photo by: Mike Yoder

Kansas University sophomore Davina Shogbamimu, of Overland Park, prepares to fill her car up with gas at a Lawrence gas station Friday, Nov. 11, 2015.

Somewhere in Lawrence, I picture a dimly lit, smoke-filled room full of canines. They’ve probably just gotten done playing pool or poker, and, of course, that big bulldog who chomps on his cigar is the leader. Let’s not kid ourselves, they run this town. How else do you explain that PetSmart — just months after opening a store on south Iowa Street — has now filed plans to build a new store in west Lawrence?

Whatever the reason, PetSmart indeed has filed plans to build a new 18,000 square-foot store near Sixth and Wakarusa. More specifically, the project will be in the Bauer Farm development on a vacant lot just west of the Sprouts grocery store. Plans at one point had called for a multitenant retail building there, but it looks like the developers have landed a bigger fish.

No word yet on when the store will open, but it obviously will be several months to perhaps a year in the making. The project does need to win approval from city planners. Thus far, though, it looks like a fairly routine approval process. The zoning is already in place, and the development group is taking steps to avoid a fight over the lingering question of how much retail should be allowed to develop at the northeast corner of Sixth and Wakarusa. City officials have placed a cap on the amount of retail that can be built at the northeast corner. Originally, the PetSmart proposal would put the development over the cap, but developers now are modifying their plan to remove some planned but unbuilt retail from a different part of the Bauer Farm development in order to keep the total under the cap.

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The cigar-chomping bulldog cares nothing about that, though. (I know, you want to see a picture of the bulldog, so at the end of this article, I’ll allow you a peek inside my gallery.) The numbers must show Lawrence is a big pet town in order for PetSmart to propose a second store so soon after opening its first Lawrence store at 27th and Iowa streets, next to Dick’s Sporting Goods.

In case you have forgotten, PetSmart is the largest chain retailer of pet supplies in the country. It operates about 1,500 stores. The stores carry food and supplies for dogs, cats, fish, reptiles and a variety of small pets. The Lawrence store also operates a grooming service, and a limited number of PetSmart locations also operate a kennel service, or what the company calls a PetsHotel. I can’t tell from the plans whether that service is planned for the new Lawrence location. I’ll reach out to the company, and if I get more information about the project and its timeline, I’ll let you know.

But enough with that: On with the art. This is one of my favorites. It is titled “That’s Not a Biscuit!”

photo by: Mike Yoder

Kansas University sophomore Davina Shogbamimu, of Overland Park, prepares to fill her car up with gas at a Lawrence gas station Friday, Nov. 11, 2015.

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In other news and notes from around town:

• Forget what the calendar officially says, it is summer. How do I know? Yes, the Gatorade stations in my home — in place of actually turning on the air conditioner — are one sign. But the surer sign is that readers have started to ask me to look into why fuel prices in Lawrence are higher than they are elsewhere.

That is the question that never goes away in Lawrence. Not to spoil the ending, but there is no definitive answer to that question. But I’m happy to share data with you. Here’s a look at the average fuel prices of major Kansas markets, as measured by AAA Kansas.

• Lawrence: $2.26; One year ago: $2.57

• Kansas City, Kan. $2.23; One year ago: $2.55

• Topeka: $2.09; One year ago: $2.43

• Wichita: $2.16; One year ago: $2.48

• Statewide average: $2.16; One year ago $2.50

As you can see, one thing hasn’t changed in the last year. Lawrence still has the highest average price of any major market in the state. What has changed is the gap between Lawrence and other markets is growing. Topeka is the leader in cheap gas in Kansas. Last year, prices were 14 cents per gallon higher in Lawrence than Topeka. Now, the average price is 17 cents higher in Lawrence. The gap between Lawrence and the statewide average also is up from 7 cents a year ago to 10 cents today.

The simplest answer to why this continually happens is supply and demand. Reporter Nikki Wentling last year did some digging at my request to look at why Lawrence’s market is different from Topeka’s. A big finding was the number of gas stations. Lawrence has about one gas station for every 3,000 residents. Topeka has about one gas station for every 2,000 residents. That’s a big difference, and leads you to believe that Topeka gas stations have to be more aggressive in pricing gasoline in order to attract customers.

Another factor that we haven’t gathered information on, but that may be more important, is the number of gasoline chains operating in a community. For example, the last time we checked, Lawrence had 33 gas stations, but a lot of them were all owned by the same corporation: Kwik Shop, which is owned by Dillons grocery stores. Kwik Shop surely has to be the largest seller of gasoline in Lawrence. Do other communities have a greater variety in retailers and thus have more natural competition? I would think they might.

You probably would see downward pressure on gas prices, if Lawrence had more QuikTrips, or if places like Wal-Mart started selling gasoline. If you remember, I noted a few months ago that both Wal-Marts in Lawrence made an inquiry with City Hall about whether their Lawrence stores had the proper zoning to sell gasoline. Thus far, I haven’t seen any plans filed for gasoline pumps to be installed at either Wal-Mart, but I’ll continue to check on that.