The document is a newspaper from Pittsburg, Kansas dated February 25, 2011. It discusses several local news stories: - The closure of a local highway due to railroad repairs has been extended due to poor weather. - A problem with the heating and cooling system at the local law enforcement center will cost the city over $12,000 for new software and $7,000 per year for maintenance. - The Kansas House passed a bill that changes annexation rules to give counties more control over the process.

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morningsun.net Covering Pittsburg and southeast Kansas since 1887 75¢
THE MORNING SUN
friday, february 25, 2011
WEATHER
MOSTLY CLOUDY
Highs will be in the low 40s today under mostly cloudy
skies. Clouds will remain overnight with a low around 31.
| COMPLETE LOCAL AND REGIONAL FORECAST, PAGE 2A
SPORTS
< DRAGONS SWEEP COLUMBUS
Skyler Muff and the Pittsburg High girls basketball
team get a 44-34 victory over Columbus. The Dragon
boys team also wins, 47-35. | PAGE 1B
QUICKREAD
DEAT HS
■ Fern Evelyn Clark,
Winter Garden, Fla.
■ Virginia Ruth Hildyard,
Oak Harbor, Wash.
■ Norma T. Peterson,
Fort Smith, Ark.
OBITUARIES, PAGE 10A
Vol. 123, No. 48
©2011 The Morning Sun
INDEX
Nation/World ................ 2A
State/Local................... 3A
Local ............................ 4A
Behind the Scenes........ 5A
Entertainment .............. 8A
Opinion ......................... 9A
Obituaries ................... 10A
Sports .......................... 1B
Comics ......................... 3B
Neighbors ..................... 4B
Classified...................... 5B
Health......................... 10B
LOCAL
K-126 closure has
been extended
The closure of Kansas
Highway 126 will last a bit
longer than expected.
Railroad repairs by BNSF
have been extended for K-
126 west of Pittsburg and
just to the east of the K-7
junction.
The repairs began on
Monday and were origi-
nally planned to last until
Thursday. But because of
poor weather, the closure
has now been extended
until Monday, Feb. 28.
Motorists are being
detoured to U.S. 400 as an
east-west thoroughfare until
the repairs are completed.
— THE MORNING SUN
Only in today’s Morning Sun:
SAFE program rapidly
expanding
Laura Moore was hired by the
state to help implement the
Seatbelts Are For Everyone
(SAFE) program on a larger
basis, and the statistical
results were overwhelming.
See Page 4A.
PSU students bring
home awards
Pittsburg State University
students demonstrated their
graphic skills at this year’s
ADDY Award ceremony in
Joplin, taking home 27
awards.
See Page 4A.
FIRST IN
PRINT
Center’s heat, air problems discussed
BY MATTHEW CLARK
THE MORNING SUN
A problem with the heating and
cooling system at the Beard-Shanks
Law Enforcement Center is causing a
rift with Pittsburg City officials.
The problem includes a lack of
proper controls for the heating and
air conditioning at the new center that
will now cost the city over $12,000 for
software and nearly $7,000 per year for
off-site maintenance.
“We essentially bought state of the
art, but we didn’t get the art,” said
Pittsburg City Commissioner Bill
Rushton.
This problem stems from the speci-
fications given to builders for the $6.5
millionproject.Thedesigner,Hossand
Brown Engineers, of Kansas City, Kan.,
did not include the need for software
to monitor and control the heating and
cooling system for the building.
“Shame on us,” said Rushton. “We
should be suing about six different
people over this right now.”
However, the Pittsburg City
Commission signed off on the specifi-
cations, leaving very little recourse in
the matter.
Now, the city will have to spend
$12,000 for the necessary software
and $6,996 per year on a maintenance
agreement with Kansas Trane Service
See CITY | PAGE 3A
House
passes
annex
rules
BY MATTHEW CLARK
THE MORNING SUN
TheKansasHouseadvanced
a bill that changes the rules
regarding city annexation.
The bill approved means
thatcountycommissionerswill
have the final say on unilateral
annexations. Unilateral annex-
ation is used by cities to annex
small tracts of land, usually to
square up city boundaries.
But, another provision of
the bill takes bilateral annexa-
tion approval away from cit-
ies and substitutes it for a vote
of the people to be annexed.
That version of annexation is
the one most used by cities in
Kansas.
It is that measure that
has been fiercely opposed
by the League of Kansas
Municipalities (LKM).
“It’s our opinion that will
eliminate that kind of annexa-
tion in Kansas,” said Dan
Moler, executive director of
the LKM. “The danger is that if
those powers are removed, the
city becomes frozen.”
Any bilateral annexation
proposed by a city will now
have to be elected upon by
residents in the annexed zone.
If those voters turn down the
annexation, the bill states that
the city will be prohibited from
annexing the same land for a
period of four years after the
election date.
“If you restrict that ability
to annex, we may not be able
to grow,” said Mark Turnbull,
Pittsburg director of economic
development. “We want to
grow.”
Turnbull said that the city
may eye expansion to the west
of the current city boundar-
ies upon the completion of the
proposed new U.S. 69 bypass.
However, this measure may
make that difficult.
“We do not support any
modification of the annexation
laws that exist,” said Turnbull.
“There are no problems in
Pittsburg and it’s not that we
are out land-grabbing.”
Thebillwasrequestedbythe
Annexation Reform Coalition,
a group of rural landowners
whose land was annexed in
2008 by the City of Overland
Park.
The other looming provi-
sion requires county commis-
sion ruling on any unilateral
annexations.Citieswouldhave
to present its plan to commis-
sioners for a ruling no less than
‘Career’ comedy
GIRA RD HIGH S CHOOL PLA Y
LEFT: Krista
Jarboe is the
assistant
principal of
Greenwood
High School
in the play
“Career Day.”
BELOW: Krista
Jarboe, right,
as assistant
principal
Suzette Crep,
looks over
some of
the Career
Day speak-
ers. Seated,
from left, are
Jarred Mellish
as a sanita-
tion worker,
Kayla Gordon
as Miss
Homemaker
2011, Jordan
Lowe as a
professional
philosopher;
Amanda
Longpine, who
sweeps up
after circus
elephants;
and Manuel
Lalicker as
an assistant
school custo-
dian.
PHOTOS BY SEAN
STEFFEN/THE
MORNING SUN
Play features motley crew of characters
BY NIKKI PATRICK
THE MORNING SUN
G
IRARD — After “Career Day”
at Greenwood High School,
the students are probably set
for a lifetime of unemployment.
GIrard High School students, under
the direction of forensics instruc-
tor Terry Wunder, will perform the
comedy at 7 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m.
Sunday in the Shireman Performing
Arts Center. Tickets, available at the
door, are $5 for adults and $3 for stu-
dents.
“They’ve done some musicals at the
school, but I’ve been here six years
and this is the first non-musical play
we’ve done in that time,” Wunder
said. “We’re hoping to start a tradi-
tion and get more and more students
involved.”
He might also choose more elabo-
rate productions in the future, if inter-
est warrants.
“It just takes 11 chairs and a podi-
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