Sponsors of a petition calling for a city ordinance to create a formal plan for downtown redevelopment in Lawrence were seeking a court order to force a citywide vote in April on the adoption of a redevelopment plan. Jack Klinknett was the lawyer for Mark Kaplan and others favoring the petition.

Annual reports indicated that the Lawrence crime rate had declined a modest 1.7 percent during 1980.

Two Lawrence legislators were sponsoring a pair of bills designed to enforce the state’s 55 mph speed limit. They were Reps. Betty Jo Charlton and Jessie Branson who said the “alive at 55” measure had saved lives and that state officials needed to be more diligent in enforcing the federal edict. The “55” rate had resulted from a fuel-saving effort during the oil crisis in the 1970s.