University Daily Kansan / Tuesday, September 18. 1990
5
Road committee organized to promote trafficway vote
By Karen Park
Kansan staff writer
The next seven weeks will be busy for 42 city and county residents concerned about Douglas County's trafficwaves.
The residents are members of Vote Yes for Roads, a committee formed to campaign for voter access on the construction road construction projects.
The Nov. 6 ballot will include the issues of a south Lawrence trafficway from Kansas Highway 10 to Interstate 70 and an eastern parkway from U.S. Highway 59 to Kansas Highway 10.
Mike Amyx, chairperson of the
Douglas County Commission, and Mayor Shirley Martin-Smith announced the formation of the committee last night at a press conference at the Douglas County Courthouse.
"We have a serious traffic problem here," he said.
Amyx said the committee would educate voters about the reasons why the county needed two additional trafficways.
Amyx said the traffic on K-10 had overflowed into the surrounding neighborhoods.
about $5 million in taxes.
The south Lawrence trafficway, which would cost about $42 million to construct, would cost voters
In addition to taxpayer money, the county received about $37 million to finance the trafficway from the federal and state governments and the Kansas Turnpike Authority.
Residents already are paying money toward the bonds that would finance the parkway.
The other trafficway on the Nov. 6 ballot is an eastern parkway, which would cost about $11 million. Lawrence taxpayers will be voting to release the issuance of $8 million in general obligation bonds.
Group proposes zoning authority
By Carol Krekeler
TOPEKA — The Kansas Chapter of the American Planning Association proposed yesterday that city and county planning commissions have the final authority on how land is zoned within a city or county.
Kansan staff writer
The Legislative Special Committee on Local Government yesterday listened to a KC-APA proposal to reiden to zoning and zoning local governments.
Price Banks, chairperson of KC APA and director of Lawrence-Douglas County Planning, said studies by
Banks said city and county governments sometimes did not have the ability to look beyond single-oriented issues to approve an overall zoning
"The intent is to depoliticize government somewhat," Banks said.
He said a local government planning commission should have authorised him to make the decision because it had insight into how a city or county would expand in the future.
He also said that historically plan
ning commissions and local governments had agreed about land zoning issues.
Rep. Nancy Brown, R-Overland Park, chairperson of the special committee, said the proposal gave too much authority to the planning commission and could cause friction between a city and a county.
City commission may approve a pond to be built in Watson Park.
The KC-APA also stated its position on 36 other issues regarding redistribution of city and county property as parts of an overall design to improve the way land is redistributed in cities and counties.
Watson Park may get pond
Brian T. SchoeniKANSAN
Bv Elicia Hill
Kansan siaff writer
Sixty-two years after the original plans for a pond in Buford Watson Park were abandoned, a west end stream will eventually pond finally will become a reality.
Old West Lawrence (OWL) resident Dean Palos, 808 Missouri St., said he developed the idea for a pond in Watson Park, which is bordered by Sixth, Kentucky and Tenth. He often walk past the park many times.
"I think ponds are real special places," said Palos, who also is a member of the OWL Neighborhood Association. "There are no ponds in the city parks of Lawrence. We need places where people can sit and relax."
The pond could become a reality next summer if a group of OWL residents can persuade the Lawrence Commission to help build it, he said.
Palso said the pond would be in the natural gully in the northwest section of the park between the train engine and Tennessee Street. It would be four feet at its deepest point, with an slightly smaller than a football field.
Dan Watkins, a member of the OWL Neighborhood Association, said the city was studying two potential problems with the pond. One is the issue of drainage in the area. The other is the question of liability.
Although the plans call for the pond to have a fountain and an arched bridge to a small island, Paul said he would use them instead of giving accounts according to the money available.
up from the pipes after a heavy rain." Watkins said, "Runoff from the hill comes through the area and runs into the basketball court and then into the train. We have to have the engineers study the area to determine the pond could be designed to accommodate excess water runoff."
"The water has a tendency to back
Mike Wildgen, city manager, said that if an accident because of the pond occurred, the city might face a certain amount of liability. However, he would bought accidents who could be covered by the city's general liability insurance.
Mike Rogers, an OWL resident, said a pond had been suggested twice in Lawrence's history.
"The first time it was in 1928, but the plans got shelved after the stock crashed he said there was no room to build what he called a fountain, but it never was built."
The park was originally named Central Park, but the name was changed to honor Buford Watson Jr., former city manager, who died in a window, Faye Watson, said Buford would have supported the pond idea
"He loved the water," she said. "I didn't matter if it was the ocean, the river, or just a little fish reflecting pond — he just loved it."
Palesa said the pond would cost between $100,000 and $150,000. A third of the money would be raised by the OWL Neighborhood Association, a third from private contractors and a fourth from local businesses that need to come from the city. The city commissioners will hear the request once a solid cost estimate is reached.
Wilden said the commissioners would decide whether they should allocate money to the project.
KU. K-State researchers look for ways to improve state transportation
Bv Amy Zamierowski
Kansan staff writer
five years, McReynolds said.
Researchers at KU and Kansas State University have received financing for a joint project to improve transportation in Kansas, with knowledge, research engineer at the Kansas Department of Transportation.
Each university will receive a minimum of $100,000 annually. Depending on the type of research, the amount can increase to $1 million a year through 1995. The state may then renew the contract for another
“There is a national emphasis on spending money to research transportation,” McReynolds said. “The Kansas secretary of transportation is committed to research because over time research proves to be cost effective.”
Ideas for research projects range from having robots fill cracks in the road to a computer system, he said, which could provide simple or complex details on how to complete a project related to construction.
McReynolds said that in the past
KDOT has done research with the universities as it was needed. But now the universities have a formal contract that guarantees the research projects will be supported for five years.
Meynolds said the only limitation on the contract was that the research needed to be transported. Ideas for projects are due Oct. 1.
Joe Lee, director of KU's Transportation Center, said the ideas for projects would be generated by faculty members and KDOT.
Lee said the program, called KTRAN (Kansas Transporation Research and New-development), would cover different kinds of research projects, with each project having a specific goal.
"The state will spend a lot maintaining and building highways," Lee said. "In order to build roads efficiently, we need to do research to make sure we are using the right technology."
He said he hoped the projects would start later this year.
A committee will look at research
ideas and assign the priority projects to faculty specialists, Lee said.
"The program is not limited to short-term or long-term projects." Lee said. "But right now the immediate problems in transportation are what we probably will work on for the first several years."
Lee said the universities would collaborate if a project required expertise from both universities.
KU and K-State were chosen for the project because other universities in Kansas may not have the abilities to do the research. Lee said.
Lee said one goal of the project was to train engineering graduate students in transportion to help reduce shortage of engineers in that field.
But this does not exclude other universities if they are able to help on a project.
The agreement for the project was signed Aug. 21. The program was paid for with revenue from a state highway fund, which includes money from state gasoline taxes, McReynolds said.
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