Of the 23 issues that city commissioners identified as legislative priorities for Lawrence, there are two that rise to the top: expanding the western section of the South Lawrence Trafficway from two to four lanes and extending the city’s exemption to the state’s open carry law.

The South Lawrence Trafficway extends Kansas Highway 10 for 15 miles from the eastern edge of Lawrence to the western connection with Interstate 70. The seven-mile eastern section is a new four-lane highway that opened last month and runs from the trafficway’s intersection with Iowa Street east to the connection with K-10.

The opening of the eastern section was long awaited and deservedly celebrated. But now that the highway is open for the full 15 miles, the weakness of the western segment has been exposed. Much of the stretch from Iowa Street to I-70 is a two-lane highway. As traffic increases on the roadway now that the eastern section is open, it won’t be long before the two-lane segment becomes a traffic bottleneck.

The Kansas Department of Transportation’s future plan for the trafficway is a four-lane divided highway for the entire 15-mile stretch. That’s one of the major reasons KDOT has given for resisting a traffic signal at the highway’s intersection with Kasold.

But given how frequently the state has shifted money out of the state highway fund to shore up its budget, it’s hard to put a timetable on the trafficway work. The city is right to prioritize the expansion lest another quarter century pass before the roadwork is done.

“The City applauds KDOT for the completion of the South Lawrence Trafficway (SLT) in 2016 and encourages the State to fund the four-lane expansion of the west leg of K-10,” the city’s priority list states. “Now that the four-lane, eastern leg of K-10 has been opened, traffic on the western leg of K-10 between I-70 and Iowa Street has increased. Funding to expand the lanes and improve the safety of at-grade intersections should be identified.”

On the open carry issue, Mayor Mike Amyx suggested that stronger language be added to an existing entry supporting an extension of the exemption period for a handgun ban in city buildings.

The city’s exemption to the state’s new open carry law is set to expire in January 2018. Once the exemption expires, the city would have to install “adequate security measures” in each city building in order to prohibit concealed weapons.

The city has approximately 50 venues and City Manager Tom Markus said installing security measures — metal detectors and guards — would be expensive.

“Cities should be allowed to determine whether the carrying of concealed firearms (is) permitted in city facilities, and what security measures are appropriate,” the city’s priorities state. “We request the law be amended to return these decisions to local governing bodies. In the alternative, we request the exemption period be extended an additional ten years.”

The city’s request to set its own rules for its facilities is sensible and reasonable. One would hope that the Legislature would see the wisdom in allowing for such local control.