Meeting started 7:07pm…6 residents attending
Ted starts off the meeting to discuss the neighborhood potluck and is thinking about locating this year’s potluck at the Union Pacific Depot. In discussion, there were no concerns with having the potluck at the Depot.
Ted is trying to get the history of Jefferson, the original town of North Lawrence, to the Union Pacific Depot from the Watkins Museum.
Ted touched upon the pedestrian overpass that is still being worked on in order to improve the railroad crossings in North Lawrence. Ted is wanting the city to dip into the 110 billion dollars available for infrastructure improvements for transportation.
The city has still not made any movement on writing the grant for the railroad improvements.
The initiative for the North Lawrence railroad improvements have now been presented to the governor’s staff for review in concerns to receiving money for the improvements.
Ted is still waiting on the letter of endorsement from Mike Devers that he promised to endorse the movement of the project to the State.
The building permits and the site plan notices have been provisioned for the project for John Davis’ rail car restaurant at the old Boon’s Produce location. There will be two dining cars and then a flatbed rail car for a patio. Demolition should start shortly to prepare for building the rail car restaurant.
Ted says that the city has been able to provision 180 free bus tickets for the transients that were migrating to Lawrence in order to alleviate the homeless population in Lawrence. The city is 6.5 million over budget.
Ted says that houses are being built in North Lawrence again. There is currently no date set for the opening of John Davis’ rail car restaurant. Ted covered that North Lawrence Improvement Association is still pursuing the lawsuit against Douglas County for the solar project.
Bill, a resident, commented that the theft rate has dramatically dropped due to the homeless camps leaving North Lawrence.
Randy, a resident, spoke upon his area of North Lawrence seeing dramatically reduced trespassing and theft due to the relocation of the homeless camps.
Bill, a resident, spoke upon an old ordinance that was enacted to prevent panhandling at certain times in downtown Lawrence. However, it was never enacted at the time the ordinance was passed.
Ted spoke on the changes involving city hall and the division between the city and the neighborhoods and the communication being severely limited.
Meeting adjourned…8:07pm
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