LIBERAL

City finds buyer for closed plant

After three years of paying thousands of dollars on the balance of a bankrupt company’s multimillion-dollar manufacturing plant, the city has found a buyer.

The city of Liberal has received an offer from Colorado Springs, Colo.-based Trade Land Cattle company for $4 million.

The former Trailmobile Trailer LLC building has been empty since the refrigerated trailer manufacturer filed for bankruptcy protection in 2001, leaving the city to make payments on the plant.

Liberal City Manager Toby Miller said the city had a lease-purchase agreement with Trailmobile on the facility and issued general obligations bonds to build the 235,000-square-foot building on a 50-acre site. About 200 jobs were lost when the company closed its doors after opening the $22 million facility in 1999, Miller said.

Miller is certain the city will be able to cover the $6.5 million balance after the Trailmobile bankruptcy case and a civil lawsuit the city filed against the company are resolved.

HAYS

University wants enrollment slowed

Fort Hays State University enrolled its second-largest class in history this spring, leading school officials to look for the brakes.

The university this week reported spring enrollment of 7,932 students, including 3,524 through the its Virtual College long-distance learning program. That was a 22.3 percent increase over the spring 2003 enrollment and second only to the 8,037 students who enrolled last fall.

University President Edward Hammond said his administration would focus on absorbing the growth and not take on any more international partners. The school’s Virtual College program currently works with three universities in China and the U.S. armed forces.

“Now, we want to assess our programs and make sure our business model is working,” Hammond said.

WICHITA

Plane uses sandbar for emergency landing

A single-engine Cessna 210 ran out of fuel Friday and made an emergency landing on a sandbar along the flood control drainage ditch that runs through the city.

The four people on board, all from Wichita, were taken to a local hospital with minor cuts and bruises.

The plane was en route from Arkansas to Wichita when it ran out of fuel, said Police Lt. Jeff Weible. The pilot was in contact with air-traffic control throughout the flight.

The plane came down less than 300 yards from the Maple Street bridge. It missed the bridge and several traffic lights before landing virtually undamaged on a sandbar on the Wichita-Valley Center Flood Control drainage route.