No meeting

The Lawrence City Commission will not meet next week.

The commission usually takes one week off in any month that has five Tuesdays.

City Hall offices will also be closed Monday for Memorial Day.

Sales taxes

After five straight months of increases, City Hall’s sales tax receipts dipped by 4.2 percent in May.

The city received $1.5 million in sales taxes this month, down from $1.57 million a year ago. Overall, however, receipts are up 4.9 percent for the year — from $7.38 million at this point in 2003 to $7.74 million now.

Sales taxes collected in stores go first to the state before being sent back to local governments in once-a-month disbursements. The lag time between collection and disbursement is generally six to eight weeks.

Crosswalk sign

City workers installed an unusual new street sign Monday — smack dab in the middle of the street.

The sign, placed in center of the mid-street raised crosswalk in front of the Lawrence Arts Center in the 900 block of New Hampshire Street, warns drivers to yield to pedestrians in the crosswalk.

“It just recently became an approved design by the Federal Highway Administration,” City Traffic Engineer David Woosley said Tuesday.

He said the arts center was chosen for the sign because of the unusual mid-block location of the crosswalk. There was one car-pedestrian accident at the crosswalk in the last year, Woosley said.

He said the sign cost less than $500 to install.

“There may be others,” he said, “but it will be a case-by-case decision.”

Juneteenth

Lawrence city commissioners on Tuesday approved donating $5,000 to a Lawrence Juneteenth celebration next month.

Juneteenth celebrates the month in 1865 when Texas slaves learned at the end of the Civil War of their emancipation.

Next month’s celebration will be the first major commemoration of Juneteenth in Lawrence since 1992.

The celebration will take place during a series of events June 16-20.

Calendar

• Public Improvements Task Force, 8 a.m. Tuesday, City Hall, Sixth and Massachusetts streets.