photo by: Josie Heimsoth/Journal-World

Douglas County commissioners met on Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2025.

Douglas County commissioners voted unanimously to purchase a 23-acre parcel of land next to Lone Star Lake Park in an effort to improve access to the park.

As the Journal-World reported, the site at 579 North 600 Road was considered at a price not to exceed $425,000. According to a memo in the agenda, the area south of North 600 Road is currently inaccessible to the public, and it limits accessibility of the park. The acquisition of the 23-acre wooded parcel will protect wildlife habitat, increase accessible public lands and enable land restoration and water quality improvement in the area.

Commissioner Shannon Reid said the purchase of this land is very exciting. She said that while it isn’t a huge amount of land, it completes the boundary line for the lake.

“I’m really excited about the conservation and the floodplain management that it gives to us and I also just think it’s a cool example of the Open Space dollars really stretching in lots of different and multi-layer impactful ways,” Reid said.

Lone Star Lake Park is a county park featuring a 185-acre man-made lake that was created by damming Washington Creek. The park has already been undergoing improvements, including replacement of shelters, docks, fire rings, picnic tables, and the installation of an accessible kayak launch.

In April 2024, county commissioners adopted the Open Space Plan – which provides a vision and guidance for conservation, collaboration and enhanced access to natural and heritage resources in unincorporated areas of the county. One of the priorities in the plan has been to enhance current county parks to improve public use while conserving natural resources.

The purchase will be funded by the remaining American Rescue Plan Act dollars dedicated to Open Space Plan projects. Of the $2.78 million allocated by the county commissioners, $1,477,922 remains in the Capital Improvement Plan, making the acquisition feasible, the memo said.

In other business, county commissioners:

• Approved the 2026 Natural and Cultural Heritage Grant program materials and allocated $40,000 from the Heritage Conservation reserves to support grant projects next year. The program supports community-led heritage conservation projects across Douglas County, and up to $250,000 is available for grant awards in 2026 with $40,000 of that total to go towards projects with a budget of $5,000 and below.

A memo in the agenda said there have been several updates made to the program materials. The maximum award has been lowered from the long-standing $75,000 to $60,000; fewer application questions will now be required for requests of $5,000 or less; and $40,000 from the Heritage Conservation reserve’s unspent balance will be added to support 2026 seed grant projects, bringing the total funding pool to $250,000.

• Vacated all unused roads within the original Prairie City plat. The city was laid out in the mid-1850s, and much of the city’s street network has since been abandoned. Several remaining rights-of-way have not been used for decades and cut through private property without serving any public purpose. A landowner north of North 200 Road has requested that the county formally vacate these unused corridors.

• Approved a lease agreement with the City of Lawrence for the Senior Resource Center of Douglas County, 749 Kentucky St., effective Oct. 1, 2025 through Dec. 31, 2035. Before becoming a county department, the resource center leased the property from the city, and the new agreement mirrors the terms of the previous lease agreement.