Campus/Area
University Daily Kansan / Friday, April 13, 1990
3
New city manager selected
By Rod Griffin
By Rod Griffin and Kathryn Lancaster Kansan staff writers
The Lawrence City Commission ended its search for a city manager yesterday by selecting Mike Wildgen to fill the position.
Wildgen, who earned a masters degree in public administration from
Kansas in 1972, was acting city manager since October 1989, filling the post after the death of Buford Watson, former city manager. Wildgen was assistant
city manager from 1974 to October 1989
“This is one of those days I could’t imagine happening,” Wilden said.
after the announcement.
Commissioners met in executive session for 15 minutes before voting to give Wildden the job.
"Mike has been serving as acting city manager since the fall of 1989 and has kept the city running both Bob Walters, city commissioner.
Wilden's salary will jump from about $64,000 to $81,000. Along with the salary increase, the 42-year-old will take on greater responsibilities.
The city manager serves as a community mediator and consensus builder, he said. He will work with organizations collectively and one-on-one.
Wildgen said he and his staff had conducted business as usual after Watson died and would continue to do so.
"Those goals you have for the next
few years will be ours, and we will do our best to see that those goals are carried out," he told the commissioners.
Wildgen said one of his first priorities was to conduct a nationwide search to find an assistant city manager. He will look for someone who can handle the numerous details that assistant manager must deal with.
"Mike came over to my house about 9 o'clock, and he accepted," she said. "After that we drank a glass of wine to celebrate."
Mayor Shirley Martin-Smith said she was elated and relieved that the Commission decided to offer the job to Wilden on Wednesday night. The vote yesterday morning made the decision official.
Wilden was not the Commission's first choice for the job. Gary Eide, city manager for Salem, Ore., turned
down an earlier offer from the Commission. The vote to hire Wildgen was not unanimous.
Commissioner David Penny cast the only dissenting vote, but he said his action did not reflect on the ability of Wildgen. Instead it was a vote against the selection process.
"The leadership of the former mayor touched this thing in a way so that it was not able to be carried out properly," he said. "I would have preferred to have had a system of choice. I just,wanted Mike to know that it was not a show of a lack of support in him but in other members of the Commission."
Former Mayor Bob Schumm said that the vote was standard procedure and that he was pleased to see Wilden in office.
Council chooses presiding officer
By a Kansan reporter
William Scott, professor of English, yesterday was elected as the new presiding officer of The University Council for the 1990-91 academic year.
This will be Scott's third term in University government. He is the departing chairman of the Senate Executive Committee.
After the election, Ray Moore, who is leaving the council's presiding officer position, handed Scott the council gavel.
Scott led the council in the selection of the six new SenEx members.
SenEx members elected for 1980-91 are Beazaleel Benjamin, professor of architectural engineering; Daniel Breislauer, professor of religious studies; Mohamed El-Hodirol, professor of economics; Jacob Gordon, associate professor of African and African-American studies; Francois Ingemann, professor of linguistics; and Eleanor Symons, reference librarian/biographer.
The new SenEx then elected Frances Ingemann as chairman.
Student representatives to SenEx and council will be chosen after the new Student Senate is elected.
United Way gets $30,000 from KU Rock Chalk
By a Kansan reporter
The United Way of Douglas County received its first donation of the 1900 fund drive last night from Rock Chalk business managers.
The $30,000 donation will be distributed among 26 agencies in Douglas County, said Barb Smith, executive director of the United Way of Douglas a County. The original donation estimate was $23,000.
'Thirty-thousand dollars is phenomenal. You and your dedication . . . make this city what it is. With leaders like you, our country is in good hands.' — Shirley Martin-Smith Lawrence mayor
"Since-1986 their donation has increased by leaps and bounds," Smith said. "This is so much fun, and everyone important contacts through this project."
Mayor Shirley
"Our goal last year was $768,000,
and we received $24,000 from Rock Chalk," Martin-Smith said. "Thirty-thousand dollars is phenomenal. You and your dedication . . . make this city what it is. With leaders like you, our country is in good hands."
Martin-Smith, president of the United Way of Douglas County, said the donation was a substantial part of the United Way's total financing.
Al Hack, 1900 drive chairman, said the United Way board members would meet April 30 to set their goal for this year's fund-raising.
United Way evaluates each of the 26 agencies to set financing goals for the year.
Rock Chalk's donation is the flagship contributor for the United Way, Hack said. The flagship contributor is the first donation of the drive. The donation also is the single largest special-event donation that the United Way of Douglas County receives.
Area religious centers set for Easter services
By a Kansan reporter
It's not all painted eggs and hollow chocolate bunnies.
With the constant string of commercials for candy and cards, it is easy to forget how holy Easter is to followers of Christianity.
the traditions of Easter, the day of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and Good Friday, the day of the Crucifixion, date back to the 2nd century.
Good Friday services usually include three parts: reading and prayer, veneration of the cross and communion.
Father Vince Krische of the St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center, 1631 Crescent Drive, said the church's observation of Good Friday would begin with a veneration of the cross service at 3 p.m. In it, Krische will bless the congregation to hold the 14 stops Christ made on the way to the crucifixion.
The church also is holding a service at 7 p.m. in which the choir will sing the narrative of the Passion, which is the story of Christ from the last supper to the Crucifixion.
St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center will have services at 9 a.m.,10:30 a.m. and noon. Ecumenical Christian Ministries will have a sunrise service on Easter Sunday beginning at 6:30 a.m.
On Easter Sunday, the campus center will have services at 9 a.m., 10:30 a.m. and noon. Krische recommends that celebrities come early.
Ecumenical Christian Ministries,
1204 Oread Ave, will have a sunrise service on Easter Sunday. The service will begin at 6:30 a.m.
Polka party
Jon-Richard Knoff, Trondheim, Norway, graduate student, plays an accordion for a Norwegian polka on the balcony of Wescoe Hall for the combined classes of Norwegian 116 and Danish 108. Class members danced yesterday mainly for fun but also as a cultural experience, said Kai Hovind, graduate teaching assistant in Norwegian.
No leads yet on missing python
By Pam Sollner
Kansan staff writer
Remember that sick, stolen python that may be slithering around a KU fraternity? It still may be on the loose.
The hunt for the five-foot python named Satan began last week after it confessed Sgt. Schuyler Bailey of KU police about the stolen snake.
Sgt. Don Spears of the Belton police said two Burmese python were stolen from Eric Carrot of Pecular, Mo., on March 16. Carrot was shot with rot infections when daily injections for rot infection on their undersides.
The medication is lethal if injected directly into humans, Spears said. Officials are worried that the toxic medicine could be transferred if the python bit someone.
The snakes were sold to The Menagerie, a Kansas City, Mo. pet store, about a month ago.
A co-manager at the pet store said one snake was bought by a Weston, Mo., man, who returned it March 30. The other snake was bought March 26 by two men, who they belonged to a KU fraternity.
Spears said Wednesday that he had received no calls about the matter.
Margaret Miller, assistant director of the organizations and activities center and coordinator of greek programs, notified all fraternities last week and asked them to make announcements about the situation at their chapter meetings.
She said Wednesday that she had not heard from any fraternity.
Bailey said the snakes might not have been sold to KU students.
"I would hope that if someone at KU or affiliated with KU, had it, they would bring it in," he said. "I could be a health hazard."
Anyone with information about the missing python should call Bailey of the KU police at 864-5572, or Spears of the Belton, Mo., police at (816) 313-1500.
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