Boog Highberger, Lawrence’s new mayor, describes himself as both idealistic and pragmatic. He’ll likely need both qualities if he hopes to accomplish the task he’s put at the top of his to-do list during his one-year mayoral term.

“I intend to settle the issue of the South Lawrence Trafficway while I’m mayor,” Highberger said.

Highberger, who started his term as mayor Tuesday when fellow city commissioners chose him for the position, said the time was right for the community to come together on a plan to complete the southern bypass project. Currently, the road connects Interstate 70 northwest of Lawrence to U.S. Highway 59 in southern Lawrence. But the final leg of the road that would connect U.S. 59 with Kansas Highway 10 east of the city has been mired in about 10 years of legal battles pitting local governments against environmentalists and students at Haskell Indian Nations University, which is adjacent to one of the proposed routes.

But Highberger said he sensed attitudes were changing.

“I think one thing that is different is that as our city grows, a lot of the longtime opponents of the road will agree that a southern highway is needed,” Highberger said. “That’s a new development.”

He said supporters of the road now needed to let go of the long-held notion that the highway must be built through the Haskell-Baker Wetlands.

“The proponents of the trafficway need to simply realize that it is not going through the wetlands,” Highberger said. “It is not going next to Haskell Indian Nations University.”

Once the two sides can agree on that, Highberger said, they can begin a serious dialogue to find a sensible route south of the Wakarusa River that “will serve our traffic needs with minimal environmental damage.”

State funding hopes

New Lawrence Mayor Boog Highberger shares a laugh with his mother, Norma Highberger, during a reception for the new mayor and newly elected city commissioners. Mike Amyx was sworn in as a commissioner and elected vice mayor at Tuesday's meeting.

Though the project has been bogged down for so long that it has fallen out of the funding plans of the Kansas Department of Transportation, Highberger is holding out hope the state will again plan funds for the trafficway. He said the already-approved widening of U.S. 59 to four lanes and the proposed widening of K-10 make the road a critical link in the state’s transportation system.

And he believes there may be other strategies the city could pursue in finding funding for the road. He said if the project were expanded to include a connection between K-10 and I-70 east of town — which is a route that would require a new bridge over the Kansas River — the Kansas Turnpike Authority might become involved. Highberger said he hadn’t broached the subject with the KTA.

“But it is a strategy worth pursuing,” Highberger said.

Uniting the sides

The 45-year-old attorney — who was elected to the commission two years ago as one of three Progressive Lawrence candidates — says he believes he may have the makeup to bring people together on the trafficway issue.

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“I’m idealistic and pragmatic,” Highberger said. “I enjoy working with people to try to find solutions that are more than just a win-lose situation.”

Others agree that Highberger may be the best-equipped of the current city commissioners to bring together the two different groups of people who are on opposite sides of the trafficway issue.

Lavern Squier, president of the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce, said Highberger did have a reputation for listening to multiple viewpoints.

“I think his demeanor is a calm and considerate one,” Squier said. “I think that will bode well for him in the months to come. He’s aware of multiple viewpoints. Now he’ll have to coalesce them.”

“I think Boog tends to be less of a lightning rod than some others on the commission,” said David Schauner, a fellow commissioner. “I think he probably has a different type of access to the two camps than some of us do.

“But if he can bring everybody together on the trafficway issue, congratulations, because that will be a big chore.”

Personal history

Highberger has overcome long odds before. As a 15-year-old growing up in Garnett, he broke his neck while diving into a snowbank.

“It is funny what sounds like a good idea when you are a kid,” Highberger said.

He lay in a bed at the Kansas University Medical Center for months, paralyzed from the neck down. His father came to his bedside every day to work and massage his muscles. Despite a prognosis from doctors that he would remain paralyzed, he regained feeling. Today, he walks and moves with difficulty but does so unassisted.

Highberger came to Lawrence in 1977 and has been in the community ever since — except for a three-month stint in a Volkswagen bus in Mexico. He earned his undergraduate degree in electrical engineering and a law degree from Kansas University.

For the past dozen years he’s worked as an attorney for the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, where he was hired by Bob Eye, the attorney who has represented opponents of the SLT.

Highberger also technically serves as the chief executive of Garnett-based JEM Farm Machinery, the implement sales business his late father owned, though Highberger said he was not actively involved in the day-to-day operations of the business.

But Highberger — whose given name is Dennis but has been known as Boog since grade school — has been involved in Lawrence ventures. In the late 1990s, he was involved in a group that briefly started the REAL dollar project, a system of locally produced currency that could be spent at local merchants. He also was part of a group that operated a low-power radio station that shut down after it became embroiled in a dispute with the Federal Communications Commission regarding whether it needed a license. Highberger continues to serve on the board of the Lawrence Community Mercantile, an organization he has been involved with since the late 1970s.

‘Pretty good place’

These days, though, Highberger said he was spending more time focusing on his city duties. He generally likes what he sees. He said he thought the City Commission with its progressive majority had made changes that resulted in more equitable growth and greater voices for neighborhoods. But he didn’t think the city was going to Hades in a handbasket two years ago and doesn’t think it is headed in that direction today.

“I think over the last two years, we have undergone a little bit of a shift in how we have done business,” Highberger said. “But I wouldn’t say we are at a crossroads or anything like that right now. I think we’re in a pretty good place. We just need to not become complacent.”