25 years ago: Youth ranch celebrates milestone, looks to future

From the Lawrence Daily Journal-World for Feb. 24, 1988:

  • Administrators of the O’Connell Youth Ranch felt like celebrating this week as the board of directors paid off the remainder of the loan on the ranch’s home for boys. Administrator Al Negen said that a check for $14,700 had been presented to Terry Sutcliffe, president of Lawrence National Bank, on the previous afternoon. About 500 people were expected to attend the ranch’s upcoming annual benefit dinner, where the mortgage-burning would be property celebrated. “I guess the excitement for me is not paying this one off, but starting the second home,” Negen said. The 120-acre rance southeast of Lawrence had room for three or possibly four group homes, each accommodating 10 boys and full-time house parents.
  • Three metallic balloons were reported to be the cause of a brief power outage in parts of Lawrence this afternoon. The balloons had been caught in power lines on the east side of the 900 block of Massachusetts, after which customers had begun calling to report momentary interruptions of electrical service.