Category: News

Lawrence Central Rotary’s own Stephen Mason spoke about his recent experience managing the only sanctioned homeless camp site in Lawrence last winter.  Recreation Programmer at East Lawrence Recreation Center, Steve volunteered to be a camp site monitor, a role which evolved into the site manager job.  

In the summer of 2020, the City of Lawrence began to plan for a temporary campsite to provide shelter and support for the homeless through the coldest season of the year.  Lawrence Parks and Recreation took the lead, working with partners that included Burt Nash, Salvation Army, Memorial Hospital, Lawrence-Douglas County Health Department, Just Foods, a neighborhood association and AmeriCorps volunteers.  The CARES Act provided funding for the project.

The campsite, known as Woody Park Camp, was located on a baseball field north of the hospital.  Campers were local; the city was not inundated with out-of-towners seeking services.  The camp housed thirty-three adults, mostly singles.  The site had portable restrooms and laundry services, and the cooperating agencies provided other significant services and support.  When Woody Park Camp closed on April 1, 2021, eleven of the thirty-three people served found housing.  

There was a screening process for residents, which excluded sex offenders and violent offenders.  Virtually all the campers suffered from some aspects of mental illness, however.  Although it was a “dry” camp, but addiction behaviors were a problem.  Staff received confrontation training, and hospital security provided good support.  KU Med Center Peer Support people were especially helpful. 

Steve indicated that managing the camp was a huge challenge which he performed in addition his regular job responsibilities.  He said he was glad he did it.  His knowledge of city operations and resources in the larger community was put to good use.  Steve said, “I knew who would answer their phone at 2:00 a.m. when we had a problem.” 

He believes the program merits a second year, but the scale of support services needs to be addressed.  The biggest challenge was providing sufficient mental health services as existing resources were hard pressed to meet the needs of the camp. Lawrence is the smallest city to sponsor a winter camp for the homeless.

Rex Buchanan, Emeritus Kansas Geological Service and Dave Kendall, PBS personality and documentary producer have collaborated to make a documentary celebrating the 200th anniversary of the storied Santa Fe Trail.  Buchanan and Kendall, both consummate story tellers, are uniquely qualified to speak on the geography and history of the trail.  Kendall has formed Prairie Hollow Productions to create and host a documentary to mark the anniversary.  Portions of the documentary may be viewed on the Prairie Hollow Productions web site.

The Santa Fe Trail was established in 1821 by William Becknell who set out from western Missouri.  He lead a party of wagons filled with trade goods over the 900-mile route to Santa Fe, in the territory of Mexico.  The route followed old native American trails and game trails across Kansas and part of Oklahoma territory. Missouri was closer to Santa Fe than trading centers in Mexico.  Becknell was well received and carried pelts, wool, mules and precious metals back to Missouri.

The terrain of the Santa Fe Trail was rugged, treeless and dry.  The weather was often extreme, and hostile Comanches and Apaches made the trail even more dangerous.  Most of the route passed through Kansas, including the present day cities of Baldwin, Council Grove, Lyons, Great Bend and Garden City.  The trail split as it left Kansas into a mountain route through Colorado and a dryer route through Oklahoma.  Scarce water sources largely determined the actual route and travel time took between six to eight hard weeks.  The trail was primarily commercial and did not carry significant immigrant traffic.  The wagon route thrived until the 1880’s and the coming of the rail road.  The Santa Fe Trail established a vital commercial and cultural link between regions and is an important part of the history of the American West.

Meeting new people and experiencing a new perspective is one of life’s pleasures, according to Bob Rademacher.  He loves exploring the world in his red pickup truck. 

Bob Rademacher is a lifelong South Dakotan who has been visiting Lawrence the past weeks.  Bob has lived in the small city of Huron, SD, for over 40 years.  He and Rotarian Kate Campbell met while both were serving on the Huron Chamber of Commerce board.  They stayed in touch over the years and became good friends as Bob served as one of Kate’s business mentors. 

Bob shared some of his observations as a newcomer to the Lawrence community.  He appreciates the numerous walking trails in the city and finds remarkable the number of banks, churches and restaurants.  Roundabouts are somewhat puzzling, and he wonders how people can get through a winter without a four-wheel drive pickup. Bob commented on the numerous Kansas University promotional stickers and signs that he sees and the great number of mask wearers. He has also become conscious of his South Dakota accent.

Huron has about 12,000 people and is largely Democratic, a rarity in South Dakota.  The big industry in town is a turkey processing plant with a diverse work force.  Bob was raised on a farm, taught high school math for a few years and worked for many years as the manager of Dakota Energy Rural Electric Cooperative.  Bob was instrumental in merging several small RECs to gain efficiencies.

Bob has an interest in politics and commented on the ambitions of the present Governor of South Dakota who makes frequent appearances on Fox News.  He thinks the de-population of rural America is not going to be reversed any time soon. 

Bob is a coin collector, loves hunting, fishing and golf.  He is a NASCAR fan and restores old automobiles.  Bob reports that puzzles and old movies helped pass the time during the pandemic.  It was a pleasure to meet Bob, learn about his South Dakota roots, and hear his impression of Lawrence.

 

Rebecca Smith began her new job at LMH Health Foundation on January 1, 2021—just as the COVID pandemic hit.  As the Vice President of Strategic Communications, she faced not only a new workplace and new responsibilities, but also the challenge of communicating with the public during an extraordinary time. 

 

At LMH, the COVID response involved four components that needed to work together seamlessly.  Incident Command was the hub where operations, logistics, planning and administration/financial work took place.  The individuals assigned to this group were on deck 12 hours a day, every day.  The stress had personal implications as well as professional ones for everyone as their work impacted patients and the community.

Work was framed with the aim to provide care to anyone who needed it.   Smith found that the Guiding Values of LMH were foundational to the work at hand:  People First.  Better Together.  Speak Up.  Innovation. In Joy.  

Because the goal was to inspire confidence in LMH care, Smith knew that communication needed to be patient focused, credible, transparent, and trustworthy.  She worked hard to balance information about COVID against the panic that such information could create.  She found that balance by sharing both the good and the bad news. 

The concept of Better Together emphasized collaboration within work groups and within the larger community of Lawrence and of Douglas County.  LMH built partnerships with the Douglas County Unified Command and throughout the city,  and the community responded.  Restaurants gave food.  Douglas County United Way managed volunteers.  The Senior Resource Center provided transportation and meals.  The Lawrence Public Library was an information hub.  Up to 175 people helped each day with the vaccination effort.  Over 2000 volunteers did various tasks, and Smith soon had 8,000 addresses on her email distribution list.  She took care to provide frequent and readable messages.  And although it took extra effort, she maintained two-way interactions with those who had questions. 

While Douglas County Kansas vaccinations were coordinated and delivered at Douglas County Fairgrounds, LMH vaccines were delivered via drive-in clinics at the hospital.  LMH took care to schedule appointments only after receiving delivery of vaccine, typically planning appointments within 24-48 hours afterward.  By giving doses from vaccine that had arrived the prior week, they did not need to cancel clinics.  As of the end of March 2021, LMH had provided 40,000 doses of vaccine. 

During the period from March 2020 to March 2021, 439 COVID inpatients were cared for at LMH. They are proud to declare that there was zero transmission of the disease within clinics and hospital itself.

LMH has met the challenge well, but Smith cautions that continued vigilance is key.  We aren’t done with the epidemic yet!

Burdett Loomis loves to talk politics.  As a professor in KU’s department of political science, he has made a career of doing just that.  In addition, his periodic editorials in the Lawrence Journal World provide a forum where he can display his opinions.

In a recent column in the LJW, Loomis expressed dismay over the priorities that are taking the time of the Kansas legislature during the 2021 session.  In particular, Loomis notes that they are failing to address the issue of expanding Medicaid coverage in the state.  He points out that Kansas is one of only a handful of states refusing federal money to expand Medicaid for the uninsured, a $250,000 loss of revenue to the state.  Instead, the Legislature is spending time on transgender athletes and other “false issues.”

Loomis declares that the Republican Party, state and national, has become the party of obstruction and grievance.  He notes the failure of the GOP to produce a party platform for the 2020 election as proof of his assessment.  The collapse of the moderate wing of the party is largely responsible for the current state of affairs, according to Loomis, and the situation is not likely to change any time soon in his opinion.  As a result, Loomis wonders if the United States has lost the ability to govern itself. 

Local government generally fares better than the state and national levels, according to Loomis, but City of Lawrence government has been somewhat “adrift” in recent years in his opinion.  A primary reason is the current election law that awards commissioners varied term lengths and a one-year mayoral appointment based on the size of the vote count.  He is pleased to hear about discussions to reform the system. 

In addition, Loomis believe that the loss of a locally-owned family newspaper has contributed to leadership decline.  Meanwhile, KU is suffering from a loss of state support and the administration’s focus on new building projects at the expense of maintaining quality faculty.