photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

Chantel Heinen, a co-owner of Heinen Outdoor Power Equipment, stands next to a Mahindra tractor at the business' new North Lawrence location in this March 2022 photo.

News and notes from around town:

Small engines don’t always confine themselves to creating small problems, and sometimes they need something more than a small space to fix them. Those two facts have a North Lawrence business looking to double the size of its space.

Heinen Outdoor Power Equipment, 1795 E 1500 Road, has filed plans with the county to build a 5,700-square-foot addition onto its existing showroom and shop space. Co-owner Chantel Heinen told me all of the new space would be devoted to the business’ service department.

Heinen said the surprise decision last year by Heritage Tractor to close its Lawrence John Deere dealership created a fairly large hole in the market for lawn mower and other small engine repair services.

“There’s not as many options in town as there used to be for people to take their equipment,” Heinen said. “The community has a need, and we would like to help meet it.”

photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

Heinen Outdoor Power Equipment, pictured in March 2022, has located at the former site of the Airport Motel near the US Highway 24/40 and US. Highway 24/59 intersection, also known as the Tee Pee Junction in North Lawrence.

She said the extra shop space would allow for additional equipment to fix small diesel engines, such as the kind that are found on smaller tractors used by many rural homeowners in the area.

The planned expansion comes at the same time that the dealership has expanded both the number of brands it is offering and also the type of products its is selling. On the brand front, the business has begun selling Can-Am products. Those include ATVs and “side-by-sides,” which are small vehicles that look a bit like a dune buggy or a small truck, depending on the model.

On the product side, the company has begun selling trailers, ranging from small utility trailers to haul a riding lawn mower up to large gooseneck trailers that do heavy hauling on farms and construction sites.

“We didn’t have trailers when we opened,” Heinen said. “You know, to bring trailers in for servicing, that requires a lot of shop space.”

Heinen has been in operation in Lawrence since the spring of 2022, but has been in the farm implement and equipment industry for decades with its original dealership in Valley Falls.

The company decided to expand into Lawrence after realizing it had several brands — Ferris mowers and Mahindra tractors are a couple — that didn’t have a presence in the Lawrence market. Plus it was attracted to the area because it had an opportunity locate along Interstate 70.

If you are having a hard time picturing the business’ location, it is just north of I-70 and just east of the Tee Pee Junction on U.S. Highway 24/40. Or, some of you may remember the location as the former home of the Airport Motel. That parcel of ground remains outside the Lawrence city limits, so the site plan for the expansion is going through the Douglas County approval process.

Heinen said she’s still waiting to hear when final approval may come on those plans, and thus said it was difficult to predict an opening for the new shop space, but hopes it will be later this year.

photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

Hustler lawn mowers are lined up outside Heinen Outdoor Power Equipment’s new location at 1795 E. 1500 Road in North Lawrence in this March 2022 photo.

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Lawrence is fresh off of one big Dillons project — the new grocery store in the KU Crossing district near Clinton Parkway and Iowa Street — but hammers and saws may once again make an appearance in the grocery aisles.

Dillons has filed for a building permit to do about $800,000 worth of remodeling work at its Sixth and Wakarusa store in west Lawrence. The chain grocer hasn’t made any announcements about the project, so all I have to go off of is a few notations from the building permit application filed at City Hall.

The application does state that Dillons plans to remove the Starbucks coffee stand that is located inside the store. The application also calls for a new department to be added — although it doesn’t provide more details — plus it says it plans to update lighting, electrical and mechanical equipment.

One other item that shoppers are likely to notice is a plan to create a new area dedicated to grocery pick-up orders, and to create a specific parking area for customers who are coming to the store to pick up an order they made online.

As for the Starbucks location, if it does go away, fans of the coffeehouse chain won’t have to look far to find a replacement. Starbucks operates a shop with a drive-thru across the street from Dillons.

The building permit doesn’t provide any information about a timeline for the remodeling project. The building permit hasn’t yet received its final approvals from City Hall, so it likely will be several weeks before any construction work could begin, at the earliest.