University Daily Kansan / Friday, April 28, 1989
Campus/Area
3
Liquor corporation to open Lawrence outlet
by Carrie Harper
Kansan staff writer
Standard Liquor Corporation broke ground this week for a warehouse and distribution outlet in Timberedge Industrial Park, a corporate official said yesterday.
However, the leader of a local activist group said yesterday that the group would promote a statewide boycott of the corporate companies and receive a tax break from the city.
The corporation, which has administrative offices in Wichita, will be combining its Topope and Loneca warehouses into one company. The industrial park in northwest Lawrence.
park in northwest lawrence.
The corporation serves as a distributor of spirits, wine and beer for more than 900 retail outlets in Kansas, said Bob Brewer, retail
tary-treasurer of the corporation.
The Lawrence City Commission last month granted a 50 percent tax abatement for Standard Liquor. A tax abatement is an incentive used by cities to attract new businesses. The corporation did not immediately choose to locate in Lawrence.
ately choose to locate in taxa.
The commission last month held a public hearing on the abatement by the city staff reviewed Standard Liquor's application.
Les Blevins, acting executive director of the Douglas County Home Guards, said he testified before the commission about the moral implications that he thought the tax abatement for Standard Liquor would have on the city.
if the corporation located in Lawrence and received a tax abatement, Blevins said yesterday.
yesterday.
Blevins said a letter would go out in today's mail to Standard's corporate headquarters stating the group's intention.
stating the group's responsibility. In the letter, Blevins said that it was wrong for the city to use tax abatement to subsidize the business of alcohol distribution.
Blevins said that alcohol and its abuse often contributed to social problems that would cause a heavy drain of public funds for welfare, unemployment compensation and law enforcement. These would lead to increased taxes for everyone but those who did not have to pay the full amount.
I not have to pay Blievs said the Home Guards would not take action if the corporation established itself in Lawrence without a tax abatement
"We cannot point the finger of blame at Standard Liquor for all the social problems we have." Blevins said. "We think it would be a mistake to use tax abatement to further these social problems."
or if it located somewhere else.
Blevins said he would not reveal the Home Guards' membership because it was not important for this issue. He di say they all were in Douglas County.
"It wouldn't look like enough to worry Standard Liquor, but our point is we are going to promote a general boycott by the people who are concerned about taxes," he
Blevins said the Home Guards was founded in February and he hoped to establish chapters in all 105 Kansas counties.
Brewer said Standard Liquor never had encountered this sort of protest.
Bolt Martin, director of economic environment for the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce, said that the 50 percent abatement would mean that Standard Liquor still would pay 50 percent for 10 years, and then it would pay full taxes.
Standard Liquor would provide 47 new jobs in Lawrence, and the employees would be buying local goods and services as well as paying sales tax for them. Martin said.
He said he did not think this sort of moral protest was justified.
"Why aren't they out picketing the liquor stores?" Martin said. "The city gives incentives to liquor stores by giving them a license."
To dye for
Robert Beckford, Kansas City, Mo. freshman, works on his tie-dye creation yesterday at the Hashinger Hall tie-dye party.
Old house worth a million?
by Erik Nelson Special to the Kansan
Clerical error distorts value
The property, a poured concrete structure now gutted and covered with graffiti, sits on a plot of land overgrown with weeds at 1001 and 1013.
The Douglas County Appraiser's Office has made a $900,000 mistake in the 1898 reappraisal of the old Theta Chiat fraternity house.
1065 Emily White
The value of the building was listed at $91,380. The value of the land was listed at $200.
Marvin Clements, Douglas County appraisal officer, said those values
Clements said the inflated value resulted from a data input error. He said the only worth of the property was the land
would be thrown out and another reappraisal would be done to determine the worth of the land.
was the land.
"There is no building value," he said.
"We weren't quite sure what was required by the computer system," he said, adding that the appraiser needed the way to compute such a value.
John Shaver of Salina has owned the property since 1987. He said that he had contacted the county appraiser's office about the property and was quickly silked into the system. Shaver refused to comment on plans for the site.
Rumors about the site's history have circulated for years. Some rumors that surface from time to time include those of a faulty design, perhaps because of tumbling risk of money to finish the building, and the presence of ghosts.
Bulman, and the president of Theta Mark Dentin, president of Theta Chi Fraternity, now at 1011 Missouri St. knows the real history.
St., knows the real history.
"It was built in 1959. It was a really nice place," he said.
nice place. he said.
The building closed down in 1970 because of the Vietnam War,he said.
"Fraternities weren't during that period of time," he said.
during that period of other
there were many other fraternities on campus that also closed. After that, the house was "gutted out." leaving everything but the concrete walls, Dentin said.
Sunday's 'Day on the Hill' to finish Spring Arts Week
by Michele Logan Kansan staff writer
Lawrence will be a little bit like Las Vegas this weekend, but free.
weekend, but tree and gambling will be offered in residence balls and on the hill starting today.
Gertrude Sellards Pearson-Corbin Hall will present the play "Vanities" today through Sunday in the Corbin lobby. The play will be at 8 p.m. today and tomorrow and at 2 p.m. Sunday.
The play focuses on the lives of three best friends. The three kids cover their high school graduation, their college graduation and what they are doing five years after leaving college.
after leaving college.
"The play was chosen because of its college theme and because it's an all-girl play being performed in an all-girl dorm," said Amy Wrenick, Topeka freshman.
Haskingham Hall will present its version of "Godspell" today through Sunday at 8 p.m. in the hall's theater.
All residence halls are sponsoring events as part of "Spring Arts Week," which began Monday and continues through Sunday.
today through Sunday at 6 p.m. in St.
The play is based on the gospel of St. Matthew but has a
more modern theme.
more modern theme.
"It's a 'love to mankind' type show, with songs, dancing and skits," said Kirk Isenhour, Mission sophomore.
more. The theatre he expected the play to draw a full house each night. The theatre seats 150 people.
each temple Hall is having its annual Casino Party tomorrow from 7:30 to p.11 p.m. in the hall's lobby.
tomorrow from 7:30 p.m. in the park, open to the public. At the door, the party is free (including $10.00 in gambling chips, which can be used to buy raffle tickets). Craps, poker, blackjack, chuck-a-luck and roulette games will be played.
chuck-a-luck and roulette prizes At 11 p.m., prizes will be raffled off. Prizes include a microwave oven, two telephone answering machines, cordless telephones, blenders, coolers and thermoses, compact discs and cassettes, and gift certificates from area merchants.
The event costs $2,000 and is financed by the all government fund and the Association of University Residence Halls.
A semi-formal dance also will take place until midnight
KU police, bookstores work jointly to prevent campus book theft
See LOCAL, p. 14, col. 1
by Ines Elvira Shuk
by Ines Elvira Shuk Special to the Kansan
KU police and campus bookstores are working on a joint effort to stop book theft during buyback time.
Book theft at the University of Kansas increases considerably at the beginning and end of academic semesters when bookstores pay cash for stacks of used books, KU police said.
said.
"In order to control increasing book theft during buyback periods, the bookstores on campus are keeping a good record of book trades to help us trace thieves," said Jim Mulholland of KU police.
of KU police.
Randy Parker, assistant manager of KU Bookstores, said that the bookstores' computerized buyback system kept a record of
each trade, including the seller's KUID number, the price paid and the book title.
"This system can help police tracing suspected thivers," he said.
in college and book them was common in college campuses. There was a lot of money in every
college campuses.
"Books represent a lot of money in every
College students spend approximately $230 a year on books.
"Books represent a lot of money in every campus," he said.
a year on books.
Muhlioland said, "The problem comes when people whose books have been stolen don't report the incident to us, or when they don't have any evidence that could help us recognize the stolen books."
year.
recognize the school book the students aren't. Although in most cases book thefts aren't reported, seven reports were filed with police during the first semester of the 1988-89 school
"We don't know if there is an organized effort to steal books at KU." said Sgt. Schuyler Bailey of KU police. "The fact is that many people are out there doing it."
Students should take more care to prevent book theft, Parker said. Measures to identify books once they have been stolen also should be taken, he said.
"A simple thing a student can do to mark a book is to choose a significant page number and write his or her KUID number, birth date or name," he said.
If a book is marked, the police and the bookstores must be notified so that the specific book can be identified during buy-backs, Parker said.
"Without a specific mark inside the book, there is little that we can do to recover it," he said.
Parker said he encouraged book owners not to mark in the front or back pages because they easily could be cut.
behind Muag, owner of Jayhawk Bookstore,
that book theft prevention during buy-
back periods should be a grassroots effort.
Students have to cooperate to help stop help
by notifying police and bookstores when
books are stolen, he said.
BOOKS in their doors who lose books should check with their roommates because they may have taken them intentionally or unintentionally, Muggy said.
huggs said
Norma Bishop, Watson Library circulation
desk supervisor, said students should take their school bags with them when going to stacks or restrooms.
Two weeks ago, one school bag was found empty at the stacks. Bishop said.
Michael Owens, Oveland Park senior, said he always took his books when going to the stacks because he had heard about theft at the library.
the library.
Helen Harrell, Kansas Union information desk manager, said, "Within the last two weeks of school, I usually receive two to six daily complaints of people whose books have been stolen or near the Union."
She said book theft happened because students were careless.
"Books are cash," Harrell said.
ATTENTION All Graduate Students Graduate Student Council GRADUATE ASSEMBLY
Time: 7:30 p.m.
Place: Alderson Auditorium Kansas Union
Date: Wednesday, May 3
All Graduate Students Welcome! Refreshments served
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