Latest

Haskell Cultural Center and Museum collection digitization among 12 projects earning heritage grants
A preservation project at the Haskell Cultural Center and Museum and 11 other cultural projects have earned $210,000 in grant money from Douglas County.
Latest – All local government news

Lawrence City Commission to consider downtown transit station site boundaries, more public comment changes
Lawrence city commissioners on Tuesday will consider boundaries for a downtown transit station and decide whether the city should stop maintaining recordings of general public comment.

Environmentalists dodge wetlands threat, but larger floodplain development lurches ahead
About half of the proposed New Boston Crossing site rests in the floodplain, but the company’s attorneys and consultants have sought to navigate through objections raised at the city, county and federal levels.

Lawrence school board approves district’s 2024-25 capital improvement plan
The Lawrence school board on Tuesday approved the district’s capital improvement plan with about $17.3 million in expenditures, mostly involving facility repairs, budgeted for next school year.
Lawrence city Commission

Lawrence Historic Resources Commission denies revised plans for downtown row houses
Lawrence’s Historic Resource Commission on Thursday voted 2-2 against a plan to build 15 row houses next to the former Borders book store downtown. The developers can appeal the denial.

Lawrence police chief shares new data reports, outcomes from community meetings
Lawrence Police Chief Rich Lockhart shared with city commissioners on Tuesday how the department is trying to improve community relations. He provided new data and said crime is down, yet the fear of crime is up in some areas.

Lawrence City Commission general public comment for April 15, 2025
Here’s the general public comment for the Lawrence City Commission’s Tuesday meeting, as public comment is no longer being broadcast.
Douglas County Commission

Lawrence, Douglas County cultural events can seek up to $10K from new grant program
Annual events that “celebrate, honor and uplift the county’s diverse cultural heritage” could receive up to $10,000 in funding from a new Heritage Conservation Council grant program.

Douglas County commissioners approve plan for Franklin Cemetery, final letter to feds
Cemeteries in Lawrence are nearing capacity, but Franklin Cemetery will someday soon start accepting burials — more than 100 years after the last person was buried there.

Douglas County commissioners to ask federal delegation to ‘show the fortitude’ to defend democracy
Douglas County commissioners have penned a letter to the four congresspeople who represent the county, asking them to “prevent a single branch of government from becoming too powerful.”