To the editor:

I was excited to see that the city had decided to renovate the Carnegie building in downtown Lawrence, a building that has not lived up to its potential for a number of years now. When I read the proposal and saw that the estimated cost of the proposal was a hair over $1.5 million, I still felt as though renovating this building to make it a usable city asset as opposed to simply an old historic building was well worth the taxpayers money. These projects help build a better community while simultaneously stimulating the economy by giving countless individuals meaningful, productive work.

It was to my disappointment, however, that I discovered the City of Lawrence had contracted the work to an out-of-town construction company. We live in a city with dozens of great construction companies that employ hundreds, if not thousands, of our residents and yet, on a project being funded through taxpayer money, we farm out our work to a Shawnee-based company. Highly disappointing Lawrence; I hoped for better.

Matthew Herbert,

Lawrence