East Wichita News April 2016

April 2016 - 2

I INSIDE

Volume 33 • Issue 4 April 2016

ON THE COVER Tornado April 26, 1991 | 8 Twenty-five years ago, a tornado outbreak struck south-central Kansas and the Great Plains. Seventeen people died in the Wichita area.

Photos courtesy of the National Weather Service and St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church

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Library seeks community input via online survey | 10 ‘Get in line’ at the tag office online | 15

Features Performing Arts Calendar......................................4 From the Publisher’s Files...............................................5 Dateline.......................................6 Movie Review............................7 Eastside Homes..................... 11

Bridge repairs start on People & Places..................... 12 the Canal Route| 30 Focus On Business......... 19-22

East Wichita News Editorial

Publisher Paul Rhodes Managing Editor Travis Mounts Production Abbygail Wells Reporters/Contributors Philip Holmes, Jim Erickson

Sales & Billing

Sales Paul Rhodes, Valorie Castor, Briana Bade Billing/Circulation Tori Vinciguerra A Division of Times-Sentinel Newspapers 125 N. Main • P.O. Box 544 Cheney, KS 67025 Phone: (316) 540-0500 Fax: (316) 540-3283 © 2016 Times-Sentinel Newspapers LLC

Cook’s Library........................ 24 Cinema Scene........................ 28 Now in our 33rd year!

The East Wichita News is a monthly newspaper focused on the people and places on Wichita’s East Side. It is delivered free to most homes within our coverage area, although distribution is not guaranteed.

Guaranteed home delivery by mail is available for $10 per year. Single copies are available in a variety of Eastside locations. Visit our website for more - www.eastwichitanews.com.

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Recalling the tornado outbreak of 1991 In April 1991, I a was a college students at Northeast Missouri State University in Kirksville, Mo. It was a long drive from the Wichita area, but in those days it often wasn’t long enough.

There was little desire inside me to return to my hometown after college.

However, I still felt a connection to my hometown. I was protective of my town and my state. I didn’t want to live there, but I was very defensive if somebody else denigrated where I came from.

On Saturday, April 27, I walked from Dobson Hall to Ryle Hall to meet my girlfriend for breakfast in the cafeteria. She worked at the front desk, and sorting mail was part of her duties.

As I waited, I picked up a copy of the Kansas City Star that was soon to be delivered to its rightful owner.

On the cover was a big photo of the destruction that had hit Andover. I read about the tornado that tore across the metro, moving from the southwest to northeast. I saw another tornado had struck in Goddard, a few miles from my parents’ house in a country addition just off 21st Street.

The paper had the early details – the breadth of the damage, the tragic loss of life, the beginnings of the cleanup effort.

We didn’t have the same access to news then that we do now. News was much more local and much less instantaneous. The next two-three weeks before the semester ended did not bring me too many more details. Without the Internet, what I saw that morning, and a couple of follow-up stories, was all I knew.

When I came home in mid-May, I changed my normal itinerary. I got off the turnpike at the Andover exit and came down Andover Road. I wasn’t that familiar with the city – I didn’t know, for example, what the Golden Spur Mobile Home Park looked like.

I did notice the damage at Andover Square, and the wide-open space at the mobile home park was hard to miss. Most debris had been removed by that point.

As I turned onto Kellogg and headed west, it wasn’t hard to get a good idea of the tornado’s massive size. I looked

Travis Mounts | Managing Editor

at the tree row south of the highway, and for nearly a half-mile, the trees were stripped bare of their leaves. They looked lighter – I’m assuming much of the bark was gone. The tornado was an F5 when it crossed Kellogg.

The edges of the tornado were distinct – at each end of the line of the damaged trees, the color suddenly turned green. The undamaged trees on either side still had the full canopy of leaves you’d expect in the spring in Kansas, when rain is more plentiful and temperatures in the mid-80s still seem hot because we’re more acclimated to the cool spring winds that often put an edge on otherwise pleasant days.

Later, as I left the city’s west edge along 21st Street, I started up the big hill just west of Colwich Road. In the back of my mind, something didn’t seem right. About a quarter-mile later, I figured it out. The farm at the top of the hill had been hit by the same F2 tornado that destroyed a boat shop in Goddard.

The house took some window and shingle damage but otherwise appeared fine.

But again, it was the trees that told the story – the trees that had been stripped naked and stood stark against the blue spring sky, and the trees that were no longer there.

In this month’s East Wichita News, we take a look back at that April day 21 years ago. It’s by no means a comprehensive look – we can’t do in a few pages what others have done in a series of books published after the tornado.

But we do hope we’ve done a good job of remembering that day, honoring those who were lost, and recognizing the healing that has since occurred.

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April 1-2 – “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,” Wichita Children’s Theatre and Dance Center, performed at the Wichita Center for the Arts, 9112 E. Central. Shows at 7 p.m.

Friday, April 1, and 2 p.m. Saturday, April 2. Tickets $6 per person, reservations requested. The show is recommended for children 5 and older. Call 316-262-2282.

April 6-7 – “The Three Little Pigs,” Wichita Children’s Theatre and Dance Center, 201 Lulu. Shows at noon April 6-7, 10 a.m., noon and 6:30 p.m. April 8, and noon April 9. Each show is a pizza show (except the early show April 7). Tickets $6 for show, $7.50 for pizza and show. Evening performances are pajama performances. Call 316-2622282.

April 9-10 – “Curtain Up!” a tribute to Broadway by the Heart Of America Men’s Chorus. Shows at 7 p.m. Saturday, April 9, and 4:30 p.m. Sunday, April 10. Tickets are $15 for the public and $5 for students and are available at the door. Featured pieces range from highlights of “The Pirates of Penzance” to a medley from “Jersey Boys.” The Heart Of American Men’s Chorus is a nonprofit organization. For more information call 316-708-4837.

April 9-10 – Wichita Symphony Orchestra along with the Friends University Singing Quakers and internationally-known bass Samuel Ramey present Giuseppe Verdi’s “Requiem.”

Shows at 8 p.m. Saturday, April 9, and 3 p.m. Sunday, April 10. Tickets start at $25. Call 316-267-7658 or buy online at www.wichitasymphony.org. The show will include 84 musicians, 224 chorus members and four operatic soloists, including Ramey.

April 10-16 – Wichita Jazz Festival.

Jazz brunch, 11 a.m. April 10, Muse Café at Wichita Art Museum. Film screening, “The Jazz Loft According to W. Eugene Smith,” 2 p.m. April 10, WAM. WSU Jazz Combos concert, 7:30 p.m. April 13 and 7:30 p.m. April 14, Miller Concert Hall at WSU. WSU Jazz Invitational, all day April 15, Miller Concert Hall, WSU. Joe Lovano Classic Quartet, 8 p.m. April 16, Roxy’s Downtown. For more information, visit www. wichitajazzfestival.com.

Performing Arts Calendar

April 2016

April 20-May 1 – “Enchanted April,” Wichita Community Theatre, 258 N. Fountain. Performances 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and 7 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $14, $12 for military/ senior/students. Special opening night price of $10 on April 10. Call for reservations, 316-686-1282.

April 21-30 – “Hands on a Hard Body,” present by The Forum Theatre Company. Tickets $25 for Friday and Saturday evenings, $23 for Thursday evenings and Saturday matinees. Shows 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday plus 2 p.m. Saturday, Wichita Scottish Rite Center, 332 E. First. For tickets call 316-618-0444 or visit online www.forumwichita.com.

April 22-May 21 – “Party of 1,” Roxy’s Downtown, 412-1/2 E. Douglas. An original musical revue about being single, the show is mostly humorous but at times touching and poignant.

April 23 – “Romeo and Juliet,” Wichita Grand Opera, 7 p.m. at Century II Concert Hall. Featuring the Russian National Ballet Theatre. Tickets $37$85. Visit www.wichitagrandopera.org.

For tickets call 316-265-4400.

April 30 – “Matters of the Heart,” dinner theater presented by A Voice of One Production, 4-7 p.m. at Venue 3130, 3130 W. Central. Written and directed by Cherrie Dennis-Cottner.

Tickets are $30 and include “Mama’s Soul Food Dinner” buffet and dessert bar. Tickets available through April 23 at Tabernacle Bible Church, 1817 N. Volutsia or Jackson Mortuary, 1125 E. 13, or online at www.eventbrite.com/e/ matters-of-the-heart-dinner-theatertickets-22475493807. The play tells the See ARTS, Page 6

From the Publisher’s Files

Paul Rhodes | Publisher

to bleed a little purple.

Like most high school friends who head off to college together, we assumed we would somehow magically see each other throughout our college days and maintain that bond of friendship. Yes, we certainly remained friends, but we rarely got to see each other as our college careers unfolded.

Steve pursued engineering at KSU, and I soon settled in with the journalism department on campus. Today, 40 years later, each of us is still pursuing those same career aspirations. That’s pretty remarkable.

Steve got a tour of my newspaper operation that afternoon, and a rundown of the photos that cover the walls and tabletops in my office. We caught up on our kids and other family members, shared more than just a few laughs, and marveled at how quickly our lives had unfolded since we had last seen each other.

Even though Steve and I had not seen each other in years, we had actually kept up on each other through our parents. Whenever I was back in Gaylord, I would stop by and see Steve’s parents, and he noted that he had done the same with my parents when they were still alive.

That afternoon, sitting and visiting in my office, it seemed as though time had not escaped us at all. But of course, it had.

As Steve got ready to leave, we exchanged business cards and personal contact information. His parting shot was simple – “Let’s have lunch sometime.”

And that, I’m sure, will happen. After all, Steve’s an old friend…and a man of his word.

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Unexpected visitors are a common phenomenon at our newspaper office.

Folks pop in regularly to take care of transactions with our business office, either to pay a bill or take care of a subscription to one of our papers.

They also stop by to share news stories, which are equally appreciated visits.

Sometimes, of course, folks stop by with less cordial intentions, riled by something we’ve done or said in print.

Even those can be interesting visits.

So late last week, when a gentleman could be heard out in the entryway asking for Paul Rhodes, I braced myself when I heard him say, “I just need to toss a grenade in that office,” pointing to my open door. Here we go, I thought.

The immediate sight of my grinning visitor took away any concerns.

Although it had been years, I quickly recognized my surprise guest as Steve Caspers, a friend of mine dating back to elementary school.

Wow. Steve, who lives in Topeka and works as an engineer and water pretreatment specialist for the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, was in the area to see a client who is building a new industrial facility and needed KDHE’s blessings.

To be totally up front, I was only half surprised by Steve’s visit. Around the holidays he had sent me a letter saying that he might be in the area working with a client, and that he would stop by for a visit if that proved to be the case.

So, my grenade attacker as I was finishing up lunch at my desk wasn’t a total shock. Steve always was a man of his word, and he had come through again.

Steve and I became close friends in elementary school, back in Gaylord, Kan., when his family moved to town for his father’s work and to be closer to other relatives. They lived just down the street from us, and Steve and I were part of a group of kids who shared many an adventure together.

We stayed tight-knit through high school, and several of us in that group committed to attend Kansas State University after high school. Steve and I were among those who were destined

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Old friend’s visit was a welcome surprise

April 2016 - 6

April 2016

Faces wanted.

At East Wichita News, we’re already working on feature stories for upcoming editions. If you know of someone whose face (and story) should appear on these pages, please let us know!

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ewn@eastwichitanews.com 316-540-0500 www.facebook.com/EastWichitaNews

April 1-16 – Eighth annual Young Artists’ Exhibit, Wichita Public Library.

Starting April 1, the library will display artwork created by hundreds of local preschool students. The exhibit coincides with Week of the Young Child, April 10-16, a national celebration of early learning, young children, their teachers and families. The show will feature artwork based on books. Art is on display at the central library and five library branches: Maya Angelou Northeast, Lionel D. Alford, Evergreen, Ford Rockwell and Westlink. More information, including details on receptions at each location, can be found online at www.wichitalibrary.org.

American Red Cross blood donation opportunities: • April 1, 10 a.m. – 2 p.m., Sam’s Club, 6200 W. Kellogg.

• April 1, 2:30-6:30 p.m., St. Francis of Assisi, 861 N. Socora.

• April 2, 8 a.m. - 3 p.m., Bel Aire City Hall, 7651 E. Central Park Ave. • April 7, 11 a.m. – 3 p.m., Newman University’s O’Shaughnessy Hall, 3100 McCormick.

• April 8, 7:30-11:30 a.m., Lee Aerospace, 9323 E. 34th Street N. • April 10, 8 a.m. – 1 p.m., St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church, 1321 Stratford Lane.

• April 11, 2:30-6:30 p.m., St. Jude

Arts Continued from Page 4

story of a group of women who lost touch after high school. The death of one of the neighborhood mothers brings them home for a reunion to support her only daughter.

Through May 21 – “The Mountain

Dateline

Upcoming events in and around Wichita

Catholic Church, 3130 N. Amidon.

• April 12, 9:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m., NetApp, 3719 N. Rock Road.

• April 13, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m., Wichita State University Rhatigan Student Center, 1845 Fairmount • April 14, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m., Wichita State University Shocker Hall, 1845 Fairmount.

• April 15, 9:30 a.m. – 1:45 p.m., BlueLine Rental, 7422 W. 21st Street N. The Wichita Blood Donation Center at 707 N. Main is open Monday through Saturday.

To donate, download the American Red Cross Blood Donor app, visit www. redcrossblood.org, or call 1-800-REDCROSS (1-800-733-2767).

Submissions for the Dateline community calendar may be emailed to ewn@eastwichitanews.com.

Submissions should be sent by the 15th of the month for the following month’s edition. Commercial events will not be accepted.

Gals, or Those Are Some Twin Peaks,” written by Tom Frye, at Mosley Street Melodrama, 234 N. Mosley. Tickets $30 for dinner and show, $20 for show only.

For tickets call 316-263-0222.

Submissions for the Performing Arts Calendar community calendar may be emailed to ewn@eastwichitanews.com. Submissions should be sent by the 15th of the month for the following month’s edition.

Movie Review

Jim Erickson

totally human and totally God, but He was born sinless, which nobody but Adam and Eve were, before. A newborn child can hardly be blamed for being selfish when he/she does not yet even know that other people are not parts of him/her; one of the first enormous lessons a baby has to learn is that his mother exists when she is not with him. Would this be a problem with a divinity? How much supervision would be necessary with a divine child? Perhaps the biggest problem a child faces is simple ignorance (calling it “innocence” does not erase the original problem: how much divine wisdom would Jesus have been born with?) Neither Rice nor the movie deals with questions and problems like these, though there are suggestions of sibling problems, at least in the novel, with sibling rivalry involving favoritism with cousin Salome and older brother (by a previous marriage) James, who in the novel seems jealous of some of Jesus’ peculiar powers, like raising people from the dead (which he has been taught not to do).

The movie is not much benefitted by casting as seven-year old Jesus a child so femininely pretty that twice in my early notes I wondered why He had been represented by a little girl. Considering the circumstances, it is probably unfair to suggest that the child star shows no acting ability whatsoever; but he avoids Shirley Temple cuteness. We have learned to expect real action by juveniles – the child in “Room” is even younger than seven and the subtlety of See REVIEW, Page 10

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“Young Messiah” is a peculiar faithbased movie. The one-sheet poster offers a chance to “discover the savior when he was a child” and the picture supposedly covers his seventh year, but cites as its source only Anne Rice’s novel “Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt,” and the credits in the movie itself mention no source whatsoever, not even the Bible, which remarkably includes nothing about Jesus’ childhood before his visit to the Temple at 12. So I read about 160 pages of Rice’s novel, including the two author’s notes, and found Rice claiming years of exhaustive study of an incredible (but uncountable) number of texts, modern and ancient. Links to individual episodes are not included and references to “early legends” (p. 349) are general.

Reading just the first few pages of Rice would reveal some of the problems in the movie. The narrator is the adult Christ, if not the resurrected one, who is limiting Himself to the point of view of Himself at age seven (p. 44); but He is able to identify His mother and His brother James and His father of a sort, Joseph (p.

4), and explain the ambiguity about Joseph. The movie lacks narration, and a lot of the resulting unclarity involves more than identifications.

In fact (beware of spoilers from here on), His birth story, which for some reason has never been told to Him, and the telling of which to Him is the closing of the movie (p. 57).

He is puzzled by what little hints he has been able to pick up (why for example, he is not supposed to call Joseph “father,” and what those mentions of an angel in Nazareth are all about), but He is too obedient to ask questions.

Such thorny topics as toilet training and puberty of a character who is essentially a god, and specially the Christian God (you can easily imagine solutions to such problems with Greek gods, who are not much more than superpowered humans) are avoided by the culture’s restriction on age. But so are more fundamental questions. Jesus was supposedly both

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Source material for ‘Young Messiah’ is unclear

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Tornado - April 26, 1991 w w w . e a s t w i c h i t a n e w s . c o m

Story Twenty-five years ago this month, tragedy and destruction blew through Andover. On April 26, 1991, a major tornado outbreak dropped 55 tornados into the heart of America, with twisters hitting the ground in Texas and Oklahoma, storming through Kansas and into Missouri, Nebraska and Iowa.

The tornado that tore through Andover started near Clearwater and caused damage along its entire path as it moved through Haysville, south Wichita and McConnell Air Force Base. The tornado finally relented near El Dorado.

‘Andover didn’t die in that storm.

It started there. And it’s still going today.’

Andover Mayor Ben Lawrence Although numerous areas in the Wichita metro area were impacted, the bulk of Mother Nature’s fury was directed at Andover, where 13 people were killed, including 11 in the Golden Spur Mobile Home Park.

There were three supercell storms that day that claimed 21 lives. Nineteen were in Kansas. In addition to the 13 who perished in Andover, four others died in Segdwick County, one in Cowley County and one in Elk County. Two more were killed in Oklahoma.

In this issue of the East Wichita News, we remember that day and the efforts that followed to rebuild lives and the city of Andover. There’s not nearly enough space in our newspaper to capture the entire story of that day; multiple books have been dedicated

by

T r av i s M o u n t s

to that.

Instead, we’ll take several snapshots of the story: remembrances from people who were there; thoughts from a well-known broadcaster whose voice is synonymous with severe weather coverage in south-central Kansas; the National Weather Service’s top local meteorologist on how technology has changed; and a mayor’s perspective on how a city was reborn.

The Storm The tornado touched down southeast of Clearwater, on the southwest side of Wichita, just before 6 p.m. It quickly built itself to an F2, with winds between 113 and 157 miles per hour. It caused some damage before moving on.

According to transcripts of emergency radio traffic from that day, as the storm moved toward Haysville, Haysville police noticed a second, smaller tornado near Peck.

Haysville took a direct hit on the north side as the main twister – now about 100 yards wide – moved through the Timberline Addition. Fifteen homes were destroyed within a four-block radius, and 63 more suffered damage. The storm moved northwest and struck Cox Farm on Seneca.

The tornado then angled east and hit Harbor Mobile Home Park at 5736 S. Broadway. It crossed the Kansas Turnpike near 55th Street South. About 30 homes were damaged in south Wichita, and a nursery and greenhouse were destroyed. River Oaks Mobile Home Park was hit, and about 100 trailers and houses near 53rd Street and Hydraulic were destroyed. In Oaklawn, 70 houses suffered damage, including a dozen that were destroyed. The tornado ranged from an

F2 to an F3 during that stretch. Under the old Fujita Tornado Damage Scale, an F3 could have wind speeds up to 206 miles per hour.

Boeing and McConnell Air Force Base were next on the list. The 190-Z office building at the south end of the Boeing complex took a direct hit. At 6:24 p.m., the tornado crossed the McConnell runway 2,000 yards south of the flight line. It missed 84 military aircraft that were fueled and ready to fly. The assembled aircraft included 48 F-16 fighters, 16 B-1B bombers that carried nuclear weapons, 16 KC-135 refueling tankers, three T-38 training aircraft and a cargo airplane. In 1991 dollars, each B-1B was worth $280 million dollars. Base housing and a school were destroyed. Home video captured the tornado as it went through the base; it’s easy to find the video on YouTube.

Four East Wichita neighborhoods were hit after the tornado left McConnell – Springdale Country Club Estates, Spring Hallow, Timber Lakes and Sun Valley Estates.

As the tornado crossed the Sedgwick-Butler county line at 159th Street East, it strengthened to an F5 and took aim at the heart of Andover, with winds that may have reached an incomprehensible 300 miles per hour.

According to the National Weather Service, an F5 tornado can level strong frame houses, sweeping them off their foundations; cars can be turned into missiles and thrown more than 100 yards; trees are debarked; “incredible phenomena” will occur.

All of that happened in Andover starting at 6:40 p.m.

Sixty homes were destroyed as the first subdivision was struck. More homes were damaged.

St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church, on the corner of Douglas and Andover Road, was destroyed, along

with the rectory. Multiple businesses were destroyed, including Livingston’s, Coastal Mart, Carol’s Kitchen and nine businesses in Andover Square. The Plaza at Andover, which sits diagonally across from Andover Square at Andover Road and Second Street, did not take a direct hit.

According to a report in the Andover Journal-Advocate after the storm, the storm damaged or destroyed 445 dwellings. One hundred homes needed to be rebuilt. In the Golden Spur Mobile Home Park, 223 of 241 mobile homes were destroyed and the rest were damaged. Roughly 840 out of 4,000 Andover residents were left homeless.

The tornado continued on past Towanda before dissipating near El Dorado Lake.

A separate tornado formed near the lake and followed the turnpike to near Cassoday.

April 26, 1991 In 1991, Gayle Bueke lived south of Kellogg near

Andover.

“Our living room happened to face southwest. We were standing there watching the tornado,” she said.

Her daughter, Noelle, was on the phone with a friend. The friend had to quickly get off the phone when his father said they had to take cover in the basement. The friend’s little brother was playing with his baseball cards when they ran to shelter.

“Their whole house was gone, but the baseball cards were still laying there in a row,” Bueke said.

Without today’s weather technology and instant communication through social media, many people were unaware of the extent of the damage. After the storm, Bueke left her home.

“When they said it was all clear, I had an errand to run in Augusta,” she said. The damage became apparent as she reached Kellogg. “It was horrible.”

A little while later, Bueke was on the phone with the Rev. Mike Baldwin, pastor at St. Vincent de Paul. He was away from home when the storm tore through the heart of Andover. Bueke shared news of the devastation.

“I said, ‘Your home is gone, and all the homes behind it are gone.’ It was like he couldn’t take it.

He said, ‘All of them?’ I said, ‘All of them,’” Bueke recalled.

There were only a few things left from the church, including a pen, a chalice, part of a crucifix and a few damaged statues.

The church, of course, came back. It received help from other community churches. Hope Community Church members hosted their Catholic brethren for a while. The church eventually moved services to Andover High School as construction took place on the new building. The United Methodist Church donated space for St. Vincent’s Vacation Bible School that summer.

Gene Moser is a 1949 graduate of Andover High School – well before the city was incorporated – but grew up in East Wichita. In 1991, he and his wife, Carol, lived in East Wichita near Rock Road and Indianapolis. He recalled that day from inside the Andover Historical Museum, where he volunteers and Carol is

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These composite images – shot from on top of the Pizza Hut restaurant on Saturday, April 27, the day after the tornado – show the extensive damage that was inflicted on the heart of the small east Wichita suburb. Andover was a sleepy town then, with a population of around 4,000. Twenty-five years later, Andover’s population tops 13,000, and only a small percentage of residents can say they were there when the tornado hit.

Continued on Page 14

Contributed photo/National Severe Storm Forecast Center

ABOVE: The Golden Spur Mobile Home Park today. Few scars remain from the storm 25 years ago. Travis Mounts/East Wichita News

www.eastwichitanews.com

LEFT: An aerial view of the Golden Spur Mobile Home Park shows the utter destruction wrought by an F5 tornado with winds approaching 300 miles per hour.

April 2016 - 10

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CINDY’S DOG GROOMING

Continued from Page 7

his performance is hard to believe.

Whether even he could have done much for “Young Messiah” is hard to say. But mere physical beauty is not enough.

Rice says she “wanted to write the life of Jesus Christ” (p. 327), and volume two of what promises to be a considerable series, “Christ the Lord; Road to Cana” has already appeared. Maybe the movies will follow suit.

There is no effort at ethnic casting. If asked, I would guess the child playing Christ to be Scandinavian or German. His fair skin would certainly suffer in a sunny land. And there is no real effort to individualize characters beyond what physical appearance can do: the Christ child is simply an old-fashioned Good Boy of the Freddie Bartholomew type, with none of the Mickey Rooney mischievousness about him, if also not, mercifully, any Shirley Temple cuteness.

There is a subplot about a Roman soldier looking for the Christ child that is so predictable you could write it yourself.

“We treat them like our own.”

- Cindy Marlier, Owner

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Wichita Public Library seeks community input Starting April 1, the Wichita Public Library will be conducting an online survey to collect information about how people in the community use and benefit from public technology resources and services.

This information will help the library evaluate its current services to enable better outcomes and to determine the value of public access technology and services. The impact survey collects data across the following domains: general use of library and online resources, education, employment, entrepreneurship, health and wellness, e-government, civic engagement, e-commerce and social inclusion.

Customers will access the online survey through computer workstations at the Library as well as at the Library’s website www.wichitalibrary.org. The survey takes 10-15 minutes to complete, is completely anonymous, and is available in English and Spanish.

The survey is the result of a successful research initiative from the University of Washington with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. To learn more about the research behind the survey, the logistics of running the survey, and what the patron experience is like, visit http://impactsurvey.org or call 206-543-4324.

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At East Wichita News, we’re already working on feature stories for upcoming editions. If you know of someone whose face (and story) should appear on these pages, please let us know! ewn@eastwichitanews.com 316-540-0500 www.facebook.com/EastWichitaNews

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Eastside Homes

Philip Holmes | Interior Designer

or remodeling, you would do well to consider these features.

Visitability: This concept is related to accessibility and encompasses three primary objectives directed at accessibility in the home. First, a home should have at least one entrance with no steps.

Second, all interior doors should have at least a 32-inch clearance. And finally, it is recommended that there be at least a half bathroom on the main level.

Aging in place: Not only do we want to make our homes comfortable for family and friends with disabilities, but also for ourselves when the time comes.

The Center for Disease Control defines aging in place as “The ability to live in one’s home and community safely, comfortably, and independently, regardless of age, ability, or income.” For this discussion, this could mean the ability to stay in one’s current home longer.

Ageless designing: This is the proactive part. Research has proven the impact of our home design to our emotional and physical wellbeing.

“BoomerSmarts goal is defining and incorporating products and designs that meet the appropriate lifestage needs in ergonomics, function, and beauty,” Beach said.

She is clearly an advocate thinking ahead and planning living spaces accordingly for future enjoyment.

Mitzi is one who practices what she preaches. She and her husband Bob completely renovated their current residence, which also serves as her design studio and classroom. It is a textbook example for the design concepts menSee HOMES, Page 30

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The generally accepted definition of Baby Boomer describes those individuals born during the demographic post–World War II, between the years 1946 and 1964.

This includes people who are between 51 and 70 years old this year.

A 1998 report stated that, as a generation, baby boomers tend to avoid discussions about long-term planning and their older years. Recently however, more attention has been given to how Boomers will or should to manage their affairs as they age. This could be due to the undeniable fact that this generation is getting older and theses issues are no longer avoidable.

Front and center to this topic is how to stay as independent as possible given the restrictions that age imposes.

Mitzi Beach, ASID and Wichita-based interior designer, was inspired to create a resource-based endeavor that she calls BoomerSmarts.

“My goal is to highlight the denial of the aging needs of Boomers because they tend to be of the mind set that they will never age and will never need any adjustments to our current lifestyle,” she explains. One of the recurring themes in her work is that there are decisions the Boomer crowd can make now regarding their living spaces. Making smart choices before they become elderly should make the living spaces much safer and more comfortable. It comes down to being prepared for that phase of life.

Although she covers these topics in great detail in her presentations, today she offers four major topics of importance for Baby Boomers (and anyone else who plans on growing older). Some of these items are now requirements in commercial settings. While not mandated by law, their application in residential settings makes good sense. Mitzi recommends that all Boomers get familiar with these areas.

Accessibility: Also known as barrier-free or universal design. These concepts are in place for commercial settings due to the Americans with Disabilities Act. These are really common sense ideas given the point of view of a disabled person. If you are building

GREAT SANDWICHES

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Baby Boomers need to accept age-related changes

April 2016 - 12

East Wichita News People and Places • KMUW reporter Abigail Wilson has earned a 2016 Gracie Award from the Alliance for Women in Media Foundation. “The Pieces that Remain: Remembering the Wichita State University Plane Crash” is a 30-minute radio documentary. The show began as a paper for Wilson’s graduate degree at WSU. As an intern, she worked to turn the paper into a radio documentary. It is a personal story for Wilson, whose uncle was among the survivors. The documentary explores the day of the crash through the eyes of friends, family members and survivors. Wilson earned the award in the student radio category. Listen to it online at www.kmuw.org.

• Gina Evans has been hired as the assistant vice president of human resources and talent development at Credit Union of America. Her first day with CUA was Dec. 21.

w w w . e a s t w i c h i t a n e w s . c o m

• Jeff Breault of Wichita has been

named as a new director with Citizens Bank of Kansas. Breault is a vice president with the stock brokerage firm of Carey, Thomas, Hoover & Breault.

• Philip White was appointed to fill a vacant position on the Andover City Council.

Mayor Ben Lawrence’s appointment was approved by the city council on March 8. White replaces Quentin Coon, who resigned to take a job in the Kansas City area.

• Adam Carroll has been selected for promotion to the rank of master sergeant in the Air Force. Carroll is currently serving as a first sergeant with the 332nd Recruiting Squadron, Nashville,

Tenn. He has served in the military for 19 years. He joined the Air Force Dec. 11, 1996, and has been stationed in Montana, Missouri, Guam, Nevada, and Tennessee with deployments to Saudi Arabia, Diego Garcia, and two tours in Afghanistan. Carroll earned a bachelor’s degree in 2016 from Southwestern College of Kansas, Wichita.

• Kathy Ewing has accepted the position of trust administrator with the Trust Company of Kansas. She has been with TCK as a trust operation specialist since 2011. Brandi Foley has been hired as trust operation specialist.

Mary Rupp has been promoted to trust officer. She has served multiple roles with TCK since 2004. Zina Thompson has been promoted to trust officer. She also joined TCK in 2004.

• Alyssa Hostert of Eastborough and Amy Yeskie of East Wichita have been named to the fall dean’s list at Creigh-

ton University. Full-time students who earn a 3.5 GA or better are eligible for the dean’s list. Creighton University is located in Omaha.

• Alex Schrader of Wichita, Kan., was recently initiated into The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi, the nation’s oldest and most selective collegiate honor society for all academic disciplines. Schrader is pursuing a degree in chemistry at Drury University. Schrader is among approximately 30,000 students, faculty, professional staff and alumni to be initiated into Phi Kappa Phi each year. Membership is by invitation and requires nomination and approval by a chapter. Only the top 10 percent of seniors and 7.5 percent of juniors, having at least 72 semester hours, are eligible for membership. Graduate students in the top 10 percent of the number of candidates for graduate degrees may also qualify, as do faculty, professional staff, and

• Abbi Timmermeyer of Andover is part of the Emporia State University production of “The Birds: A Modern Adaptation” by Don Zolidis. Timmermeyer, a sophomore theater major, is playing the Internet Spammer, Prometheus and Hummingbird. “The Birds” is the first collaborative project between ESU Theatre and ESU’s newly reinstated chapter of Alpha Psi Omega, an honorary theatre society, giving students the opportunity to take on more of the production responsibilities. Nancy J. Pontius is designing the lights. “The Birds” runs April 13-16 at 7:30 p.m. All performances will be in the Karl C. Bruder Theatre located in King Hall. Tickets can be purchased at the Memorial Union Ticket Office or by calling 620-341-6378.

• The Wichita Center for the Arts, along with Elizabeth B. Koch and the K.T. Wiedemann Foundation, honored promising student artists on March 6 at the Easter Kansas Scholastic Arts Awards ceremony. The Scholastic Art Awards Exhibition showcases artwork created by

middle school and high school students from 70 Kansas counties. Nearly 2,400 entries were submitted and 595 were selected for exhibition as Gold Key, Silver Key or Honorable Mention. From 124 Gold Key works, five were nominated for the Eastern Kansas American Visions Medal, which will be selected later this year. Among the nominees is Kylie Mitchell of Independent Middle School, the only middle school student from Wichita to receive a Gold Key. Mitchell has been invited to attend a ceremony at Carnegie Hall in June.

Faces wanted.

At East Wichita News, we’re already working on feature stories for upcoming editions. If you know of someone whose face (and story) should appear on these pages, please let us know! ewn@eastwichitanews.com 316-540-0500 www.facebook.com/EastWichitaNews

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alumni who have achieved scholarly distinction.

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April 2016 - 14

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Continued from Page 9 the museum president.

“We were tracking the tornado on the turnpike radio. We knew it was heading for McConnell and my wife’s sister’s house,” he said. “We heard the tornado from Kellogg and Rock Road.

It sounded like a big old freight train.

Of course, you couldn’t see it because of the rain.

Carol’s sister’s home was demolished.

“Everything was gone. It just wiped everything gone,” Moser said.

His sister-in-law’s husband’s birth certificate was found north of Emporia, more than an hour up the turnpike.

“There were cars in a swimming pool.

We didn’t know too much about what happened in Andover,” he said.

Eventually, the Mosers – like the rest of the Wichita – learned of the full extent of the damage.

“We had a lot of friends who lived in the trailer park,” Moser said. None of the Mosers’ friends died.

Gene Moser will be 85 in July. He’s spent his life in the Sunflower State, but he cannot say he’s seen it all.

“I’ve never seen a tornado in Kansas,” he said.

Covering the storm For years, Dan Dillon’s voice was synonymous with severe weather in Wichita area. As news director at KFDI

radio, he generally anchored severe storm coverage as a team of reporters trained in storm coverage fanned out across the area. The seriousness in his deep, distinctive voice told you things were serious. The calmness helped make you feel better.

Dillon, now media coordinator for District Attorney Marc Bennett, said he recalled a national network talking that morning about the possibility of severe weather in the nation’s heartland.

Dillon’s mind was elsewhere – he and his family had sold their home in Park City and had closed on a house in west Wichita that Friday, and they were busy moving.

“The air felt so heavy. I’ve never felt air that heavy and humid since then,” he said.

About 5 or 5:30 p.m., he received a called from someone at the radio station. There was severe weather near Conway Springs and it was moving toward Wichita. Dillon loaded four boxes onto the moving truck and left.

Continuous coverage started at 6 p.m. and continued until about 2:30 a.m.

Saturday morning.

“No music, no commercials, just talking about the weather,” Dillon said.

Weather radar was primitive then compared to today. KFDI’s five mobile units, communicating with two-way radios, were the eyes and ears for thousands. They also monitored emergency Continued on Page 16

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A broken weather vane from Wineteer Elementary in southeast Wichita is part of the collection of information on the Andover tornado that is kept at the National Weather Service office in west Wichita. The weather vane was damaged as the tornado made its way through southeast Wichita from McConnell Air Force Base to Andover.

Travis Mounts/East Wichita News

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This system permits customers to “get in line” from a cell phone with texting capabilities, a personal computer, or by coming into a tag office and pulling a number.

The treasurer’s page of the Sedgwick County website now includes links to each of the four tag offices. By clicking on a location, the customer will be asked to provide last name, first name and phone number. The customer will receive notification as to how long his or her estimated wait time is and will continue to receive updates every 30 minutes.

To secure a place in line via text, the customer simply sends the assigned location message to 316-395-2940. The message lines are as follows: “SGBRITTANYTAG” for the Brittany Office located at 2120 N. Woodlawn “SGMURDOCKTAG” for the main office located at 200 W. Murdock “SGCHADSWORTHTAG” for the Chadsworth Tag Office located at 2330 N. Maize “SGDERBYTAG” for the Derby Tag Office located at 212 W. Greenway, Derby If customers don’t have access to a cell phone or PC, they may come into their preferred tag office and use the QLess kiosk, where a number will be drawn using a touch-screen monitor. Their place in line will be displayed on big-screen monitors on the wall. Once selected, they will be advised by voice prompts to an assigned station. Customers may be familiar with this system since it is used by local DMVs.

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April 2016 - 16 w w w . e a s t w i c h i t a n e w s . c o m

Continued from Page 14 radio channels.

“We had a good idea there was a lot of damage from what your reporters saw and from emergency communications,” Dillon said.

He said he’s often asked how they did their jobs without cell phones.

“We didn’t know what we missed,” he said. “Our two-way radios did such a good job of informing people what was on the way.”

After the storms, people wanting to see the damaged flocked to the afflicted areas. That traffic clogged roads and created many problems for rescuers who were trying to get into the scene and trying to get injured people out. It’s a problem that continues today.

But many people went to help, maybe 10 to 20 times more people than those who came to gawk, Dillon said.

He said he covered four major tornadoes during his time at KFDI, from 1979 to 2013.

“In each of those, there’s always people ready to help. It’s just ingrained in people in this part of the country to help,” he said.

A couple of weeks after the storm, Dillon was working at the radio station.

A gentleman walked in to see reporter John Wright, who was out on assignment. Dillon came to the lobby to see him.

“This man started to cry,” Dillon said.

They went back to Dillon’s office.

“He told me that on that Friday night, he was driving from work in Wichita to Augusta on Highway 54. He heard John Wright say the tornado had struck McConnell and was moving toward Andover,” Dillon said. With the tornado coming at an angle, the east-bound driver likely would never have seen the tornado, which was at its maximum size.

“The tornado passed in front of him on Highway 54,” Dillon said. “He believed if not for John’s report, he would have driven into it.”

“I just wanted to come by the radio station to tell him (Wright) ‘thank you,’” the man said, according to Dillon.

The man and Wright did speak later.

Dillon can’t remember the man’s name, but said he and Wright would like to visit with the man again.

Continued on Page 18

Event to mark 25th anniversary St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church in Andover will host an event Tuesday, April 26, to commemorate the 25th anniverary of the Andover tornado, which caused a swath of damage that stretched from Clearwater to Cassoday and claimed numerous lives. The remembrance is a partnership between the church, Butler County Emergency Management Agency, the city of Andover, and members of the media who covered and tracked the storm in 1991.

Speakers include: • Mike Smith, senior vice-president of AccuWeather Inc., who was broadcasting for KSN Channel 3; • Dan Dillon and John Wright, who covered the storm for KDFI radio; • Chance Hayes, South Central Kansas coordinator for the National Weather Service; • Jim Schmidt, director of Butler County Emergency Management, and other first responders who were on the scene immediately after the tornado.

Doors open at 4 p.m. to view various displays, and will remain open until about 9 p.m., Tuesday, April 26.

The program will begin at 6 p.m. Tuesday, April 26. A moment of silence will be held to honor the victims who lost their lives in the storm.

Members of Butler County Emergency Management, Andover Fire and Andover Police will be available after the program to answer questions about weather safety and preparedness, and to share their memories of the storm.

St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church in Andover as it appears today. The church was obliterated in the April 26, 1991, tornado that struck Andover, south and east Wichita, Haysville and other parts of south central Kansas.

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April 2016 - 18

Continued from Page 16 Dillon hopes the man – or someone who knows the man – will see this story and help them reconnect.

Technology changes In 1991, Doppler radio was a revolutionary new tool, but it was available only in limited places. Wichita didn’t have it when the Andover tornado

struck, although plans were in place to install it near Wichita Mid-Continent Airport.

Meteorologist Chance Hayes, the National Weather Service’s South Central Kansas Coordinator, was a college student at Oklahoma University in April 1991.

He was aware of the Kansas tornados – Andover’s F5 as well as the F4 in Cowley County that killed one person Continued on Page 23

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Keller Williams Hometown Partners – Sharon Brinks................................ Page 19 Wichita Festivals Inc...................... Page 20

Focus On Business is a monthly feature offered to area advertisers. If you would like your business featured here, please contact our sales office at (316) 540-0500.

Wichita Grand Opera..................... Page 21 Kitchen Tune-Up........................... Page 22

REALTOR gives excellent service to clients Sharon Brinks

she said, “and that puts people more at ease. If they need to find a lender, a repairman, have questions, or just need to talk, I am there for them.”

Brinks lives in east Wichita with her husband and a son who is still in high school. She and her husband also own several rental properties. Her hard work, ethics, attention to detail, and professionalism are reasons her sales continue to increase in each year through referrals from satisfied clients.

“The key to getting a property sold as quickly as possible is pricing it right for its location and condition,” Brinks said.

“I give sellers a free comparative marketing analysis, to help them determine the correct price of their property. A lot of people think the agent sets the listing price. That is not true! The seller sets the listing price, but the listing agent has the responsibility of giving them the input and information about the market to help them price it accordingly.” She continues “I am thorough and honest with my listing descriptions (one or two lines just won’t do for me!), and I try to use all 36 pictures our local MLS will allow.

I want the listing to appeal to buyers in such a way as to translate into showings, which evolve into offers, a contract, and a smooth sale for my sellers that nets them the most money possible.”

Brinks also stressed the need for buyers to be represented as well and said that many people do not realize the listing agent, the person whose sign is in the yard, works for the seller. “Buyers should

have an agent in their corner working for them to represent their interests. I love helping buyers find the perfect home for the best price possible and making sure they are treated honestly and fairly.”

Brinks has the confidence, experience, and personal life experiences to represent buyers and sellers in all price ranges and in all walks of life. She can help any person find a place to call home and can help with investment property as well. Her goal is for clients to have complete satisfaction from doing business with her.

Call Sharon Brinks today at 316350-5199 or send an email to SharonSellsKansas@yahoo.com and she will reply promptly and courteously. Be sure to check out her website, www.SharonSellsKansas.com.

Brinks is a member of the REALTORS of South Central Kansas, the Kansas Association of REALTORS, the National Association of REALTORS, and the Wichita Area Builders Association.

www.eastwichitanews.com

Buying or selling a home is one of the biggest decisions a person will make in their life.

It can also be one of the most nerve-wracking...but not with Sharon Brinks, an Associate Broker with Keller Williams Hometown Partners. Brinks has been a property owner since she was 19 years old and knows what it takes to make the buying or selling experience a good one.

“My focus is on client service with the utmost personal attention throughout all phases of the buying or selling process, like the concierge level service you would expect from an agent when they are entrusted with the largest investment most people make in their lives,” Brinks said. She works one-on-one communicating closely with her clients. “I work very, very hard for my clients and am the point of contact for them from contract to closing. If someone needs to sell their house and buy another, I can help with both. The continuity helps alleviate confusion and frustration for the clients,”

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Featured this month

April 2016 - 20 FOCUS ON BUSINESS www.eastwichitanews.com

Join the Riverfest 2016 Button Launch!

Staff Report The buzz for Riverfest 2016 is building, and now you can get in early on that excitement.

Hundreds of people already have ordered their Wichita Riverfest buttons online, and on April 11, you can be one of the first Riverfest supporters to physically lay claim to one of this year’s buttons, and at a discounted price.

Early-bird button sales begin that day, and a Riverfest 2016 Button Launch has been scheduled for 11 a.m. that Monday, according to officials with Wichita Festivals, Inc. The launch party is designed as a media event but is open to the public, and everyone is encouraged to attend.

“It will be the public’s first chance to lay their hands on this year’s Riverfest buttons and their eyes on the festival guide packed with events,” said Teri Mott, director of marketing and communications for Wichita Festivals, Inc. “This is a great opportunity to get your Riverfest buttons at the discounted price of just $7 for adults and $3 for kids 6-12.”

The early-bird button sales will run April 11 through May 5, at limited locations in and around Wichita. Wichita locations include Cox Solutions Stores in Wichita, Derby, Newton and El Dorado; the Wichita Festivals, Inc. office; and the Intrust Bank Arena box office. On-

line sales also will continue at www.selectaseat.com.

Beginning May 6, buttons will be $10 for adults and $3 for kids 6-12. Button locations from May 6 on include Dillons stores and QuikTrip locations, as well as many local businesses.

Those who want to join in on the Button Launch should gather at 11 a.m. April 11 at the West Wichita Cox Solutions Store, 446 S. Ridge Road.

“With the help of Mayor Jeff Longwell and Admiral Windwagon Smith XLIII Steve Dillard, we’ll get early-bird button sales started with a bang that morning,” said Mott. “You’ll get a glimpse into what you can expect at this year’s festival and be one of the first to buy this year’s Wichita flag-inspired button.”

Wichita Riverfest 2016 runs June 3-11 and will include hundreds of events over nine days in and around downtown Wichita. A Riverfest button is required for entry.

Last year, 97,500 buttons were purchased. Nearly 30,000 of those were early-bird buttons.

“People come from all over Kansas and the nation to enjoy Riverfest,” said Mott. “They come for the nostalgia, but increasingly they also come for our terrific

The Riverfest Button Launch Party will be at 11 a.m. April 11 at the west Wichita Cox Solutions Store, 446 S. Ridge Road.

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Wichita Grand Opera Opens the 2016 Season with Two Grand Ballets in a Single Night B y J. B r a d l e y B a k e r

For fifteen years, Wichita Grand Opera has been known for bringing international performing superstars to Wichita, and 2016 is no exception.

On Saturday, April 23, at 7 p.m. in the Concert Hall of Century II Performing Arts Center, the WGO will open its 2016 Season in grandiose style with a rare double-bill performance of two classic Russian Ballets in a single, spectacular evening. Tchaikovsky’s romantic “Romeo & Juliet” and Bizet’s seductive “Carmen”—as reimagined by Russian composer Rodion Shchedrin—will leave the audience longing for more. The passionate doubleheader will be performed by the fifty-member Russian National Ballet Theatre, direct from Moscow, which the Washington Post hails as “the real thing; … a cut above many of its rivals.”

Rodion Shchedrin created his adaptation of Bizet’s “Carmen” at the request of legendary Russian ballerina Maya Plisetskaya, who wished to portray in ballet form the character of Carmen, the passionate, highly-strung star of Bizet’s well-loved opera. It has become one of the most popular of works in the ballet repertoire and is considered by critics all over the world to be a highly-entertaining and passionate retelling of the opera. Don José, a corporal in the military, falls in love with an enchanting, beautiful, and seductive young Gypsy girl named Carmen, a cigarette vendor in Seville, Spain. Carmen later abandons Don José for the toreador Escamillo, leaving José in tortured agony. This tale of love and passion is sure to leave your heart raptured in the Romantic ecstasy of unrequited love. The length of the evening is two hours, including intermission.

FOCUS ON BUSINESS

Shakespeare’s “Romeo & Juliet” is the timeless story of young love pulled apart by a bitter feud. The longstanding hatred between the Montague and Capulet families disrupts the city of Verona and forces Romeo and Juliet, each from one of the feuding families, to marry in secret. Intolerance on both sides quickly leads to a tragic end. The star-crossed lovers can be found everywhere in modern culture, including theatrical adaptations, musical theatre, paintings, countless films, music, and dance. Tchaikovsky’s orchestral fantasy on “Romeo & Juliet,” with its long, sweeping melodies and lush Russian orchestration, has become romance’s unofficial soundtrack, appearing in television shows, movies, and even video games. The Russian National Ballet Theatre brings the unbridled romance of “Romeo & Juliet” to life in a mesmerizing display of effortless virtuosity like none other.

Tickets for this evening of love, loss, and palpable passion are on sale now, with prices ranging from $37 to $85; senior, student, group, and corporate discounts are available. For students and dance studios, the WGO offers the Day at the Opera program. To purchase your tickets, call the Wichita Grand Opera Box Office at (316) 262-8054, or go online to SelectASeat.com. For more information on the season or tickets, visit WichitaGrandOpera.org.

www.eastwichitanews.com

Bizet’s “Carmen” with the Russian National Ballet Theatre.

Tchaikovsky’s “Romeo & Juliet” with the Russian National Ballet Theatre.

21 - April 2016

A season opening night worthy of the name ‘Grand’

April 2016 - 22 w w w . e a s t w i c h i t a n e w s . c o m

A kitchen renovation that was worth the wait It took 31 years for this east Wichita couple to get their dream kitchen, and they say it was worth the wait.

The renovation project that produced this dream kitchen was completed by the Wichita Kitchen Tune-Up team, which has remodeled hundreds of kitchens since the company was started in 2005. The company’s services range from One-Day “Tune-Up” of cabinets or any interior wood surfaces, to cabinet refacing projects, to complete custom kitchens and bathrooms.

A new custom kitchen was just what was in store for this ecstatic Wichita couple.

With their kids grown and gone, Liz and Rich were finally ready recently to tackle the ultimate renovation project for their rambling ranch home. For

three decades, they had gotten by with a cramped, closed-off kitchen space, which they had spruced up with new cabinets at one point.

Initially, Rich said, that was the plan for this second kitchen renovation. But Rich, who does a lot of the family’s cooking, knew he really wanted more from the project.

“It was so claustrophobic,” said Rich.

The answer, once the couple started visiting with Kitchen Tune-Up designer Rachel Phillips, was to remove the wall that had separated the kitchen from the dining room for three decades. That initial step not only opened up those spaces, but also made the kitchen feel connected with the rest of the house.

“Rachel is fantastic,” said Rich. “We wanted to work with someone who

AFTER

Removal of a wall and renovation of the kitchen and dining room spaces provided a dramatic transformation for these East Wichita homeowners.

BEFORE

knew what to do, and that’s just what we got.”

The new, open kitchen space now features classic cherrywood cabinets that help provide a transitional style for the rest of the kitchen’s new elements.

A Bordeaux granite was selected for the countertops and helps tie in all the new earth tones used in the kitchen.

Accenting the new countertop, which runs the length of the kitchen and dining room space combined, is a travertine backsplash with a strip of classic glass tiles. A new tile floor also was installed, as well as a new microwave, hardware and sink components.

“Under cabinet lighting really helps with the work areas in the kitchen,” said Rachel. “And the new cabinets run all the way to the ceiling, providing Rich and Liz with lots more storage for seasonal items.”

With the limited amount of space that was available, “roll-out trays and pullouts were essential for this kitchen,” said Rachel. Liz agreed.

“We got just what we needed for the

kitchen,” Liz said. “The craftsmanship was incredible, and everyone who worked on this project was top notch.”

All of Kitchen Tune-Up’s refacing and new construction options are available to see at the company’s design center at 4057 N. Woodlawn, Suite 1.

The company specializes in kitchen and bathroom project, from small to large.

“My goal for each customer is to design the most amazing space possible for the budget and then make the whole remodeling process as relaxing as possible,” said Rachel. “Great customer service is the cornerstone to our success. My clients know I will take care of them and their space won’t look like everyone else’s on the block.”

For more information or to schedule a free consultation, call Kitchen TuneUp at 316-558-8888 or visit kitchentuneup.com/wichita-ks-phillips.

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– but he and his fellow students paid more attention to the Red Rock, Okla., tornado, another supercell that spawned two F4 tornados and was responsible for two deaths.

“We were able to sample the Andover storm, but from very far away,” he said. Despite the distance, the detail from the radar in Oklahoma City – using 1988 technology – far exceeded the 1957 technology on Wichita’s radar system.

Doppler radar has brought groundbreaking change to weather forecasting.

“It’s changed our operation immensely – the ability to see finer detail within

a storm,” Hayes said. “We can see debris and debris balls.”

Now there’s dual polarization technology, which lets meteorologists sample the storm both vertically and horizontally.

“We’ve got a better picture of the droplet size or debris size,” he said.

Forecasters used that technology to follow the smoke plumes off the massive wildfire that scarred hundreds of thousands of acres in southern Kansas and northern Oklahoma in late March.

They can see cold fronts and even bats leaving caves.

Hayes said the biggest changes in Continued on Page 25

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The April 26, 1991, tornado was one the ground for more than an hour, but was at its strongest as it moved through the heart of Andover. It rated an F5 on the old Fujita Scale, with winds approaching 300 miles per hour.

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Continued from Page 18

April 2016 - 24 w w w . e a s t w i c h i t a n e w s . c o m

How many makes a collection, and do cookbooks count?

My first collection was probably rocks. Like so many collections, it wasn’t planned, it just happened.

Even as a very young child, I loved rocks, especially when they were wet from the rain. My mom had already raised two children by the time I came along late in life, so she was pretty casual about child-rearing and saw no reason I Cook’s Library couldn’t play in the rain as long as it was warm enough.

As a result, my collection of rocks grew quickly.

Patsy Terrell Arrowheads regularly popped up on the farm, so you can see how rocks began to accumulate. I confess I still pick up a pretty rock here or there. My front porch hosts a collection, and the flower bed has some scattered around, too.

I’m not sure what the official definition of a collection is, but I’ve heard it’s three or more. However, the circumstances under which I heard this were questionable, so I’m not fully convinced. I first heard it a few years ago when a boyfriend was helping me move a desk up the stairs. He jokingly made a comment about my “desk collection.” I insisted there was no such thing. He mentioned this concept of “three” and I just let it drop because, well, why make a fuss? I do have more than three desks. I’m a writer. I need desks, plural.

Cookbooks didn’t become a collection until a trip to Minnesota in my early 20s. I was attracted to the books that talked about the history of the area and offered heritage recipes. Once I started seeing them as little history books, they were irresistible. And, once I had noticed them, I realized they were found everywhere. They started coming home with me from various spots. Before you knew it, I needed a room to hold cookbooks.

At some point, I started making photocopies of recipes I used regularly and putting them into notebooks so they were easily located again. It also allowed me to make notes about changes. They became my own history as I noted the particular event I had first made the recipe for, or who especially liked it.

Today I’m sharing one of those recipes that has been around for a long time – at least in my world. I first made it for a dear friend, Miss Joy, who loves a little something sweet in the morning. It’s a coffee cake with an extraordinarily delicious topping, which I doubled in this recipe as written below. Because, well, it’s delicious!

Patsy Terrell and her rocks, cookbooks and desks make their home in central Kansas. Other collections fill the nooks and crannies of the house. See more photos and sign up for her newsletter at cookslibrarywithpatsy.com.

Coffee Cake for Miss Joy 6 cups all-purpose flour 2 tablespoons baking powder 1 1/2 cups white sugar Salt to taste 1 1/3 cups shortening 2 cups milk 4 eggs 1/2 cup butter, melted Topping 2 cups brown sugar 1/2 cup all-purpose flour 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon Pecans to taste (optional)

Instructions: Mix flour, baking powder, sugar and salt together. Cut in shortening and set aside.

Pour into greased and floured 9 by 12 pan. Drizzle top with melted butter.

In a separate bowl, beat egg with fork, add milk and stir.

Add liquid mixture to dry mixture and stir until just blended.

It’s okay for it to have some lumps.

In separate bowl, mix topping ingredients and sprinkle on of batter.

Bake at 425 degrees for 15-20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Patsy Terrell is a collector of many things, including the rocks pictured at left and cookbooks, which inspired this recipe for coffee cake (above). Terrell said the several desks she owns do not count as a collection.

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Continued from Page 23 forecasting in the past 25 years are the details they can see in the storms and the amount of warning they can give people. Storm warnings are now more precise geographically. Instead of vague warnings for a wide area, forecasters can give warnings that are very specific in both time and location. That means

if a forecaster tells you to take cover, you’d better do it.

A city bounces back Andover Mayor Ben Lawrence was a young pup at the time of the storm. He Continued on Page 26

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Archival images from the National Weather Service show the difference between old technology and Doppler radar imagery. The top image was taken by Doppler radar in Oklahoma City. Despite the distance, the image shows the circulation of the F5 tornado as it hits Andover as well as an F4 tornado moving through Cowley County. The bottom image shows the more limited detail available from Wichita’s radar in 1991.

Wichita was already scheduled for an upgrade to Doppler before the storm struck.

(Formerly of Derby)

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HEALTH outlook

April 2016 - 26 w w w . e a s t w i c h i t a n e w s . c o m

Continued from Page 25 was 21 and living in a small home next to the Golden Spur Mobile Home Park.

“That storm put Andover on the map – first, because of the damage and the deaths. The second reason is because of the regrowth,” he said.

Today, Andover’s population is over 13,000 people, more than triple its size in 1991. The sleepy town on Wichita’s east edge had seen significant growth in the 1980s, but nothing like what was to come.

“The rebuilding led to additional activity we didn’t have prior to that tornado,” Lawrence said. “A lot of folks rebuilt their homes, and lots of others saw that Andover was a nice town with great schools.”

Lawrence believes that the attention that Andover received brought the town into the consciousness of many people. Stories about the recovery effort and how the people helped each other showed the town in a positive light.

“Andover is a good place. It’s a good location, it’s got a good proximity to Wichita and those amenities,” he said.

The days after the storm were hectic. City and county leaders across the nation learned a lot about how to deal with tragedies. Like many cities and counties, Andover and Butler County didn’t have much in the way of a plan for a catastrophic emergency.

There was plenty of criticism of the way debris was bulldozed up and removed shortly after the storm. It

ABOVE: Storm damage in the Springdale subdivision in East Wichita.

Contributed photo/National Severe Storm Forecast Center

LEFT: Trees stripped bare of their leaves, branches and bark in East Wichita.

Contributed photo/National Weather Service

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became apparent how important it is for victims to be able to search the remains of their homes, even if there is little left. Sometimes, an item or two of little monetary value but great sentimental value remains.

Often, those items are all that’s left of victims’ lives before a disaster.

“We relied a lot on the emergency management protocols, which were lax at that time,” said Lawrence, who had not yet run for any elected office. “Because of that, today’s plans are what they are, and they’re strong.”

The lack of a disaster recovery plan made things hectic in the immediate aftermath, Lawrence recalled.

“It was boggling, the amount of work to be done,” he said. “It was really messy for a while.”

He praised the work of utility companies in the weeks that followed, and the National Guard helped control crowds.

The big debris was cleaned up quickly. But Lawrence said minuscule pieces of trash remained for months.

Andover has helped other cities that have had similar disasters, and they will help again, Lawrence said.

He said he can’t point to a date when things felt “normal” again. But within 12 months, the homes and businesses that had been destroyed were rebuilt.

“There was an energy that kept going well beyond that. You can still feel it today,” he said. “Andover didn’t die in that storm. It started there. And it’s still going today.”

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April 2016 - 28

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w w w . e a s t w i c h i t a n e w s . c o m

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Movies and the portrayal of military service The way American movies depict military service is changing. More and more frequently, sympathetic characters and protagonists are depicted as being degraded or damaged as a result of ordinary military service.

This is not entirely new, but the level of emphasis seems to be. I have been going to the movies steadily for 76 years, and I can’t think of more than a dozen or so examples of this trope from decades past.

The ultimate example of old-style characters who serve in the military is probably Gary Cooper’s Sergeant York, a genuinely pious, fundamentalist, Bible-believing pacifist who comes to realize that by killing a few he can rescue a great many and who becomes the great hero of World War I. A fairly typical example of the new concept of the veteran may be Tina Fey in “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot,” or the protagonists of “The Hurt Locker” or “American Sniper.”

The usual military hero/protagonist in American movies was John Wayne.

But George C. Scott in “Patton” presented a character with a peculiar orientation to violence that made him unsuited to civilian life. Patton confesses to a love of battlefield slaughter (“How I love it! God forgive me, I do love it” are the words I remember, spoken to nobody and clearly sincere), almost unique among American military heroes.

This unattractive trait had occasionally appeared before in such pictures as “War Hunt” with John Saxon and “The War Lover” with Steve McQueen, both in 1962, but it was rare and never the primary concern.

For millennia, the main theme of war literature and drama was the glory of the victor. Passages in long works concerned the miseries of defeat, and Euripides’ “The Trojan Women” was entirely about that. But as long as only the ruling class could reward art, war remained glorious. Then came the American Civil War and the draft army, along with middle-class literacy and popular

Cinema Scene

Jim Erickson

influence on literature and drama, and Stephen Crane’s “The Red Badge of Courage,” with its at-least-momentary cowardice of the hero.

World War I brough disillusionment with the whole military and ruling classes, leading to “All Quiet on the Western Front,” with its emphasis on the miseries of the defeated side, though before final defeat.

It was World War II, especially after its conclusion, that translated the tradition of emphasis on the victor to soldiers who were less glorious heroes than mere survivors. Hemingway’s emasculated Jake Barns in “The Sun Also Rises” might serve as a precursor of the defeated men of the Depression and songs like “Remember My Forgotten Man.” And World War II brought no euphoria about lasting peace. There are those who claim that 1948 was the only year of real peace before the Cold War brought its threats of worldwide catastrophe.

But Scott’s Patton had not been ruined by war. He had been elevated by it, like warriors of old. What could have been done with such a character in a time of peace? Saxon and McQueen, in “War Lover” and “War Hunt,” were not products of war, but victims of their own unfortunate psychological quirks, akin to Patton in this respect. The entire infantry squad in Carl Foreman’s “The Victors” the next year, 1963, ended the movie by shooting a friendly dog – hardly a heroic or endearing act – and the theme of the movie was the gradual See CINEMA, Page 30

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Repairs underway on northbound I-135 bridges A Kansas Department of Transportation project that began March 28 will reduce traffic on northbound I-135, from 21st Street to 29th Street, from three to two lanes through mid-summer as bridge deck repairs are completed.

The speed limit through the construction zone will be reduced to 45 mph and a concrete barrier wall will protect the work site.

Access to the adjacent eastbound K-96 exit ramp will be maintained but

drivers should expect slight delays and probable rush hour congestion in the area.

Repairs to the two bridges include replacement of the strip seal expansion joints, bridge deck patching and a concrete overlay on the driving surface.

The deck patching and overlay will require curing time for the concrete and completion of the repair work is scheduled for late August, barring any substantial delays caused by weather.

Cinema

represent a kind of man absolutely valuable in war but uncomfortable and inconvenient in peace – by no means a villain but patterned to kill and extremely good at it. And neither one is suggested to have been damaged by the experience.

It would be a hell of a stretch to put Tina Fey in a class with them. But she shifts slightly in their direction when her assignment to the presentday Afghanistan war develops into a desire for actual combat. Margot Robbie’s character in “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” shows another woman correspondent who has already become attuned to the world of war, and there must be significance in the fact that she is promoted over Fey – perhaps because she does not seize her opportunity to grab a machine gun and join the violent action.

I wonder if Fey’s character is on the way to “The Hurt Locker” and “American Sniper” and Robbie is intended to represent normality.

w w w . e a s t w i c h i t a n e w s . c o m

Continued from Page 28

hardening of soldiers’ hearts under wartime conditions.

There was still a lot of emphasis on incorruptible goodness: Montgomery Clift in “From Here to Eternity” (which took place in the peacetime American army) and “The Young Lions” (in which Marlon Brando’s German soldier was not the Nazi Irwin Shaw’s novel had portrayed). But the military was drifting toward Jack Nicholson in 1992’s “A Few Good Men.” And in “The Hurt Locker” and “American Sniper,” we have protagonists who might seem perfectly normal like you and me, but who find actual combat so suitable to them that they may not even want to adapt to civilian peacetime life. Like Patton, they

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The following information comes from various accounts of the April 26, 1991, tornado outbreak that struck the Central Plains.

Derek Malone, infant Susan Elizabeth Cravens, 2 Anna Marie Cravens, 5 Charlene Montgomery, 47 The two sisters and their great-aunt died while on their way to shelter in a neighbor’s basement in southeast Wichita.

Ronadle Kanavy, Jr., 23 Ronadle Kanavy, Sr., 47 The father and son died together in a ditch in Andover. Ronald, Sr., covered his wife with his body; she survived.

Denise Peterson, 28 Marilyn Decker, 29 Decker died in her mobile home in Cowley County.

Katherine Sargent, 41 Sargent, her new husband and their two daughters hid in the bathroom of their mobile home in the Golden Spur Mobile Home Park. The rest of the family survived.

Robert Meininger, 46 His body was found in the debris of the Golden Spur Mobile Home Park the day after the storm.

G.D. “Dale” Davis, 57 He died when his car was struck on the Cimarron Turnpike in Oklahoma, one of two deaths in the Sooner State.

Ruby Crawford, 58 Joe Bobbitt, 66 They were new residents in the Golden Spur Mobile Home Park. It was reported that Ruby could have reached shelter if she had not taken the time to help frail neighbors to safety.

Elsie Kemper, 58 The storm pulled her from her husband’s arms as they sheltered in a metal storage shed.

Bessie Temple, 82 She was shopping when the tornado hit. She was alive when pulled from the debris, but perished at the hospital.

Betty Sanders, 61 Sanders perished at the Golden Spur Mobile Home Park. Her husband was unhurt.

Gladys E. Manes, 85 Robert C. Maines, 82 They were on their way to the shelter at the Golden Spur Mobile Home Park when they were killed.

Mathilda Bebout, 67 She died outside her home in southeast Wichita. According to reports, her son said she was likely trying to bring her three dogs into the house.

Joe Marks, 68 A regular at Livingston’s Restaurant, Marks refused to take shelter.

Lucille Jacobs, 79 Died in a separate tornado that struck Elk County in southeast Kansas.

All the victims will be honored with a moment of silence during the remembrance hosted by St. Paul Vincent de Paul Catholic Church in Andover on April 26. The moment of silence will be at 6:40 p.m., the moment when the tornado struck Andover.

In all, 21 people died that day, including 19 in Kansas. Thirteen people died in Andover – 11 at the Golden Spur Mobile Home Park. Four more perished in Sedgwick County. Two were killed in Oklahoma.

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The victims of the April 26, 1991, tornado outbreak

Faces wanted.

At East Wichita News, we’re already working on feature stories for upcoming editions. If you know of someone whose face (and story) should appear on these pages, please let us know! ewn@eastwichitanews.com 316-540-0500 www.facebook.com/EastWichitaNews www.eastwichitanews.com

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