Campus/Area
University Daily Kansan / Thursday, April 25, 1991
3
Interim appraiser appointed by county
Kansan staff report
An interim appraisal coordinator has been appointed to fill the position of the resigning commissioner in county officials said yesterday.
Sharon Dominik, who has worked in the appraiser's office since 1987, will act as appraisal coordinator until a permanent county appraiser is hired, said Chris McKenzie, county administrator.
McKenzie said that the appointment had been made immediately because Don Gordon, resigning county appraiser, told him earlier this week that he would take his vacation leave today, one week earlier than he originally told the Douglas County Commission.
During a 24-hour reading marathon of Herman Melville's "Moby Dick," Kenda Sessions, Overland Park park, follows along with Peter
Readers have a whale of a time
Gordon, who resigned earlier this month after property-value notices were sent to taxpayers, has said he still will help the appraiser's office during the transition period, McKenzie said.
McKenzie emphasized that Dominik's position was only temporary; the Douglas County Commission decided to advertise for a permanent appraiser earlier this month.
'Moby Dick read-a-thon attracts many
Bv Jonathan Plummer
Kansan staff writer
Students rushed by Wesco Hall yesterday, some only glancing at the speaker who stood behind an amplifier.
But many turned their heads two at the hand-printed sign that said "Moby Dick Marathon." And some who stopped to listen and seek the deeper meaning heard a reader say, "This is his search for a creet white whale.
Seventy people took turns in a 24-hour reading of the Herman Melville's *Moby Dick*. The participants began with the entire novel at 8 a.m. yesterday.
Readers, keeping their place in the novel as their time to read arrived, wasted no time changing hands at the library and their readers tagging up in a team match.
Cheryl Towns, Tonganoxie graduate student, had reached a pivotal point in the novel — when Captain Kane rescued—and as her 3 p.m. reading ended.
Mancall, assistant professor of history. Seventy volunteer readers were scheduled to read for 20 minutes each yesterday and last night.
Towns said she was up to the task of standing before a crowd to read for 2015.
Elizabeth Schultz, professor of English who organized the event, sat in one of five folding chairs in front of the podium for most of the day, wearing a floppy hat to keep out the sun went behind clouds.
Mark Hansen, Prairie Village senior, was asked to read but had not read the novel before. So, he said, he thought he could not read in good
"I'm a graduate-student teacher, so I'm used to reading aloud. Plus, I have a 3-year-old to whom I read every day." (I did get kind of dry toward the end.)
About 20 people seemed to be listening intently, some following along in their own copies of the book at any given time.
conscience without listening to the whole novel.
"It's like Professor Schultz said
withe all over, I will have taken in
the whale."
Beside his yellow lawn chair, Hansen kept an insulated blanket, an umbrella and a cooler with a gallon jug of iced tea. As the reader continued, he followed along in a paperback copy he bought before the
Hearing began.
He began turning down corners of pages he found especially good or moving, he said. His favorite passage was just before the beginning of Chapter 33. "The Specksvinder."
reading began.
Although he found he liked the book, Hansen said the reading would prove to be a test of will rather than of endurance.
will to be in one place for 24 hours," he said. "It might become kind of surreal tonight."
"Because someone else is reading aloud it is much easier than if you read it yourself," he said, "You can get a little lost and then get back into
Hansen said the reading gave him a chance to enjoy a book that he liked.
"It's not so much the time as the
McDean burgers
Chef Joe Reitz, associate dean of business, serves hamburgers to John Hamilton, Bellevue, Neb., senior, and Sheri Reed, Wichita state. Reitz volunteered with other deans and administrators to work at a party for the senior class at the Adams Alumni Center last night.
Planning commission OKs first step for Wal-Mart's move to larger store
By Vanessa Fuhrmans
Kansan staff writer
Wal-Mart store officials last night received the first in a series of approvals they will need from the city to relocate to a larger Lawrence store.
The Lawrence-Douglas County Planning Commission voted 94 to rezone about 98 acres on the east side of Iowa Street at 33rd Street from agricultural to commercial use. It was Wal-Mart's second rezoning request in two months.
Planning Commissioner Mary Pewitt cast the dissenting vote, saying that Wal-Mart was moving after only seven years at its headquarters in New York. "I think that the store did not have any estimates
about how long it would stay at the proposed site.
"I'm convinced that we are all here tonight because Wal-Mart did such a poor job in planning in the first place," she said. "Now I must ask myself, some of these sight, could have been avoided."
Prewitt's vote reflected the concerns of some of the other planning commissioners, who said they hoped Wal-Mart would come back next month with a site plan that would address traffic issues and aesthetic concerns.
Dave Evans, planning commission chairperson, said, "What Wal-Mart did on the current site plan is atrocious. I hope they don't asphalt areas that are supposed to be
green."
In February, Wal-Mart requested the rezoning of about 26 acres on the west side of Iowa Street at 33rd Street. Upon the planning department's recommendation, the commission denied the request because the tract of land did not conform to the city's plan and infringed upon a neighboring residential area.
However, both the planning department and commission agreed last night that Wal-Mart had met all of the plan's requirements this time.
Commissioner Bernard Judge said, "Apparently they very carefully read minutes of the last meeting and came back with a careful plan."
Study shows herbicides used in Midwest are spread through rainfall to other areas
By Katie Chipman
Kansan staff writer
Herbicides that are used primarily in the Midwest are being spread by rainfall to other parts of the country, according to a new government study.
The U.S. Geological Survey in Lawrence is participating in a 23-state study in which rainwater samples are taken for herbicide testing.
The study, which began in March 1990, has shown traces of herbicides in all 23 states that were tested, said Michael Pomes, a student who works at the Geological Survey.
"We're receiving sub-samples from the
"They've evaporated or blown up into the atmosphere as dust and been transported by the wind and redeposited somewhere," he said.
Mike Thurman, a research hydrologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, said herbicides were found in states in the Northeast that did not use the chemicals.
Pomes said the highest amounts were found in Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois.
The maximum amount of herbicide that can appear in a sample before being considered is 20,000 mg.
were found to have 0.3 parts per billion, which is below the maximum contaminant level set by the Environmental Protection Agency.
He said the three sites tested in Kansas
Pomes said the concentrations of the herbicides found in the rainwater increased in the months following the applications of them and then decreased in the following months.
Dave Rhoades, park manager of the Corps of Engineers at Clinton Lake, said studies had been done in the past at the lake in which traces of the herbicide altrazine were found.
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