News and notes from around town:

• Yes, Berry Plastics is still planning on building its $20 million warehouse facility just northwest of Lawrence. For months we’ve talked about how the project was on a tight timeline to take advantage of some federal stimulus bonds before they expired at the end of 2010. Well, that didn’t happen, but the project still will, I’m told. The company instead is pursuing more traditional industrial revenue bond financing.

As expected, the company also is pursuing several incentives from local governments. As we previously reported, the company wants a 90 percent tax abatement for 10 years on the project. But now other details about what it is requesting are emerging. The company also is asking Douglas County to pay for about $600,000 worth of infrastructure improvements to make the project feasible.

Douglas County Administrator Craig Weinaug told me that the $600,000 would partially cover three expenses. The first is a project to add a turn lane on County Route 438, along which the warehouse would be located. The second is an upgrade of a Rural Water District No. 6 line that would serve the huge warehouse, which will be about 675,000 square feet. The third would be to help Berry build internal roads to serve the warehouse. All together, those three projects are estimated to cost about $1.6 million. Berry Plastics would be paying for the difference.

Weinaug, though, is hopeful the costs will come down more. The county is applying for two grants. One is from the Kansas Department of Transportation for the turn lane project and the other is through the Community Development Block Grant Program for the internal roads project. If both grants are received, the county’s costs could drop to around $250,000, although it will be up to commissioners to decide whether it wants to spend the full $600,000 as a further incentive to Berry.

Douglas County commissioners are scheduled to hold a public hearing on the tax abatement and incentives on Feb. 2. Since the project is located outside the city limits, Lawrence city commissioners aren’t involved in this deal.

The number crunching on the project is well under way. Even though city commissioners aren’t hearing the issue, the city’s chief number cruncher, economic development planner Roger Zalneraitis, has developed a cost benefit analysis for the project. The analysis finds that every local government affected by the tax abatement will still come out ahead on the deal over a 15-year period.

Douglas County is expected to receive $2.21 in benefits for every $1 it invests — directly and via tax abatements — in the project. The Lecompton school district — the project is not in the Lawrence school district — is expected to receive $12.69 in benefits for every $1 it gives up through the property tax abatement. The Lecompton Township checks in at $3.53 for every $1; the state of Kansas $3.44; and the Lecompton Fire District $4.22.

These types of analyses, of course, are highly dependent upon the numbers you plug into them. In general, they try to estimate how much the community will benefit not only from any new taxes paid by the project but by all the new jobs created by the project.

The warehouse project is expected to create about 12 new jobs within Berry, but the analysis looks at it broader than that. It estimates that the project will create or “retain” 379 jobs, with an average wage of about $34,000 per year. I’ve got a call into Zalneraitis about how the 379 number was arrived at, but here’s a partial explanation based on what I know about the project. The warehouse will have more than 12 people working in it. The warehouse — which also will have equipment to do printing on plastic products — will have more than 200 people working at it on a daily basis. Most of those employees won’t be new positions but rather will be transferred from Berry’s existing plant in Lawrence. There also has been a key assumption that as Berry moves employees out of its Lawrence production plant that it will become more likely that Berry will be able to add employees at that plant. The plant’s business has been strong lately because it is producing a profitable new line of environmentally friendly drink cups for the company.

The warehouse, once constructed, is expected to be the largest single building in Douglas County. Economic development leaders also are saying the project is huge for the community’s efforts to offer space to businesses who want to be along the I-70 corridor. With the county being the lead agency on the tax abatement issue, that also makes the project unique. All in all, it will be worth watching.

• I know mowing your grass isn’t on your mind right now. But new numbers from City Hall suggest it wasn’t on the minds of some people this summer either. In 2010, the city responded to 949 cases involving the city’s weed code. The code spells out that yards with weeds of 12 inches in height or more are in violation. The city’s tracking system didn’t have an exact number of how many of the 949 cases ended up getting a citation. But Brian Jimenez, the city employee who oversees the program, estimated about 30 percent of the cases resulted in the case going to court. What is known is that the city spent $21,853 to mow properties that were out of compliance. The city can bill the property owner for the expense. If the bill isn’t paid, the city can add the amount to the person’s property taxes as a special assessment. About half the cases were generated by citizen complaints. The other half were generated by the city’s staff. In case you are wondering, the 2010 numbers are in line with past years. The average number of cases over the last four years has been about 940.

• Questions are beginning to emerge about whether Lawrence will have a City Commission primary this year. Seven candidates or more must file by noon on Jan. 25 in order for there to be a primary. Currently four candidates have announced they’re running. Add one name to keep an eye on. I had heard Richard “Dickie” Heckler had some interest in running. When I caught up with him recently, he said he’s considering it. Family considerations may stop him from filing, but he said he would really like to do it. Heckler is a longtime Brook Creek Neighborhood resident who often has spoken at City Hall on a host of issues related to public transportation and controlling urban sprawl. He also has served a number of years on the city’s Traffic Safety Commission.

One other name that is floating around in some circles is former City Commissioner Dennis Constance. Constance, who ran unsuccessfully two years ago, has kept his campaign finance account open, according to documents filed with County Clerk Jamie Shew. He hasn’t been raising any money lately, however. I haven’t been able to get in touch with Constance, who works in building maintenance at KU, recently. So, Dennis, if you are reading this, call me.