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University Daily Kansan / Friday, September 22, 1989
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A group of Head Start children keep John Meyer busy at playtime.
John Mever serves as a role model for preschoolers.
Volunteers give youth a head start
By Holly Lawton
Kansan staff writer
John Meyer stood surrounded in a local church by several 4-year-old children. Shouting his name, they seemed to try anything to attract his attention.
Meyer, Lakewood, Colo., graduate student, is a volunteer for Head Start, a national organization founded in 1965 by President Lyndon Johnson. The local organization, established in 1966, is located at Plymouth Congregational Church, 925 Vermont St.
Head Start helps families who are economically deprived, said Charline Freitag, director of the Lawrence branch. The family's annual income must be below poverty level, which is set at $50,000 per year, subsidized by the federal government, is offered free to children of such families, she said.
Medical, dental and psychological services are provided to the children through Head Start, as well as vision and hearing tests. Caring for each child costs about $1,900. Freitag said.
"It gives these kids an extra boost to be here and learn to socialize and be with other kids." Meyer said. "Then when they go to kindergarten, they're not thrust into a brave new world."
The Department of Health and Human Services covers 80 percent of the budget, and volun
Head Start builds love, too, employees say.
teers give the other 20 percent through their efforts.
"We wouldn't have the 80 percent without first having the 20 percent," said Freitag, who added
that the approximately 60 Head Start volunteers are KU students.
Meyer said his experiences with young people at the University of Kansas led him to Head Coach Mike Brown's summer in 1988 he worked with the KUSummer camp and was a resident assistant at Oliver Hall.
"It was so rewarding working with young people and getting to know them," he said. "I wanted to do something else for the community."
Meyer does plenty at Head Start by acting as a role model for 78 children. He said he established relationships through simple acts like eating with the children and helping them brush their teeth. But being a friend gave them something more to learn and grow by.
What Meyer gives is returned a hundred times over.
"They give me love," he said. "It's so rewarding when I walk in and see a kid's face light up when he sees me.
"You know the old saying that if you give love, you'll get love back — it's really true here."
There are few negative aspects of Head Start, Meyer said.
"The only downers are when the kids are upset," he said. "It's the first of the year, and sometimes they get kind of sad to be left here. But they learn to trust you quickly."
Senate officials secure with new 'Tipsy Taxi'
By Lara Weber Kansan staff writer
For three years the reality of a "Tipsy Taxi" at the University of Kansas has been just that: tips.
The program has taken many forms since its introduction in 1986, but as Secure Cab rolls into its fourth week of the semester, coordinators now are confident that the bugs have been worked out of the system.
Secure Cab is a free taxi service offered to students from 11 p.m. to 3 a.m. every night. It was dubbed "Tipsy Taxi" by students when it wilted because the service was promoted as a way to avoid drunken driving.
Ridership figures for the first 21 days of operation show that 360 students have used the service.
"It itted slow," said Charles Bryan, KU on Wheels coordinator. "But we think that the figures are pretty good."
During the first week of classes, 78 students used Secure Cab, he said. Ridership nearly doubled in the second week, 128 students used the service.
"There's a need out there, and I think it's successful." Brye said.
When Secure Cab started in 1986, it was operated by Union Cab Co. for $2.50 a ride. The program was canceled in 1988 when rates were raised to $4 a ride.
Student Senate then established the Secure Shuttle and paid an hourly rate for a van to run a pre-scheduled route every night, stopping at several area bars and campus locations. The service was operated by Lawrence, which operated the service, filed for bankruptcy in September 1988.
The shuttle also received unfavorable reviews from students because of its fixed schedule and route system. Senate statistics show that because not enough students used the
shuttle, the average cost to Senate for each rider was $75.70.
The revived Secure Cab combines elements of the original system and the shuttle.
Like the original program, it operates on a demand-response system, but like the shuttle, Senate is billed on an hourly basis.
Senate provided $43,545.60 for 64 hours of cab service a week at $18 an hour for the fall and spring semesters. Some of that money, $2,073.60, should be spent on the coordinators decided Secure Cab should run more hours. Bryan said.
He said he would not comment on whether Secure Cab was financially worthwhile to the Senate until later in the semester.
"Sure, if only one student calls (an hour), it's $18 a ride." Bryan said. "But next month, if 25 students call, it's 75 cents a ride. The figures we have from the past support the hourly rate.
"What if we save one person's life?
How do you put a dollar figure on that? That's tough."
Secure Cab is operated by A-1 City Cab. Shirley Bennett, who started the company three years ago with her husband, Paul Shackelford, said that Secure Cab was not yet a good business venture.
"At this time, no. It's taking drivers off the road," she said. "But as things progress, it will justify having those drivers there."
Bennett said there was a definite need to keep students safe, emphasizing that Secure Cab was not only for students who had been drinking.
Bryan stressed the importance of safety whether it involved being too drunk to drive or being afraid to walk home alone from campus.
"I'd really like to emphasize that students in a predicament should call immediately and worry later about whether or not they should've called," Bryan said.
Alcoholism treatment center to use grant to help women
By a Kansan reporter
Topeka and should open by Dec. 1.
The Douglas County Citizens Committee on Alcoholism Center Inc. yesterday received a $320,000 state grant.
The grant will be used to to establish a 15-bed, 30-day residential treatment facility for homeless women and their children, said George Heckman, assistant director of the DCCCA.
He said the center would be in
Heckman said the center would be the first in the state to house women and their children while the women undergo treatment for alcoholism. This method of treatment should be more effective than coed treatment centers because, he said, when women were in an all-female environment, it was easier for them to deal with some of the problems they faced.
KANSAN GRAPHIC
Parkway project must go on, city leaders say
The parkway, which would form the eastern segment of a proposed circumferential loop around Lawrence, was developed as a joint project between Lawrence and Doug- county, Mayor Bob Summum said.
"It was a three-part statement, but I look at it as one statement. We should not let one part fall behind," he said.
The proposed Eastern Parkway faces a rocky road after being declared ineligible for state highway access. The county officials said the project must go on.
By Dave Wakefield Kansan staff writer
Until a corridor study is done, the
The Kansas Department of Transportation declared the parkway ineligible for part of a $600 million "system enhancement" fund because it was not part of the state highway system, said Chris McKenzie, county administrator. Only projects now on the highway system, or projects eligible to become part of the highway system, are eligible under KDOT's guidelines.
The other segments of the loop would be the South Lawrence Trafficway and Highway 40.
exact route of the parkway will not be set, but it is expected to start at Noria Road and Highway 10 and run north-west, ending in front of City Hall, where it will connect with Highways 40 and 59.
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The city and county commissions have voted to proceed with a corridor study, even if their re-proposal is turned down by KDOT.
But plans for the project ill go on. Last week the Lawrence City Commission, the Douglas County Commission, the Lawrence Downtown Council and State Sen. Wint Winter Jr., R-Lawrence, all sent letters asking Secretary of Transportation Horace Edwards to reconsider the parkway proposal, said Buford Watson, city manager.
County Commissioner Mike Amyx said that the county and city have each appropriated $15,000 for the corridor study and that this should show KDOT that Lawrence and Douglas County are committed to the
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"But in the proposal, we did not deal with city improvements that will connect it to Sikh Street and Highway 40," he said.
MkCenzie said he felt that KDGT might have misunderstood the original intent of the parkway because the bridge had a link. High-way 10 with city streets.
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"But even if the city receives a waiver, the city probably should proceed." He said.
Schumm said that the city's check for the study had already been sent, but that he proposed delaying the study until word was received from KDOT. The engineers who work on the study may need to know what funds are available, he said.
project.