25 years ago: Historic preservation emotional topic at Lawrence meeting

From the Lawrence Daily Journal-World for April 1, 1988:

  • Emotions ran high this week at a public hearing on a proposed historic preservation ordinance. Eleven speakers, mostly preservation supporters, had stepped up for the public comment portion of the meeting, which was to held to discuss the creation of an entire historic preservation program for Lawrence proposed by the 15-member Historic Preservation Task Force. Many residents were still feeling the sting of the previous summer’s controversial demolition of eight old houses near the Old West Lawrence neighborhood to make room for an expansion of the Douglas County Bank.
  • A federal judge today ordered the state of Kansas to begin releasing prison inmates to reduce overcrowding in its corrections system. U.S. District Judge Richard Rogers of Topeka had granted a request from inmates at the Kansas State Penitentiary in Lansing, who said that overcrowding there was in violation of their constitutional rights. Their attorneys had requested the state to order the release of between 100 and 200 inmates a month.