After an appeal from supporters of the arts, the City Commission voted to order three appraisals of the Lawrence Opera House to secure an option to buy the building near Seventh and Massachusetts streets and look into the feasibility of restoring it to the glory days when it was the community’s cultural hub. The opera house was rebuilt by J.D. Bowersock after a fire in 1912. Skip Moon was the current owner.

Saying “I was just flat wrong,” City Commissioner Tom Gleason reversed his vote to favor the controversial Naismith Valley floodplain rezoning. The turnabout transformed the past week’s 3-2 vote against it, with Marci Francisco and Nancy Shontz siding with Gleason.