Lawrence water use hits year’s high in June

The city has been using water at high levels, the Lawrence City Commission heard Tuesday.

Chris Stewart, the city’s assistant utilities director, said in a memo that Sunday saw the highest demand for water this year, with the city supplying 23.4 million gallons of water to residents.

Still, Stewart said, water demand through June is running about even with last year.

Commissioners will not meet next Tuesday; it is their traditional policy not to meet the fifth Tuesday of the month.

Dole Institute director’s prose to be published in 9-11 book

The director of Kansas University’s Dole Institute of Politics will contribute an essay about Lawrence in a book about the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks scheduled for publication next month.

Richard Norton Smith’s essay relating William Quantrill’s 1863 raid of Lawrence to last fall’s attacks will be included in “The American Spirit,” a collection of stories and photographs published by Life magazine.

Editors of the book asked contributors to “simply experience” this year’s Independence Day celebrations, then record their thoughts “in light of Sept. 11.”

“As night falls on the Fourth, little else in Lawrence is quiet,” Smith writes. “The near-constant sound of exploding shells suggests small arms fire. Close your eyes and it becomes faintly possible to imagine, amid the acrid smoke clouds rising from the town below, what terrorism might have sounded like in August 1863.”

LMH offers program to help smokers quit

Lawrence Memorial Hospital will offer a free three-session smoking cessation program on Fridays to help smokers quit. Classes run from 9:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. The first class begins Friday and runs through Aug. 9.

The program is based on the American Cancer Society Fresh Start program and will focus on ways to break the smoking habit, how to prevent weight gain after quitting and ways to control stress during the process.

The class is free, but advance enrollment is requested. For more information or to enroll, call ConnectCare at 749-5800.

KU museum studies changes program name

Kansas University this month announced changes to its museum studies program.

The name has been changed from Historical Administration and Museum Studies to Museum Studies. Officials say the new name better describes the program’s mission.

KU also will add a graduate certificate program in collections conservation.

Police arrest speeding driver in possession of stolen item

A Eudora woman was arrested by Douglas County Sheriff’s officers after a car chase Friday night on Kansas Highway 10.

About 11:30 p.m. a sheriff’s officer attempted to stop a 1994 Mercury Topaz for speeding on K-10 east of Lawrence.

The eastbound car did not stop and reversed direction after exiting the highway onto County Road 1061 and re-entering K-10 westbound.

Officers stopped the car near Loring Road and arrested the 39-year-old woman. The woman also allegedly threw an item from the car that officers later determined was stolen, Sheriff’s Lt. Kathy Tate said.

Tate declined to say what the item was because an investigation was continuing. The woman was released from jail Saturday on $1,250 bond after being booked on several traffic charges.