FEMA officials in Lawrence to help with storm damage

People seeking federal help with last month’s ice storm damage can get their questions answered again today at the Douglas County 4-H Fairgrounds.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency will set up a Mobile Disaster Center from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. today at the Douglas County 4-H Fairgrounds, Building No. 1, 21st and Harper streets.

FEMA spokesman Jack Brandais said any resident or business who had uninsured or underinsured losses as a result of January’s ice storm can come to start the application process. Above, FEMA agent Diana Reagan helps a resident.

Brandais said the agency already has accepted 65 applications for assistance and awarded $1,675 in grants to individuals who needed temporary shelter during the storm.

FEMA officials also will be in Ottawa from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday at the Annex Meeting Room, 1418 S. Main.

Residents and businesses also can apply for assistance by calling (800) 621-FEMA.

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 Charity: Community responds to plea for donations of bus passes

The Community Drop-In Center asked for help. The residents of Lawrence obliged.

The center has received 750 round-trip tickets for the city’s bus system since officials asked for the donations last week. The tickets should last about three months, according to Tami Clark, the center’s director.

“It’s huge,” Clark said. “We have been so blessed by this community. We’ve been overwhelmed.”

The center, which serves the poor and homeless of Lawrence, gives the tickets to its guests so they can get to job interviews  and to jobs, before they receive their first paychecks.

To donate bus tickets or volunteer at the center, contact Clark by mail at 214 W. 10th St., Lawrence 66044; or by phone at 832-8864.

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 Crime: Police investigating threat found in school rest room

Lawrence Police are investigating what they described as a vague threat scrawled on a bathroom wall at Deerfield School.

Police were called Friday to the school at 101 Lawrence Ave. after the message was found by a student. Police would not say whether it was the girls’ or boys’ bathroom. They said it was on a wall in a bathroom of a portable classroom. School officials said it was a sixth-grade classroom. No other details were released.

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 Transportation: FAA grants ecological OK to airport runway extension

The Federal Aviation Administration has given Lawrence Municipal Airport the environmental go-ahead to extend its main runway into nearby wetlands.

The FAA ruled the extension has “no significant impact” on the surrounding environment. The runway will be lengthened by 700 feet to accommodate modern business jets  400 feet of that will be to the south, where it will run through 2.6 acres of wetlands.

To offset that loss, the city will build new wetlands north of its Kaw River Treatment Plant, 720 W. Third St. Federal regulations call for mitigated wetlands to be 1.5 times larger than their lost predecessors. That means the city must create at least 3.9 acres of new wetlands.

The FAA’s ruling means the city now submits its plan to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for approval.

The FAA report is available at the city manager’s office, Sixth and Massachusetts streets; Lawrence Municipal Airport, 2500 Airport Road; and at the FAA’s office, 901 Locust in Kansas City, Mo.