The City of Lawrence has named a director for its Municipal Services and Operations Department, which was created earlier this year following the merger of the city’s utilities and public works departments. City Manager Tom Markus announced in a news release Wednesday that Dave Wagner has been hired as the Municipal Services and Operations Department director. Wagner, who was formerly the director of ...
A mistake made in the bidding process means a one-block canopy in downtown Lawrence will not be removed this summer as planned. Brandon McGuire, assistant to the city manager, said that the contractor selected for the approximately $350,000 project was getting ready to begin when city staff realized the proper authorizations had not been provided for the contract. More specifically, McGuire said that because ...
Some Lawrence police officers will soon begin testing body cameras in preparation for a department rollout. A memo to the City Commission from earlier this summer stated that the anticipated body camera testing period would be September through November, and police department representatives say preparations to begin testing are underway. The body camera program will be fully implemented sometime next year, ...
Government leaders can expect to be hearing more from the local firefighters union about increasing Lawrence-Douglas County Fire Medical’s staffing levels. The Lawrence Professional Firefighters, Local 1596 of the International Association of Fire Fighters, announced in a news release Tuesday that it would begin focusing its efforts to “secure an increase to fire department resources,” including the ...
As the city of Lawrence prepares for several large-scale building and renovation projects, there is another element in the pipeline — hundreds of thousands of dollars for public art. Several multimillion-dollar building projects mean that the city’s long-standing resolution allowing it to set aside up to 2 percent of a project’s budget for public art is allocating a significant amount of funds. Together, ...
The Kansas Leadership Center has named the four best neighborhoods in Kansas, and two of them are in Lawrence. As part of the center’s quarterly publication, The Journal, judges reviewed nominations from across the state and named East Lawrence and Delaware Street Commons as two of the best neighborhoods for 2018, along with College Hill in Topeka and Rosedale in Kansas City, Kan. The Journal noted that ...