Triangle taking shape; One year after the vote, progress is under way

One year after Johnson County voters overwhelming said yes to a one-eighth-cent sales tax for the Johnson County Education and Research Triangle, there are signs the project is taking shape.

The Triangle’s three points are the University of Kansas Cancer Clinical Research Center in Fairway; The Business, Engineering, Science and Technology Center at the University of Kansas Edwards Campus in Overland Park; and the Kansas State University Innovation Campus in Olathe.

Cancer Clinical Research Center

The center last week announced it had recruited two researchers, Sharmila Shankar, PhD, and Rakesh Srivastava, PhD, from the University of Texas Health Science Center at Tyler. Their research focus is the molecular mechanisms of cancer cell growth and death, and developing drugs that treat and prevent cancers.

They bring to the center $3 million in National Cancer Institute funding, which will help KU achieve the critical requirement of $11 million in total NCI grant funding needed to apply for designation as a Cancer Center.

Shankar will serve as associate professor of pathology and laboratory medicine and Srivastava will serve as professor of pharmacology, toxicology and therapeutics.

In the past month, Maxine Stoltz has been hired to serve as senior executive director for KU’s Clinical Research Center. She will oversee all the operations once the building has been renovated. Construction is scheduled to begin in the spring with completion set for November or December of 2011.

While a search currently is under way to hire a person to manage and oversee the entire phase one clinical trial program, KU officials have been in contact with similar facilities throughout the country to learn the best ways to set up a phase one clinical research center.

“We have been in touch and in lots of discussions with programs like the Karmanos Cancer Center in Detroit,” Erica Brown, KU spokesperson, said. “They have one of the top phase one cancer clinical trials programs in the country.

“And what we’re learning from talking to a lot of people is that we’re essentially providing something that’s unlike anything else in the country where we have a one-stop shop for patients who enroll in a phase one clinical trial program; that we’re setting something up that doesn’t really exist anywhere else.

“It will be a tremendous asset and a tremendous place for patients to go and get their treatments, which is important when you’re battling cancer.”

KU Edwards Campus

At the University of Kansas Edwards Campus in Overland Park, a ground breaking ceremony for the Business, Engineering, Science and Technology (BEST) Center is scheduled for April. Construction is set to begin in May with completion in summer 2011.

Two of 10 planned new degrees already have been added: a minor in business began this fall and the Kansas Board of Regents recently approved a new bachelor’s degree in business administration to begin in January. The newest degree is designed to increase the career prospects of working adults in Johnson County and to enhance the business capabilities of local organizations.

KSU Innovation Campus

In Olathe, the benefit district for the Kansas State University Innovation Campus is nearing completion, and construction on the National Food and Animal Health Institute is expected to begin in December with occupancy scheduled for January 2011.

K-State’s Manhattan campus was awarded the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility, a federal facility designed for research and development of products to safeguard the United States against the impacts of natural and/or intentional animal disease outbreaks as well as agricultural productivity and safety. The Innovation Campus in Olathe will work closely with the facility in Manhattan looking for solutions to animal and food science problems nationally and internationally.

Tax collections

Also during the past year, the Research Triangle Authority, charged with the oversight and distribution of the tax monies to the three entities, was formed. Collection of the tax began in April, and monthly distribution began at the end of June.

The tax, passed by 58 percent of the vote last year, was estimated to generate $15 million a year to be divided equally among the three points of the Triangle to fund new construction or renovation, ongoing operations, and maintenance of facilities and staffs connected to the Triangle.

Since then, the downturn in the economy resulted in officials lowering the revenue projection to $14 million.

As of the end of August, $3.294 million had been divided and distributed to the three points of the Triangle. In June, $1.109 million was distributed; in July, $1.173 million; and in August, $1.031 million; for an average of $1.098 million.

If that trend continues, the yearly revenue from the sales tax will be $13.176 million.

Chairman of the Triangle Authority Ed Eilert, who also serves as Johnson County 4^th District Commissioner, said despite the lower revenues the Triangle projects continue to move forward.

Preliminary work by all three Triangle partners is on schedule, Eilert said.

Everyone involved in the Triangle is mindful of the current economic conditions, he said.

“(The tax revenue) is a projection that can change quarter by quarter,” Eilert said. “The university partners, and I think we’re all in agreement, is that everybody needs to be conservative in the anticipated revenue that can come in from the sales tax. I think everybody is taking that approach to leave themselves some room in case projections come in lower than anticipated.

“Hopefully, that will change.”

Boom for county

Research figures recently released by Jacqueline Michael-Midkiff, regional economist in the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Kansas City, Mo., office, show that education is a key component to Johnson County’s population and job growth. She said that 90 percent of the county’s population has a high school education and that 51 percent of the population has received a bachelor’s degree or higher.

That is a key component for the county as education and economic development is expected to be a huge byproduct of the Triangle. Officials expect high-tech companies and high-paying jobs to flourish in Johnson County as a result of the Triangle.

Administration

Forming the Triangle Authority along with Eilert are: Mike Boehm, Lenexa mayor, vice chair; State Sen. Karin Brownlee, R-Olathe, secretary-treasurer; Lynn Mitchelson, Johnson County Community College trustee; Annabeth Surbaugh, Johnson County Commission Chair; State Sen. David Wysong, R-Mission Hills; and Kansas School Board member Sue Storm, 2^nd District, D-Overland Park.

Eilert said the authority went through a process in the first half of the year requesting proposals for banking services as well as legal and administrative services.

“Those services were finalized in April and May,” he said. “We also had the support of (Johnson County Community College) in providing those kinds of services for the first three months or so.”

He said the authority soon will have a Web site that will provide agendas, meeting minutes and other documents dealing with its activities.

“And the second thing we’ll be working on will be on proposals for the independent auditor,” Eilert said. “That’s where we’re at; things have been progressing.”

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