Wednesday, March 8. 2000 The University Daily Kansan Section A · Page 5 American Eagle to land in Lawrence Clothing store, jobs accompany center to area By John Audlehelm writer@kansan.com Konsan staff writer Next year, students may have a new employment opportunity and beyond that, a new shopping option. American Eagle Outfitters Inc. announced plans yesterday to build a 402,000 sq. ft., $40 million distribution center at East Hills Business Park, east of Lawrence on Highway 10, and company officials also said they would build a store here. Debi Moore, director of economic development for Lawrence Chamber of Commerce, said the company had spent the last 18 months looking for the right city in which to open its center. "We are just elated elated that they are going to be locating there," she said. "They have not identified a time line on the store." The new distribution center, which will be American Eagle's second in the country, will begin with 150 employees and increase to 300. Moore said a third of those would be part-time jobs, which could work well for busv students. "They make their schedules so flexible that the kids have a chance to work around finals," she said. Mike Mullis, president and owner of J.M. Mullis Inc., the Memphis, Tenn., consulting firm that helped American Eagle select Lawrence, said his firm's first task was to pick a general location for the distribution center. The firm decided to build somewhere between Denver and St. Louis, he said, and then looked at costs of shipping and service. Mullis said that his firm decided the cheapest area was within 100 miles of Kansas City and that it also wanted a university environment. "Lawrence fit that evaluation process extremely well," he said, "And its excellent leadership worked with us from day one." Michael Fostyk, vice president of distribution for American Eagle, said one of the deciding factors was the cooperation the company received from city, county and state officials. Jerry Bottenfield, executive director of Downtown Lawrence Inc., 900 Massachusetts St., said people should take protests about big stores coming into Lawrence with a grain of salt. He said that local shops gave the city its character but that big businesses and chains provided balance if they participated in the community. "We welcome (the store) coming into downtown Lawrence," he said. "Our position is there's nothing not to like about that." Bottenfield said that, despite protests about Chipotle Mexican Grille, 911 Massachusetts St., and Borders Books Music and Cafe, 700 New Hampshire St., both stores were members of Downtown Lawrence Inc. and paid their dues. Luca Orecchini, Rinini, Italy, graduate student, said he would be interested in the job but could work only 20 hours a week. "If I could apply for the job," he said, "Yes, I'd be interested." City again opens up bus bids after legal disputes By John Audlehelm writer@kansan.com Kansan staff writer The company the city selected to manage its new bus system wants to terminate its contract in the hopes Lawrence will select it again. City manager Mike Wildgen received a letter yesterday from Jon Monson, president of MV Transportation Inc., of Fairfield, Calif., saying MV wanted the city to begin the selection process again. The commission voted last night to redo the bidding process. "They are recommending that the city start the process up again." Wildgen said. MV entered the contract to manage the bus system in January. Overland Park-based Laidlaw Transit Services protested the decision, alleging the city's consultant had a conflict of interest. Steve Klika works for MV, and his brother Kevin Klika works for KA Associates of Wichita, the company hired to manage the selection process. John Biard general counsel for MV, and Steve Klika both previously denied the conflict of interest because Steve Klika had no part in the selection process. However, Laidlaw has sued MV because of the issue. The letter from MV said that because MV did not want Lawrence to get caught up in the legal battle, it recommended the city terminate the contract. It also said MV was confident the city would select it again. Wilden said the city would eliminate the possibility of a conflict of interest by handling the process in-house — without KA's help. He would not comment on whether the city would select MV again. KA Associates is still helping with other aspects of the bus system, he said. Wildgen said this would not delay the summer start-up date for the bus system because the city was already in the process of reselecting its bus manufacturer. The Federal Transit Administration granted an earlier protest in a separate bid from Chance Coach Inc. of Wichita, a company that did not receive the contract to build the buses. Hollywood Theaters SOUTHWIND 12 3433 IDWA 1 Pitch Black TM (2:00)      4:45, 7:30, 10:00 2 Reindeer Games TM (1:50)      4:55, 7:45, 10:55 3 American Beauty TM (1:25)      4:50, 7:00, 9:35 4 My Dog Slip TM (1:15)      4:25, 7:05, 8:25 5 The Whole Nine Yards TM (1:45)      4:25, 7:55, 9:55 6 Hanging Up TM (1:20)      4:15, 7:20, 9:40 7 Wonder Boys TM (1:00)      4:15, 7:00, 9:40 8 What Plant Are You From TM (1:55)      5:00, 7:35, 9:50 9 Snow Day TM (1:50)      5:00, 7:30, 9:30 10 The Beach TM (1:25)      4:35, 7:15, 9:55 11 The Tiger Movie TM (2:05)      4:35, 6:55 — also... 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