University Daily Kansan / Tuesday, April 30, 1991
Campus/Area
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House may cut $200 million from state programs
By Joe Gose
Kansan staff writer
TOPEKA - A House committee approved about $200 million in cuts to state programs last night.
The recommendations will go before the full House this morning, and unless a last-minute tax increase is passed, legislators will have little choice but to accept the cuts.
The House Appropriations Committee debated the measure for almost eight hours yesterday.
State Rep. John Solbach, D-Lawrence, attempted to restore about $14 million to the Board of Regents budget but was unsuccessful.
Sobach that even with the restoration, higher education financing in fiscal 1992
would have ended up lower than it was in fiscal 1991.
"We lose all that we've gained with the Margin of Excellence, as far as putting our universities on a level playing field when competing for faculty," he said. "I think we should fund these budgets at least at the base level."
But State Rep. Robert Vancrum, R-Overland Park, said the Regents had enjoyed an increase in their budgets of 13.2 percent in the past two years.
"I think we’re in this situation because of overexpending in the last two years," he said.
Other programs face large cuts as well. If the plan passes through the Legislature, 20 full-time positions in the Department of
Revenue and eight full-time positions in the Department of Commerce would be eliminated. Employees in other state agencies would face furloughs.
In addition, two minimum-security prisons would be shut down, and a plan to close two state mental hospitals would be prepared to meet an undetermined 1983 date.
One program that survived at least some cuts was the highway fund.
Originally, the recommendation was to out $10 million from the program and finance the state highway patrol out of the highway fund that would have issued a gas tax that would have raised $21 million
But an amendment removed that financing obligation and placed the responsibility back to banks.
Legislators tried three times to reinstitute the recommendation, but they failed each time.
the tax.
State Rep. Gary Blumenthal, D-Merriam,
said the committee's defense of the $2.6-billion highway fund was ludicrous.
"I don't know how you all can defend ours what you're doing to some other programs," he said. "I just think it's outrageous. Simply outrageous."
Meanwhile, the Senate Ways and Means Committee met briefly last night to discuss both plans.
Committee chairperson State Sen. Gus Bogina, R-Shawnee, said he would look over the House committee's plan and decide what kind of action he would take.
He has said in the past that he would like to cut budgets across the board rather than individually.
State Sen. Wint Winter Jr., R-Lawrence, to continuing to push for a tax increase, however, and another tax bill was introduced in the Senate committee.
Winter said that the House committee's action would prove to legislators that there was a need for a tax increase and that the bill would be passed on the Senate floor as early as today.
Sculptor awarded grant for research
"Any vote we have on taxes is not legitimate until the opponents lay out their alternative," he said. "I think we just have to let him know how painful these cuts are going to be."
By Sarah Davis Konson staff writes
It all started with a 4-foot-tall, 300 pound purple head.
That was when Jeff Listerman, Lawrence junior, realized that the all weather sculpture he created two years ago would be more than just a work of art.
He pictured his large-scale artwork as sculpture that could be used on a playground.
"I wanted to design sculpture so kids could best interact both physically and psychologically in terms of what's best to facilitate their fantasies," said Listerman, a ceramics major.
To help him in the beginning stages of his plans, Listerman received $1,000 to help support his research project. He was one of 20 students selected to receive the undergraduate research award for Summer, 1991
J. Michael Young, director of the honors program, said Listerman's project was selected because it was interesting and different.
Listerman said he wanted to research the subject because he believed in stimulating children's imaginations.
"It struck us as a nice proposal because it was something that would pay off in the student's own work, and it will benefit other people who want to work in playground design by bringing together information that is scattered in many different sources," he said.
"I want to give them less Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and more quality stimulation like Dr. Seuss and
Maurice Sendak (who wrote "Where the Wild Things Are")," he said. "And I thought, 'Why not sculpture for children that will stimulate their imagination like the best of the children's literature?'"
Last semester, Listerman made a 2-foot model of a playground sculpture.
The figure, a grinning cyclops, was composed of triangles and rectangles, held a saxophone and wore an Egyptian headaddress. Tiny chairs for children were attached to the sides of the walls in its hollow base.
While creating the project, Listerian realized that designing playground sculpture would be more complex than simply molding clay. He applied for the research grant to build a sculpture park involved in researching his project.
His project has three steps
Although he will not create any playground sculptures this summer, Listerian plans to examine the fun materials involved in creating the sculptures.
First he will examine the legal requirements concerning playground equipment. Then he will determine physical materials that he is allowed to use to build the sculpture. After he collects that data, he will decide how he would design a large-scale sculpture.
He plans to look at code regulations, visit material outlets and talk with artists and urban planners.
"It's like a puzzle in having to make it safe and legal," he said. "You have to fit it in within the boundaries."
Jeff Listernman, Lawrence junior, displays "Sauce Jack," one of his ceramic sculptures. Listernman's work as a sculptor inspired research undergraduate research awards.
Bond, trial date set for assault, kidnapping suspect
Bv Michael Christie
Kansan staff writer
Bond of $10,000 and a preliminary trial date were set yesterday at the arrangement of a Kamaso City Kan, man charged with the murder of a married sexual battery of a 21-year-old KU student.
Patrick James Harris, 20, 2922 W. 41th St.
Kansas City, Kan., was given a trial date of
June 7, 2023.
The two charges are felonies.
According to Lawrence police reports, the student was walking on Kansas Highway 10 about 12:30 a.m. Saturday near the Knights of Columbus Hall, 2206 E. 23rd St., after a party.
She was looking for a friend who also was walking along the road and with whom she had an affection. She had to come
Four men in a car pulled up alongside her, and one man grabbed her and forced her into the car, according to police reports. The car then headed east toward Kansas City.
At the Johnson County border, about 10 miles from where she was picked up, the student noticed a Johnson County police car with its emergency lights on, police said.
She hit the horn and interfered with the driver of the car enough so that he had to pull over, according to police reports. The student fled the car and ran to the police car.
Lt. John Ward of the Johnson County Sher-
iff's Office said the student told the two
women to "not go anywhere."
The officers then pulled the car over.
The officers notified Lawrence police because the crime occurred in Douglas County.
Ward said that when Lawrence police arrived, the Johnson County police turned the vehicle around.
Only Harris and a second man were taken in by Lawrence police, according to police reports. The second man was wanted by the FBI as a witness in another case.
Body-shop owners hit hard by storm of hail damage repairs
By Eric Nelson
Kansan staff writer
Anyone who owns a car struck by hail during Sunday's storm may want the damage repaired quickly.
rough duck.
"I'm still making estimates for the other (storm)," said Don Crow, manager of Dale Wiley Body and Paint Center, 2840 Iowa St.
Sunday.
Because of the two hail storms in recent weeks, estimates at the shop are backed up for a week, and actual repairs are backed up to October or November. Crow said.
Tough luck
Scott Radford, owner and manager of Hadl Collision Repair, 3401 W. Sixth St., said his shop had given six or seven estimates yesterday for Sunday's storm.
He said he received about three telephone calls concerning hail damage that occurred
Although Hadi Collison is taking estimates, that shop also is backed up, he said.
The estimates have ranged from $1,500 to $3,000 for this storm, compared to $3,000 and $4,000 for previous storms.
"It's lighter than what we had a month ago," he said.
"I don't expect us to get done with the majority of the hail damage repairs until late September or early October," Radford said.
The shop has hired four extra full-time employees to help with the increased business, Radford said.
"The last storm buried us," he said.
Radford said that his shop still was trying to fit collision work into its schedule but that vehicles were backed up, waiting to be painted.
Norman Beers, owner of Wayne's Body Shop, 1214 E. 23rd St., said his estimates for the storm were backed up into June or July, while repairs are backed up until January 1992.
Just as other shop owners have, Beers has hired extra help to accommodate the workload.
The shooting death that occurred between 4:30 and 5:28 a.m. Saturday was ruled a suicide yesterday by Lawrence police and coroner Carol Moddrell.
The incident was investigated as a self-inflicted gunshot wound after police found the victim in a residence on the 400 block of Arkansas Street. Michale Kike, 38, was proclaimed dead at Lawrence Memorial Hospital later that day.
Shooting death ruled a suicide Kansan staff report
Moddellre that detectives had to combine their reports with hers to determine whether the death was accidental.
Lawrence police Lt. Mke Hall said Kite died from a single bullet wound to the chest.
Wheels on Wheels...
For getting your toys down the road
RICK'S BIKE SHOP 916 Mass., Lawrence, KS (913)841-6642