Wichita Eagle: News

Wichita City Council approves plan to get rid of Douglas bottleneck

Dion Lefler — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 17:49 CST

The Wichita City Council has approved a traffic plan for Douglas that calls for the eventual elimination of a bottleneck that narrows the street to one lane eastbound for the block in front of Eaton Place.

At least one council member on Tuesday supported making that change as soon as possible, while the main planner for the area wants to hold off a while.

The plan does not call for immediate change, but is designed to phase in as redevelopment takes place along Wichita’s downtown main street.

This could be the year for eggs in Twin Lakes eagles’ nest

Beccy Tanner — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 06:56 CST

Love waits.

He’s doting, watchful, attending to her needs and whims.

She’s noncommittal, perhaps not quite sure this thing they’ve got going on is working.

New Wichita school boundary plan scales back some changes

Suzanne Perez Tobias — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 13:06 CST

A new attendance boundary plan presented to Wichita school board members Monday would close four elementary schools, relocate Northeast Magnet High School and keep most high school assignments the same.

Superintendent John Allison said he doesn’t know precisely how many of the district’s 50,000 students would be forced to change schools under his proposal.

But several board members said they want to know that and other details before they vote later this month.

Sex-sting charges against Wichita man are dismissed

Tim Potter — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 12:57 CST

Charges against a Wichita man have been dismissed after he was arrested last year in what authorities described as an underage-sex sting.

Reggie Shepard, 35 at the time authorities arrested him in October, had been charged with electronic solicitation of someone he allegedly thought was 14 or 15. He also had been charged with attempted indecent liberties with someone he allegedly thought was 15; the charge said he tried to commit the crime but was intercepted.

Although prosecutors dismissed the charges against Shepard after a “thorough review,” an investigation continues, and charges could be re-filed, said Sedgwick County District Attorney’s spokeswoman Sheri Boeken.

Kansas GOP preparing for March 10 caucus

Dion Lefler — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 22:19 CST

Kansas Republicans will gather across the state on March 10 to have their say on who will carry their banner into battle against President Obama in the November election.

In Sedgwick County, the party caucus will be held, as it was four years ago, at the Century II Convention Center in Wichita, party officials announced Monday.

The doors will open at 8 a.m. with the voting process to take place about 10 a.m. The caucus is a “closed” caucus, meaning only registered Republicans will be allowed to vote. Photo ID will be required. Participants must be registered to vote as a Republican by Feb. 17 in order to participate, party officials said.

West Wichita carjacking leads to extended chase, deadly gunfire

STAN FINGER and RON SYLVESTER — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 09:49 CST

A carjacking in west Wichita shortly after noon triggered an extended pursuit through western Sedgwick County that ultimately ended in officers fatally shooting a man near Cheney Reservoir.

After leading officers from several law enforcement agencies on a chase, the man exchanged gunfire with officers and was killed just after 1 p.m., Reno County Sheriff Randy Henderson said Monday afternoon.

Sedgwick County emergency dispatch said a 60-year-old man had been pronounced dead at the scene.

Sedgwick County may swap land for new fire station

Deb Gruver — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 17:11 CST

Sedgwick County may trade some land to get space for a new fire station that it says will be better located to serve more people.

Commissioners are scheduled Wednesday to consider trading property at 63rd South and Rock Road, where Fire District 1 Station 36 is located, for land on Oliver south of 47th Street South.

The appraised value of the land at 63rd and Rock is about $240,000, County Manager William Buchanan said.

Federal gun sting draws 20th guilty plea

RON SYLVESTER — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 06:32 CST

A 22-year-old Wichita man became the 20th defendant to plead guilty in federal court from a sting operation against convicted felons who carried guns.

D’Andre Tomlin pleaded guilty to one count of unlawful possession of a firearm after a felony conviction, U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom said Monday. In a plea before U.S. District Judge Eric Melgren, Tomlin admitted that on Sept. 9, 2011, he possessed a Heckler and Koch 9 mm pistol. Tomlin had been convicted on three counts of aggravated robbery in Douglas County, according to the Bureau of Tobacco, Alcohol, Firearms and Explosives.

Tomlin, one of 67 people arrested during the sting last fall, is set for sentencing April 25. He faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in federal prison and a fine up to $250,000.

Westar, KCC staff settle on $50 million rate increase

RON SYLVESTER — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 07:20 CST

Westar has reached a settlement with the Kansas Corporation Commission staff to raise rates by $50 million statewide, an increase a consumer advocacy group vowed to fight.

The Citizens’ Utility Ratepayer Board said Monday it will argue its case before commissioners next week, asking the KCC to overturn the settlement signed by its staff. An attorney for CURB said the settlement will hit residents and small businesses the hardest, paying $41 million of the rate hike. The settlement also includes a 10 percent profit for shareholders

“They basically traded small businesses for big business,” CURB’s David Springe said Monday night, following the filing of the settlement.

Boundary plan for Wichita schools: ‘We have no choice’

Suzanne Perez Tobias — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 07:24 CST

This month, Wichita school leaders will vote on a plan that likely will close some schools, open new ones, move magnet programs and redraw generations-old lines that dictate which schools students attend.

The outcry from opponents has been fierce. They accuse the district of acting too rashly, ignoring public input, overlooking concerns and reneging on promises, particularly in regard to closing small, aging schools.

“None of us were expecting this, and it’s happened so fast,” said Jacky Goerzen, a mother of two students at Emerson Open Magnet Elementary, which is recommended for closure.

Wichita police sergeant featured in History Channel’s ‘Top Shot’

Stan Finger — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 15:30 CST

Colin Gallagher is sworn to secrecy.

He spent weeks in a northern California desert last summer as a contestant on Season 4 of the History Channel program “Top Shot,” which pits top marksmen against each other in a “Survivor”-style reality show. The new season premieres Feb. 14, and he can’t tell anyone how it all turns out.

“When I watch it with the rest of America, it’s going to be the first time I’ve seen any of it,” said Gallagher, 35, who is a sergeant with the Wichita Police Department. “I hope my father’s proud of me. That’s my number one goal. I am pleased with how well I did.”

City Council to discuss study of downtown Douglas traffic

Dion Lefler — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 20:14 CST

The Wichita City Council will be asked Tuesday to endorse a traffic study that could eventually lead to the elimination of a bottleneck on Douglas downtown.

But city officials caution not to expect a change overnight. It could in fact be years before a change is made, if ever.

The $125,000 study by the Design Workshop, a Denver consulting firm, recommends two lanes of traffic in both directions on Douglas, all the way through downtown from McLean to Washington.

City of Wichita upgrades data system for building permits, inspections

RICK PLUMLEE — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 21:28 CST

Would you like to know if a neighbor has a permit to work on his house? That answer and others will be made available online starting today as the city of Wichita’s inspection office moves to a new data system that it hopes will make tracking and managing building projects more efficient for everyone.

Checking up on your neighbor, of course, isn’t the main reason the city has spent two years and $980,000 to convert to the new system. It is expected to speed up processing permits, contractor licenses, inspection scheduling and reporting.

The old system did all of those things, too, just not very quickly.

‘It’s a lot,’ Gov. Sam Brownback says of 2012 agenda

STEVE KRASKE and Brad Cooper — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 11:12 CST

Gov. Sam Brownback roared up to the Statehouse last week on his Big Dog Motorcycle.

“A real sweet machine,” Brownback said of his Wichita-made bike.

It was a grand entrance for the Republican governor attempting to make a grand impact on Kansas. With just a year under his belt, Brownback has proposed a 2012 legislative agenda that’s already been labeled the nation’s most ambitious for any state.

Wichita school officials support stay-in-school plan but worry about strain on resources

Annie Calovich — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 06:09 CST

Wichita public-school educators say they like President Obama’s proposal to require students to stay in school until they either turn 18 or they graduate, but they also say it could put a strain on already insufficient resources.

In Kansas, students can drop out once they turn 16, with their parents’ permission. But some students disappear from school without meeting one or both of those criteria.

The Wichita school district uses a lot of resources to try to get them back in school, and if it had to track them down through age 18, that could be a strain, said Bill Faflick, assistant superintendent of secondary schools for USD 259.

Homestead Act brought diversity to Kansas years ago

Beccy Tanner — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 06:24 CST

This is one in a series of vignettes celebrating Kansas history. The series’ name comes from the state motto, Ad astra per aspera: To the stars through difficulties.

It is hard to know Kansas without understanding the impact the Homestead Act of 1862 had on the state’s settlement.

This year marks the 150th anniversary of the act, which President Lincoln signed “so that every poor man may have a home.”

Former Wichita minister, school board member accused of sexual misconduct

RICK PLUMLEE — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 08:48 CST

The Rev. Tyrone D. Gordon, a former pastor at Wichita’s St. Mark United Methodist Church and school board member, has been accused of sexual misconduct by a former member of Gordon’s church in Dallas.

Friends and colleagues in Wichita expressed shock and doubt Sunday about the accusations.

“I don’t believe it,” said Pamela Williams, executive director of the W.G. Williams Community Foundation and whose husband, Jerome Williams, served on the Wichita school board with Gordon in the 1990s. “I certainly hope it’s not true. The devil is always busy.”

Wichita city manager proposes eliminating no-bid construction projects

Bill Wilson — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 07:38 CST

The days of awarding construction projects without taking competitive bids might be numbered at City Hall if City Manager Robert Layton has his way, especially with public projects such as parking garages that are part of private commercial development.

Layton said last week that he intends to ask the City Council for a policy change against those no-bid contracts. The contracts became an issue after council members Michael O’Donnell and Pete Meitzner forced the city to take bids on the city-financed 300-stall parking garage adjacent to the privately financed Ambassador Hotel Wichita at Douglas and Broadway. Bids for the garage came in almost $1.3 million under some project estimates, the first publicly financed downtown parking garage in almost 20 years to come in under budget, according to figures from the city’s office of urban development.

“It’s just good public policy,” Layton said. “There are certainly two schools of thought about this, one being that the private sector can bring in a project cheaper than the public sector. We’re more difficult to deal with, resulting in an increase in costs, things like that.

Valley Center death fuels questions about previous accidents

Tim Potter — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 19:06 CST

Was a 2001 plane crash that killed Mona Griffith, her boyfriend and her 12-year-old daughter a tragic accident, nothing more?

Jeff Chace says he can’t help but have that question. Chace, now 30, is the son of James Chace, Griffith’s boyfriend who was flying the plane when it crashed in a South Dakota pasture.

A series of deaths in Kansas and other states — all people who were associated with Daniel Perez and his traveling entourage — have been raising questions for years. The situation drew attention because, according to a court document, there had been about a dozen deaths involving members of the group who lived off life insurance payouts that resulted from the deaths.

85 take a chilly dip at Wichita park for Special Olympics

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 10:17 CST

Some dressed in costume, others showed up in swim trunks as 85 hardy souls plunged into frigid lake water at Watson Park Saturday for a good cause.

They were there to raise money for Special Olympic athletes in Kansas through the annual Polar Plunge and Strut.

Braving a cold north wind, they dove headfirst, jumped or simply ran into the 44-degree water.