News and notes from around town:• Jayhawk basketball radio announcer Chris Piper knows a thing or two about buzzer beaters. Well, now it looks like he’s involved with one not on the basketball court but rather at Lawrence City Hall. In addition to his radio gig, Piper owns Lawrence-based ...

News and notes from around town:• Instead of writing this column this morning, I was at a meeting of the Jayhawk Breakfast Rotary Club stuffing my face with bacon and hashbrowns and serving as a guest speaker about City Hall and media issues. (Don’t worry, the most you missed out on was the ...

News and notes from around town:• As they would say in some circles, the price of poker just went up. That’s the take away message from Tuesday night’s decision by city commissioners to get tougher on landlords who allow too many people to live in their single-family rentals. If landlords ...

News and notes from around town:• Beer-swilling students with stereo speakers roughly the size of Fraser Hall are usually the people who come to mind when neighbors complain about the city’s lax enforcement of a code that says no more than three unrelated people can live in a single-family ...

• For a long time now, I’ve been saying that the Farmers Turnpike area in northwest Douglas County has been far more about the turnpike than the farmers. Well, that balance appears to be shifting a bit. A group of residents (I really don’t know that many of them are farmers anymore) near ...

News and notes from around town:• Don’t tell me the price of everything is going up. The price of golf may soon be going down in Lawrence. City commissioners at their meeting on Tuesday will consider significantly dropping the green fees at the city-owned Eagle Bend Golf Course. Parks and ...

News and notes from around town: • The odd combination of railroading and computing has one Lawrence engineering firm adding employees and adding new office space. Officials at Starfire Engineering and Technologies confirmed the company is moving from its longtime space at 2429 Iowa St. into ...

News and notes from around town: • Yesterday I told you that Lawrence experienced a bit of a bounce back in the number of homes built in August. Well, Lawrence Realtors had a bounce back in the number of homes sold during the month. Home sales were up 28 percent in August compared to August ...

News and notes from around Lawrence and Douglas County:• Whopper fans, let your hearts rest easy. (Actually, if you are a fan of a Whopper on a regular basis, you might want to get them checked.) Burger King indeed is building a new restaurant along Sixth Street in northwest Lawrence. In fact ...

News and notes from around Lawrence and Douglas County:• We had an article last week that suggested the 2000s may have been the decade of the renter in Lawrence. Well, it looks like they are working to win this new decade as well. Just off the top of my head, I can think of six apartment ...

News and notes from around town:• Look for one of the city’s larger Montessori schools to get even larger soon. Officials with Raintree Montessori have filed plans at Lawrence City Hall to undertake a $1.5 million expansion of their facility at 4601 Clinton Parkway. Lleanna McReynolds, head ...

News and notes from around town:• Sand is big business around these parts. This part of the state isn’t rich with oil or natural gas, but when it comes to things below the ground, we are pretty rich in the category of sand. But local leaders have had a hard time figuring out how to let ...

News and notes from around town:• Look for an episode of This Old House to play out soon at Lawrence City Hall. (No guarantees, but maybe commissioners will wear Norm Abram-style flannel.) At issue is whether an old house in the Oread Neighborhood ought to be moved a few dozen feet to make ...

News and notes from around town:• UPDATE: There is news that Central National Bank will close two Lawrence branches in early 2012. The bank has confirmed that it plans to close its branches at 800 Mass. and 2321 Harper St. Charles Derby, local president for Central National Bank said the move ...

News and notes from around town:• If another round of elementary school consolidation is in Lawrence’s future, here’s something to remember: Closed school buildings usually don’t remain empty buildings. A good example of that is the former Kaw Valley Elementary building at 1411 E. 1850 ...

News and notes from around town:• Developers of a proposed, multi-story hotel at Ninth and New Hampshire streets are giving the public its first glimpse at what downtown’s newest addition to the skyline may look like. The folks at Lawrence-based Treanor Architects have filed plans for the ...

News and notes from around town:• Are those breadsticks I smell? I’m not sure, but there are signs that plans for an Olive Garden at 27th and Iowa streets may be re-emerging. We reported in July that several sources had told us that a plan to locate an Olive Garden at the northeast corner ...

News and notes from around town:• Somebody forgot to tell us to bounce. There are new numbers out that show while many cities across the country were experiencing a bounce-back year in 2010, Lawrence did not. In fact, by one measure, Lawrence’s economy performed among the worst in the ...

News and notes from around town: • What would it take to get a woman to trade in that tennis bracelet for one that features gorillas or warhawks or devil-like looking predators? Simple: a son or daughter who plays on a sports team that has such a mascot. A new Lawrence company has figured out ...

News and notes from around town: • And you thought the outlet store phase in Lawrence was long dead. Granted, there are two former outlet malls here that would give you that impression, but there is new activity on the outlet front. I have heard from several people now that the new Jos. A. ...