The star of the documentary film "Murderball" will speak in the Union today between two showings of the film.
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The Kansas football team continued its pattern Saturday when it gave up its lead to Baylor in the fourth quarter. 1B
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2006
WWW.KANSAN.COM
VOL.117 ISSUE 47
THE STUDENT VOICE SINCE 1904
PAGE1A
TRANSPORTATION
City, KU bus systems plan merger
The Lawrence Public Transit system and KU on Wheels plan to combine their routes and hope to begin coordinated service within the next year. The final decisions are expected by November.
KANSAN FILE PHOTOS
Consulting company has made four proposals to fund new route combo
BY MARK VIERTHALER
All signs point to a merger of the Lawrence Public Transit system and KU on Wheels in the next several years.
By fall 2007, the two systems would begin coordinated service but would maintain separate funding. The two systems would then meld into one streamlined system, with one operating budget and administered by one governing board.
Leadership would comprise an equal number of representatives from the city and from the University. The University delegation would be further divided equally between administrators and students.
Dan Boyle, consultant for Dan Bowlie and Associates, said at a
Margaret Livingood, a landscape architect for the University, has helped with the development of a workable merger between the two systems.
Monday afternoon forum that the most effective way to merge the two systems was with a slow change of bureaucracy.
Livingood said she estimated the two systems could be fully integrated by
ent his findings. Boyle plans to then meet with the Lawrence City Commission and KU on Wheels student administrators this week to
Boyle will meet with Provost Richard Lariviere today to pres-
"It makes a lot of sense to merge the systems.The University should get involved with the city as a whole."
SETH LORIMER Overland Park senior
make sure there are no last minute issues with the proposal.
financing is available.
The biggest concern remaining is one of dollars and cents. Boyle said his company had created four different plans, depending on what
Without asking for any more money from students and taxpayer
ers, Boyle estimated the entire project would cost an inflation-adjusted $5.8 million in 2012.
Several routes would be combined by this proposal. The KU on Wheels route that runs through downtown would be ended and the frequency of a similar T route would be increased. A T route along 23rd Street and Clinton Parkway, would add a stop at the KU Park and Ride lot.
A second proposal, a 20 percent increase in revenue through five years, would add four buses to KU on Wheels. Students would also be given a fare-free pass, allowing them access to any bus, KU on Wheels or the T.
This funding increase is predicated on an increase in student fees. Currently, KU on Wheels is supported completely by student fees and user fares. The proposal envisions raising student fees to $50 from the current $22, which would have to be approved by the University's Student Senate and the Kansas Board of Regents and would likely also involve a student vote.
The city's contribution, based largely on taxation, is currently unresolved.
A third proposal would see a 33 percent increase in revenue and would mean the system merger could take less than five years. Two new lines would be added, one running from campus to the Reserve Apartments and one to the Legends Apartment complex.
MEMORIAL
SEE BUS ON PAGE 5A
Friends remember long-time teacher
BY DARLA SLIPKE
Family and friends gathered in Woodruff Auditorium on Monday afternoon for a memorial service for professor Bud Hirsch, who died Sept. 3 of a brain tumor.
The crowd erupted in laughter
when the lyrics of "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown" began to play. One man bounced his leg and tapped his foot to the beat. Another nodded his head in time with the music
Hirsch
and the rest sat pensively, celebrating a dear friend they all shared; Bernard "Bud" Hirsch.
Hirsch, who was 61 when he died, worked at the University of Kansas for more than 30 years. He was a professor and adviser in the English department and an American Indian scholar.
Knowing his death was impend.
ing, Hirsch had carefully selected the music that would play during his memorial service. His brother Arnold Hirsch spoke of his love for that song, which refers to his hometown of Chicago.
"Bud was from Chicago. I guess if you knew him for a minute and a half you've figured that out," Hirsch said when the song ended. "He didn't keep any secrets."
The crowd was moved to tears — interrupted by bouts of laughter — as family and friends shared stories.
Hirsch said he and his brother talked on the phone every Sunday night. In every conversation, Hirsch said his brother talked about his students and advisees. Hirsch said his brother possessed great passion, loyalty and dedication, and that his brother's greatest passions were his wife Elaine and his students.
SEE MEMORIAL ON PAGE 5A
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© 2006 The University Daily Kansan
BUSINESS
Wal-Mart proposal up for debate outcome to be decided as plans go before City Commission tonight
BY JACK WEINSTEIN
The fate of the proposed WalMart development in northwest Lawrence will be decided at tonight's City Commission meeting.
The proposed plan includes a 99,985 sq. foot Wal-Mart store at the northwest corner of 6th Street and Wakarusa Drive, a 6,147 sq. foot garden center and 21,500 sq. feet of commercial space for four pad site
Four of the five city commissioners must approve the proposal tonight or it would return to the Planning Commission for discussion before returning to the City Commission for approval. At that point, the City Commission would need only three votes in favor for approval.
Lawrence Metropolitan Planning Office, said because the zoning changes and the development proposal were separate applications, the zoning could be approved and the building proposal could be denied, or vice versa. For the entire development to be approved, both the zoning changes and the building proposal would have to be approved.
Lisa Pool, a planner with the
Before the proposal can be approved, the City Commission will vote to approve zoning changes at the corner. A 2.2-acre tract, currently zoned for residential development, and a 15.8-acre tract, zoned for commercial development with limited use, would both have to be rezoned to commercial development with revised use restrictions to meet the city's requirements.
buildings.
SEE WAL-MART ON PAGE 5A
The motion to approve the plan was denied, 5-5, when the Planning Commission met Aug.30.
BY KIM LYNCH
》 SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE
Three KU architecture students beat out professional architects and won an award for the Best Unbuilt Project in the annual Monsters of Design competition.
Students win professional contest
Megan Hunziker, Ames, Iowa, graduate student, Mike O'Donnell, Florissant, Mo., senior, and Matt Pauly, Denton, graduate student, are members of the team that designed a new opera house for St. Louis, as part of their studio class at the University. The class is taught by architecture professors Stephen Grabow and Wojciech Lesnikowski.
Throughout the semester multiple teams in the class worked to develop a design for the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis.
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At the end of the class, Pauly
approached Grabow and asked if there was a competition in which he could enter his group's finished project. That's when Grabow told the group about the Monsters of Design competition.
"It was really quite stunning," Grabow said of when the winners were announced.
Grabow said if money could be raised, the opera house would be built and might incorporate the students' ideas.
Grabow said the goals he and Lesnikowski had for the project were lightness, transparency and high visibility as a cultural symbol.
The project incorporated all of those elements and was "dazzling," he said.
SEE ARCHITECTURE ON PAGE 5A
Contributed Photo
Megan Hunziker, Mike O'Donnell and Matt Pauly, KU architecture students, won the annual Monsters of Design competition beating our professional architects across the nation. The group entered a design it created in a studio class at the University of an opera house for St. Louis.
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