The Kansas City Star from Kansas City, Missouri • 18

fo METROPOLITAN DIGEST 'f i Saturday January 23 1900 2 THE KANSAS CITY STAB mm KANSAS (ITT torcycle safety The event at Hale Arena wilHun from 11 am to 10 pm today mid from 1 1 am to 8 pm Sunday OVERLAND PARK liquid dumped Police are trying to figure out who dumped a bucket of red liquid in front of the Antioch Petrol police station and why Someone pqiled up to the station's main entrance about 1:40 am Friday liquid on the sidewalk and move away leaving the bucket Hie Fire Department cleaned the mess A lab test indicated that foe liquid was not blood Officials had not determined what it was Hearing waived An Overland Park woman charged with harboring a jail fugitive accused of murder waived her preliminary hearing Friday Doreen Park 44 will next be in Johnson County District Court on Feb 3 A trial date could be set then Park is charged with allowing Carsey Littlewood to stay at her home in the 7100 block of Maple Street after he and five other inmates escaped Nov 7 from the Wyandotte County JaiL SUSAN PfANNMULLER Special to The Kansas City Star A carnival of knowledge Second-grader Stephanie Johnston supervised a math gune today at the seventh annual Souper Bowl Math Carnival at Pembroke HiU School in Kansas City Children in Mary Ann Jennano class devised football-related games to test math skills Artwalaaton to the carnival waa a can of soup to be donated to Harvesters The City Hall evacuated About 700 City Hall workers were evacuated Friday aod many had to descend more than 20 flights of stairs before leaving the building Bob Collins city manager said workers were sent home around 1 pm after a fifth-floor water fine burst Water then made its way into a transformer causing parts of the building to lose power The line burst around 10 am Collins said Most employees used die steps to exit foe 29-story building Blood investigation Police on Friday were investigating Wood found in a parking lot on Independence Avenue Officers were called about 2 pm Thursday to 3021 Independence Ave A 19-year-oki Belton man told police he saw a van backed up to the parking lot wall with a tarp draped over foe back The man said that two men were under the tarp and that he could see blood coming out of the van When officers arrived the van was gone but the tarp remained Police found pools of blood under the tarp and a container filled with blood Police said foe blood might have come from an animal Samples were taken to the crime laboratory where they were being examined Endorsement delayed Members of the political club Freedom Inc met for several hours Thursday night but delayed a decision on an endorsement in the Kansas City mayoral race Mary Groves Bland Freedom president said the club faced a difficult decision Freedom has a meeting tentatively scheduled for next week when the club may make its endorsement Hurricane fund-raiser A benefit for victims of Hurricane Mitch in Central America will be from 7 to 10 pm Sunday at Unity Temple 707 47th St tickets are $5 at foe door proceeds will be donated to foe American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund Three bands BCR the Flexi tones and ERV will perform College fair A fair with information about col- OLATHE Community Food Network leges scholarships and more will be from 1 1 am to 2 pun Sunday at Sacred Heart-Guadalupe Hall 814 26th St iiosts will be foe LULAC National Educational Service Center and foe Greater Kansas City Hispanic Scholarship Fund frostbite but none of her fingers or toes has been amputated said Bob Hallman spokesman for the University of Kansas Medical Center Banks 40 was found just after 2 am at Third Street and Minnesota Avenue beneath the Lewis and dark Viaduct Apartment shooting A shot was fired into an apartment Thursday evening in foe 500 block of North Somerset Terrace No one was injured The bullet broke a window in the empty apartment about 6 pm gunpoint Friday The car nearly collided with several others as he fled east on 95th Street past Rosewood Drive about 3:20 pm No one was injured but investigators hope a witness wrote down the license plate number of foe car a dark gray model Ford Mustang with a rear spoiler The robber pulled out a gun at Community Bank of Prairie Village 5206 95th St and demanded money Anyone with information should call the TIPS Hotline at 474-TIPS (474-8477) Callers can remain anonymous and a reward may be available WYANDOTTE COUNT? KANSAS (ITT KAN Acquitted of murder A Kansas City Kan jury on Friday acquitted Anthony Elias 18 of murder but found him guilty of kidnapping and aggravated robbery in an Aug 24 incident that included the slaying of Darnell Porter Police found Porter 25 dead in foe doorway of a home in the 3100 block of Delavan Avenue He had been shot in the head INDEPENDENCE LOTTERIES winning lottery num-bcrss Missouri Pick 3: 9-6-4 Straight-play winners won $50Q( box-play winners won $80 A 50-cent bet paid half Missouri Pick 4: 9-9-2-0 Missouri Show Me 5: 12-13-16-25-28 No winner of $25000 jackpot Four numbers paid $100 Cash 4 Life: 7-21-66-82 Kansas Pick 3: 9-7-8 Straight-play winners won $500 box-play winners won $80 A 50-cent bet paid half Please check with the lottery office in your state for official confirmation of these numbers Tavern robbed Six customers and a bartender were robbed at gunpoint Thursday evening inside foe New Dutch Tfrv-em 843 Osage Ave The victims told police that two hooded men including one with a handgun appeared about 7 pm and demanded money The victims handed over cash and wallets No one was hurt police said Woman improving Denise Banks who was found nearly frozen Jan 5 about four blocks from her home in Kansas City Kan remained hospitalized in fair condition Friday Doctors have been treating her hands and feet for KCK: Speedway financing completed Continued from B-i speed as weather permits Unified Government spokesman Don Denney said He also said aU property needed for the project had been acquired Heavy equipment has been clearing the land for several weeks and traffic has been blocked off For the first time Friday Denney said the targeted 2000 completion for the speedway was "probably a long Lesa Kennedy executive vice president of International Speedway Corp of Daytona Beach said in a prepared statement that Mari novich and the Unified Government went beyond the call of duty to make the project a reality are proud to be partners and now neighbors of Wyandotte County ana the state of Kansas" Kennedy said International Speedway Corp owns Kansas International Speedway Corp An average interest rate of 75 percent was obtained on the sale of $713 million in tax increment financing bonds The developer will retire the bonds from revenue generated by track operations Sales tax bonds amounting to $243 million were sold at interest rates ranging from 42 percent to 5 percent They will be repaid from sales taxes generated within the track site Almost from day one development of foe track has been threatened by lawsuits A group of landowners within the track site filed the first wave of lawsuits last April They challenged foe constitutionality of the laws under which the track was to be developed Specifically they contended that it was unconstitutional for the Unified Government to use its powers of eminent domain to obtain land for the use of a private company They also challenged the legislation that permitted landowners to be paid 125 peirent of the appraised value of their property To head off a protracted legal battle Wyandotte County District Attorney Nick Tomasic took the issue directly to the Kansas Supreme Court In July the Supreme Court unanimously upheld the ronstitu tionality of all legal provisions cov ering track development Within days the second wave of lawsuits hit filed by landowners challenging the adequacy of mov ing and relocation payments Tomasic tried to take thetissues directly to the Supreme Court but foe court refused to take the case But Philip Sieve administrative judge of the Wyandotte County District Court took foe cases and promised a swift decision In November Sieve ruled that the Unified Government had complied with all procedures for establishing redevelopment and relocation assistance Some of those lawsuits have been ap pealed All other litigation has been set-ded or dismissed Total cost of the 75000-seat fa cility apparently will lie at least 1 7 million more than the $208 mil lion in foe development agree ment between the Unified Government and the speedway corporation Denney said updated ft nancial details would be released Tuesday The developer's equity investment now stands at more than $75 million Denney said up from $588 million in die development agreement To reach Stew Nicely call (913) 371-1810 or send email to snicelykcsUir com To reach lohn Danner call (913) 371 -1810 or serul e- mail to jdaunerkcstarcom Officers on wheels The traffic safety unit of foe Police Department will have a display this weekend at foe World of Wheels All Harley Review The department will display a 1999 Harley-Davidson police motorcycle and provide information on road rage and bicycle and mo 9 RMRIf VILLA6E Bank robbery Police hope a dangerous getaway will help them find the man who held up a Prairie Village bank at COAL: Nostalgia for childhood leads man to be a mine historian Continued from B-1 The pit mine right nere in Kansas City just fascinates Rogers said last week as he walked down foe steps to his basement a different kind of place this town was He calls his basement And it is a place literally crammed full with hundreds of artifacts: lamps and caps picks and shovels wooden cartons that once held dynamite and blasting caps mine baskets identity discs hundreds of photographs and maps and mine surveys And all of it as beautifully arrayed as if in a museum the very kind of place according to Rogers where some of his mining gear belongs To that end he has made numerous phone calls to various local museums both existing and planned just want to talk to them about a he said to show what a vital part mining played in our history But no one has responded to my messages I understand that" What Rogers does now understand though is foe reason for that mysterious piece of pie hisfa-ther brought back to him everyday learned that it was common among miners to set aside a small bit of foeir lunch" he said wus a kind of ritual a belief that saving a piece of dessert for their kids guaranteed they would make it home again" To reach foe Popper call (816) 234-4756 or write to him at The Kansas Gty Star 7729 Grand Blvd Kansas Gty MO 64108 roll To the 1 00 deep-shaft miners he employed men who had worked all week amid coal gas and creaking timbers that was unforgivable In 1927 a man named Emmett Murphy who witnessed the ensuing events told this story to a reporter: miners were wrought up over missing a payday They congregated around the mine office Saturday night and pretty soon they had Gallaher under a tree with a rope around his neck They were wild enough to hang him too with somebody yelled and the rope tightened And back Gallaher came coolly with Say any of you fellers got a chaw of took them by surprise Somebody gave him a chew Somebody else took the rope from his neck and they all walked off together" Gallaher may have been tough and savvy enough to save his neck but his mine failed By 1900 however it was operating again under new management The shaft was 320 feet deep Kansas City Southern Railroad ran a spur to the mine head A miniboom town mushroomed at what is now 43rd and Indiana Avenue with foe requisite saloon a three-story hotel a mercantile store and other amenities But deadly coal gas deep in the mine was an ongoing problem and so was the management The mine dosed forever in foe early 1900s victim of an apparent swindle Gradually all visible signs of its existence disappeared though a nearby street is still called Coal Mine Road under the ground in a coal mine And he After four years in foe Navy he entered the University of Kansas City (now University of Missouri -Kansas City) became an accountant and worked first for a chemical company and then for Farmland Industries Inc I le rose quickly became a high level financial executive and hated it spent 40 years of misery in the corporate Rogers said last week never felt at home there It was lucrative but if 1 had to do it over again I Return to childhood Six years ago Rogers retired early and the first thing he did was grow a long white beard The second was to begin collecting old-time mining artifacts starting with carbide lamps like foe one his father always wore on his mining cap think it all stems from feelings Don didn't have time to dwell on in the past" said his wife Jeanne his childhood was always somewhere in his mind And now it 's like he's going home" Rogers began haunting auctions and antique shops and estate sales looking for mining paraphernalia His hobby eventually prompted him to do some highly detailed research into the history of the coal mines that once thrived in this region And that led to an unusual find one that came about as Rogers investigated a photograph taken in 1900 The picture showed a group of young miners gathered around a United Mine Workers union banner A note on foe picture said it was taken after the men had marched in Kansas Labor Day Parade first saw that picture 20 years ago" said Rogers it until after I retired that I really started to think about it Why were they in Kansas City? Was there a coal mine here that nobody knew about To find the answer Rogers began digging through libraries and museums He went to the limestone caves where old city records are stored I finally found it" he said was a working coal mine here in foe early 1 It was called foe Brush treek Mine and it was on East 43rd Street near what is now Vineyard Park 500-year supply The story of Kansas City's coal mine began in foe early 1880s when a geologist named John A Gallaher went exploring along foe Blue River Near foe mouth of Brush Creek he found traces of a coalbed With foe help of local investors Gallaher soon sank a mine shaft at what is now 43rd and Brighton Avenue Gallaher tough and enthusiastic and perhaps something of a con man struck a significant coal seam In 1894 he wrote a letter to The Kansas Gty Star extolling the virtues of his find The people of Kansas City Gallaher wrote living on the edge of a vast coal mine sufficient to supply the local demand of the city for 500 years" Despite his self-proclaimed success Gallaher soon began to lose money and missed a Saturday pay When he was very young for ex ample his father Roy went off to the mine every morning carrying an aluminum dinner pail And every evening when he returned he gave Rogers a small bit of food he had saved "It was always dessert" Rogers said a little piece of leftover pie soggy and gooey I loved that pie It wasn't until 1 was much older that I asked myself why my father always did that Why didn't he eat his entire dinner?" As a child Rogers ask he cause he took the pie for granted and looked forward to it the same way he took his life for granted and enjoyed it was a wonderful childhood" Re said two railroads by the front door homemade toys to play with and me with a dirty face all day It was wonderful he said despite his growing knowledge that each day his father and almost every other man he knew went to work in a "rough and killing business" That danger though was a sub ject never much talked about not by his father nor by his mother whose name was Jewell But toward the end of her life lewell Rogers poured out her memories in a reminiscent journal 1933 Don 3 months old Afire in No 2 mine Roy and Ernest (her brother) and Papa were all in the mine at the time What a terrible feeling knowing war lowd one was inside (And though they were not hurt) it urn then I started to hope and pray that my son would newr haw to LAWSUIT: Money issue quickly moves to forefront in Amoco pollution case Continued from B-1 detail how much of that money was for seepage and cleanup effort on foe part of the 430-acre refinerykite that are not related to foe pollution below the plaintiffs' property Amoco will show in die trial Ryan said that the two property has not been damaged Homes still are selling in a timely manner in Sugar Creek he said And the refinery pollution is more than 30 feet bekrw foeir property Ryan said no threat to these folks" he said To reach Michael Mansur environment writer for The Star call (816) 234-4433 dr send e-mail to mmansurkcstarcom Pollution from the old refinery foe plaintiffs' attorneys said flows under much of the Noriedge area south of the plant The current assessment of the plume of pollution locates it under a comer of die Slayton property and under much if not all of the Fillmores' the attorneys said Borthwick told jurors that his clients should be awarded foe lost value of foeir homes and $25 million in punitive damages He also seemed to suggest that they should be awarded some portion of $250 million an amount he calculated as Amoco's benefit for not cleaning the pollution earlier Borthwick declined to comment knew for years of the pollution flow ing off its property but chose the least expensive steps to address it As one example he cited the company's decision to spend $28000 on a drain to capture mi grating pollution in a neighborhood south of the refinery rather than more expensive alternatives At the time about $370000 of petroleum products was leaking from the site spent $28000 on a remedy and losing $370000 a year" Benson said In 1951 Benson added a company manager first spoke of a program to replace oil lines below ground with pipes above ground In on the actual damages his clients sought citing the instruction of Don Kennedy the senior judge hearing the case not to talk to reporters Kennedy instructed attorneys earlier this month after he declined to move the trial from Jackson County Ryan representing Amoco acknowledged to the jury that Amoco was responsible for the pollution that had left its property does not deny that" Ryan said "In fact it was Amoco who reported it" Over the years the company has speflt $75 million in complying with agreements it made with state and federal regulators Ryan did not I that way leaks could be easily detected But 25 years later Benson said Amoco was still only talking about foe program At times Benson suggested the company did not adhere to industry standards in the way it handled its leakage problems a suggestion that Amoco attorneys later would dispute in their opening Nonetheless the pollution from the refinery site has rendered worthless the property of two families the Fillmores and the Slaytons The Fillmores whose property is in Independence have twice tried to sell their home but could not find a buyer said plaintiff attorney James Borthwick i a black mark on a company to haw to pay punitive damages" Ryan said that's why important for Amoco to defend this caae' Plaintiffs' attorney Arthur A Benson countered that Amoco's historic unwillingness to spend money to stop its pollution might be a better explanation for Friday's triaL Almost since it opened in 1904 the Amoco refinery has leaked petroleum Benson said For decades it has contaminated its property and adjoining property in violation of federal ai notation laws Benson told jurors'that Amoco.