News and notes from around town:

• North Lawrence has turned up its business magnetism lately. We’ve reported several times how the former Tanger Mall property — now the I-70 Business Center — has attracted several tenants and is more than 75 percent leased.

Now, the relatively new commercial/industrial strip center at 725 N. Second Street (it is home to Combs Custom Cycle, Kansas City Sailing and a few other businesses) has landed a major tenant.

Lawrence-based Printing Solutions is moving its operations from its decade-long home at 31st and Louisiana streets into the center. The $1.3 million project will allow the printing company to expand from 10,000 square feet to 26,000 square feet.

The business is owned by a couple of longtime Lawrence residents Terry Jacobsen and John Hutton. Jacobsen said the business felt the economic downturn quite a bit in 2009, but business has picked up significantly since then. The company has become a significant player in printing direct mail advertising pieces for companies across the country. Business stationery also has been a good business. Believe it or not, the world is not going paperless. Jacobsen has a storeroom to prove it.

“We are just to the point that we don’t have enough space here,” Jacobsen said. “We are out of places to move things once we print it.”

The company currently has 30 full-time employees. Jacobsen said if everything goes well, the company likely will add about 20 new employees during the next two years.

Jacobsen hopes to be operating in the new space by the fall.

• It was just like old times at City Hall Tuesday night. A large crowd of South Lawrence Trafficway opponents filled the City Commission meeting room to urge the City Commission to do all it could to halt the South Lawrence Trafficway project.

That horse is kind of out of the barn. The Kansas Department of Transportation has strongly backed the project by committing more than $190 million in funding for the project, and it really doesn’t need the city’s permission to build the state highway. The group that can stop the project, of course, is the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals. A three judge-panel has heard oral arguments in a case against the SLT, and could issue a ruling anytime now.

But the three-judge panel didn’t invite SLT opponents into their living room last night, so they showed up at City Hall instead. City commissioners were considering signing a cooperation agreement with KDOT that mainly would make it easier and cheaper for the city to build an extension of 31st Street from Haskell Avenue to O’Connell Road.

The agreement basically says the state will bid the 31st Street extension project at the same time it is bidding the larger SLT project. That’s expected to help produce lower bids. The state also will agree to build part of 31st Street east of Haskell as part of the SLT project, which will reduce the costs by about $2 million. The city still will be on the hook to pay for about $4.5 million to build the extension.

I started to lose count, but about 30 people got up and spoke to the City Commission on the SLT. It was about two hours worth of public comment, with most speakers coming out against the plan to build the road through the Baker Wetlands.

But the Chamber of Commerce did its part to fill the room with supporters as well. At least five former elected city or county commissioners were in the room. Longtime SLT supporters Mark Buhler, Erv Hodges, Marty Kennedy and Rob Chestnut all attended the meeting. Former City Commissioner Boog Highberger, who opposes the route through wetlands, also attended and spoke.

In the end, city commissioners approved the agreement with KDOT, but not unanimously. Commissioner Aron Cromwell said he supports the need for a new east-west road in Lawrence, but said he consistently has been against a route through the wetlands. Other commissioners — especially Mayor Bob Schumm — said he didn’t think the agreement with KDOT was an endorsement of the wetlands route but rather merely a document to cooperate with the state on the 31st Street extension.

• I don’t know if the news on Tuesday that an ice/hockey rink is now part of the discussion for a new northwest Lawrence recreation complex created as much excitement in your house as it did mine. As I was walking down the hall this morning, my wife body-checked me into the wall. (I assume that was ice rink related.)

Well, you may want to hold off on future body checks. As I noted in yesterday’s Town Talk — which followed a speech by Schumm where he mentioned the ice rink possibilities — sources had told me the ice rink component was the most speculative part of the concept plans. I noted “we’ll see if that idea survives the weeks ahead.” Perhaps I should have changed “weeks” to “day.”

City commissioners went into an executive session as part of their meeting last evening to review new concept plans put together by the group of private developers looking to partners with the city on the project. I was told the ice rink no longer was included in the latest concept drawings.

There really is no question the plans probably will change some more. The question with the project, however, is when the city and the developers will host a public forum that allows the public to weigh in on what it thinks ought to be included in the complex. I don’t think the city will wait until it is set to approve the rezoning requests before it asks for the public’s opinion on what elements should be included in this public-private partnership. I would expect the city’s Parks and Recreation Advisory Board will become more involved in the process in the near future. That group has a track record of soliciting input from the public on recreation projects.

In the meantime, hopefully, I can once again walk around my house without my mouth guard.