University Daily Kansan, November 9, 1983
Page 5
Downtown
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motion that would require that the public have the opportunity to vote on a portion of the financing of the redevelopment project before land was acquired or buildings were condemned. The amendment was accepted by all five commissioners.
The commissioners gave themselves 90 days to negotiate with Town Center to reach a developer of record agreement, which will make Town Center the official developer.
If they cannot reach an agreement in 90 days, the commission must either extend the deadline or cancel.
Longhurst said the commission would have to get input from the Downtown Improvement Committee and conduct a study session before the agreement was placed on the agenda.
PUBLIC COMMENTARY RAN for an hour as 11 Lawrence residents spoke on all sides of the issue, with a majority supporting private banking and ensuring the commission not to choose either developer.
Ron Holt and Steve Clark, who have proposed a river-front project, both asked the commission to approve it.
also said that the city had prepared a rough draft of a letter of intent that would allow his project to continue.
Lance Burr, a Lawrence lawyer who has consistently opposed redevelopment, asked the commission to support private redevelopment of historic downtown businesses.
Kate Webber, the woman who asked for the attorney general's opinion, and Barbara Wagoner, a member of the DIC, both supported the Sizer plan.
Steve Grabow, director of architectural programs, came out in support of Town Center, explaining its architectural advantages.
BOB SCHUMM, PRESIDENT of the Downtown Lawrence Association, presented a poll of DLA members to the commission that showed strong support for the Sizerle plan.
The poll showed 59 percent of the DLA backed Sizeeler, and that 78 percent would support a benefit tax district among downtown landowners for the Sizeeler project. Only 39.4 percent said they would support the same district for the Town Center plan.
Commission rejects fuel-aid measure accepts KPS gas shut-off compliance
By SUSAN WORTMAN Staff Reporter
The Lawrence City Commission last night rejected a proposal from the Natural Gas Task Force to start a Fuel Assistance Relief Program that would have provided financial aid to low-income residents who could not pay their gas bills.
The commission accepted, however, Kansas Public Service's offer to voluntarily comply with the Cold Weather Rule established by the Kansas Corporation Commission. The Cold Weather Rule would prevent the gas company from having employees who could not pay their bills during the winter.
The commission had considered creating an ordinance that would have forced the KPs to change their workday.
AT A STUDY session Monday afternoon, William Salome, president and general manager of the gas company, said the company would stop issuing if the commission would grant two exceptions.
First, the commission agreed to allow the KPS to turn off gas service if customers refused to make payments on their gas bills and the temperature was above 32 degrees.
Second, the commission agreed to allow the gas company to require people on the Level Payment Plan to prove they would live at the residence for the 12-month period.
The payment plan would spread the payment of winter gas bills out over summer months so that low-income customers would not have large bills to deal with during the winter.
The task force had also recommended that the city begin a Fuel Assistance Relief program. Mayor David Longhurst said that the ideas
presented by the task force were good but that the city should leave fuel assistance to volunteer
SOCIAL GROUPS, such as Warm Hearts,
exist in Lawrence, he said. And those groups can help the low-income residents who need financial assistance.
Commissioner Ernest Angino suggested that the gas company provide a box on its bills that people could check if they wanted to donate to an energy assistance fund.
The commission also discussed the sidewalk problems in the Oread neighborhood.
THE CITY ENGINEERING staff surveyed the brick sidewalks between Ninth and 14th Streets on Ohio Street and found them in excellent condition, even when the installation and unseen of sidewalks.
George Williams, public works director, proposed that the city notify residents who owned the sidewalks that they were in bad condition. This proposal was reheated within 60 days of notification.
The city could make the repairs or could contract the work if owners refused to do so, Williams said. The city could then bill the owners
Williams also suggested that ramps for handicapped people be built when the sidewalks were repaired.
However, Jeff Southard, 1305 Tennessee St., said that neighborhood residents objected to the repairing their sidewalks because it would do the work with cement instead of brick.
Tim Miller. 936 Ohio St., said he did not think the sidewalks should be condemned either.
"If my sidewalk doesn't meet code, there is something wrong with the code," he said. "I don't see why I should have be assessed $750 to have my perfectly good sidewalk replaced."
Capitol has braved fire, bombings in 183-year history
WASHINGTON — The Capitol, ravaged by fire once and rocked by bombs three times in its 183-year history, looms over Washington as one of the people's power over their government.
By United Press International
The marble, granite and sandstone home of the Congress most often has been a passive shell for history. For a few terrifying moments a criminal mustute witness to a rampage by armed terrorists.
At 11 p.m. Monday, the physical institution exploded back into the news when a time bomb was discovered.
NO ONE WAS INJURED, but windows were shattered in both the Republican and Democratic cloakrooms — just off the Senate floor — and the door was blown off the office of Democratic leader Robert Byrd of West Virginia. Historic paintings, as well as furniture and decorative woodwork outside the nearby Mansfield Room, were damaged.
The bombing coincided with efforts to tighten security spurred by the arrest three weeks ago in the House gallery of a man who had explosives strapped to his waist.
The event was similar to a March 1, 1971, incident, when an anonymous caller to the Capitol switchboard, citing "the Laos decision," advised that the building be evacuated.
the blast that a bomb would explode in the Capitol because of U.S. military action in Grenada and Lebanon.
"THE BOMB WILL GO off in 30 minutes," the caller said. At 1:32 a.m., an explosion ripped through a restroom on the ground floor of the Senate wing, just opposite the old Court Chamber. There were no injuries but the damage was estimated at $300,000.
The incident prompted the erection of metal detent, and guards began searching briefcases, and documents.
In July 1915, a second-floor Senate reception room was damaged by a bomb placed by Frank Holt, who later said he had acted to stop armies there in the first year of World War I. There were no injuries.
The most serious terrorist act in the Capitol came March 1, 1954, when four supporters of Puerto Rican independence opened fire in the house chamber, wounding five congressmen. Visitors to the chamber can still locate bullet holes in the floor beneath some seats.
Congress first met in the Capitol in November 1900 in the original Senate wing. The
IN 1814, during the War of 1812, British troops occupied Washington and burned the Capitol and most other federal buildings. The Redcoats also put to the torch the President's House. In 1835, at the end of the war to conceal burns and smoke damage, earning it the name The White House.
Congress returned to its home at appen Jenkins Hill in 1819, and a central portion, uniting the wings and topped by a low, copper-clad wooden dome, was completed 10 years later.
Between 1851 and 1863, wings were added again on the north and south to accommodate the growing membership of The House and Senate, and the massive cast iron dome — now depicted on the back of the $50 bill — was installed.
The only other major work done on the Capitol was in the late 1950s, when a portion of the East Front, facing the Library of Congress, added 32 feet, adding 108 rooms to the building.
Last year, Congress approved $49 million for restoration of the deteriorating West Front, which looks down the Mall to the Washington Monument.
Capitol
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of Theodore Roosevelt with one eye blackened. Workers sifted through debris in search of all the pieces of an oil portrait of Sen. Daniel Webster, ripped from a gilt frame by the explosion.
Ironically, Senate leaders had already planned to ask members yesterday to approve stricter security measures, first considered last year amid reports a Libyan "hit squad" was pursued American officials. Three weeks ago, the defense with dynamite was taken from the gallery overlooking the House.
New security measures were put into effect yesterday, with police surrounding the Capitol and stopping cars, delivery trucks and taxicabs.
IN ADDITION, ALL people going into the Senate gallery now will have to
pass through two metal detector checkpoints. The detectors will be modernized and tourists will be kept out of the corridor outside the chamber. All visitors to the Capitol will be required to wear identification bracelets or a pass to be shielded with plexiglass, House GOP leader Robert Michel said.
"This is a very open building. But the times are different now." Smith said. "That's just a fact of life."
Baker said several groups had claimed responsibility for the explosion which rang out like a thunderclap and was heard two blocks away.
A man who said he represented the Armed Resistance Unit called the Capitol and The Washington Post just before the blast and said the bombs were made in Syria.
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Bob Sarna, manager of the Meadowbrook Apartments where Bell was living at the time, said that Bell owed the back rent on Aug. 1. He said Bell's rent was $245 a month and that Boby Bell, a former linebacker for the Kansas City Chiefs and Bryan's uncle, was one of the co-signers for the apartment lease.
SARNA SAID THAT he spoke to Bryan Bell in April about paying the rent. Bell paid $200 after Sarna sent him an eviction notice in June. Sarna said Bell had promised on July 25 to pay $500 and to adjust his rent to $227 a month, but Bell never paid the $500.
Tim Larson, an auto mechanic for Hillcrest Standard, 914 Iowa St., said that Bell paid him about $140 in cash on Aug. 3 for work he had done on Bell's car. He said that about 7:50 a.m. Bell would be out of gas and he would run out of gas. Larson said that Bell after buying a two-ball can of gas, and about 15 to 30
minutes later came back and asked to have some work done on his car.
BELL PICKED UP the car at noon but
returned it thereto and again the next day to
the office.
Clarence Ackland, Lawrence resident, testified that Bell had called him to pick up him at the station when he had run out of gas. Robert Duncan, Bell's attorney, asked Ackland whether she had money bags or a knife, or was bloody or seemed injured, and Ackland said no to each question.
During cross-examination, Duncan attempted to cast suspicion on another man.
Eric Gates said that he had given Mike Mitchell, who was an employee at Seurer's restaurant, a ride to Pop's Bar B Q at about 10 a.m. on Thursday. Mitchell was supposed to begin work that day.
Gates said that Mitchell showed him some small blood stains on his hands. Bell's attorney
questioned Mitchell about the blood on his hands, and Mitchell said he got blood on his hands the night before the discovery of the body, when he was trying to break up a fight at a bar.
Gates testified that Mitchell later said he had heard that Seurer had been stabbed four times in the heart, and on Aug. 4 Mitchell said Seurer had been stabbed with a pitchfork.
Mitchell testified that he could not recall specifically who had told him that Seurer had been stabbed, only that he had overheard it from several people.
He also testified that he had abrasions on his shoulder, but that the abrasions occurred the day after Seurer's death.