Category: News

Adrian Zink, a Kansas native, had his interest in history sparked by a high school teacher who made the past come alive with interactive classroom experiences.  After  earning a degree from KU, he worked at museums, universities, archives and historic sites.  His recently published book, Hidden History of Kansas, digs deep into the state’s history to relate the overlooked stories of “fascinating firsts, humorous coincidences, and intriguing characters.”

One of Zink’s favorite stories is about auto polo.  A sport dreamed up in 1911 as a marketing stunt by a Ford dealer in Topeka,  it became popular coast to coast  into the 1920’s.  The matches pitted two cars per team against each other with two men in each car–one to drive and one to hit the ball with the mallet.  Truly a “lunatic game,” it did lead to the first patented roll bar for a vehicle.

Boston Corbett is the man who shot John Wilkes Booth, Abraham Lincoln’s assassin, despite orders to capture Booth alive.  Courtmartialed over the incident, the trigger-happy Corbett became notorious for his erratic behavior, likely caused by mercury poisoning from the years he was a hat-maker.  He moved west and homesteaded in Kansas, became a street-corner preacher, and eventually was hired as a doorkeeper for the Kansas House of Representatives.  When he brandished a gun inside the statehouse, the legislators committed him to the state mental asylum.  Two years late, he escaped and was never found again.

Railroad executives renamed the town of Weeks, KS,  after a St. Louis baseball player named Bushong in 1886 without consulting the residents.  Why? Because the St. Louis Browns had won with World Series over the Chicago White Stockings that year.

Susanna Salter became the first female mayor in the United States in 1887.  Nominated as a joke by the men in Argonia, KS, she was elected by a strong majority just weeks after women had been given the right to vote in Kansas city elections.  She served capably but briefly, leaving office after one year and never seeking elected office again.

Dan Partridge, head of the Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health Department, shared a report on the health of Lawrence .

The forty-two people who work in the Public Health Department are proud of its designation as an “accredited health department.”  Together, they strive to fulfill their mission:  To improve health for all.

According to Partridge, quality of life for a person and for a community are impacted by the same factors.  About 10% is influenced by health care; 10% by the physical environment; 40% by socio-economic factors; and 40% by health behaviors.

Douglas County is among the top ten counties in the country on many measures.  The community compares particularly well regarding its low teen birth rates and its few preventable hospital stays, for example.  Areas that need more work are in affordable housing, excessive drinking, social isolation, and income inequality.  All such issues are complex and difficult to impact.  On many measures, a distinction is apparent between the quality of life in East and North Lawrence as compared to West Lawrence.

Public health has 140 years of history in Kansas, Partridge says.  At the onset in 1885, the focus was on improving the environment.  By the 1940’s, 50’s, and 60’s, the emphasis was on disseminating the innovations made possible by medical science.  Vaccination services, family clinics, and the Healthy Family Program all emerged in that era and continue today.  In the future, community health must re-invent itself once again to address new dangers, moving beyond the clinic and into the community itself.  Currently, the Department is focusing on healthy foods and physical activity, poverty and jobs, behavioral health, and affordable housing all viewed through the lens of discrimination and racism that unfortunately underlies each of these issues.

Sue Funk, Education and Outreach Coordinator for the Douglas County Conservation District, is the right person to give “The Buzz About Native Bees.”

Funk explains that there are many types of bees.  Some bees are generalists and visit all types of plants; others, such as the blue sage bee, are specialists. Some are solitary; others live in colonies.  Some are mellow; others anger easily.  Only honey bees can be “managed.”

Did you know?

♦   There are over 3,000 species of bees in Kansas.
♦   Native bees do the most efficient job of pollinating native plants in Kansas.
♦   Honey bees are not native to the state.

Although there are other pollinators—monarch butterflies, birds, and bats, for example—bees do 75% of all the pollination to keep crops and gardens productive.   Pollinators of all types are decreasing in numbers.  Planting a pollinator garden is one way to help ensure that bees and other pollinators flourish.

Nancy Thellman, Douglas County Commissioner, tackled the issue currently facing Douglas County voters—whether or not to approve a ½-cent increase to the sales tax. The County Commission has asked for the sales tax increase in order to fund expansion of the county jail and to create a mental health crisis center with related services.

According to Thellman, it was ten years ago when Ken McGovern, Douglas County Sheriff, first came to the County Commission to warn about the jail’s capacity.  Intended to house 167 inmates, Thellman says that the facility currently averages 50-80 people over that number each day.  Deputies routinely transport the extra inmates to other jails, a solution that costs $1.3 million each year. When inmates are housed at other jails, Douglas County rehabilitation services are unavailable to them. Thellman says that recidivism is up nearly 50% since the overcrowding has worsened. Violent interactions in the jail are now more frequent.

Douglas County has one of the lowest incarcerations rates in the state and in the nation, declares Thellman. The behavioral health court is functioning well. There are seven programs to divert people from the jail currently in place.  Around 150 people are now free from jail because of those programs.

A mental health crisis center for adults that would also be funded by the proposed sales tax increase. In addition to crisis services, the plan includes prevention programs and transitional housing for those living with mental health issues.