Dorothy Hoyt-Reed solders a stained glass piece at her North Lawrence store Oz Art Glass.

I know you have long been thinking it: North Lawrence’s genteel nature makes it the perfect candidate to become Lawrence’s Stained Glass Capital. Well, a local entrepreneur is working to make that happen.

Oz Art Glass has opened at 626 N. Second St. and hopes to begin introducing more Lawrence residents to the art and craft of making stained glass.

“It is a satisfying creative outlet, it is a nice hobby, and the best part is it looks so pretty in the window,” said Dorothy Hoyt-Reed, owner, operator and chief instructor for Oz Art Glass.

Hoyt-Reed is offering a couple of classes for people wanting to learn how to make stained glass creations. One is a single-session introductory course that makes use of a stained glass kit that includes all the pieces cut to size. The other class is a seven-week series that teaches students how to make a piece from scratch.

“Cutting the glass and grinding the glass is probably what takes the longest,” Hoyt-Reed said. “Designing the pattern is a big part of it too.”

Dorothy Hoyt-Reed solders a stained glass piece at her North Lawrence store Oz Art Glass.

Soldering, which is how the glass pieces often are joined together, also can be an art form in itself. (My best known soldering piece of art is called “Drips,” and it features many copper water pipes in my basement ceiling.) Hoyt-Reed’s classes teach soldering techniques, in addition to the fancier form of stained glass work known as the Tiffany technique, which involves using copper banding to join glass together.

The store also plans on a large part of its business coming from the sale of stained glass supplies. That includes the colored glass itself, the solder, flux, brushes, polishes and the various chemicals that can be used to give the glass different tints or patinas. Hoyt-Reed said stained glass supplies are something most art supply stores in Lawrence don’t carry.

Hoyt-Reed, a retired middle school teacher who started learning stained glass in retirement, said a lack of places to buy supplies was a driving factor to start the business. Then she decided offering classes would be a way to get more people exposed to the craft.

“A class is a cheap way to find out whether it is something you really want to do and invest in,” she said.

If you are like some people I know who are no longer allowed to be in possession of a soldering iron, the shop does sell some already completed stained glass pieces.

In other news and notes from around town:

• If a new city street is being built or a lot is being leveled to make way for a new business, there is a good chance that Lawrence-based R.D. Johnson Excavating is the company moving the dirt. R.D. Johnson has become one of the largest construction companies in the city, and it now is under new ownership.

An entity owned by Perry-based Hamm Companies — one of the largest construction companies in the state — finalized a deal last week to buy R.D. Johnson Excavating, company founder Roger Johnson confirmed.

But Johnson said the R.D. Johnson brand name will continue on, and the company will continue to operate out of its headquarters along Kansas Highway 10 on the east edge of Lawrence. Johnson also will serve as a consultant for the company for the next couple of years.

Johnson said all 90 employees were kept as part of the sale. He also said the general nature of the work will remain the same. Hamm Companies often works on very large projects — rebuilding the Kansas Turnpike or major interchange projects throughout the state, for example. R.D. Johnson will continue to focus on smaller scale street projects, site preparation work, utility projects and other such contracts.

“They wanted a company to do the smaller stuff in the area while they do the great big stuff,” Johnson said.

As for why Johnson decided to sell the company, he said he is 66 years old and believed it was time to start moving away from the business world. But it won’t be a full-scale retirement for the Lawrence native. Johnson has been active in developing residential neighborhoods around the community, including a new one near 23rd and O’Connell and the Oregon Trail addition near Rock Chalk Park. He said he plans to continue with some real estate development work.

But the sale does close a chapter on a start-from-scratch business story. Johnson started the excavation company in 1981, and it was significantly smaller than the 90-employee, multimillion venture it is today.

“I started out by myself and with no money,” Johnson said. “I had a backhoe and a trencher.”