Local, regional, and national interest in the K-State Olathe Innovation Campus is building. Area leaders are voicing their support for the campus because they realize the value that KOIC will bring to Johnson County. Our campus will not only enhance the already excellent educational climate in Johnson County, it will also bring new technologies and the jobs that go along with advanced discoveries.
KOIC is one leg of the Johnson Country Education Research Triangle or JCERT. The other two legs are the KU-Edwards Campus and the KU Med’s Cancer Center. Following are a few articles by area leaders who are speaking out about the many benefits that JCERT will bring to the region.
Triangle will Play Crucial Role in Beating Cancer
We often hear the uplifting accounts of cancer survivors who bravely fought their disease and are currently in remission. We hear every day about the 12 million cancer survivors currently living in the United States today and how much progress is being made against this disease. However, there are many more stories that don’t have a happy ending. Cancer is on track to kill 565,650 people this year, more than 1,500 every single day. This is unacceptable, and we must work to drastically alter the course of this trend. There is no better time to address the war on cancer than now.
Roy A. Jensen, M.D.
This November, Johnson County voters will have the opportunity to vote on a landmark collaborative research effort: the Johnson County Education and Research Triangle. This initiative will establish an unprecedented cooperation among the University of Kansas, Kansas State University, the University of Kansas Medical Center and area businesses. It has the opportunity to reshape the economic future of our region, provide limitless opportunities for local business and education projects, and, more importantly, the opportunity to save lives.
The triangle will provide the University of Kansas Cancer Center the much-needed resources and space to expand our Phase 1 clinical trials program, which represents the most leading-edge therapies available. It would leverage the exceptional strengths we have in drug discovery and development and continue our journey toward world-class status among cancer centers. This initiative would help us increase the number of clinical trials available, allowing Johnson County and metro area patients the ability to receive their treatment close to home, surrounded by their support network of family and friends. We will be able to secure increased research funding, allowing us to translate our discoveries into a healthier tomorrow for our community.
The Kansas City region has emerged as a national player in the life sciences, and the formation of the triangle will solidify and expand upon the significant progress we’ve already achieved. The anticipated annual revenue stream of $15 million will provide $5 million to the University of Kansas Medical Center, giving our research efforts a much-needed boost at a time when national research funding is declining.
Johnson County has always been committed to expanding education opportunities and advancing scientific research. The triangle initiative has brought together outstanding educational institutions and area business interests, all of which are working together to tackle cancer and foster local economic growth.
At the University of Kansas Cancer Center, we are honored to be a part of this effort. The nature of my job as a cancer researcher is diverse and evolving, and I need every tool available in the fight against this disease. I eagerly await the day when we can tell cancer patients that there is a cure for their disease. We can and we will find a way to beat cancer, and the triangle effort plays a crucial part in that battle of ending suffering and death from cancer.
Roy A. Jensen, M.D., serves as director of the University of Kansas Cancer Center. (Sun Publications)
Brownlee Aids Campaign for Education Triangle
Sen. Karin Brownlee will be an honorary co-chair in the campaign for the education triangle initiative.
Brownlee, an Olathe Republican who represents the 23rd District in the Kansas Senate, said she joined the campaign because of the opportunities that regional higher-education services could bring to Johnson County.
"The opportunities that exists with the Kansas State bioscience research center being in Olathe and the expansion at the KU Edward Campus with its work force development and expanding engineering program add to the educational and economic growth of the county," she said. "The cancer treatment center will allow residents of the county to receive treatment here instead of traveling out of state."
Voters will decide in November whether to approve an eighth-cent sales tax to fund the University of Kansas Cancer Center, the Kansas State University National Food Safety and Animal Health Institute in Olathe and the University of Kansas Edwards Campus in Overland Park.
Brownlee has a history of voting against tax increases and is a fiscal conservative on most issues.
"I usually don’t go out on a limb on tax increases, especially in the Legislature," she said. But when she saw the health, education and economic impacts each entity would have on the county, she decided to support the initiative.
"This will give back to residents of the county in several ways," she said.
Voters approved a quarter-cent public safety tax for the county last week by a narrow margin, but opponents of that tax complained that the ballot wording was open and that there was no sunset clause.
Brownlee said that she heard the same complaints, but that she voted for the education triangle in the Legislature because it has a clause that would allow voters to end the tax.
If the three entities become successful and have enough funding to operate without the tax or if residents think the tax has become a burden, residents can petition to place the tax initiative back on the ballot and vote to end it. A public vote is another reason Brownlee decided to support the proposal.
"This is something the voters can decide, which was very appealing to me," she said.
The initiative is the result of a campaign to seek approval of the plan and place it on the ballot. County residents, educators and business leaders comprise the Triangle Advocacy Council, which developed the plan with the state’s two largest universities and sought tax authority from the Legislature. This was after the council presented the plan to the Johnson County Commission, the one entity that could have blocked the initiative from reaching the ballot.
Bank of Blue Valley President Bob Regnier will co-host the campaign with Brownlee.
"I am thrilled that Karin Brownlee will be helping us explain the Triangle proposal to voters," he said in a statement. "Karin has done a great job promoting economic development in her capacity as chair of the Senate Commerce Committee. That will give her an important perspective on the benefits of the Triangle."
The sales tax would generate approximately $15 million per year.
The Johnson County Education Research Triangle Authority would oversee distribution of approximately $5 million each year to the three entities of the plan.
(The Olathe News)
Surbaugh Breaks Precedent; Supports Triangle Initiative
Annabeth Surbaugh, chairwoman of the Johnson County Board of Commissioners, announced she supports the proposed one-eighth-cent sales tax for the Education and Research Triangle, a question on the Nov. 4 ballot.
This is the first time Surbaugh has publicly endorsed a tax proposal not submitted by county government.
"It's always been my personal policy to not take a position on tax proposals that aren’t directly tied to county government," Surbaugh said in a press release. "However, I’m making this exception because the potential rewards for our community are significant and compelling. It’s an investment that makes sense and will pay tremendous dividends for future generations.
"This project is different from any other I’ve seen, and is comparable to the innovative thinking that resulted in the creation of the Johnson County Community College – a significant asset to our community. Our continued focus on excellence in education has helped create the quality of life that our residents enjoy. I see this as an opportunity for us to reinvest in that foundation to assure our future success, to basically take our entire community to the next level of greatness.
"This proposal is an investment in our local economy as well as in future generations of Johnson County citizens."
"We are delighted that Annabeth has endorsed our campaign," triangle campaign chairman Fred Logan said in a press release. "She has been an outstanding leader of the county commission. Annabeth has acquired many supporters over the years who appreciate her long record of public service. Her voice will be very helpful as the campaign progresses."
Logan indicated Surbaugh joined fellow County Commissioners Ed Peterson, Ed Eilert, Doug Wood, David Lindstrom and John Segale in becoming a member of the Triangle Advocacy Council.
"Under Annabeth’s leadership, members of the commission gave the triangle proposal careful consideration when they put it on the ballot in May," Logan said. "We are very grateful."
Voters will decide in November whether to approve a one-eighth-cent sales tax that will generate about $15 million per year.
The Johnson County Education Research Triangle Authority would oversee distribution of funds to the University of Kansas Cancer Center, the Kansas State University National Food Safety and Animal Health Institute in Olathe, and the University of Kansas Edwards Campus.
(Sun Publications)
Triangle a Four-Square Deal
We Johnson Countians have just been through a sales tax election. The stakes were high; the county desperately needed additional money to build and operate correctional facilities, a juvenile services complex and a crime laboratory. The voters responded on Aug. 5 by passing the one-quarter cent proposal, proving once again that public safety is a high priority here.
Bob Sigman
As important as that tax is, it pales in comparison to the sales tax issue that will be on the general election ballot Nov. 4. The one-eighth-cent tax vote for our proposed education/research triangle is one of the more significant public decisions in half a century, in the opinion of a longtime supporter of education.
"It’s a watershed," said Fred Logan, Leawood, chairman of the campaign committee that is working for approval of the tax.
Logan, who was asked to place the election in historical perspective, should know.
This is, he said, the seventh tax-related election in 10 years in which he has a leading or high-visibility role. He is a former member of the Johnson County Community College board and chairman of the Republican state committee.
The civic leader said the other milestones are creation of the county library system in 1952, the community college in 1967 and the K-12 school unification plan in 1968. Johnson County’s emergence as a regional economic power and our immense growth is linked to these forward-looking ventures.
"This (the triangle tax) is going to join them," Logan observed, adding that the proposal fits into the pattern of solid support of education at all levels in Johnson County.
No question, the triangle plan would take our education and research sectors to a new and unprecedented level and build on many impressive current ventures.
The most recent one to be added is Kansas State University’s National Food and Animal Health Institute to be located on the K-State Innovation Campus in Olathe.
"The Johnson County Education Research Triangle will be the catalyst that allows the facility to be built, the research conducted and the degrees offered," said Daniel C. Richardson, campus CEO. "It will also provide the incentive to attract federal and private monies to this campus."
The triangle initiative would greatly enhance the world-famous animal health corridor between Columbia, Mo., and metropolitan Kansas City by generating research and providing scientists for the manufacturers of vaccines and other medications. More than 100 companies are located in the region. Some 37 of them maintain U.S. and international headquarters here.
The triangle would mesh with recently established scientific projects. One, the Biosecurity Research Institute at Kansas State University, is considered the most advanced of its type in the world. The Kansas Life Innovative Center at the University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City, Kan., is another.
Passage of the tax would help impress federal officials who are considering Kansas State as the site for a $451 million National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility. It would show them that Kansans are indeed committed to building their state into a top-flight place for education, research and development. Manhattan is one of six locations being evaluated for the federal installation.
Fitting into the pattern of scientific research and development, too, is the Kansas Bioscience Authority, with headquarters in Olathe. Its purpose is to attract world-class scientists to the area, support bioscience business startups and help attract and expand bioscience enterprise. The state Legislature established the authority in 2004.
Officials at the KU Medical Center say that establishment of the triangle would boost the KU Cancer Center’s attempt to be designated a Comprehensive Cancer Center by the National Cancer Institute, according to David Adkins, vice chancellor for external affairs at the center.
It is the university’s top priority.
The designation would, among other advantages, provide care closer to home for patients and families across the state, increase access to advanced care and improve the potential to attract and retain world-class physicians and nurses.
The initiative would be a large boost for bioscience-related companies in Johnson County. About one-half of all the commercial firms in the field in Kansas are located here.
In addition to the healing and cures that are expected, the triangle would be a boon in another way.
"This is about jobs and this is about economic impact," explained Bob Clark, vice chancellor of KU’s Edwards Campus in Overland Park, in public comments on the issue.
As an example, Clark said his campus has brought in more than half a billion dollars in its relatively short life.
"The triangle initiative will double that impact in less than a decade," Clark added.
Kansas’ advances in the biotechnology field are being recognized. A national magazine that focuses on site selection placed our state in the top 10 in the nation: fourth in bioscience investments, fifth in bioscience research funding, 10th in education climate and the highest concentration of employment in research, testing and medical laboratories. We placed 13th in educated work force.
Imagine how we could improve our standing in biomedical pursuits if the sales tax is approved.
(Sun Publications)
Sales tax plan would help make area a hub for advanced research and health care, backers say
Johnson County voters are facing a choice that could shape their economic future at a time of heightened economic uncertainty. They are to decide whether now is the time to invest $15 million a year toward strengthening the region as an engineering, animal health and cancer research hub.
Voter support on Nov. 4 would boost the sales tax by one-eighth of a cent, providing money for substantial expansion of the University of Kansas Cancer Center, engineering and science programs at KU’s Edwards Campus, and a food safety and animal health institute at the new Olathe campus of Kansas State University.
“It’s a challenging environment to bring a tax measure forward,” said Fred Logan, a longtime civic leader guiding the Johnson County Education and Research Triangle initiative. “But this is about the future.”
Researchers, former cancer patients, business leaders and others are lining up behind a proposal that they say will improve the health of individuals and the regional economy.
A consultant pegged the impact at $1.4 billion over the next 20 years. Hundreds of new jobs, additional spending and other benefits are expected with the proposed expansion.
On the other side are those who are anxious about squeezing already cash-strapped consumers in a rocky economy. They also are leery of local taxpayers taking such hefty responsibility for higher education, a role once embraced more heartily by the state.
Another sales tax measure is worrisome “when our country is facing the worst financial crisis in decades,” said James Azeltine, a Leawood City Council member and chairman of the Johnson County Park and Recreation District.
Voters approved a quarter-cent sales tax measure in August for public safety. Like that one, the research and education measure does not have a sunset provision.
“If our county leaders continue to place forever sales tax issues on the ballot, it will have a very detrimental effect on our ability to compete with neighboring counties, especially when the economy is soft,” Azeltine said.
Still others are accusing supporters of hyperbole, questioning whether the ultimate impact will match the claims.
“This is some puny, little, pathetic deal that is not going to accomplish the goals they are promising the voters,” said Tracy Thomas, a former Shawnee City Council member.
Indeed, a key question is whether this would advance the area’s biosciences assets and aspirations.
Draw a line on a map from the projects in Overland Park, Olathe and Fairway and it does form a triangle. Yet supporters were drawing on allusions to geography more than geometry — specifically the famed Research Triangle region of North Carolina.
With three powerhouse research universities anchoring its points, the North Carolina triangle sets a standard for aspiring life-sciences centers. It is home to more than 500 life-science companies, some 29,000 jobs and an annual economic impact topping $5 billion, according to one recent analysis.
The North Carolina cluster did not form overnight, but over decades. Kansas City area efforts are much younger and at least for now more modest in size.
But don’t underestimate the impact of what’s here now and how much it can expand, said Sen. Karin Brownlee, an Olathe Republican.
Johnson County now is home to nearly 90 life-sciences companies employing more than 5,900 workers, according to the latest census commissioned by the Kansas City Area Life Sciences Institute. Plus, with the headquarters of companies such as Burns & McDonnell and Black & Veatch, the area is a national hub of engineering, with thousands of additional jobs.
“Kansas is on the map around the country when it comes to the biosciences,” Brownlee said. “This is going to add to something that already is growing.”
Like a fashion-crazed consumer pursuing the latest must-have style, many regions desiring high-paying jobs of the future have chased industries that happened to be hot at the moment. That is not how the Johnson County campaign originated, said Logan, a lawyer in Prairie Village.
Each component of the triangle, Logan said, will bolster an increasingly important part of the region’s economic future.
The KU Edwards campus, for example, will meet the growing demand for trained workers at area engineering firms and other high-tech companies.
New space and new degree programs will allow KU’s Overland Park offshoot to ramp up substantially and double its 400 annual graduates within about five years.
Research shows 1,500 business, science, engineering and technology jobs a week are open in the Johnson County region, Vice Chancellor Robert Clark said.
Laurie Minard, vice president for human resources at Garmin International Inc. in Olathe, knows this all too well.
“We have openings right now in our engineering department for 200 people,” she said. “We never have enough to meet our demands.”
Fort Dodge Animal Health and similar companies are guiding the development of the triangle program in Olathe.
Kansas State will provide training and research in such areas as food safety and other fields deemed important by the dozens of companies in the Kansas City Animal Health Corridor.
“We will address the needs of industry, and we will establish new programs,” said Dan Richardson, CEO of the university’s Olathe campus.
The project forming the third point of the triangle is intended to advance KU’s quest to become one of the nation’s top cancer-fighting centers.
Its sales tax money will help renovate an office building in Fairway.
The Hall Family Foundation has purchased the building and intends to donate it to the cancer center if the Nov. 4 measure passes.
The plan is to create a clinic and office complex for developing new drugs and making more cutting-edge treatments available locally, said Roy Jensen, director of the cancer center. It is part of a larger effort to gain designation by the National Cancer Institute as an elite cancer center.
It is not relying solely on local financial support. Cancer center leaders have been attracting increased backing from the state, federal grants, charitable contributions and other resources, Jensen said.
When doctors told Lorianne Fisher Koneczny in 2005 that she had pancreatic cancer, they said her best hopes were a plane ride away. Think about going to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Texas or Johns Hopkins in Maryland, they said.
“When I was diagnosed, I was disappointed to find out I could not receive the services I needed to give me the best shot at survival in my hometown,” said the 44-year-old Overland Park resident.
Koneczny now travels regularly to Mayo and sometimes to Johns Hopkins. She juggles treatment with her pursuit of an associate degree in biotechnology at Johnson County Community College and a bachelor’s degree in molecular biosciences at KU.
In about a year, she will take the entrance exams that Koneczny hopes will earn her a spot in medical school.
“I intend to be one of the future research doctors that put this area on the radar in our nation for excellence in biosciences,” she said.
(The Kansas City Star)
Once in a Generation
Only once in a generation are we likely to have the opportunity to vote for a local issue that can change our own lives for the better and dramatically improve the quality of life of the entire Johnson County community.
The Education and Research Triangle is a once-in-a-generation proposal, called County Question No. 2 on your ballot.
Johnson Countians have often said no to projects they feel do not fit with our lifestyle. Voters resoundingly said no back in the ’70s to a hockey arena; they said no decades ago to a three-lake reservoir; and recently they said hell no to a soccer stadium.
Leaders of our community have said no to proposals that never made it to the ballot box. When NASCAR courted Johnson County, we suggested they go to Wyandotte County. When promoters tried to push through a gigantic Wizard of Oz theme park, elected officials sent them packing. When General Motors talked about a plant here, they were told thanks, but no thanks.
We know what we don’t want in this county. It is things that do not fit.
We also know what we do want in this county.
Voters have consistently said yes to public schools, to our community college, to libraries, to parks, and to public safety.
The Education and Research Triangle is a perfect fit for Johnson County because it offers the very things we value the most.
It offers world-class cancer treatment and research with a major expansion in Johnson County of the University of Kansas Medical Center. No longer will cancer patients feel the need to travel out of state for treatments. We will have the best with a Cancer Clinical Research Center right here in our own community.
Kansas State University, which has never had a presence in our county, will create a world-class Food Safety and Animal Health Institute. And with it will come hundreds of jobs, from clerical to expert researchers. There will be few like it anywhere and will really put us on the map.
The third leg is the expansion of the University of Kansas Edwards Campus in Overland Park, which will offer new educational programs in business, engineering, science and technology and will create high-paying jobs and bolster economic development by training for the 21st century. The expansion of KU is an important key to our continued growth and prosperity.
This triangle is not only the right proposal for Johnson County. It comes at the right time.
Our world has been shaken by a financial crisis that is being felt right here. Who knows what tomorrow may bring? What companies will be downsized? Which will be sold or merged to an outsider? Which will disappear, for lack of enough business or credit?
What is before us with the Education and Research Triangle are enhancements to our local community that can never be sold, merged or vanish in bankruptcy. On the contrary. They will make our community more renowned and spur expansion that will mean billions of dollars in high quality economic development. It is clearly an investment in our future.
In the 58 years this newspaper has been published, with the possible exception of the approval 40 years ago of the Johnson County Community College, no column has ever endorsed anything more important to our quality of life than the Education and Research Triangle.
(Sun Publications)
JoCo’s Triangle tax proposal offers residents a square deal
One of the things I like most about writing a column for the Kansas City Business Journal is that it runs across the page biweekly from Fred Logan. He is a very good lawyer, a true civic power and an all-around fine person.
When Fred embraces a cause, it certainly grabs my attention. He is now leading the effort to secure voter approval for a Johnson County tax to finance the Johnson County Education and Research Triangle.
The more I studied this important initiative, the more I became convinced that the project will be a wonderful asset for our metropolitan area.
Passage of the modest tax proposal will ensure a permanent revenue source to finance higher education research and increased degree offerings. It will ensure three new facilities in Johnson County, which will greatly enhance the economic future of the county. More important, it will mean that local cancer patients no longer will have to travel to places like Houston’s M.D. Anderson Cancer Center for cutting-edge treatment.
The triangle will embrace three facilities: the University of Kansas Cancer Clinical Research Center, the Kansas State University National Food & Animal Health Institute and the University of Kansas Edwards Campus Business, Engineering, Science and Technology Center.
The cancer clinical research center will be a 70,000-square-foot facility in Northeast Johnson County that will allow 1,000 patients to participate in approximately 40 clinical trials each year.
K-State’s National Food & Animal Health Institute will be a cooperative effort with Midwest Research Institute. It will focus on threat assessment and prevention, forensic ag science, agro information and advanced ag technology. It will serve 1,000 students and allow the introduction of 10 to 15 new master’s degree programs.
The new KU Edwards BEST Center will embrace undergraduate partnerships with Johnson County Community College and will enable KU to offer new professional science master’s degrees in molecular bioscience and engineering in Overland Park.
Area residents will reap huge benefits from “The Triangle.” These include new jobs, new businesses in animal health and pharmaceuticals, and a marked improvement in the quality of life in the region. It is estimated that The Triangle will mean more than a billion dollars in economic impact during the next two decades. The biggest benefit will be that a safer, smarter, healthier metropolitan area will evolve.
Reputable national studies of projects like this indicate that every dollar invested in this kind of research complex leverages an additional $8 to $10.
The Triangle Advisory Council includes a who’s who of our area: people such as Bob Regnier, Laura McConwell, Drew Jennings and Samuel Turner Jr. These folks and Fred Logan’s involvement tell me that the vital initiative is virtually a guaranteed success.
I recently sat down for a long visit about this project with another of my favorite area luminaries: former state Sen. Dick Bond. Dick also was one of The Triangle’s early strong proponents. He properly points out that “a recent blue-ribbon study of our area pinpointed the need for additional world-class educational facilities in the Kansas City metropolitan area.” This Johnson County Education Triangle will clearly fill that gap.
In the past year, a dear friend of mine suffering with cancer made numerous costly and difficult trips to M.D. Anderson in Houston. Another friend with a brain tumor made equally financially and physically difficult trips to Duke University’s medical center in Durham, N.C. Hopefully, in the near future, folks like these can get needed state-of-the-art therapies right at home.
(Kansas City Business Journal)
Johnson County ideal for special KSU campus
Education is set to meet innovation, and Johnson County will benefit. Kansas State University’s planned innovation campus in Olathe will back up the university’s long-standing commitment to the safety and security of the nation’s food supply with opportunities for research, development and commercialization of new technologies, economic development, and educational partnerships, all happening in Johnson County.
In a visionary move, the city of Olathe and Johnson County have joined with Kansas State University and the Kansas Bioscience Authority to develop the Kansas Bioscience Park. This public and private sector initiative promotes bioscience education and the discovery, development and commercialization of technology focused on animal health, food safety and security, plant science, and biofuels. The initial land grant of 92 acres will be home to the 38-acre K-State Olathe Innovation Campus as well as KBA-sponsored biotechnology incubators and space for start-up and established biotech industries.
For K-State, Johnson County is the ideal location for a special campus that will be home to the National Food Safety and Animal Health Institute.
Johnson County is in the heart of the Kansas City Animal Health Corridor, making the National Food Safety and Animal Health Institute a place where K-State’s commercially viable applied research and technology discovery in animal health, plant sciences, food safety and security, bioenergy, and other related areas will offer opportunities for economic development, jobs and education. It also will create a synergy for attracting new industry to Johnson County.
This is already happening. Fort Dodge Animal Health, a world-class leader in the field, is relocating its worldwide research headquarters to the Kansas Bioscience Park in Olathe, the home of the K-State Olathe Innovation Campus.
K-State’s new campus also will mean partnerships with public schools in Johnson County as well as higher education institutions like Johnson County Community College and MidAmerica Nazarene University to focus on making foods safer for consumers through research and education, including master’s degree programs, certificate programs and continuing education – all vital in providing the highly trained work force needed for the area’s large number of animal health and nutrition companies.
Support for the Johnson County Education and Research Triangle initiative before voters on Nov. 4 is a crucial way to ensure that Johnson County is ready to capitalize on the opportunities that are already – and will be – produced through the K-State Olathe Innovation Campus and other collaborators in the triangle.
Along with K-State, the triangle includes the University of Kansas Edwards Campus in Overland Park and KU’s Cancer Clinical Research Center in Fairway. The triangle is projected to have a significant economic impact within the next five to 10 years from the dollars invested, jobs created and commercialized bioscience technologies produced.
Support for the triangle will help collaborations between all partners involved become reality sooner and open the door wider to economic opportunities to enhance Johnson County’s future.
K-State looks forward to an even greater involvement as a member of the Johnson County community and using its expertise to benefit all in Johnson County.
Daniel C. Richardson serves as chief executive officer of K-State Olathe Innovation Campus Inc. (Sun Publications)
Triangle will bring research, education, jobs
What is the Johnson County Education and Research Triangle? How did it come into being? Why should Johnson County citizens support a one-eighth-cent sales tax increase on the Nov. 4 ballot to make it happen?
Have you ever wondered how Johnson County and its cities end up on those various lists of "Best Places" to live, work and raise a family? It is because Johnson Countians "get it." They elect good leaders and they support projects and programs that provide a vibrant economy and a high quality of life. Johnson Countians are predominantly a positive and hopeful bunch.
Mary Birch
For example, in 1952 two women went to the county commission and asked for a library here and were told "no." They then went to Topeka for enabling legislation to ask the voters to support a library. Today Johnson County enjoys one of the nation’s finest library systems. Or when a few "crazy" people 40 years ago asked the voters to support a community college out in the middle of nowhere that we now with pride point to as one of our finest community assets. Or the countless times voters have supported K-12 education to provide excellence for our children. The triangle is just such a community-changing opportunity.
The triangle is one of those "perfect storms" that happened because many groups, independent of each other, were trying to improve our community and prepare us for the economy of the future.
The Greater Kansas City Community Foundation commissioned a study about higher education in this area called "Time To Get It Right." The University of Kansas Edwards Campus embarked upon a process to find funding to keep up with the ever-growing demand for bachelor and master’s degrees. The animal health companies gathered to explore partnerships and growth opportunities and founded the animal health corridor. KU also made the KU Cancer Center and gaining National Cancer Institute (NCI) designation its top priority. The Kansas Bioscience Authority and the city of Olathe developed a new vision to bring Kansas State University and its world-class food safety and animal health programs and research to this area.
All of these came together to define what Johnson County’s role in the new knowledge-based economy of the future might be and to carve out a piece of the new life sciences economy for this community.
There are three legs to the triangle, the KU Cancer Clinical Research Center in Fairway, the KSU National Food and Animal Health Institute in Olathe and the KU Edwards Campus Business, Engineering, Science and Technology Center in Overland Park.
Besides an economic impact of well over $1.4 billion in the next two decades, the triangle will bring more cancer treatment options to our citizens right here at home. It will unlock millions of dollars in private and public donations and research grants. It will bring world-class food safety research and animal health master’s degrees to Johnson County. It will provide expanded and much-needed engineering, science, business and technology programs to keep our existing businesses and jobs as well as attract new companies and new jobs.
In 2007, enabling legislation to allow the voters to vote on the triangle was passed. In June 2008, the Johnson County Commission voted to put the triangle on the November ballot. And now it is up to the voters to decide if a sales tax increase of one-eighth-cent (about $15 million a year) is a reasonable and smart investment in the long-term future of this county. It is an important vote for our future.
Mary Birch is coordinator for the Education and Research Triangle campaign. (Sun Publications)
Triangle offers county significant opportunity
Metropolitan Kansas City, and Johnson County residents in particular, have a significant opportunity to develop a 21st century work force and shape the county into a national competitor with economic viability for years to come.
Bob Clark
Every forward-thinking community desires to have access to a full scope of educational services that will bring new employers, high-paying jobs and a better quality of life.
We have learned through extensive outside research that Johnson County is no exception. It is a forward-thinking community that thrives on access to educational opportunities. There is a communitywide desire to keep our economy vibrant and strong. The University of Kansas Edwards Campus has contributed in many important ways to play its part in strengthening the economy of our county.
Nearly a half-billion dollars in economic development has come out of the faculty, programs and student efforts since the campus opened in 1993, according to County Economic Research Institute Inc. We have improved the professional credentials of more than 5,000 graduates during that time. Demand continues to grow. A recent community needs assessment revealed that more than 30,000 county residents would like to begin a bachelor’s or master’s degree in Johnson County within three to five years.
Our campus outreach responds to employers’ work force demands. Our campus events invite culture into the lives of Johnson County residents. A community with access to high-quality education becomes a rich source for intellectual and cultural activities, resulting in people staying in the community.
Now, a new opportunity is presenting itself. The Johnson County Education and Research Triangle, a proposition on the ballot this November, offers a unique and powerful mechanism to propel the economy of Johnson County by a quantum leap.
The Edwards Campus will play a major role in the triangle initiative. We will grow significantly, nearly doubling the size of our campus enrollment. We will expand business, engineering, science and technology programs to enrich a work force that will attract and retain high-tech businesses at a time our economy needs it most. Our outside research shows that, on average, there are 1,500 open jobs per week in these sectors.
We will build a technology-rich classroom building to support new programs, establishing the location even more as a permanent asset of the county. More importantly, our role will leverage the growing relationship with Johnson County Community College, creating a seamless transition from two-year programs at JCCC to bachelor’s programs, and later master’s programs at the Edwards Campus.
Johnson County will have the developing infrastructure of a high-quality system of public higher education whose mission is specifically work force and economic development. In effect, Johnson County will have the developing stages of its own university, made up of two of the most prominent institutions of higher education in the United States – all of this in our backyard.
Add to that the student research and technology transfer opportunities offered by Kansas State University’s Innovation Campus in Olathe and the Cancer Clinical Trials component at the KU Medical Center, the other points of the triangle, and the higher education landscape in Johnson County takes on a whole new economic development look. This is a unique and important time for our county. The Edwards Campus is prepared to assume its role in securing the future of our families and employers.
Bob Clark serves as vice chancellor of the University of Kansas Edwards Campus in Overland Park. (Sun Publications)
K-State Olathe Innovation Campus, Inc.