want to bring the big city look to small-town Murray,” Kellie said. To stand out from the other coffee shops in town, they said their quality coffee
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will make all the difference. After visiting shops like Crema in Nashville, Mike said he noticed their focus on creating high-quality coffee, and that is the same mindset he hopes to have for Shaffer Coffee Co. “We were curious as to why their coffee tasted better, and it sparked our interest,” Kellie said. For a gift one year, their daughter Lauren Burzynski sent Mike to a class at Crema about how to make the perfect cup of coffee. “We took that class and learned a lot about coffee,” he said. “We became extremely interested in making a consistently good cup of coffee at home.” Burzynski said her dad came back home a changed man. “Now he makes every cup of coffee at home with the same scientific methods he learned that afternoon,” Burzynski said. “So I like to think that this coffee shop is really only happening be-
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cause of that fateful birthday gift.” Burzynski said they are a family of coffee geeks, paying attention to the actual mathematical equation to get the right cup of coffee, including time, weight and a few other key components. Kellie said their friends joke that ‘If you go to Mike Harlan’s house, you get the perfect cup of coffee.’ It’s not only about the coffee itself. For Mike, it’s about the journey of who grows, harvests and roasts the coffee, as well how Shaffer employees handle the coffee – all the way to a customer’s cup. “If you wanted to know the story of the coffee you’re drinking, we’ll be about to provide that for you,” Mike said. Down the road, Kellie said they will possibly partner with a coffee farm in Nicaragua, which they discovered through their church’s mission work there. For late-night coffee and
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tea drinkers, Shaffer Coffee Co. will be open for extended hours. Mike said after the coffee shop is up and running, they will try later hours for people who would want to study late or grab coffee after dinner on the weekend. “One of the things that frustrates me about a lot of coffee shops is they close early,” Mike said. “We will eventually stay open later.” Mike and Kellie have owned Harlan Automotive since 1998. They decided to renovate a shopping center located at 404 North 4th Street in Murray, which they named Shaffer Square, after one of Kellie’s relatives. The coffee shop is a family effort to an extent, with their daughters helping with the vision of the space. Kellie said their son-in-laws have been involved with the remodeling process. Burzynski said her involvement has been helping Kellie choose some of the finishes, like paint color and light fixtures. She also plans to help
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Photo courtesy of Kellie Harlan
Shaffer Coffee Co. will be located at 404 North 4th Street. with social media and the progress of the coffee shop. Although nothing is set in stone, Kellie said they would like to open up around Thanksgiving weekend. Interested community
members can follow Shaffer Coffee Co.’s story on both Facebook and Instagram “We’re excited,” Kellie said. “We’ve gotten a lot of good response from the community so far.”
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