News and notes from around town:

• Leaders at the Lawrence Municipal Airport once again are considering a million dollar-plus project to build more aircraft hangars at the facility. The city’s Aviation Advisory Board will discuss details of a potential project at its 7 p.m. meeting on Wednesday at the airport. One idea under consideration is a $1.35 million project that would build 20 T-hangars just south of the main hangar building at the airport. The airport previously applied for grant money for the project, but has been unsuccessful. Now the board wants to consider asking city commissioners to include the project in a future city budget.

“With construction costs still really favorable right now, they want to at least continue looking at the feasibility of it,” said Chuck Soules, the city’s director of public works, whose department also oversees the airport.

The city has done a preliminary financial analysis that shows the hangar project likely would operate near a break-even point for about the first 12 years, and then would start producing an annual profit based on a monthly rental fee of about $235. The airport currently has about 35 aircraft owners who have expressed an interest in renting hangar space.

• Even bigger projects may be in the airport’s future. That’s what a new City Hall study is trying to determine. The city has hired a consultant to prepare a new Lawrence Municipal Airport Master Plan that will detail how the facility should develop over the next 20 years. The plan is in its preliminary stages but the consultants have indicated that a possible runway expansion to better serve larger types of Lear and Gulfstream business jets, for example, may be contemplated. The report also projects the number of operations at the airport — activities such as landings and takeoffs — to increase from 32,000 per year currently to about 45,000 by 2030. The number of registered aircraft in the four county area of Douglas, Johnson, Jefferson and Leavenworth is expected to grow from about 850 today to about 930 in 2030. The master plan is a required document for the airport to have in order to receive federal aviation grants, which have been the main funding source for improvements at the airport. The plan is expected to be completed in mid-2011.

• From planes to buses, the city’s transit fleet will be getting a new look perhaps as early as this week. The city has taken delivery of six new buses that will be smaller than the 30 foot-buses that the city uses currently. The new buses — which will be 25 feet in length — are going through the final inspections and equipment installations needed to be put in service.

A new 25-foot bus that the city's public transit system will soon start using.

An additional six buses are also on the way. The city expects to receive three heavy-duty, 40-foot hybrid buses by mid-2011 and three 31-foot heavy duty biodiesel buses in about a year. Once those vehicles arrive, the city will have replaced all 12 of its transit buses. Currently, all 12 of the buses — which are 2002 models — have exceeded their expected 350,000 mile expected lifespan. A city report from earlier this year listed the mileage from a low of 365,000 to a high of 425,000 miles.

• There was a mistake in a previous Town Talk column that listed the amount of funding social service agencies in Lawrence received from the city. The Nov. 24 Town Talk incorrectly listed the Big Brothers and Big Sisters program as being awarded $100,000 in funding from the city. The correct amount is $27,000. I apologize for the error.

What town talk have you been hearing? Send me a tip at clawhorn@ljworld.com.