A deal has been struck for Earthwise Pet Supply to go into the multi-tenant building in the Bauer Farm Development in northwest Lawrence.

Earthwise will be located in the building that also houses Starbucks and Sports Clips at 4701 Bauer Farm Drive.

Earthwise will sell a variety of natural pet food products, primarily for dogs and cats. The business also will have a professional pet groomer on staff and will feature two self-service wash tubs. (For pets. If you misunderstand that, it’ll get really embarrassing in a hurry.)

“Self-wash stations are a growing trend,” Funk said, as many people are realizing that a pet wash may produce a bigger mess than they want at their homes. “We want to be there when people realize it is a great service. We’ll provide the tubs and everything they need, and we intend for it to be kind of a spa feel.” (When German Shepherds start offering massages, that is when I’ll be impressed.)

Funk said the store’s pet food business is expected to be big, as well. He said the natural pet food segment of the industry is growing quickly. He said pet owners are recognizing that animals also need higher protein, lower carb diets than what is being provided by many of the standard pet food brands.

“We try to focus on biologically appropriate food,” Funk said. “Big protein and low carbs because dogs and cats are carnivores.”

As for the Earthwise chain, it touts itself as the fastest growing natural pet supply chain in the country. But the Lawrence store will be the first in the northeast Kansas area. The nearest location is in Wichita. Funk said he’s signed up to open three stores in total. He said he is looking for locations in the Kansas City metro area.

But he said he jumped at the chance to first open a store in Lawrence because of the community’s attitudes about health and because a prime location was available in the growing northwest part of the community.

“We’re really excited about the location,” Funk said.

The location is in the same shopping center as the new natural foods grocer Sprouts, although not next door to it. (In a previous version of this article, I was wrong about the exact location.) Sprouts is set to open July 1, and Funk said he thinks the two businesses will be compatible because they’ll both attract a health conscious demographic.

In other news and notes from around town:

• If you’ve played softball at Lyons Park in North Lawrence, you’ve probably got some stories to tell. Like the time you blew out your knee, or the time you blew out your elbow, and those are just the injuries from the post-game revelry in the parking lot. Let’s not even get started about actual on-field injuries. One other story you may have about Lyons Park is the time you needed an armada to play a softball game.

Indeed, Lyons Park is prone to flooding. City commissioners soon may have to figure out how much it is worth to them to correct that problem. At their meeting on Tuesday, commissioners agreed to redesign a multimillion dollar project for a pump station near Sixth and Maple streets. The pump station is designed to alleviate storm water flooding issues for a large area north of Maple Street between roughly North Fourth and North Seventh streets.

Thus far, though, the project has struggled to come in on budget. In March, the city received a low bid of $7.5 million to complete the project. That was more than $2 million above the engineer’s estimate of $5.1 million.

On Tuesday night, commissioners agreed to reduce the scope of the project and eventually rebid it. In basic terms, the project will use smaller pumps. The project as now proposed will be able to move about 100 cubic feet of water per second compared with an original design of 195 cubic feet per second. The city’s storm water engineer told commissioners he’s still confident the pumps will be big enough to handle flooding in a typical 10-year storm event. Thus far, the leader of the North Lawrence Improvement Association said he’s fine with the reduction in size as well.

But where the neighborhood association and City Hall may clash is on whether the project also should be further reduced to eliminate a section of piping that would serve Lyons Park. The city is bidding that portion of the project as an alternate, meaning if prices don’t come in to their liking, they can scrap that part of the project.

Ted Boyle, president of the North Lawrence Improvement Association, already has begun lobbying city commissioners to find additional money to fund the Lyons Park portion of the project. How much money will be needed is still unknown. Previously, engineers had estimated that portion of the project to cost about $1 million. It will be several weeks before we know. Commissioners on Tuesday approved a $75,000 contract with Bartlett & West Engineers to redesign the project to accommodate the smaller pumps. That will take about eight weeks, at which point the project will be rebid.

“We’re willing to have some give and take here,” Boyle said. “If we are going to live with the smaller pumps, then give us the rest of the project. We’ve waited 20 years for this project. We started advocating for this pump station right after the 1993 flood.”

Commissioners on Tuesday did not make any commitments about how much of the project they would support, but rather decided to wait and see bid totals later this summer.