IN 1977

The city commission authorized a study of flooding problems in Lawrence but it wasn’t the comprehensive survey called for earlier in the day by Johanna Kollmorgen of the city-county planning commission. Kollmorgen’s plan was far more extensive and something a number of residents felt was long overdue in view of the heavy local flooding during extensive rains such as those of recent weeks.

Bids for construction of improvements at Lawrence Municipal Airport were to be opened soon, with a figure of about $755,000 involved in the project. Officials were hoping for bids running lower than that, of course.

The Lawrence Memorial Hospital Board of Trustees authorized administrators to turn over to collection agencies “selected outstanding accounts” to help cut down on the bad debt problems that continued to hinder hospital financing.

Baker University was expecting its fall semester enrollment to run about 900, according to president Jerald Walker.

The Lawrence City Commission rejected an offer by police and firefighters to reopen negotiations about salary and benefit increases for calendar 1978. The employee groups were planning meetings but there had been no indications of any “job actions” to protest city policy.

IN 1962

Officials of the Douglas County Association for Retarded Children said plans had been completed for a training center, to be titled the Bess Stone Activity Center.

Sheriff Fred Broeker said the county needed a well-run drag strip to give local auto fans a chance to test their vehicles “in an orderly and safety-conscious manner, instead of trying them out illegally as too many are doing right now.”

Fashion experts in Lawrence said there was little chance local women would be stampeded the coming fall by the latest edicts of “world fashion czars” . . . including calves well-displayed by shorter skirts and found bosoms. Local stores expected things to be “pretty much the same” as during the previous fall and were expecting no major shift to the extremes. “Lawrence is generally a fairly conservative town, even with the college students here,” one women’s apparel expert said.

IN 1902

On Aug. 25, 1902, the Lawrence Journal’s headline read “Want to Read ‘Huckleberry Finn.’ ” and the story that followed was “Mrs. Nellie G. Beatty, city librarian, reports that there has been an unprecedented demand for Mark Twain’s ‘Huckleberry Finn’ since the controversy regarding its admission to the Denver public library, and the author’s letter regarding General Funston’s alleged desire to place a ban upon the book. Before that time the book was hardly ever called for.”