Meeting started 7:05pm… 9 residents in attendance
Ted talks about a resident that got a bill footed from the city for $400 for shoddy sidewalk work. Ted talks about the Pizza Night at Johnny’s that occurred last month at the regular monthly meeting time. Marci Francisco attended and she has won her election. Ted wants to have stronger participation from North Lawrence residents as the residents do not attend unless something happens. The residents of North Lawrence have been reactive instead of active at times. For the September potluck, there was less than desired participation. North Lawrence Improvement Association really wants more participation. The city restructuring question on the ballot did not pass, which is a plus. However, the affordable housing sales tax did pass, which is a negative due to the fact the city has botched tons of money trying to address the homeless crisis. Natalia discussed the reduction of the food sales tax in Kansas, Natalia mentioned the food policy council should look at options for reducing the county and city sales tax on food. The state sales tax will be eliminated but the county and city sales tax on food will not. Natalia believes there should be a discussion on at the food policy council to try and reduce the county and city food sales tax. There are frustrations from elected officials that the state has been eliminating food sales tax, yet the cities and counties are raising their food sales tax by popular vote of the residents. A resident speaks on the elections and what to do about being proactive after its been done, so there needs action to be taken at this point to correct actions of the wrong decisions being made by city government. A resident discussed Scott Thellman about the storm water meeting for the solar panel project and wondered about Ted’s thoughts on the matter. Ted discussed the current lawsuit levied against the county for the solar panel project, Ted discussed the postcards that were sent about the meeting that was only sent to Grant Township residents. The storm water plan includes two detention ponds to essentially factor in the excessive runoff from the solar panel fields. According to FAA guidelines, they legally cannot due to potential bird strikes, there has been no action from the project leaders or the county at this point. The leftover of the detention ponds would trickle down to North Lawrence and essentially cause flooding. Ted talks about the battles with Savion and their lack of foresight with the storm water issue. Ted had discussions with the lead of the solar project that currently lives in North Lawrence and had a discussion with him where the solar project lead decided not to attend a North Lawrence Improvement Association meeting. Ted has had meetings with city leaders about the issues with the solar panel project and how there were invites sent out for members of the city government for the pizza event but there was still low attendance. Ted laments the seriousness of the flooding that will occur with the construction of the solar project. Ted has been having discussions with businesses around North Lawrence in terms of Christmas donations and holiday charity. He has also brought up the discussion of the solar project when it comes to the threatening nature of the flooding that will occur. The city has not been involved with the discussion of the solar project due to the fact that Douglas County is heading the project. The solar panel project is currently planned to be built on top of agricultural use land. Ted has started collecting donations for the North Lawrence Christmas Fund. There has been a start to planning adoption of families that need assistance during this holiday season. Ted laments more participation from the residents of North Lawrence. Asking them to try and schedule meetings with city commissioners and others to take action for the neighborhood and the commitment for the way of living for the residents that they care about. Ted asks about the food policy council for Natalia on whether or not there can be volunteers from North Lawrence for the council. Ted adds more passion with residents reaching out to city government with topics and issues so that they can be a voice in the City of Lawrence. The lights at the depot have not been turned on lately. There has been an issues with the electricity with the exterior lights, there is a work order in for fixing the electricity at the depot a year after the issue arose. Supposed to be a new shelter house built for Lyons Park which the city has decided they cannot build a new one due to the cost of being over $150,000. Ted had contractors come out that do not agree with the number the city gave. Ted has not received any response from the city on the shelter house issue. Ted asked if the residents want to have a December meeting for the NLIA. There was a notion to keep the meeting due to the solar project potentially having a decision coming around before Christmas. A resident summarized that the county is sitting on money and the county needs to provision storm water pumps for the solar project. Invite Shannon Reid to the December NLIA meeting in concerns to the solar project and other issues as well. Ted discussed the issues with not having a fire station located in North Lawrence in conjunction with a resident. As well as the issues with traffic on the bridges near North Lawrence. Resident Bill asked about the quiet zone initiative. The city has not taken any action on the information given from research for federal grants to implement the quiet zone and various railroad improvements. The quiet zone is slated for the Capital Improvement Plan for 2028. Natalia asked for the camp near UPS to be remediated.
Meeting adjourned… 9:00pm
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