Kansan
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
Entertainment: Artist Jim Brothers honors D-Day in clay and bronze.
SEE PAGE 1B
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 7, 2000
Inside: Aimee's Cafe And Coffeehouse opens on Massachusetts Street. SEE PAGE 28A
(USPS 650-640) • VOL. 110 NO. 147
WWW.KANSAN.COM
Parking fee's are doubling in the parking garages raising them up to a dollar an hour. The new garage will open up 500 meter spots, 300 spaces for permit holders and 17 new handicap parking spots. Photo illustration by Aaron Lindberg/KANSAN
University to double hourly parking fees
By BriAnne Hess
Kansen co-editor
editor@kansan.com
Stop saving quarters for laundry.
There's a new toll in town.
Hourly metered parking fees at the University of Kansas will double to $1 an hour at long-term parking meters Aug. 1, said Donna Hultine, assistant director of parking. Short-term meter fees will remain at 50 cents an hour.
Hultine said the board would take out half of the existing metered parking, but would increase spaces for student parking. Students who park in the garage instead of buying yellow parking permits would be affected, she said.
"I think we have a lot of students who use the garage because it's easy to get in and out and they were willing to spend 50 cents an hour and avoid the hunt for a parking spot." Hultine said.
Long-term metered parking will still be available south of Robinson Center and in the two parking garages.
The long-term meters will be removed from lots 91 through 94 south of Memorial Stadium and the spaces will be opened up for student permit parking.
Sara Baker, Lawrence sophomore, said she usually parked in yellow permit parking, but sometimes metered parking was the best option. When the prices rise in August, however, Baker said she wouldn't be willing to pay that much money for parking.
Hultine said she hoped that the parking congestion would be relieved in north campus since the parking garage would provide 500 metered parking spots, 300 spaces for permit holders and
Parking changes
The University is adding new student parking to increase the overall number of spaces and to also prepare for changes brought on by the new parking garage.
In lot 90, at the intersection of 18th Street and Naismith Boulevard, metered parking spaces will be converted and
open to yellow permit holders,
adding 158 parking spaces.
17 spaces for handicapped-permit holders.
"It should take a load off of the yellow lot." she said.
The new higher cost of metered parking on campus will be nearly double the cost of parking at meters in downtown Lawrence. People now spend 25 cents for an hour and a half of parking.
Kyle Ramsey/KANSAN
"Even if they decide to double them, they are still pretty reasonable and below other cities in the area," Bell said.
Sergeant Doug Bell, community services director and parking control supervisor, said the city commission might increase parking fees downtown.
More than a thousand additional parking spaces will be available this fall, including 818 spaces in the new parking garage, 98 spaces at J.R. Pearson Hall and 158 spaces in lot 90, south of Robinson.
Chancellor Robert Hemenway rejected proposals to increase the cost of parking permits to honor the promise he made in 1998 to not raise permit prices for three years.
New permit categories for visitors, part-time student and staff members and those with special scheduling or medical permits will also be issued.
—Edited by Ben Embry
City aims to crash party houses
Commissioners approve draft to punish habitual offenders
Kansan staff writers
By Phil Cauthon and Karen Lucas
writer@kansan.com
Kansas staff write
Party houses and underage drinking are the targets of two laws being drafted by the Lawrence City Commission this summer.
Last night commissioners approved the draft of a law which - if passed in the coming months
- would allow police to force the eviction of tenants in habitual party houses and to shut off the utilities at such nuisance residences.
Another proposed law would require retailers to trace keg sales with a customer file and keg ID tags in an effort to discourage buyers from allowing minors access to beer. But that proposal was put on hold until city officials tailor the law to address several public objections voiced at last night's meeting.
"Obviously neighborhoods are negatively impacted when the house next door is essentially an open saloon," said Commissioner Erv Hodges. "For those houses that every year have weekly parties that last until 3 or 4 in the morning, we need some way to hold those people responsible."
If the owners and tenants failed to meet with city officials or if the nuisance persisted after the meeting, police could evict the tenants and block utility service to the property.
Lawrence Director of Legal Services, David Corliss, said the proposal would essentially enforce what happens now informally, giving the city a legal remedy for owners who tolerate disorderly tenants.
The proposed restrictions on party houses — property on which city alcohol, noise and others laws are habitually violated — would require such a house's owners and tenants to meet with city officials to find a way to end the nuisance.
The keg registration proposal is also intended to curb large parties, but by discouraging a party's host from allowing underage drinkers access to kegs.
As currently drafted, the law would require keg-selling retailers to maintain a file that lists each keg's ID number with the customers who have used the keg during the previous six months. Each store's file will hold signatures from keg-buying customers acknowledging that they will be held liable for minors drinking from the keg.
The penalty for violating the law would be a minimum $250 fine and up to six months in jail.
BATTLING UNDERAGE DRINKING
The Lawrence City Commission is considering laws to crack down on so-called "party houses" and to track key purchases. The laws under consideration are still in draft form.
A party house is—a property on which two or more nuisance offences have occurred during the past year. Those offenses include:
■ a disarrayly conduct citation
a minor in possession, open container or any other violation of Chapter 4 of the city code and/or
any felony or misdemeanor
- Tenants of a party house could face having their utilities shut off or eviction.
- Keg registration would require stores to keep customer records for six months, including:
- Tampering with the keg's ID tag could result in loss of the purchase deposit. Not abiding by key registration rules would carry a minimum $250 fine and/or up to six months in jail.
- a signed receipt acknowledging the keg purchase and certain liabilities, such as for allowing a minor to drink from the keg.
- the customer's name and the ID number of the kea purchased and
Tampering with the keg's ID tag would result in forfeiture of the sale's deposit.
But the proposal ran into stiff opposition from state and local beverage dealers who said the law was too vague.
"We appreciate this idea, but it has real problems," said Chuck Magerl, owner of Free State Brewery, 636 Massachusetts St., echoing many retailers' concerns. "The only penalties are likely to be against (liquor) license holders."
n that it could potentially send employees to jail for a clerical error if a retailer's records were found to be inaccurate.
n that customers serving alcohol to minors would simply remove the ID tag and steal the key rather than risk the larger fine and jall time.
The party house proposal will face formal public hearings in the coming weeks before commissioners can vote the final legislation.
Among the faults some retailers and distributors found with the proposal were:
n that retailers would have too much power and responsibility in the application of the keg registration law.
A revised keg registration draft proposal may be considered at next week's meeting.
— Edited by Ben Embry
University's geological group helps Kansas Kickapoo find scarce water
The State of Kansas Geological Survey is lending a hand this week to a local Kickapoo tribe, which could soon be in desperate need of water if the spring's drought continues into the summer.
By Karen Lucas
About 10 workers from the survey — which is operated by the University of Kansas — began its search Monday for underground water sources below the Brown County reservation in northeastern Kansas.
Kansan staff writer
Rex Buchanan, the survey's associate director for public outreach, said the Delaware River — where the tribe gets it water from — was low because of the drought and the increased demand for water caused by the reservation's casino.
"We have a fair amount of expertise in terms of water issues in the state," said Buchanan, whose team joined the Kickapoo's search for water on request from the state's Bureau of Water.
"We looked at various maps and water well records to try to come up with areas that would have the most potential for water," he said.
Armed with drilling and measuring equipment, survey crews spent Monday afternoon studying underground material at several sites on the reservation. This preliminary work will help the geologists decide where to dig test wells later in the week.
Kyle Ramsey / KANSAN
After that, they will share their findings with the tribe, Buchanan said.
"If they decide to put in permanent wells, then they can do it at that point." he said.
Alysse Lanier was part of a survey team that used a machine called a Geoprobe to analyze the soil in a field near Kansas Highway 20.
"It's going to let us know where clay and sand are below the ground here," said Lanier, a summer intern from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. "Sand would be the place where you would want to put a well."
Other workers began sampling underground material by digging holes with two drill rigs in other areas of the reservation.
Buchanan said the project was also a good experience for
Rex Buchanan and Alyssa Lanier watch as the geoprobe drives a tube lined with wire into the earth. The drill will take information from the soil and create a line graph on a laptop. Photo by Aaron Lindberg/KANSAN
the students, who make up about half the crew.
"The nice thing about this work is that it provides a practical application of what they're learning in the classroom," he said.
The tribe welcomed the arrival of the crew.
"We're grateful for their assistance because they're attempting to assist all residents on the reservation in obtaining additional water," said Nancy Bear, acting vice chairperson for the tribe.
Edited by Phil Cauthon
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