UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Monday, May 5, 1997
3A
Alice Melin / KANSAN
Art festival draws 15,000 to South Park
The 36th Annual Art in the Park show took place on Saturday with artists selling their ceramics, paintings, rugs, jewelry, postcards and other art works.
By Paul Eakins
Kansan staff writer
Thousands of people turned out for Art in the Park yesterday, where 81 artists displayed and sold their wares.
In addition to arts and crafts booths, which offered everything from pottery, paintings and drawings to jewelry, glass works and even halter tops, visitors were entertained by jazz and country music, juggling, glass blowing and balloon animal-making.
A sunny day and comfortable temperatures pushed attendance to about 15,000. The event was held at South Park, on Massachusetts Street between 11th and 13th streets. The event is in its 36th year and is sponsored by the Lawrence Art Guild, said Mick Braa, guild treasurer and local artist.
Braa said Art in the Park usually had attracted 10,000 to 15,000 people, depending on the weather. The Art Guild, which spends about $2,000 on the event, gets a 10 percent commission from the artists. Last year the artists sold $35,000 in merchandise.
Braa said he would not know this year's earnings until the end of the week.
He said many loyal supporters came to the event each year.
"Last year we had a 40 percent drop in the number of people but sold more art than the year before," Braa said. "The people that want to buy the art come."
Jill Bailey, Overland Park senior, and Jean Yancey, St. Louis, Mo., junior, sold paintings, jewelry and halter tops that they had made. They said that they enjoyed the event and that this was the first year that they had been sellers rather than buvers.
Bailey said they might have sold more, especially their halter tops, if more KU students had attended.
"It's really interesting to
Brian Ireland, Topeka junior, said more students should have participated in the event. "It's a nice thing for families to come to, but there's a lot of art that is not represented here."
Trafficway goes to court
New statement may be in works
The effect of federal funds secured by former U.S. senator Bob Dole for the South Lawrence Trafficway at its inception is now in question as the fate of the road remains undecided.
By Paul Eakins
Kansan staff writer
Attorney Bruce Plenk argued on Friday in U.S. District Court in Kansas City, Kan., that because Congress had designated demonstration project money specifically for the trafficway, federal environmental laws must apply to all parts of the project.
Plaintiffs in the case, a group of Native Americans and environmentalists that include KU students, want a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement completed before Douglas County continues work on the eastern leg of the trafficway, which would connect U.S. Highway 59 to Kansas Highway 10. This part of the trafficway would run south of the Haskell Indian Nations University campus and through the Haskell Wetlands
The plaintiffs hope that if the statement is completed, the trafficway will be found illegal.
The money that was acquired for the project in 1887 by Dole was for a 14-mile trafficway around Lawrence.
At issue is whether a state or county can defensalize part of a federal project, thus malting federal environmental laws inapplicable. This is what the Douglas County Commission has attempted to do with the project.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jackie Rapstein, who represents the Federal Highway Administration, said that because Congress did not approve enough money for the entire project, it did not intend for the entire project to be subject to federal environmental laws.
"This is really a landmark case," Plenk said. "The big question is, can the state decide to split up a demonstration project into parts?"
This lack of precedent and the introduction of new information by the attorneys prompted Judge Tom Van Bebber to postpone a decision until after May 30.
If Van Bebber rules that federal law applies to the entire project, the administration must stay involved and complete the impact statement. Otherwise the county will be allowed to work on the trafficway. Meanwhile, Van Bebber left in place a preliminary injunction against beginning construction.
Professor wins research award
By Mark McMaster
Kansan staff writer
Even though Robert Dunn, assistant professor of chemistry, has been at the University of Kansas for only two years, his research is gaining attention.
Dunn recently was honored as a 1997 Searle Scholar, earning him a $180,000 grant that he will use to continue his research in cellular physiology.
The Searle award supports the research of 15 scholars each year who are selected by the potential of their research proposals. Dunn is the first researcher at the University to win the award.
"I was really shocked when I heard I got the award," Dunn said. "The stuff we do is strange. We're sort of on the fringe of science."
If Dunn's research is out of the ordinary, it nonetheless is attracting the attention of many of his colleagues.
The chemistry department's chairperson, Kristin Bowman-James, said she had been impressed with Dunn's research.
"I wasn't surprised he won," she said. "When he came here, he was at the forefront of his area of research, and in just one short year, he's already been published."
Dunn came to the University in 1995 after completing a postdoctoral fellowship with X. Sunney Xie at the Pacific Northwest Laboratory in Richland, Wash. He received a doctoral degree in physical chemistry in 1992 from the University of California-San Diego.
There were 159 applicants from 86 universities for the Searle award, which was established by John and Frances Searle in 1980. Winners were selected by 11 distinguished researchers.
After clearing hurdles Borders is on the way
By Paul Eakins
Kansan staff writer
Without a doubt, Borders is coming to town.
After months of debate and negotiations regarding the effects the nationally owned bookstore would have on the downtown economy to the preservation of historic buildings, preliminary plans for construction are under way.
Winter said the Borders development process had been a long and complicated one but that he was glad to see it reach a conclusion.
Borders has acquired Agree Realty, a Michigan-based development company, to oversee the project at 700 New Hampshire St., where the store will be built, said Wint Winter, a Lawrence attorney representing Winter Inc., which owns the lot.
"I am doing back flips over it," he said. "It was an issue that brought together city politics with state politics with legal issues with many personalities."
Lawrence city commissioners had helped the bookstore work through numerous development
hurdles, approving a demolition permit, a site plan and a $100,000 purchase with city funds of public parking spaces in Borders' private lot.
Construction may begin by the end of the month, and the store probably will open by Thanksgiving, if not by the time students return in the fall, he said.
One complication for the project will be to restore and integrate two exterior walls of a livery stable, with sections dating back to 1898 and 1915, into the facade of Borders, Winter said.
Winter said Borders probably would attract other national chains as it neared completion.
"It's going to spawn other positive developments downtown," he said.
David Longhurst, president of Downtown Lawrence Inc., said he also was glad Borders was coming to Lawrence and hoped that it would attract more national businesses to downtown.
"The more we can add to the retail mix downtown, the more attractive we can make it," Longhurst said.
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