Students get peek at ins, outs of city government
Aaron Cedeño | Staff Writer
So just what goes on at City Hall?
It’s a question most Lenexa residents, young and old, have asked. City planner Brant Gaul and former city employee Carol Gonzalez saw an opportunity to answer that question more than a decade ago.
“We’d had discussions about people coming in to City Hall who just knew so little about all the different things that we did,” Gaul remembered. “In fact, Carol and I, we were fairly new at the time ourselves, and we didn’t realize all the things that the city got involved with.”
What resulted in 1995 was the “Learning About Lenexa” program, which teaches third-graders how City Hall operates. The program piloted with Mill Creek Elementary School in the Shawnee Mission school district, but word quickly spread.
“After we did that initial pilot program with (Mill Creek), we went back to the school district, and said, ‘Would you like us to do this with any of your other schools?” Gaul said. “And they said, ‘Yes, all of them.’”
The program now is offered at every Shawnee Mission elementary school within Lenexa city limits, Manchester Park Elementary School in the Olathe school district and Holy Trinity Catholic School.
Mayor Mike Boehm — who participates in the program’s final session, which is a field trip to City Hall — said the program helps students relate to government.
“If you remember when you went to elementary school and you talked about government, you learned about New York and Paris,” he said. “You didn’t learn about your own town, but you learned about the big cities. (The students) need to know about their own back yard.”
The program has four sessions with special events accompanying each. For example, during the history presentation, Parks and Recreation Director Bill Nicks dresses up as Lenexa’s founder, Octave Chanute, and tells stories of the city’s past. Infrastructure and mapping also receive their own days. The program culminates with the trip to City Hall.
Erin Donnelly has taught at Sunflower Elementary School for seven years. She said her students, who traveled to City Hall on Nov. 9, understood the value and importance of government thanks to an example provided by their peers several years ago. That proposal was to look into the merits of a skate park. One was built at Sar-Ko-Par Trails Park, 87th Street Parkway and Lackman Road.
“It’s a great program,” Donnelly said. “We always look forward to it.”
Gaul and Boehm said the program often was as valuable to adults as it was to the students.
“It’s third-grade level, but adults can pick this up and learn something pretty quickly about the city that they live in,” he said. “And I think the main thing is that from our perspective, obviously the kids are learning more about Lenexa and some of the other cities now.”
Boehm said parents have commented on the program.
“I’ve gotten so many compliments from the parents on ‘Well I learned this’ or ‘I didn’t know that,’” Boehm added. “That’s always fun.”

City calls for input on planning project
Aaron Cedeño | Staff Writer
When it comes to the city’s Vision 2030 project, city officials say there can’t be too many cooks in Lenexa’s kitchen.
“The goal is to get as many ideas as we can, as many themes as we can,” Assistant City Administrator Molly Deckert said.
The goal of Vision 2030, as it was with Vision 2020 in 1996, is to develop a plan for Lenexa’s future. Vision 2020 was responsible for many of the ideas now coming to fruition within city limits, such as City Center and Lake Lenexa. Deckert said the project’s success depends heavily on community input and involvement.
To that end, the city will have two community forums at 6:30 p.m. Nov. 27 and 29 in the Lenexa Community Center, 13420 Oak St. Deckert said she’d like to see as many as 200 to 300 people at each session.
“It’s very important, really,” she said of the forums. “In Vision 2020, the ideas that were in the plan came from these community meetings. So really this is a time for us to listen and hear what’s going on in the community and what they want to see.”
The project’s steering committee will derive a list of reoccurring themes from the meetings and narrow down that list.
Deckert said a secondary goal of the forums was to foster interest among attendees who may want to join the committee. Already, she said, more than 100 people have applied.
“We’re pretty happy with that because we’ve been using Town Talk and the Web site and avenues like that to get the word out,” she said.
For more information, visit www.ci.lenexa.ks.us, or call City Hall at 477-7500.

Bridge to lake, park expected in July 2008
Aaron Cedeño | Staff Writer
The construction of the new bridge near Monticello Road and 91st Street took a big step forward Nov. 1 when the cement for the deck was poured.
City engineer Tim Green said the project remained on track for its target completion date in July.
“Basically everything that you drive on, the whole driving surface, the deck of the bridge was poured that day,” he said. “There’s about 1,300 cubic yards of concrete in place.”
Senior staff engineer Hobie Crane said with the deck poured, the project was approximately 75 percent complete. The next step would be to add elements such as sidewalks and railings to the bridge’s sides and complete the other roadwork in the area. Green said that only six to seven residences were near the construction site, but that he hadn’t heard of any complaints.
“The contractor’s done a good job,” Green said. “I don’t think there’s been any time out there where the residents who live along there haven’t had access to their drives.”
When it’s completed, the bridge will allow access to the highly anticipated Lake Lenexa and Black Hoof Park, adding 160 acres of park land to the city when those projects are complete.
“We’ve still got some other work to do out of Black Hoof Park,” Green said. “We’ve got some landscaping and other things, and our thought was that we’d like to get it 100 percent, let it look nice, and open it when we’re done with the whole thing.”

School begins veterans ceremony
Aaron Cedeño | Staff Writer
For each of her 11 years as a music teacher at Cedar Creek Elementary School, Carolyn Pickering has wanted to celebrate Veterans Day. But the trouble was she never could remember to plan until it was too late.
“So at the end of the school year last year, I just made myself a note and said, ‘Get on it right away,’” she recalled.
With the help of school counselor Sherry Giebler, Pickering began to plan for this year.
In the weeks leading up to Veterans Day, students were taught about what it means to be a veteran and encouraged to decorate a star in honor of a veteran they knew. The stars would be posted on Cedar Creek’s Veterans Wall.
Pickering said the memory of her father, a World War II veteran and recipient of a Purple Heart, provided her with the original idea.
“He’s deceased, and so I wore his Purple Heart (on Nov. 12, during the celebration),” Pickering said. “So I think in honor of him I’ve always wanted to do something because of that.”
The school also organized a flag-raising ceremony Nov. 12, accompanied by Marshall Fife, an Olathe Northwest High School student and Eagle Scout, playing “Taps” on his trumpet. Cedar Creek Boy Scouts wore their uniforms and participated in the flag raising. Giebler said that incorporating the Scouts was important, and that Eagle Scouts like Fife provided the younger students with a goal.
“To be able to see a real Eagle Scout kind of gets the boys motivated,” she said. “It was just a way to tie in that whole character education of what those kids do in Scouts, as part of a national holiday.”
Giebler and Pickering said that the celebration was a success, and that they hoped to see the ceremony become a tradition. The students, they said, had a solid grasp on the day’s importance.
“Even the little kindergarten students said, ‘It’s a day to honor the soliders, both the ones who have died and the ones who are still serving,’” Giebler said. “For a 5-year-old to be able to comprehend that this is a day to celebrate our freedom, that’s great. And obviously as the kids got older, the understanding was even better.”

Department’s Marine breakfast grows
Aaron Cedeño | Staff Writer
For today’s Marine, even parties are steeped in history and tradition.
Every Nov. 10, retired and active Marines across the globe formally acknowledge the birthday of the U.S. Marine Corps. The tradition has been in place since 1952 and includes a cake-cutting ceremony.
Capt. Frank Ise, a retired Marine and 18-year member of the Lenexa Police Department, decided 13 years ago with two other Marines in the department to celebrate the event. He said it started out small — with a cake and a handful of people in the department’s break room.
“Probably there was six of us that got together and baked a cake, cut it, and from there it was kind of built upon,” Ise said.
It may have started with six, but it didn’t take long for word to spread. The celebration soon outgrew the break room and was moved to the department’s training facility with room for 150 people. That worked for a while, but when Ise and Co. started including breakfast, things got even bigger.
Though he didn’t have an official count, Ise guessed that attendance this year at the event, which took place at the Lenexa Community Center, was about 250. In fact, the growth was so rapid that until Garden Villas of Lenexa offered to cater the breakfast, Ise said they had trouble feeding everyone.
“And so now we’ve got this Marine Corps birthday breakfast, and we’ve got free chow early in the morning, which continues to draw more and more people,” he said.
Capt. Eric Tausch, an active-duty Marine who recently returned to the United States after being stationed in Okinawa, Japan, said the eagerness of Marines to recognize Nov. 10 was rooted in their understanding of the importance of tradition.
“Today’s Marines are very, very cognizant of what their forefathers have done, their predecessors have done, their sacrifice in every sense of the term,” Tausch said. “The birthday celebration is just one of those traditions that we, Marines now, are responsible for upholding.”
Ise and Tausch said one of the most fascinating aspects of such a large gathering was the camaraderie that transcended generation gaps. In fact, the cake-cutting ceremony itself is designed to honor that connection by offering the first two pieces to the oldest and youngest soldiers.
“When you see a lot of these old Marines in particular get together and start sharing stories, well, there’s a very strong bond that exists, and that’s really from generation to generation,” Ise said. “That commonality continues.”

Lenexa couple makes documentary
Aaron Cedeño | Staff Writer
Lenexa resident Bonnie Hansen had been interested in the life of Loula Long Combs, daughter of 1920s lumber tycoon and influential Kansas Citian R.A. Long, for a while when inspiration struck nearly three years ago.
“It was a dream,” she said. “At three in the morning I just woke up with this really vivid dream that I was watching a movie about her life, and I couldn’t get back to sleep. It was one of those things; it was just an inspired moment.”
Hansen’s husband, Peter, is a screenwriter who had worked with director Richard Luckin. Bonnie Hansen, convinced she could make the film happen, called Luckin to see if there was any interest. As it turned out, there was plenty. Luckin told Hansen that he’d been looking for something different, and that the enigmatic Combs, one of the greatest equestrians in the world during a time when the sport was dominated by men, provided such an outlet.
The project quickly grew. Contacting the R.A. Long Historical Society for help, the Hansens said the organization was responsive to the idea — so much so that it sparked an interest in incorporating Long’s life into the production as well.
Peter Hansen is a local historian and historical writer specializing in the railroad industry in America. He was the project’s screenwriter and said the subject was a natural extension of his previous work.
“I work a great deal with academic historians and things like that,” he said. “Turns out that there’s really quite a bit of overlap between the story of R.A. Long and the lumber business and the story of railroads just because it was railroads that made the industrial harvesting of lumber actually possible.”
Like his daughter, who was a social pioneer, Long was a revolutionary thinker in his own right. He devoted the vast majority of his personal fortune to providing his employees with amenities rarely seen at the time. Long was also one of the first to concern himself with reforestation. Locally, he was critical in the development of Liberty Memorial, donated Corinthian Hall to the city and owned the expansive property of Longview Farm, which still bears his name.
Local dog trainer Suezanne Law also became involved in the project. Combs was a noted animal lover and especially doted on her two Boston terriers. Law’s dogs, Humbug and George, became involved with the production.
Law said Combs and Long provided an example from which many could draw inspiration.
“The reason that I’m so excited about the project, and that I have been so honored to be involved, is this whole idea that we have a responsibility not just to each other but to the creatures we share the Earth with and to the Earth itself,” Law explained. “That’s what’s exciting about it to me.”
Principal photography on the film lasted nine months and was done primarily in Kansas City and in Longview, Wash., the town Long helped found in the early 1920s.
Now complete, “Ours to Give: The Long Legacy of an American Family” will premiere at the Liberty Memorial in Kansas City on Nov. 18. The public can see the film on KCPT Channel 19 at 7 p.m. Thanksgiving Day.
“In view of the film’s themes of family and giving and so forth, we feel that the Thanksgiving night timeslot is just perfect,” Peter Hansen said.
Bonnie Hansen agreed.
“I think it’s a story about generosity and the human spirit,” she added.
For more information, visit the Web site of the R.A. Long Historical Society at www.ralonghistoricalsociety.org.

Olathe Northwest to perform ‘Little Shop of Horrors’
Kristin Babcock | Staff Writer
It’s not easy to become a venus flytrap.
Senior Justin Petty is part of the two-person team that will play the venus flytrap in “Little Shop of Horrors” at Olathe Northwest High School. Each night, Petty will climb into two flytrap puppets large enough to eat a human.
“It is hot and sweaty like you are losing pounds and pounds,” Petty said. “You are standing up and hunched over at the same time.”
He operates the movement, and Sam Parkinson provides the sound. Petty, who played football this season for Olathe Northwest, said the puppetry has taken athleticism and a lot of practice. Both actors worked extra hours figuring out how to make the flytrap look alive.
“You have to have a sixth sense for when to move the mouth of the plant,” Petty said.
But Petty said the extra work has helped him create one of his favorite roles at Olathe Northwest.
“It has been an amazing experience being able to do this,” Petty said. “It’s one I’ll never forget. I could be lying on my death bed and remember being inside a huge venus flytrap for some school musical.”
For the last four years, the theater department has presented Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals. Director Robin Murphy said she wanted to provide students with something more contemporary and comical and something that allows for an ensemble cast.
“Little Shop of Horrors” was perfect, she said. Based on a 1960s science fiction B-movie, it follows young florist Seymour and his mishaps with a venus flytrap. Senior Brett Bailey plays Seymour.
“It is similar to any musical in that it has all of those musical elements but kind of different for more kinds of people,” Bailey said. “There is more comedy and something for horror fans. There’s guts and gore...It’s a little goofy, and it has elements of romance.”
The tagline they picked for the show is: “Halloween may be over, but the horrors have just begun.”
“It’s a little less about real life,” Murphy said. “A lot of high schools do this musical because it is something other high school students not interested in musical theater may be interested in coming to.”
Senior Alexandra Cole plays Seymour’s love interest, Audrey.
“You can make the show really cheesy if you want to, or you can make it really real,” Cole said. “I think we’ve made it fun for anybody to watch.”
Olathe Northwest will present “Little Shop of Horrors” at 7 p.m. Nov. 15, 16 and 17. For ticket information, call 780-7150.

— Contact Kristin Babcock at 764-2211, ext. 136, or kbabcock@theolathenews.com.

SMW grad key in college stunner
Tod Palmer | Sports Editor
The biggest ripple created in the opening week of the college basketball season came from a tiny school in Boiling Springs, N.C.
Gardner-Webb University has a full-time enrollment below 2,900.
An Atlantic Sun Conference member, the Runnin’ Bulldogs men’s basketball team hadn’t beaten a major-conference team or taken down a ranked foe since joining the NCAA Div. I ranks eight years ago.
That changed Nov. 7 at Rupp Arena in Lexington, Ky.
With plenty of help from Aaron Linn, a 2005 Shawnee Mission West graduate and Johnson County Community College standout, Gardner-Webb roughed up 20th-ranked Kentucky.
The 84-68 victory, in which the Wildcats never drew closer than seven points after the opening few minutes, was finest moment in Bulldogs athletic history, a GWU release bragged.
The third all-time leading scorer and a third-team junior college All-American at JCCC, Linn racked up 15 points, eight rebounds, three assists and two steals before nearly 20,000 stunned Kentucky fans.
A Lenexa native, the 6-foot-3 and 180-pound guard was named the Regional MVP of the 2K Sports College Hoops Classic and also earned Atlantic Sun Co-Player of the Week honors after amassing 39 points, 11 rebounds, six assists and five steals in his first two games — both wins — with Gardner-Webb.
Linn then scored eight with six rebounds and five assists, helping the Bulldogs romp past Div. II North Greenville (S.C.) 99-74 in GWU’s home opener Nov. 14.
The next morning, Linn, who wears No. 23, and the Bulldogs traveled to New York, where coach Rick Scruggs’ squad will reload the slingshot and try to take down another Goliath.
Gardner-Webb faces the University of Connecticut on Nov. 15 at Madison Square Garden in the Hoops Classic semifinals. The game will be televised at 7 p.m. on ESPN2.
Win or lose against the Huskies, who appear just outside the Associated Press and ESPN/USA Today Top 25, the Bulldogs will play on TV again Friday at MSG against either third-ranked Memphis or Oklahoma, another squad receiving votes in both polls.

— Contact Tod Palmer at 764-2211, ext. 140, or todpalmer@theolathenews.com.

Ravens look to follow watershed season
Andy Marso | Sportswriter
This year’s Olathe Northwest girls basketball team has a tough act to follow. Last year’s team set school records with 13 wins overall and four in the Sunflower League.
Last year’s Ravens also got the program’s first playoff win against Olathe East. Gone from that team are a number of graduates, including sharpshooter Kaylee Murdock and versatile forward Sam Ronnebaum.
Murdock now plays for Baker University, and Ronnebaum is a starter at Ottawa University.
“They definitely provided some production in terms of points and ability,” Northwest coach Joel Branstrom said. “We lose two kids that went on to play college basketball, so obviously we lose some talent there.”
There’s plenty of talent coming back, though. The Ravens should be particularly strong on the inside, where 6-foot junior twins Alexis and Candace Boeh patrol the paint.
Candace Boeh averaged 8.9 points and 5.8 rebounds per game last year. Alexis Boeh averaged 6.8 points and 5.5 rebounds per game.
Joining the Boeh twins inside is senior Morissa Rumage, who gives the Ravens a third 6-footer. That’s the kind of frontcourt depth Northwest rarely has enjoyed in its five years, and the Ravens will need it.
“If you look across the league this year, there’s a lot of big kids out there,” Branstrom said. “After those three, we kind of drop off to mid-range kids, but it’s certainly nice to have them because you can’t coach height.”
Providing a steady hand in the backcourt is junior Kelsey Anselmi, returning as the team’s starting point guard.
Anselmi is a capable passer and outside shooter who averaged 7.7 points, 2.7 assists and 2.9 steals per game.
“It’s nice to have a kid like Kelsey who shoots 40 percent from anywhere on the floor, whether it be layups or jumpers,” Branstrom said. “She’s capable of knocking down shots.”
Rebecca DeGroot, a sophomore newcomer, is another smooth shooter who is likely to contribute this year. Mia Brooks also could provide a lift coming off a torn ACL last year as a freshman.
The task of senior leadership will fall to Rumage and returning letterwinners Katy Johns, Rebeka Stowe and Keyaira Taylor.
The league is looking loaded, and the road to state still probably runs through mighty Olathe South. But the Ravens gave the Falcons all they could handle last year, losing to them by only six points in the substate championship.
Another winning season and a run to state are not out of the question. The talent is there, but to make it mesh the Ravens will have to accept their roles and perform them to the best of their abilities every night.
“We’ve got to try to establish some things this program has never done before in terms of getting quality leaders and buy-in from everybody,” Branstrom said. “In order for us to be successful we need to be a good team, not just some good individuals. We’ve got some individuals with talent, but we’ve got to be great as a team if we want to make that state tournament.”

— Contact Andy Marso at 764-2211, ext. 138, or amarso@theolathenews.com.

O. Northwest looks for new leaders
Andy Marso | Sportswriter
Coming off a seventh-place finish at state last year, the Olathe Northwest swimming and diving team has a lot to replace.
First and foremost is 50-yard freestyle champion Dillon Burns, the squad’s longtime leader who now swims for Missouri State University.
But Northwest coach Hank Krusen also lost senior Chris Stauffer, who may have been the squad’s second-best swimmer last year. Thomas Bromley, a junior who qualified for state last year, isn’t a sure thing, either.
“Chris is doing an internship, and it’s kind of tough to do an internship and not be able to work in the afternoon,” Krusen said. “Thomas is working right now, and I don’t know what’s going to be happening with his swimming career.”
While he may not have the tools he had last year, Krusen isn’t terribly concerned.
Northwest has about 20 swimmers lined up for this year’s team, which is more than the Ravens have had in the past. The group includes a number of newcomers, but all of them have some competitive swimming experience at other levels.
“I’m not going to call it a ‘rebuilding year’ because that’s really not going to be the focus,” Krusen said. “But it is going to be very much of a ‘teaching year’ for a lot of the swimmers. I think in this whole thing you have to have vision and be able to look down the line.”
Krusen built his Ravens into a top 10 state team around Burns the first time around and now will try to build around the leadership of juniors Devin Rolph and Brandon Stoppelmoor.
Rolph swam the third leg of a fourth-place 200-yard freestyle relay, and Stoppelmoor took eighth in diving at the state meet last year.
Rolph has a proud family history at Northwest also. His brother, Brad, was a key senior on the 2005-06 team that finished fourth at state, the best showing in program history.
“Devin has all the tools to be able to go as fast or faster (than his brother),” Krusen said. “It’s just a matter of Devin figuring out the work that has to be done to do that.”
Stoppelmoor is a good bet to finish as Olathe’s top diver and possibly win a Sunflower League title now that Olathe North’s Aryan Long has graduated.
Shawnee Mission Northwest’s Daniel Beattie, the defending state champion, has graduated along with three other seniors who topped Stoppelmoor at state last year.
“I would say he definitely has to be one of the favorites (at league),” Krusen said. “He’d also have to be one of the favorites for the top six at state. He’s improved a lot and spent a lot of time diving in the offseason.”
Rolph and Stoppelmoor will be called upon to be leaders and role models, but the future of Olathe Northwest swimming lies with the many younger athletes on the roster.

— Contact Andy Marso at 764-2211, ext. 138, or amarso@theolathenews.com.