Arctic oil opponents make stop in Lawrence

Activists trying to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from oil drilling brought their roadshow on Friday to Lawrence Public Library.

Members of the Caribou Commons Project are walking three different routes to Washington, D.C., to publicize their opposition to drilling. The walkers should converge on the capital in mid-November, after the mid-term congressional elections.

Walkers at the library Friday talked about how energy conservation and alternative fuels could reduce the demand for oil at the refuge in Alaska. They also said drilling would have an adverse effect on the Gwich’in Tribe, which views much of the land as sacred.

William Greenland, above with the Gwich’in flag, traveled to Lawrence from Inuvik in Canada’s Northwest Territories, to advocate preservation of the refuge.

Congress defeated an attempt earlier this year to open the refuge to drilling. Both sides see the midterm elections as a possible turning point in the matter.

More information about the project can be found online at www.cariboucommons.com.

Transportation: Santa Fe Depot won’t be bus transfer station

Lawrence transit officials have decided against using the Santa Fe Depot, 413 E. Seventh St., as a future bus station for the city.

Lawrence received a $2,500 grant from the Great American Station Foundation in 2001 to examine converting the depot into use as a sheltered bus stop. Karin Rexroad, the city’s transit administrator, said only $100 of the grant had been spent.

Rexroad said transit officials decided the depot wasn’t a convenient location for a so-called “transfer station.”

“We would really like to keep the transfer station closer to downtown,” she said.

She said the search for a new location would start at “square one.”