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Thursday, August 23, 1973
University Daily Kansan
State Bases Aid on Population Students Fill City Coffers
Bv DAGMAR PADEN
Kansan Staff Writer
Students at the University of Kansas now play a vital role in the political, economic and civil life of Lawrence and Douglas counties. Warren Rogers, Douglas County assessor.
Much of this new importance is a result of the large number of KU students who registered to vote in 1972 prior to the November elections. Roers says.
County Clerk Delbert Mathis said that approximately 8,000 students registered to
TWO FACTORS account for this sudden increase of student voters in the Lawrence and Douglas County areas. First, 1972 was the first year that 18-year-olds could vote in Kansas. Second, Kansas Atty. Gen. Vern Miller abandoned the residency requirement under a Senate Constitution Decision. Kansans can now register until registration books are closed.
rogers said student registration for voting purposes had important economic consequences for Lawrence and Douglas County. Students who live off campus or work in the county are credited in the official population figures of Lawrence and Douglas County, Rogers said.
Official population figures are important, he said, because the state of Kansas bases
its distribution of funds to cities and counties upon them.
BETWEEN spring 1972 and July 1973, the official population of Lawrence increased 4.145 from 42,130 to 46,275. In the same time population of Lawrence decreased 4.481 from 54,783 to 59,264.
Rogers said the Lawrence population gain meant that the state would return an increased amount of state sales tax and cigarette tax to Lawrence, but it was too early to tell the exact amount of the increase.
The population gain in Douglas County means an additional $40,000 in state funds.
By registering to vote, KU students increase the treasuries of Lawrence and
NO FIGURES are available on the number of students gainfully employed in Lawrence and Douglas County, according to Darwin Eads, KU employment director, but students also contribute to the local economy in this way.
Bessie Bennett, deputy treasurer of Douglas County, said no data were available regarding the amount of taxes KU paid in the result of the state and local sales taxes.
Student votes have had an impact upon
Park Being Built East of City Limits
Work is continuing on Wells Park, a project of the Douglas County Public Works Department, Dean Sanderson, county engineer, says works and county engineer, says.
The park will be three miles south and east of the city. Because city limits and will be open to the public
A total of 16% of acres of land was donated to the park by William Wells, a private citizen.
One picnic shelter with a capacity for 30-60 people is under construction. The park grounds will be left in their natural state as much as possible.
Winding nature trails will be roughed out and later marked, and playground equipment for children and barbecue grills will dot the area.
Work on the park was started in early
spring "after the rain stopped," Sanderson said.
A 27-foot observation tower will provide a view of "three to four counties on a clear day," he said. The elevation of the site, one half mile east of Shank Hill, is 1,060 feet, "higher than the Hill on campus, I think," Sanderson said.
FOUR local Democrats were elected to office. Before 18-year-olds voted, there was only one Democratic office holder in the county, Charlton said. He was Walter Cragan, elected in 1970 to the Douglas County Commission. Since Democratic Gov. Robert Docking's 1965 election victory, he has been a strong candidate to be a Democrat in Kansas. Local Democrats have been gaining a greater percentage of the vote in each election since 1968, she said.
Wells, who owns 156 acres of land in the area, donated the ground for a "regional outlook and wildlife-nature study type park," according to Sanderson.
Matching funds from the Federal and county governments will build the park. Any work not done by December 31, when the annual expires, must be paid for by the county.
local elections, Betty Charlton, a local Democrat, said Democracy performed well in the state.
The four local Democrats elected in 1972 are David Berkowitz, county attorney; Neuseistet, county register of deeds; I. J. Stoneback, county commissioner; and Mike Glover, state representative to the Kansas House.
Berkwitz and Stoneback both agreed that the KU student vote had been important to their victories. They also said many students helped in their campaigns.
Sanderson said that there was a possibility that the park would open by late fall, but that it would not be completed by then.
STONEBACKACK said the KU student vote had certainly helped Glover, and Berkowitz said that Neustift had carried student precincts.
KU students make contributions to various social agencies in Lawrence and Douglas County, according to Janet Wilden, summer director of Volunteer Clearing House. During the academic year 1972-73, Volunteer Clearing House placed 350 student volunteers in community endeavors.
KU volunteers averaged four or five hours a week in service to the community, Wilden said. If each of the 350 volunteers worked four and one half hours a week at a minimum wage of $1.60 an hour, the total weekly volunteer service to Lawrence and Douglas County would have been worth $2,500.
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