The Lawrence Audubon Society’s annual Christmas Bird Count was badly hindered by cold and wet weather, but the birders still managed to find 70 separate bird species here.

A new free, four-lane direct route from Lawrence to the Kansas City area opened. The last leg of the Kansas Highway 10 project, linking Lawrence to Interstate 435 in Lenexa, was finally completed after four years of construction and delays. The new Kansas leg allowed local drivers to avoid a roundabout way of getting to I-35 and other key Johnson County locations.

Gary Condra, 44, crawled across a roof and broke through a window to rescue another many from a fire that caused heavy damage at Residential Alternatives, 2311 Hawthorne. Both men received minor burns. Condra was a former member of the Lawrence school bard and a former director of Cottonwood, Inc. He also helped four other residents to savely leave the building.

Pete Loux, a member of the Kansas Corporation Commission for nine years, resigned to become director of the Kansas Electric Utility Research Program.