Month: September 2015

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by Murrel Bland

Historic preservations organizations need to take a more active role in the community.

That was the message that about 70 persons heard Friday, Aug. 28, at the Kansas State Historical Museum in Topeka. Members from the National Alliance of Preservation Commission, based in Norfolk, Va., led the all-day meeting that focused on education, advocacy and training.

Adam Thomas, who works for a historic preservation consulting firm based in Denver, told of the legal issues in historic preservation as they relate to local commissions. He said much of what can be done is based on the National Historic Preservation Act.

President Lyndon B. Johnson signed this act into law in 1966. This law established several institutions including the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, the State Historic Preservation Office and the National Register of Historic Places.

In 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt signed a law establishing the Antiquities Act that prohibited the excavation of antiquities from public lands without a permit from the Secretary of the Interior. Congress passed the Historic Sites Act in 1935 that established a national policy for preservation.

Thomas said that it is important for such organizations as the Unified Government’s Landmarks Commission to take an active role in creating an inventory of historic places. He said that grants may be secured to take such inventories. The primary role of the Landmarks Commission has been to review any proposed changes of historic sites.

Thomas said that actions concerning historic preservation often must balance the rights of an individual property owner with the public good.

It is important to get support from property owners and elected officials according to Wade Broadhead who was another presenter at the meeting. Broadhead is the planning director at Florence, Colo.

Friederike Mittner, another meeting leader, said it is most important to keep the public informed about the importance of historic preservation. Mittner is the historic preservation planner for the city of West Palm Beach, Fla.

Members of the Landmarks Commission who attended the meting were Murrel Bland, Christina Grey, Dave Meditz, Jim Schraeder, Mary Shepperd, Loren Taylor and Charles Van Middlesworth. Other Kansas cities represented included Garden City, Lawrence, Manhattan, Newton, Olathe, Salina and Topeka.

Murrel Bland is the former editor of The Wyandotte West and The Piper Press.

Window on the West column

by Mary Rupert

Some short items while I contemplate the nearly fall weather.

Law enforcement chases

Law enforcement chases came to an end in 2014 in Kansas City, Kan., after an innocent bystander, Graciela Olivas, lost her life. There was a new policy at that time not to pursue these chases, for the protection of innocent residents who could be caught in the middle of them.

But there have been chases recently in Kansas City, Kan., on July 21, Aug. 17, Sept. 1 and Sept. 3. In the last chase, a suspect drove the wrong way on a busy interstate highway. Some of the chases were high speed. They all involved chases that started in Missouri and were continued across the state line into Kansas.

I understand that there are good reasons for chasing suspects, but I think the safety of bystanders and other drivers on the roads should be given a higher priority.

If the chases continue, maybe there should be a gate built across the interstate highways about a tenth of a mile before you reach Kansas, so that it can be closed on fleeing suspects. Then the Kansas side wouldn’t have to be involved in law enforcement responding to these chases, medical emergency personnel wouldn’t have to respond, mostly Missouri bystanders would be involved, and the Missouri taxpayers could pay for the whole thing.

In the eye of the beholder?

Seems to me (a graduate of both K-State and KU) that a big controversy at the K-State halftime show last weekend was much exaggerated.

When a marching band performance was presented and announced as Jayhawk vs. the starship Enterprise, then that’s what it was. Anything else is in the eye of the beholder.

The pictures served as a Rorschach test of sorts, telling us what was on the minds of those who interpreted it as something that was obscene or NSFW (not suitable for work) viewing. Apparently there were a lot of people whose minds were on sex during an evening football game.

K-State has announced internal sanctions, including a fine, for the incident. Some observers speculated that the K-State band was responding to off-color chants heard previously at the games. Both schools could probably do with a little less rivalry, but what else do the students have to do, except study?

To reach Mary Rupert, editor, email maryr@wyandottepublishing.com.