News and notes from around town:

• City officials are hoping nice fall weather gets area golfers back into the swing of things. A new city report shows business has been down at the city-owned Eagle Bend Golf Course. Through September, the course has collected about $687,000 in revenue, down about 17 percent from the $835,000 mark posted in the first nine months of 2009. Numbers of rounds played at the course have fallen to 17,156, down about 20 percent from the same period a year ago.

Golf managers, though, have been cutting expenses at the course to match revenues. The city’s Parks and Recreation Department is projecting a year-end deficit of about $7,000, which would be covered through the golf course’s reserve fund that has been built up to about $290,000 through operating profits of previous years. Ernie Shaw, interim director of the department, said a combination of rainy weather early in the season and then extremely hot temperatures greatly reduced the number of good golfing days this season. Shaw also said the economy has hurt golf play industrywide.

In case you’re wondering, the golf course’s financial numbers no longer include the annual debt payment the city makes on the course. That money comes out of a separate city fund. The city is scheduled to pay about $300,000 per year in debt payments on the course through the middle of this decade.

• Plans to build a 600,000-square-foot warehouse in Douglas County for Berry Plastics recently have received another boost. A new staff report from the Lawrence-Douglas County Planning Department is recommending approval of the necessary rezoning of the property. Planning commissioners at their Oct. 25 meeting will consider rezoning up to 120 acres at East 700 and North 1800 roads from agricultural to light industrial. Planners, however, are recommending that only 96 acres be rezoned, according to the staff report.

The report also provides more information about the Berry project. In addition to the 600,000-square-foot warehouse, the site also would include a 75,000-square-feet label printing facility. As previously reported, the project is expected to add about a dozen new jobs to Berry’s Lawrence workforce. But the report indicated that Berry will be transferring some of its workforce from its existing Lawrence facility to the new facility. The report estimates there will be about 200 employees at the facility, spread over three shifts that will operate six days per week.

The report did include correspondence from one neighbor who objected to the project. John Lewis, who lives along East 800 Road, expressed concerns that the site was too rural and that the project would encourage more industrial development in the area. The site is about 1.5 miles west of the Lecompton interchange on the Kansas Turnpike.

• Planning staff members haven’t yet come up with a recommendation for a request to rezone about 51 acres of property at North 1800 and East 1000 roads from suburban residential to general industrial. Unlike the Berry site, developers are seeking that the property be annexed into the Lawrence city limits. The property is about two miles east of the proposed Berry site, and is just east of the Lecompton turnpike interchange. Planning commissioners will hear that request at their Oct. 27 meeting.

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