The University Daily
KANSAN
University of Kansas Lawrence. Kansas
Tuesday, November 30,1982 Vol.93,No.69 USPS 650-640
Poor of Lawrence quiet in daily struggle for life
Staff Reporter
By STEVE CUSICK
"For ye have the poor always with you ..."
Jesus Christ said in Matthew 26:11.
Within blocks of KU's topsider-trodden sidewalks, some people are eating dog food, and others are going without heat, social workers sav.
NOT ALL of Lawrence's low-income residents face such dire circumstances, but many do face a long, cold winter because they don't have the money to pay their bills, the workers said recently.
They are Lawrence's poor. Some are elderly—their limits weighted down by the yoke of poverty.
Although Lawrence has all the soci-economic trappings of a college town, with the University spread atop Mount Oreand like a middle-class dream, the poor are there, one of the workers
Susan Beers, coordinator for the Council on Community Services of Douglas County, regulates beers.
"Lawrence basically has no visible ghetto," she said. "Poverty is pretty well hidden in the community — being closed doors. Therefore, we have a hard time realizing there is poverty."
And she is not talking about student poverty.
SHE IS QUICK to cite examples: the elderly woman who before she died this year at one time lived on peach juice and bread — the day-old variety that costs a quarter a load.
Or a man in his 80s who receives $260 a month in Social Security but whose gas bills last winter were $150 to $200 a month. He was able to pay the bills only with the help of a local agency, the City of Chicago.
The man, who had lived his whole life in the
same house, had two choices: move to a senior citizen high-rise or no without heat, she said.
"For a man who spent a whole life in that house it would have killed him to move," she
"What's he going to do this winter? I know he's still alive."
And then there is the mother sending her children to school with bowls of flour-and-water gravy for lunch.
BEERS AND OTHER social workers in Lawrence have many anecdotes about people scraping to get by.
scraping to get by.
Capt. Robert Thomson of the Salvation Army Church said the poor often ended up at his church as a last resort to avoid going hungry.
And about 15 percent more people are seeking the Salvation Army's assistance this year than
Uniceen Beeches, who works at the church, said 43 people came to the church for help during a war.
Susan Beers, whose organization is an umbrella for 40 agencies, said the heads of some of these agencies were making similar reports more people need help.
Unfortunately, she said, the agencies may not be able to deliver this time as they have in the
"We CAN'T DO it anymore," she said. "We don't have the resources, the funds or the manpower."
Budgets of churches and social agencies are "strained to the maximum," she said.
The contributions from the community and the network of social agencies have made Douglas County one of the most progressive counties in the state, she said.
But "we've tapped everywhere," she said. "It's going to be real hard to go back to the city."
I think you're going to be seeing a lot of
Brad Bond, Lawrence senior, rescued a stray cat that was stranded in a tree in front of Strong Hall yesterday afternoon.
Paramedics treated Diane Mah, Topeka freshman, who was injured yesterday afternoon in a two-car accident at the corner of Naismith and Field House drives. Mah was taken to Lawrence.
Memorial Hospital, where she was treated for cuts on her head and released.
City staff sees hope for federal funds
By DOUG CUNNINGHAM Staff Reporter
Lawrence city officials who are attending the National League of Cities meeting in Los Angeles reacted favorably yesterday to President Reagan's suggestion that general revenue
The federal government now provides money through the revenue-sharing program to smaller units of government, such as Lawrence and other cities
Unless Reagan supports it, the revenue-sharing program probably will end Sept. 30, 1983, at the close of the 1983 fiscal year.
"IN THE 1896 campaign, I pledged support for general revenue sharing." Reagan said at the meeting. "I proposed full funding of general revenue sharing in fiscal years *$2 and $3*. And while I have made any final budget decisions, I will look at revenue sharing in the same light."
Lawrence City Commissioner Don Bims said, "I think that's the only positive statement
that he really made. But that in itself was encourag."
Brands, commissioner Tom Gleason, Mayor Marci Francisco, City Manager Buford Wafson and Mike Wilden, assistant city manager, are attending the meeting in Los Angeles.
Francisco said many city officials thought revenue sharing should be the start of Reagan's New Federalism package, which would return responsibility and money to state and local governments, and therefore were encouraged by Reagan's comments.
"I THINK HE WAS deeply cryptic in his remarks," she said. "I think he understands the lobbying effect that can be generated by him, but he also is not making a definite commitment."
Revenue sharing, if it is continued, needs to be more clearly outlined. Francisco said. A resolution asking Reagan for more specific ones to provide for the Finance Committee of the League, she said.
For example, the program should be authorized for a certain number of years so that cities will know whether they can expect revenue-sharing money, she said.
Both Binns and Francisco said that the League delegates had given Reagan only a polite reception.
"I DON'T THINK anyone is denying at this conference that there are problems," Francisco said.
Bims said, "I don't think he answered all of the questions of the National League of Cities."
Although Reagan said his administration would work actively early next year to enact the New Federalism package, Bimsa said many were apprehensive about its possible effects.
League delegates also discussed Reagan's proposal to increase the federal gasoline tax by 5%
Binns, however, said even that portion of the proposed increase might not be sufficient.
Some delegates thought that 1 cent of that proposed increase should be allocated to mass education.
FEDERAL MONIES for mass transportation already have been decreased by 25 percent, Binns said, and any money from an increase in the gasoline tax might not take up the slack.
Adkins prepares to leave presidencv
By DON KNOX Staff Reporter
There are no more Student Senate committee meetings these days for David Adkins to attend.
Adkins' Jawhay regalia no longer hangs from the walls of his office in the Kansas Union. A mound of letters has been neatly tucked into a few cardboard boxes. And a glass jar — filled with jelly beans — sits empty on the edge of his old desk.
It was only been 11 days since the 21-year-old Topeka senior officially finished his term as student body president at the University of Kansas.
BUT ADKINS SAID yesterday that he had few regrets about leaving KU's highest student office.
"Former student body presidents are interesting things," he said in the barren office of the student body vice president. "You have to tell a woman for a while tell the new people how they should run things."
'But my better judgment tells me to pull back
For Adkins, the past 12 months has been anything but calm.
It was a year in which a police investigation revealed that $20,423 was missing from KU on Wheels, the campus transportation system run by the Senate. Moreover, the Adkins administration announced earlier this semester that $4,000 inventory owned by the Senate could not be found.
AND ADKINS WAS widely criticized last spring for his support of a 20-percent tuition increase that will take effect next fall.
"The bus situation overshadows much of the year in many people's minds," he said. "Any time you have any hint of corruption, then you are going to have a serious image problem."
"But we faced those challenges head on. And I think we dealt with the problems on the most open and fair level possible."
Regarding the scheduled tuition increase, Adams said simply, "I think it is reasonable.
"I know many people would be shocked to hear that coming from the student body president.
And I don't deny that times are very, very tight. But students have to be willing to pay their fair share or else they jeopardize some of the best educational programs offered here."
BUT DESPIE THE problems that cropped up during his administration, Adkins praised the work of his office staff, as well as the support of the KU administration.
"There have been complaints that we have been nudging the posterior of the powers that be."
"The mission of this University is the training of young minds. But a lot of people feel threatened by the titles of the administrators. Students should be cautious, but they should also be encouraged to work with the likes of our chancellor."
The next Senate faces a myriad of financial problems compounded by a budget process that is far too complex to solve.
AMONG THESE PROBLEMS, Adkins said, is the inability of the Senate to stay within budget guidelines. He called the budget situation a serious mismanagement of Senate resources.
See ADKINS page 5
Town fights for chance to rebuild school
Rv MATTHEW SCHOFIELD
Staff Reporter
DORRANCE—Before Dorrance's three churches, two blocks of paved road or lone cave come into view, a brightly painted sign tells visitors of the town's pride in its high school.
'Home of the Fighting Cardinals'
However, the city of Dorrance and the fighting Cardinal are involved in a fight that is one of the larger
About 1 a.m., last March 8, Dorrance High School junior Eugene Watkins sets a small fire in the school building. He left the building, but intended to return, put out the fire and be seen as a hero, according to Dorrance Mayor Duane Sloan.
They are fighting for their lives.
HE SAID WATKINS fell asleep in his favorite chair at home, however, and did not awaken until the flames of his small fire had engulfed the building and damaged it beyond repair.
"The teachers are constantly having to move their classrooms out on the weekends," said Lee Terrant, principal and assistant superintendent. "Most of the time one of the teachers are starting to get frustrated."
All that remains of what was formerly the heart of Dorrance is a gymnasium, a vocational agriculture building and a patch of dirt and concrete.
So far this year, classes have been held in the City Building, the American Legion building and the Teen Center — all in downtown Dorrance — which is a school building, the gym and the yo-ag building.
FEN WITHOUT A school building, education trudges on in Dorrance. But because only 37 high school students live there, the school district has to ship them to Russell, about 18 miles away.
"You take the school out of any little town and it'll just dry up and blow away," said Athol Betts, a shopowner who has lived in Dorrance for 55 years and attended high school there.
Bets said Dorrance residents were willing to put forth the effort needed to build a new school in town, but the school district would not go along.
"We proposed that if they would let us have the insurance money, we would build a new school," he said. "We've already had enough pledges
from graduates to build a new building, but we're probably going to get nothing out of this.
THE INSURANCE on the building was worth about $160,000, and the town has raised another $60,000. The new building would cost about $220,000. he said.
The school board decided just an hour before the fire was set to allow the school to operate for another year. However, Betts said, many school officials have been against the school for many years.
"They've been proposing to close the school for years," he said. "They're going by this cost per pupil stuff. All the people that are really involved believe we should have the school back
But, Tarrant said, statewide reductions in education budgets have forced the district to move.
"If the building was here it would be a different thing," he said. "But it's not, and from the financial aspect it's not worth it to build a new one.
"ITS THE TYPICAL plight of the small town and the small school. Districts like 407 are going to have to look at whether they can keep these buildings in shape, but in this case we don't even have a building,"
Slian, also the high school's head teacher, said the quality of education was better this year than in 2015.
Tarrant also said the building that Dorrance's residents had opted for, which would be an insulated steel building with a brick front, no windows, and built into each room, would not be an adequate school.
DORRANCE WOULD LOVE its identity if the high school left, he said. He said he did not know how the closing of the school would affect the town in the long run.
"The community wouldn't be as close if we lose our high school," he said.
Jerry Brown, a senior at the high school who participated in all three of the school's sports for boys, said the smallness of the school made its students closer
"It's a job to get us all together, but I really believe it is a good school," he said. "We have good kids, they're trying really hard, and we are trying really hard to give a good education."
"I know every student in the school very well," he said. "If we lose the high school there will probably be a lot of disappointment. There are a lot of memories down here. The grade school kids are even involved with it. It's just like one big family."
Today will be partly cloudy and mild, and the high will be in the mid- to upper 55s.
individual service.
Tonight will be partly cloudy with a low in the mid- to upper 30%.
Tomorrow will be mostly cloudy with a chance for showers and a high in the 80s.