THE SUMMER SESSION
KANSAN
Vol. 89, No.155
The University of Kansas—Lawrence, Kansas
Thursday, June 28, 1979
Castle cleanup
printer of the Castle Tea Room. The 85-year-old building has been operated as a restaurant by Miss Kris since 1947.
Dusting off the elaborate hand-carved woodwork is quite a chore for Libuse Kris, pro
Architecture highlights dining experience
According to Libuse Kris, proprietor of the Castle Tearoom, there are two things every KU student should do before he leaves the University and goes to work. One is to visit Europe. The other is to dine, at least once, at the Castle Tearoom.
Lawrence really does have a castle, but the Caste Tearoom has no moats and no ghee. The furniture is high priced, served in a setting ornamented with architectural details sewn seen
The three-story, 15-room stone castle, firmly planted on the corner of 18th and 19th Street, is the oldest building in 1894 and by MaJ. John Newton Roberts, a retired civil war veteran, with money from the Cemetery Fund.
But now, the castle is run by Miss Kris,
trapy, outspoken and quick-witted
to spy.
MISS KRISE SAID her philosophy as a restaurateur was simple.
"If the 'old girl' don't like it, she doesn't serve it," she said.
"Everyone who comes here is an important person," she said.
She explained her reluctance to more actively promote the restaurant by saying it was impossible to do as good of a job with huge crowds.
"I like it when it's more intimate; it's more fun that way," she said. "And besides, I'm getting older and don't want to work so hard.
This is a complaint she's been making
at least 10 years, but she shows no signs of
stopping.
and coffee or tea. Patrons may bring wine to accompany their meal.
THERE HAVE BEEN few changes at the Castle Teaream over the years. The menus are still hand written. The entrees usually include such items as swiss steak, turbot, lobster tail, beef stroganoff and baked ham. They range in price from $5 to $7, which includes soup and salad, home-baked rotten, vegetable, potatoes, dessert
Diners occasionally get to sample some of Miss Kris's Italian specialties such as pasta, gnocchi and spaghetti.
The restaurant's business is about half private parties, including wedding receptions, club lunches and special occasions, club dineries, consists of evening and weekend dings.
THE RESTAURANT is open 6-8 p.m. daily and from noon until 2 p.m. on Sundays. Miss Kris said she preferred to have reservations, but would not discourage others from just walking in. She has about three hours at the Castle three or four times a week.
Miss Kris and her husband, Louis Fiorito, live on the second floor of the restaurant. She uses her maiden name she said with a chuckle, "I'm liberated."
Despite her complaints of getting older.
Miss Kristis has no intention of closing the restaurant.
"As long as I'm endowed with good health, it'll be here," she said.
INVARIABLY, the house usually uses with the food for diners' attention.
Despite its massive stone-work exterior and corner tower, the Castle's most notable architectural feature is its wood-framed staircase. The room of the house is built with a different kind of wood: birch, cherry, oak, walnut, sycamore or pine. The wood was carved by a 17-year-old British boy, Sidney Endacott, later became a well-known watercolor artist.
In addition to the woodwork, Maj. Roberts also installed in his castle five elaborate marble fireplaces (all but one now cemented shut), stained and etched with intricate form from Frupe, and an elegant third-story ballroom, now Miss Kris's baking room.
Landlord flouts fire code changes
By SCOTT FAUST Staff Represent
Staff Reporter
A Lawrence apartment owner said yesterday he did not plan to make ordered adaptations to the city's fire code until he received a court order.
William L. Lemesay, the apartment owner, said he was not aware of a complaint filed against him Tuesday by Lawrence Fire Chief James McSwain for failure to comply with an order for changes in the Brady City Police Department, St., City Prosecutor Colkornson said.
MCWSHAN ALSO filed a complaint against the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity Tuesday. The fraternity allegedly failed to install a smoke detection system after being threatened with arrest, 1978; Rory Gilliam, fire inspector, said. Arrangement in both cases is set for July 10.
Lemenas said he received McSwain's order four days after a fire last November caused $21,000 damage in the Brady Apartments. The fire department had inspected the building for violations the day of the fire.
Lermesay criticized what he said were constant changes in the fire code. The law first required heat detectors, then smoke detectors, then integrated smoke alarms, he said.
Lemenas said the Brady Apartments' previous owner gave him a letter from the fire department stating that the building was under construction, he purchased it more than a year ago.
Brown said Lemsay did not install a smoke detection and alarm system, did not keep emergency exits constantly lit and did not make structural changes involving fire doors, partitions and sheet rock in some of the rogans.
THE FIRE DEPARTMENT ordered 12 changes in the Brady building after the November inspections, Pam Brown, the clerk, said. Lemesan complied with four
climbing? We're not going to do anything until we get to the ton," he said.
Lemesay, who owns a number of apartment buildings in Lawrence, said the fire chief knew him as a firebug because he had bad three fires in his buildings. None were because of bad wiring or personal negligence, he said.
"Are we at the top of the hill or are we still
PROSECUTOR KNUTSON said failure to comply with a fire department order was a misdemeanor with penalty of up to $100 or three months in jail or both. A city attorney has asked the county to close the apartments and fraternity if they are found guilty and still fail to comply.
However, if the defendants are found guilty, Knutson said, he will recommend that the judge give them a 10-day stay of sentence so that they can make needed changes. If the corrections are made, he will receive that the sentence be stayed indefinitely.
"The fire code isn't there just for the hell of it," Krusnut said. "It's not just bureaucratic red tape. A lot of it has good reason for being there."
Firemen sign; police put on hold
By ROBIN ROBERTS Staff Reporter
The Lawrence firefighters' union signed a two-year contract at 10 a.m. yesterday, but city police were denied mediation in the contract, which expires at the end of 1980.
At the city commission meeting Tuesday night, commissioners expressed approval when they were told that the firefighters had decided to sign so soon. In negotiations had bogged down for several each time contracts came up for renewal.
Commissioner Don Binn offered
"congratulations to the fire department" on
their work.
went through last year. I'm thankful for the leadership of the union leaders and Kevin Burt."
"This is refreshing compared to what we
KEEVIN BURT, city employee relations director, negotiated a tentative agreement with the union leaders last week. The agreement called for a 7 percent wage increase in the city in 1981. The agreement had previously been rejected, and after a wording clarification and after the union was told the city could not exceed the 7 percent limit on wage increases outlined in its earlier 5 guidelines, the union decided to sign.
Mayor Barkley Clark said Tuesday that the contract negotiations could be reopened
Meanwhile, Tuesday night the Lawrence Fraternal Order of Police voted unanimously to file impassions proceedings to dismiss the officer's two-year contract, which is in effect.
if the president's guidelines were increased or rescinded.
However, Burt, who recommended Tuesday against mediation, said yesterday that an ordinance on city employee relations called for a June 3rd deadline for the city to take action against the company to declare an impasse in negotiations by June 1 before a federal mediator could intervene.
BURT'S TASE THE POLICE union phone him
BURT'S TASE, and made formal its request for
the police to arrest the robber.
Burt said negotiations can still be
reopened under a clause in the police contract, but that the city was not bound to call in a mediator. The clause calls for reopening at the request of the police if inflation rose to 9 percent within the year, which it has.
"THE REPOPERATE only guarantees that we would sit down and talk to them," Burt assures.
Burt said a mediator might have been called in if the police action acted sooner.
"I have no idea why they waited so long," he said. "I wrote to them on May 22 and invited them to pursue the matter but we never heard from them. Now we're bumping up against the 1960 budget certification deadline."
Closed meetings bring complaints
Burt said he would continue to recommend against mediation.
By CYNDI HUGES
Staff Reporter
The president of a Lawrence neighborhood association yesterday criticized the city for playing "guessing games" with downtown stores over a possible downtown shopping mail.
"We feel we are playing a guessing game with the city," said Barbara Willis, a professor of history at The University of Pennsylvania. Provenance Association, referral to closed meetings between the city and mail offices is required.
Mayor Barkley Clark said the JVJ meeting was closed because it was a waste of time.
"It would be nice to know what's going on," she said.
A committee of Lawrence bankers, merchants and city officials, met for Friday with Don Jones, assistant vice president of the law firm iaconsi and Jacobs, a Cleveland developer.
Mayor Clark said it was the city's job to persuade developers to consider the development of new office meetings to the public for possible opposition would not be beneficial to the city.
WILLITS, HOWEVER, said the closed meeting excluded neighborhood patrons.
Neighborhood input, as a general rule,
not welcome, she said, because it counters
our efforts to build trust.
"There's a difference in attitude. Why let someone in on meetings when they won't follow the rules?"
Mayor Clark disagreed, saying that the neighborhoods would be given a say on the proposed development before any final decisions were made.
"The neighborhoods will become involved," he said. "It's just a question of what happens."
KATHY CLARK, president of the Oread Neighborhood Association, said the association had not taken an official position on a downtown mail.
In May, the association passed a resolution opposing a proposed mall at the intersection of Armstrong Road and U.S. Highway 59.
An increase in traffic because of a downtown shopping center could cause congestion.
"Traffic is a major thing to be dealt with," Kathy Clark said. "Tennessee and Kentucky streets are already operating at capacity."
"We also asked that they be sensitive to the downtown area," she said.
WILLITS SAID traffic from a downtown mall would be a problem, especially if the mail were located at Eighth and New Hampshire streets.
Willis said many area residents were also concerned about having to move from their homes because no one knew what areas were being considered for the mall.
A traffic study made for the city by Joe Lee, KU associate professor of civil engineering, indicated that major street improvements would be necessary to accommodate traffic increases caused by a mall there.
MAYOR CLARK said it was unlikely that East Lawrence residents would be forced to move, because a downtown mall would have to be "well-integrated" within the area.
"Any downtown shopping area should be of an extend compatible with the surround-"
"area. For example, a grocery store."
"We're concerned that housing will be taken," she said. "The city needs every house it has and it's not fair for the city to take homes away from people."
An ideal size for a downtown mall would include two major department stores and a large bank.
Vote on parking fee raise scheduled for tomorrow
Those who think they finally know all about parking fee scheduling and traffic rules
A committee of the Kansas Board of Regents will discuss today several re-visions to parking and traffic codes at KU and other Regents institutions. The full board will vote
The proposals would go into effect Sept. 1980.
The change which will probably be most disputed is the proposed increase in parking permit rates and fines. John Conard, chairman of the committee that rates the increase would be used to maintain campus parking lots. The parking and traffic budget is made up solely of revenue from the permit fees.
THE CHANGES were already approved by the Kansas University Council in April and a public hearing was held Tuesday in response for the purpose of hearing any complaint.
However, any complaints about fee raise will do no good after tomorrow if the fee remains unchanged.
Only two persons, outside of the Regents, attended the meeting. Both were KU
students; Mark Myers, Endicott N.Y.
junior and Jay L. S. Smith, Greenberg
Saunders
Smith said last night that they had received notice of the hearing through the state's law enforcement agency.
- Creation of a Group I violation, $7.50, for backing into a parking space.
"I'm surprised that we were the only ones who have showed up. We just went to see what the changes were. We really didn't get a chance at the proposal ahead of time." Smith said.
CHANGES INCLUDED in the 3/4 inch thick proposal are:
- Use of wheel locks instead of towing for Group III or Group IV violations, which include parking in a handicap zone or next to a fire hydrant.
- The restriction of some lots to students from 7 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 7 a.m. to noon on Saturday. Students can now park in the lots at any
- Parking permit increases from $80 to $75 for universal permits and from $40 to $42 for
- Payment of fines within 7 days instead of 14 days without payment of a penalty fee
Steady boy
Staff photo by KEVIN KING
Patty Lick, Grandview M., soo off her horse Jobo during competition in the Sunflower Benefit Horse Show last night at the Douglas County 4-H Fairgrounds. The show will continue through Saturday and will feature nearly 350 horses and their riders from several states.