WRITER: Bremen Keasey

City Commission to consider request to add local church structure to Lawrence's historic register

City Commissioners will once again consider a request from a local church to be added onto the Lawrence Register of Historic Places. The commission will vote on approving the nomination for the First Presbyterian Church, located at 2415 Clinton Parkway, but this time only a portion of the church’s structure was nominated. The Historic Resources Commission voted in December to recommend approving the church to ...

From 'what if' to reality: How local elementary schoolers' imagination helped design a home for a formerly homeless tenant

A simple two-word question — "what if?" — and the limitless imagination of children is what sparked a two-year-long process that led to a formerly homeless person being housed. Madeline Herrera, the co-founder and director at Limestone Community School in Lawrence, said that as students began returning to class in January 2023 after winter break, she was working to figure out what the class’s next big ...

KU student from Lawrence who earned prestigious fellowship for international studies proud to represent community

When Charlie Johnson got a call during one of his virtual classes at the University of Kansas in March, he let it go to voicemail since he didn’t recognize the number. Johnson, a senior from Lawrence who went to Free State High School, soon saw on the auto-transcription of the voicemail that it was “so and so from Carnegie calling." “I started freaking out,” Johnson said. Johnson, who is majoring in ...

Cancellation of federal program means Just Food will lose 2,400 pounds of food each month

Douglas County food pantry Just Food announced it will receive 30% less food from one of its partners in the coming months after a federal program was canceled — meaning a loss of 2,400 pounds each month. In a news release Thursday, the food pantry said Harvesters, its regional Feeding America distributor, was notified that orders through The Emergency Food Assistance Program — a federal nutrition program ...

Stormwater project to entirely close portion of Tennessee Street near Old West Lawrence; future work will impact Ninth Street

Roadwork along Tennessee Street near Old West Lawrence will close portions of the one-way artery to through traffic in mid-April as part of a large-scale stormwater project. Tennessee Street already has one lane closed between Sixth Street and Ninth Street because of work on a water main in the parking lane of the street, Nick Hoyt, Lawrence’s lead program manager on this project, told the Journal-World. Hoyt ...

Leaders with Boys and Girls Club of Lawrence confident operations will continue as normal despite reduction in staffing

Leaders with Boys and Girls Club of Lawrence haven't provided specifics about how much its workforce was impacted by a recent “reduction in force,” but they say they're confident their 12 locations will remain open in the meantime. As the Journal-World reported, the BGCLK said in a news release on Monday that it implemented a “necessary reduction in force” on Friday, leading to “the elimination of ...