The University Daily
University of Kansas Lawrence, Kansas
KANSAN
Wednesday, April 13, 1983 Vol. 93, No.133 USPS 650-640
Residents secure hopes in new home
By JEAN MANN Staff Reporter
Frank Evans, 55, thin and slight, his hands buried deep in the pockets of his baggy trousers, laughed as he planned his garden. He surveyed farm land on the edge of Lawrence and talked of sweet corn, beans and potatoes.
This will be his first garden in a long time. Although born on a Kansas farm, institutions have housed him for most of his life. Evans is mentally retarded.
The only cloud on a warm spring afternoon was the thought of his last nursing home.
"No sir, I sure don't want to go back there." Frank said.
David Waterman/KANSAN
Frank is one of 11 mentally retarded, middle-aged persons who have been living since mid-January in a test setting that its organizer hopes will prove a less costly alternative to nursing homes and mental institutions.
"IF YOU DIDN'T HAVE anything wrong before you went into a nursing home, you
Mary Ward and May Johnson, both clients of Cottonwood Inc., a local social service agency for the mentally handicapped, kid around after lunch break at Cottonwood's vocational training shop, 2801 W. 31st St.
See HOME page 5
Cottonwood life offers skills, desire
By NED STAFFORD
Staff Reporter
The divan that Bill sits on is in a living room of a house much like any other in Lawrence
He is short and as sturdy as a fireplug. His smile is friendly and winning. His parents died when he was a child, so Bill has spent most of his life in foster homes.
Bill, 19, has lived in a group home for the mentally handicapped since graduating from the special education program at Lawrence High School last year. The home he lives in is one of the group homes in Lawrence operated by Cottonwood Inc., a social service agency that serves the mentally handicapped. He had trouble adjusting to the
Bill at first had trouble adjusting to the structured environment of a group home.
"I USED TO TALK back to the houseparents, lie to them and play games with them," he said. "Then I got my butt chewed out."
Bill lives in a level-one group home, which means that he and the people he lives with have constant in-house supervision by a staff member of Cottonwood.
"I would like to have a lot of freedom, but I have to prove that I'm grown-up enough to handle my problems," Bill said. "I'd like to prove I can work out in the community."
Bill said his goals were to get along with the houseparents, or residential trainers, improve his behavior and tell the truth.
"If I can prove to Lana and them that I can obey people and behave myself, then I could move up," he said.
Lana Laudic, residential coordinator for Cottonwood, said that Bill had a good chance of working in the community, either as a client in Cottonwood's level-four residential program, or going beyond level four to complete independence.
COTTONWOOD HAS BEEN allocated about $460,000 by the U.S. Department of Housing and
Urban Development to build four additional group homes in Lawrence, but it has not yet received the use permits, a special planning permit it needs from the city before construction can start.
Cottonwood submitted four sites for approval to the Lawrence City Commission in February, but withdrew requests for three of them before the commission could take action. The commission approved the use permit for the remaining site.
Howard Hasler, director of Cottonwood, said that he withdrew two of the requests because of restrictions placed by developers on the subdivisions where Cottonwood wanted to build, and the other one because of neighbors' opposition.
THE COMMISSION LAST night approved permits to allow group homes to be built on two other sites. No opposition was expressed.
At the time of Cottonwood's earlier request,
Weather
CLOUDY
Today will be cloudy with a 30 percent chance of rain and a high of 45 to 80, according to the National Weather Service in Topeka. Winds will be from the north at 19 to 20 mph.
Tonight will be cloudy with a 40 percent chance of snow and a low near 25.
Tomorrow will be cloudy with a 30 percent chance of rain, possibly mixed with snow during the morning. The high will be near 10
Mark Zieman, Overland Park senior, will be fall 1983 editor of the University Daily Kansan and Ann Hornberger, Lawrence junior, will be the fall Kansan business manager, the Kansan Board announced yesterday.
Kansan posts filled
Janet Murphy, Wichita senior, will be the summer editor of the Kansas. Laurie Samuelson, Overland Park junior, will be the summer business manager.
Applications for other fall Kansan staff positions will be available today in the Student Senate office, 105B Kansas Union; the office of student organizations, 220 Strong Hall; and the Kansan business office, 118 Flint Hall. Applications for the fall staff are due by 5 p.m. Monday in 200 Fltl.
Longhurst voted mayor; Clark to resign May 2
By NED STAFFORD
Staff Reporter
David Longhurst became the new mayor of Lawrence last night to the sound of applause and a standing ovation in a packed Lawrence City Commission meeting room.
Longhurst, the top vote-getter in last Tuesday's election, was elected mayor on a 4-0 vote by his fellow new commissioners Ernest Angio and Mike Amyx and incumbent Commissioner Nancy Shontz. Longhurst also voted for the motion to make himself mayor.
motion to make Barkley Clark abstained on the vote and said later in the meeting that he would resign from the commission May 2.
Before the vote, Marci Francisco, the previous mayor, and Commissioner Don Binns, who were defeated for re-election, and Commissioner Tom Gleason, who did not seek re-election, finished the remaining commission business before stepping down.
stepping toward LONGHURST SAID, AS he accepted the mayor's post, "I didn't know what to expect. I'm overwhelmed."
Snonz, who has been on the commission for two years, said last week that she thought it was her turn to be mayor because of her experience
and because of her first-place finish in the 1981 election.
She said after the meeting last night that she was not disappointed and that she could still be chosen mayer next year.
"I knew that the mood of the new commission was for a change," she said. "I'm sorry that the new commission has viewed me as sort of a carry-over from the old commission."
Francisco, Bimns and Gleason also gave advice to the new commissioners.
Bimsa told the new commissioners not to be influenced by special interests in making
decisions.
Chris said, "I'll be brief. The longer I talk the longer I have to stay here.
the longer this is gone,
"IT'S BEEN AN EXCITING and amazing
experience. I've made a lot of friends and lost a
few. So be it."
bone with other people. "I think we should all be very proud of ourselves. We've built ourselves a very fine community." she said.
Francisco said that working as a commissioner was not an individual endeavor, but was done with other people.
Clark said he was resigning from the commission because of time constraints and because he wanted to spend more time with his family.
Washington wins in Chicago; voter turnout nears record
By United Press International
CHICAGO — Democrat Rep. Harold Washington defeated Republican Bernard Epton yesterday to become the first black mayor in Chicago's history.
Washington's narrow victory capped a divisive, seven-week campaign that turned largely on Washington's race and legal problems in his past. National Democratic Party officials billed the victory as the kickoff of a drive to regain the White House next year.
white House next year.
In Chicago, the outcome appeared to be the death rattle of the political machine run for decades by Mayor Richard J. Daley. It also left the lingering question of how the city's power balance, so long dependent on patronage jobs, will be realigned under a mayor who has disavowed patronage.
uhrived participation
With 2,810, or 96.4 percent, of the city's 2,914
precincts reporting, Washington had 640,738
votes, or 51.5 percent, to 599,114, or 48.2 percent,
for Epton with a scattering of votes for a
Socialist candidate.
WASHINGTON, WHO NARROWLY won the Feb. 22 primary while Mayor Jane M. Byrne and State's Attorney Richard M. Daley split the white vote, again had solid black support yesterday.
But he also picked up support from the largely white liberal lakeshore wards and in the growing Hispanic community. That support offset a huge turnout in white ethnic wards on the Southwest and Northwest sides that went heavily for Epton. Democratic committeemen in some of those wards openly supported Epton.
Washington did not immediately claim victory and Epton, before final figures became available, said he expected to win a "neck-and-neck" race. He did not immediately concede, and was
The turnout was easily a record for a Chicago municipal election — breaking the old mark of 70.3 percent in 1947. It approached the threshold of 91 percent in the presidential election of 1944.
Baby said the big turret — estimated as high as 88 percent of registered voters — might actually have helped Washington by getting more of those communities out to vote.
The mayor's race turned on two issues:
Washington's race and his financial troubles
"We think we have done at least 50 percent in the Latino community and we have done better than 50 percent on the (largely liberal, white) lakefront." Raby said an counting continued. Epton appeared later to have carried all 10 wards, but Washington did well in most of them.
Washington was convicted in the early 1970s of failing to file federal income tax returns for four years and served a brief jail term. There also was a string of allegations during the campaign that Washington had failed to pay utility bills and property taxes.
Poll, however, showed support for one candidate or another was most directly allied to race.
Nightly bingo games attract local players for fun, money
By DIANE LUBER
Staff Reporter
Washington aide Al Raby predicted a 56 percent Washington victory early in the evening but later said he happily would accept a win with a smaller margin.
Bored with the bar scene? Broke from playing video games?
Some people play bingo — some play it every night of the week in Lawrence. Those who play, if they are lucky, can even win more than they lose.
reported to have gone home from his election headquarters after midnight.
Sixth St. THERE, AND IN THE banquet and meeting halls of other fraternal and social groups across town, the most ardent bingo fans arrive as early as an hour before the games begin. They stand shoulder-to-shoulder around a table piled high with bingo cards, searching for the "special" ones that they hope will make them winners.
"Once you win, you'hooked," said Hugh Grinstead, as he played a friendly game of bingo last week at the American Legion hall, 3408 W. Sixth St.
lose.
In fact, some players say that it is the winning that makes people come back to play again and again.
Although Fern Allen has bright blue, green and orange cards to choose from, she plays only with tan cards. Some of her favorite cards are so old that one of the businesses advertised on the card - Lawrence Sanitary Milk Ice Cream Co. - defunct since 1967.
THE TURNOUT APPEARED to be well over 80 percent of the city's 1.6 million registered voters — easily a record for a municipal election.
— has been definite since the 1980s. "I like the old cards best," she said. "I think I have better luck with them. But maybe I'm just superstitious."
One woman pulls out cards from deep under the pile. She inspects each card briefly but thoroughly. If its characteristics please her, she knows it. If not, she cants it aside.
keeps it. If not, she tapes it to ANOTHER WOMAN GRABS an armful of cards and carries them to one of the long tables where she looks them over.
"I usually play 12 to 14 cards," said the woman, Georgia Howell, playing at the Knights of Columbus hall, 2206 E. 32rd St. "I like cards on the corner. And I like cards with 30 and 60 on them."
Regular cardboard cards cost $1 each, three for $2.50 or seven for $3. Most people play 10 to 14 cards, laying eight or 10 flat on the table in front of them and standing the remaining cards up in notched wooden boards that run the length of the tables.
some players said some cards just "felt" right. But Virginia Yother has stopped examining hers.
"It's all luck," she said. "That's all it is -- just luck."
“THAT'S MY BINGO MONEY,” she said. “I work like a heaver and then blow it all on bingo.”
"I don't know how people can afford to play every night." Yother said. "It can expense"
She has a part-time cleaning job that her husband helps her with, she said.
But as soon as the caller, microphone in hand, announces the beginning of the first game, the conversations cease, and the players turn their attention to their bingo cards.
The players, who by game time usually number from 80 to 120, visit with each other, get in a few card games or make their way to the conference stand. A hum of conversations fills the room.
The caller removes a ping pong ball from the 75 that are being blown around inside a plastic-domed machine that resembles a popcorn popper. He then calls out the letter and number printed on the ball.
Each player's gaze drops to his cards and follows his index finger as it races up and down See BINGO page 5
Donna Hiney, 3232 St.," and Sheryl Simmons, 1900 W. 31st St.
concentration on a bingo game at the Kingliff of Columbus hall, 2206
E. 23rd Bt. The hall is one of a number of places in Lawrence where area people can play bingo.