photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

Lawrence City Hall is pictured on Oct. 11, 2024.

Members of the Lawrence City Commission will conduct elections Tuesday night for who will serve as the mayor and vice mayor in 2025.

Commissioners usually choose the mayor and vice mayor based on the results of the most recent election. If tradition holds, current Vice Mayor Mike Dever will be elected mayor by his fellow commissioners. Dever won the most votes during the 2023 election.

The second-highest vote-getter in 2023 was commissioner Brad Finkeldei. He will likely be nominated as vice mayor on Tuesday. Neither Finkeldei nor Dever will be up for reelection in 2025, as they are halfway through their four-year terms.

Outgoing Mayor Bart Littlejohn will deliver comments at Tuesday’s meeting ahead of the two votes.

In other business, commissioners will:

• Consider awarding a $7.3 million bid to Infrastructure Solutions LLC for work on the Maple Lane Storm, Sanitary and Watermain Improvement Project.

The project was first included in the city’s Capital Improvement Plan in 2022 and was initially just going to be solely focused on sewer improvement around Maple Lane and East 19th Street. The project will expand sanitary sewer capacity to decrease the likelihood of sewer backups in houses in the area during periods of heavy rainfall. However, the project will now include other infrastructure improvements in the area, including pedestrian and traffic calming improvements around 19th Street between Maple Lane and Harper Street that will happen after the stormwater work.

The total cost of the project was included in the Capital Improvement Plan and MSO budget. The item is listed under the commission’s consent agenda, which would approve that and similar items under just one motion.

• Approve nine projects to receive funding from the city’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund.

As the Journal-World reported, the Affordable Housing Advisory Board split the $1.2 million collected by the trust fund between nine projects, ranging from new affordable housing development to vouchers for rental assistance.

The full list of projects is:

• $450,000 for Flint Hills Holdings 9 Del Lofts II project that will include 51 one-bedroom apartment units in a new four-story building in East Lawrence.

• $200,000 for Douglas County’s Housing Stabilization Collaborative that provides a variety of rental, utility and other such assistance to people in need.

• $150,000 for Lawrence-Douglas County Housing Authority Delmar Place project that will include 32 one-bedroom apartments next to the Clinton Place Apartments that the housing authority operates near Clinton Parkway and Iowa Street.

• $100,000 for Lawrence Habitat for Humanity’s Critical Home Repairs project.

• $80,000 for Tenants to Homeowners’ Affordable Rental Management program that aims to rehabilitate vacant or underutilized housing to create new affordable rental units in Lawrence.

• $75,000 for Independence Inc. Affordable Housing Program that provides funding to people with disabilities who need financial assistance in making modifications to their homes.

• $70,000 for Lawrence Tenants’ An Educator for Everyone program that aims to provide information to renters about the city’s income protection ordinance that limits when a landlord can refuse to rent to an individual based on their source of income.

• $50,000 for Lawrence-Douglas County Housing Authority’s New Horizon program that will provide grants to homeless families in need of rental assistance.

• $25,000 for Senior Resource Center’s Modifications & Repairs for Low-Income Seniors program that provides assistance to seniors who need to make modifications to their home in order to age in place.

• Consider setting a public hearing for Jan. 21 to order a demolition or repair of a house on 1310 Prospect Ave. that had been condemned.

The city’s code compliance staff received calls in August from the Lawrence Police Department that people had been staying in the previously vacant unit. When the staff inspected the house, they found it was uninhabitable and dangerous and condemned the property. The house had no bathroom or kitchen facilities or fixtures and there had been no water consumption on the property since 2013.

• Consider a tax exemption request from DCCCA for the construction of a duplex project at 3015 West 31st St.

The nonprofit is aiming to build five duplexes to create transitional housing for clients of its First Step House, a 28-day program that helps mothers who are recovering from drug and alcohol addiction. The project would be next door to its First Step treatment center, as the Journal-World reported.

According to the city memo, construction is expected to start January 2025 and the facility should be open in February 2026.

The City Commission will meet at 5:45 p.m. on Tuesday at City Hall, 6 East Sixth St.