And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:

Date: Fri, 18 Jun 1999 00:26:00 -0500
To: (Recipient list suppressed)
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Will Haskell take a payoff?

Payoff on table for Haskell's SLT support 
React to this story
Updated 12:14:38 PM Thursday, June 17, 1999

A reported compensation package for the American Indian school has raised
more questions that it answered.

By Kendrick Blackwood

Journal-World Writer


The president of Haskell Indian Nations University questions the
significance of a reported multimillion-dollar package offered to the
school in exchange for its support for a 31st Street alignment to complete
the South Lawrence Trafficway.

"Until it becomes part of some document and has a signature on it, we
certainly wouldn't consider it an offer," Bob Martin said.

Sources involved in the trafficway debate said the package equates to about
$5 million in projects and cash for the school.

Martin said he was presented with what he called a "draft" list of
compensation in exchange for the school's support to complete the
trafficway along 31st Street, which cuts across the southern edge of
Haskell's campus.

Whether the offer is bona fide, it concerns Dan Lambert, president of Baker
University, which owns and manages the Baker Wetlands adjacent to the
Haskell campus.

Missing are references to a management plan Lambert said was agreed to in
principle by those involved with the trafficway.

"In my opinion, it seems to be uninformed," Lambert said. "It didn't
discuss some issues that would be important to Baker."

The package was presented to Haskell by Dean Carlson, Kansas transportation
secretary. The trafficway, originally seen as a highway around the southern
part of Lawrence, is being pursued jointly by Douglas County, the Kansas
Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration. 

Gov. Bill Graves recently took on completion of the road as a personal
project. 

Neither Martin, Lambert nor Carlson would specify the details of the list.

Early versions included items in a proposed mitigation package released by
Martin last year and a federally required study called the 4(f) statement,
said Douglas County Administrator Craig Weinaug, who said he hadn't seen
the latest version on the table.

"Any mitigation plan offered by the state has to offer what was in that
4(f) statement at a minimum," Weinaug said.

The 4(f) statement included the purchase and removal of the LRM concrete
plant near 31st and Haskell Avenue; earthen berms to insulate the campus
from the trafficway; and the turning over the Wakarusa Township fire
station to Haskell.

However in trying to appease Haskell, trafficway proponents may have
angered Baker, which up to now has been willing to give up ownership of the
Baker Wetlands under the right circumstances. 

"Ownership of the property is not important to us," Lambert said. "The
maintenance of it is critical."

Lambert said meetings with Martin had led to a plan that would turn
ownership of the wetlands over to Haskell but would put the property's
management in the hands of a trust to include at least representatives of
Baker, Haskell and Kansas University.

"We were close to a meeting of the minds on how we might cooperate and get
this thing moving," Lambert said. "In the absence of having those resolved,
we would not be able to go along with the recommendation."

Baker's involvement has been seen as an important part of the picture,
Weinaug said. 

"They can't take Baker for granted," he said. "Clearly they can't offer
land the state and county don't own."

Martin said the Baker Wetlands were included in the package, but it excused
the issue of their management. 

"This was a very brief document," he said. "There would be a lot of details
to be worked out across the board I think."

Reprinted under the fair use http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html
doctrine of international copyright law.
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