Pole vaulting in a west Lawrence parking lot; new office complex opens in eastern Lawrence

Competitor Christian Cantwell throws up his arms as he watches his final throw of the night along with hundreds of spectators during the Downtown Olympic Shot Put event on Friday, April 17, 2015 at the intersection of Eighth and New Hampshire streets. Cantwell's won the competition with a throw of 70 feet six and a half inches.

Maybe south Lawrence ought to host a steeplechase through Wal-Mart. (I’ve seen the unofficial version when a shopping cart obstructs the dash to the deeply discounted holiday candy.) Or perhaps, Home Depot and Menards could host a hammer throw in the lot between their two stores. Why? I’m guessing most of you are aware that downtown hosts a unique shot put event in conjunction with next month’s Kansas Relays. Well, south Lawrence may be feeling left out because I now have word that west Lawrence plans to host a pole vault competition.

The folks with the Salty Iguana Mexican restaurant at Sixth and Wakarusa have filed plans with City Hall to host a pole vault competition in the restaurant’s parking lot. City commissioners are tentatively scheduled to approve the event at their March 29 meeting.

I’ve got a call into a manager at the Salty Iguana to get more details, but here’s what I have from the plans that have been filed with City Hall. The event is tentatively scheduled to run from 4:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. on April 21. Organizers plan to rope off about 95 parking spaces in the lot outside of the Salty Iguana restaurant. Plans call for a couple of sets of bleachers, a kids fun zone, and a few tents selling beer, food and other such items. Of course, there also will be a runway and a big matted landing zone for the pole vaulters.

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In a letter to city officials, LeAnn Brock with Salty Iguana says the event is in “direct affiliation” with Kansas University. “Our goal is to offer a fun and unique experience to local and out of town residents involved with the Kansas Relays,” she wrote.

One piece of information I don’t have is what type of pole vaulters will be competing in the event. The shot put event has been a professional event that actually has attracted some of the best U.S and Canadian shot putters to downtown Lawrence. Whether this pole event will be an invitational event for some of the top pole vaulters, or rather will be for the many collegiate pole vaulters who will be at the relays, I’m unsure. I’m assuming it is not just for the general public, although — true story — I used to go to a cowboy bar in Williamsburg that had weekly bull riding competitions where anybody could sign up to ride a live bull. (I think I would rather take may chance pole vaulting, although I am concerned about how it mixes with Iguana Dip.)

For those of you wondering about the Kansas Relays, they are set for April 20-23 at Rock Chalk Park. The Relays have changed in the last couple of years. The event has shifted away from hosting professional track and field athletes, in addition to the collegiate and high school competitors. Back in 2014, we reported that KU Athletics had eliminated about $200,000 in funding that previously had been used to pay for travel expenses, appearance fees and other expenses related to bringing professional athletes to compete at the Relays.

I haven’t had a chance to chat with KU officials about the Relays this year, but based on their website for the event, it appears that professionals won’t be a part of it this time either. The Relays are scheduled to be a collegiate quadrangular, featuring KU, Nebraska, Colorado State and Rice. In addition, other individual collegiate competitors will be allowed to compete in the Relays, according to the website. The Relays also will have a high school division.

It will be interesting to watch the Relays evolve over the coming years. The Rock Chalk Park facility certainly gives the Relays a premier home that it was lacking at Memorial Stadium. The downtown shot put competition, which is kept alive largely by convention and visitors bureau planning and fundraising, has added more visibility and excitement to the Relays. A pole vault competition also could be great fun to watch.

This will be a big year for track and field at Rock Chalk Park. The facility will host the NCAA Division I West Regional Track and Field competition on May 26-28. That’s expected to be a big weekend for visitor spending in Lawrence, as college teams from across the region will be in Lawrence trying to earn a berth in the track and field national championships.

It also will serve as a good warm-up for the weeklong USA Track & Field Junior Olympics that is set to be at Rock Chalk Park from July 23 through July 30. That event is expected to bring about 9,500 athletes and 33,000 family members, coaches and spectators to Rock Chalk Park.

As for the pole vaulting competition next month, keep your eyes open for more details. As I’ve noted, the event hasn’t yet been approved, but all indications are that City Hall is set to give the event the OK. But details may change, so check back in before April 21.

In other news and notes from around town:

• Eastern Lawrence has some news of its own. A new office complex designed for small businesses has opened.

The Lawrence Business Center has opened at 1045 E. 23rd St., which is the multistory building that used to house the Miller Midyett Century 21 real estate offices. If you still don’t know where that is, it probably is because you have been distracted by tater tots and soft drinks the size of a jacuzzi. In other words, the building is just east of Sonic.

Lawrence real estate investors Joe and Deanna Whelan have purchased the building, and Larry Northrop of Lawrence’s Re/Max Excel real estate agency, is marketing the property.

Joe Whelan said both he and his wife worked in the corporate world for more than 35 years, and often saw how smaller businesses struggled with some of the logistics of getting an office up and running.

“We wanted to do something that could take over some of that administrative burden for them,” Whelan said.

The Lawrence Business Center isn’t billing itself as a true incubator site, but it is promoting the idea of shared services. For example, the building offers a full-time receptionist who can answer phones for all the businesses in the building. There’s also a high-tech conference room that can be shared by all the building’s tenants. Items such as cleaning service, security services and others also are taken care of by the building’s ownership group.

The building has space for 22 office tenants, with most spaces ranging from about 150 to 240 square feet. Rents range from about $1,000 to $1,200 per month.

“We think a big market for us will be people operating out of their homes, and they think they can grow their business by getting into a little more of a professional building setting,” said Northrop.

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