City cleans downtown after basketball loss

Fifty city employees cleaned up downtown by 11 a.m. Tuesday after Kansas University’s appearance in the NCAA championship game.

“We usually have one guy pick up along downtown every day,” said Mark Hecker, the city’s superintendent of parks and maintenance. “We gave him 49 helpers today.”

The game drew a number of KU fans to downtown’s restaurants and bars. They left beer bottles and other trash strewn throughout the area.

“We were glad there was no vandalism,” Hecker said.

Street sweepers hit the area at 5:30 a.m., followed by the workers at 7 a.m. They finished four hours later.

Environment: City plans burnings of native grass areas

The city will use fire to manage native grasses in several areas of green space across Lawrence sometime before April 26, park officials said.

Burning will take place at Prairie Park, areas along Clinton Parkway, the Kanza Southwind Nature Preserve, which is north of the South Lawrence Trafficway and east of Wakarusa Drive, and an area off of 27th Street east of the streambed in Naismith Valley.

The burn will take place in accordance with burn permits issued by Lawrence-Douglas County Fire & Medical.

Burning recycles nutrients tied up in old plant growth, stimulates tillering in plants and helps control woody plants and weeds.

To get a thorough burn, parks officials said, it must be conducted before the spring growing season.

Kansas University: Multicultural center plans win board’s approval

The executive board of the Memorial Corp. at Kansas University has endorsed a plan to build a Multicultural Resource Center at the Kansas Union.

The board voted Friday to allow KU to build the proposed center at the northeast corner of the union.

Officials with the KU Endowment Association are working to secure funding for the project. Student fees also will contribute.

Construction and planning are expected to take at least two years.

6Productions: Severe weather topics explored on ‘River City’

6News meteorologists Ross Janssen, Matt Makens and Matt Sayers join host Greg Hurd to talk about severe weather — how to forecast, track and prepare for it — this week on “River City Weekly.”

Janssen is joined by Mike Akulow, warning coordination meteorologist with the Topeka National Weather Service, to find out how they prepare for a severe weather day, including the process of how warnings are issued.

“River City Weekly” premieres on Sunflower Broadband Channel 6 at 6:30 p.m. Wednesdays with encore presentations at 7:30 weeknights and 9 a.m. Saturdays.