photo by: Mike Yoder

Lawrence City Hall, 6 E. Sixth St., Thursday, July 7, 2016

The Lawrence City Commission is once again planning a return to in-person meetings.

With some brief exceptions, the commission has been meeting virtually throughout the COVID-19 pandemic while allowing the public to participate either virtually or in person. The city announced this week that the commission planned to return to meeting in person beginning with its meeting on April 5.

The meetings will be hybrid, meaning commissioners will be in person at City Hall, but the public and city staff can choose to attend in person or virtually, according to a city staff memo. Directions and links for participating virtually are included in the commission’s meeting agendas, which are available on the city’s website, lawrenceks.org.

For those who attend in person, mask guidelines will depend on Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health’s COVID transmission indicator. Douglas County’s COVID transmission levels recently entered the “green” zone, which is the lowest level of transmission and the least restrictive level of COVID risk. The city announcement states that if the transmission indicator is in the green, masks will be optional, and if the indicator is in yellow, masks will be strongly encouraged. The city previously stated that mask guidelines will also be posted at the entrance of city buildings.

The health department’s COVID transmission indicator is based on the active case count and the 14-day moving average of new cases, and is available on its website, ldchealth.org. The county has been in the green zone since March 4.

The commission previously returned to in-person meetings briefly on two occasions, once over the summer and once in December, but moved meetings back online when the level of cases increased.