Area briefs

Clerk’s Office to extend hours for voter registration

Patty Jaimes wants the ranks of registered voters to swell leading into the general election, and she’s keeping her office open late to make sure people have a chance to sign on.

Jaimes, the Douglas County clerk, will keep the Clerk’s Office open from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. today, Friday and Monday to accept registration forms.

The registration deadline is 9 p.m. Monday for people wanting to vote in the Nov. 5 general election, when offices ranging from township clerk to U.S. senator will be on the ballot.

To register, a person must be a U.S. citizen, live in Kansas and be at least 18 years old by Nov. 5. Applicants must declare an address for voting purposes; university students, for example, may register to vote in Douglas County, then note on the form where any previous registration  if any  should be canceled.

Jaimes’ office is on the first floor of the Douglas County Courthouse, 1100 Mass.

Donor issues challenge in school fees fund drive

An anonymous donor offered to match $2,000 in donations to the “Time for Change” campaign designed to offset new school fees paid by Lawrence public schoolchildren.

Jackie Ferguson, co-founder of the Citizens for Students organization, said the donor was a parent of children at Lawrence High School and South Junior High School.

The donor already has given $2,000 to the organization.

If $2,000 is collected from donation boxes set up at Lawrence schools, banks and grocery stores by Oct. 25, the donor will make a matching gift of $2,000.

“It could mean $6,000 for the enrollment fee scholarship fund,” Ferguson said.

The organization was created this year by Rosy Elmore and Ferguson after the Lawrence district adopted nearly $1 million in enrollment and extracurricular-activity fees to balance the 2002-2003 budget.

Lawrence area endures unseasonably cold day

Temperatures in Lawrence dropped to a record low early Wednesday, starting an unseasonably cold day that dropped half an inch of rain in some parts of the city.

Wednesday’s low of 28 beat out the previous record low of 29, set in 1943, 6News forecaster Matt Makens said. The high temperature was 42.

The rain gauge at Lawrence Municipal Airport registered 0.39 of an inch on Wednesday. Journal-World Skyhawks reported the following rainfall totals elsewhere:

Kenneth Blair, 0.43 of an inch, near 19th Terrace; Bruce Stucky, 0.34 of an inch, Prairie Park neighborhood in southeast Lawrence; Randy Tongier, 0.50 of an inch, Deerfield area; William Winkler, 0.37 of an inch, northwest of 26th and Iowa streets; Dennis Hetrick, 0.50 of an inch, Stull.

Light snow mixed with rain was reported in Oskaloosa, Tonganoxie and other towns nearby.

Father uses garden hose to douse house fire

Eudora  A family escaped unharmed early Wednesday from their burning house about eight miles south of Eudora.

The fire, which started in the living room, was extinguished with a garden hose by the time Palmyra Township firefighters arrived about 3:20 a.m., according to a Douglas County Sheriff’s report.

Larry Sturm Jr. told officers he was sleeping on a sofa in his house at 464 E. 2200 Road when he woke up smelling smoke. He alerted his wife, Renea, and their sons, ages 9 and 11, to get out of the house, reports said.

Sturm then fought the blaze with a garden hose while his wife went for help at a neighbor’s residence, the report said.

Firefighters said the blaze was caused by clothes left too close to a heating stove. Damage was estimated at $3,000.