photo by: Mike Yoder

The 1:55 p.m. Greyhound bus headed to Topeka and southwest to Dallas, drops off a passenger Tuesday, July 5, 2016 at the bus stop between City Hall and the Riverfront.

Greyhound officials have 90 more days to find a permanent pickup and drop-off location in Lawrence.

The Lawrence City Commission voted unanimously Tuesday to grant a 90-day extension to Greyhound to find a bus stop. In December, commissioners asked Greyhound to have one selected by June 30.

In a letter to the city last month, Charles Glidewell, an area manager for Greyhound, said he and the new area manager overseeing the Lawrence location would travel to the city within a few weeks to look for a location. Greyhound was displaced from its previous pickup and drop-off point at Sixth Street and Crestline Drive when the convenience store there, Pick & Pay, went out of business last year.

The City Commission in December asked Greyhound to set up a temporary bus stop at the Riverfront Mall entrance, where Sixth Street curves into New Hampshire Street. A bus currently stops there three times per day.

Public Works Director Charles Soules said Tuesday the Greyhound officials had not yet visited Lawrence but were planning to within “a few days or weeks.” He said some city staff had cited concerns about the current Sixth Street location, saying bus riders regularly go to seek assistance at City Hall, at nearby 6 E. Sixth St.

At the time commissioners voted in December, Greyhound’s regional manager had talked with owners of North Lawrence properties — including gas stations, hotels and Tanger Factory Outlet Center — about becoming a permanent stop, but none of them had agreed to the arrangement.

For several weeks at the end of last year, Greyhound had been using the Santa Fe Depot as a pickup and drop-off point. Commissioners asked it to move from the location after receiving complaints from riders who didn’t know where the bus was stopping, as well as from nearby nonprofit Van Go Inc., which found itself housing riders waiting for the buses.

Greyhound will now have until September 28 to find a new location.