7 residents in attendance…meeting started 7:08pm
Ted announces the guest speaker Bart Littlejohn who is currently running for city commission.
Bart Littlejohn started with his own speech on his candidacy.
Bart is running for city commission yet again, jumping back into it to help the city out and support projects coming around the corner.
Bart spoke about his work on economic development and housing and being flexible and resilient for the city and in support of the city. Ted asked about the 2nd Street corridor plan and that there has been no presentation or discussion from the city on it. Ted spoke about the committee studying it that they do not understand the storm water issues of North Lawrence. Ted wants before any development to happen there have to be storm water pumps put in.
Ted asked why North Lawrence takes water from the city to the county and pumps it to the river. Ted spoke about the pump in North Lawrence being over capacity. Ted asked about why North Lawrence should be taking water from the county and supporting their storm water infrastructure.
Ted mentioned the storm water issue being the number one issue in North Lawrence. Ted talked about the railroad improvements that include the grant and the overpass for the pedestrian crossing and how the city has currently not taking any action on it.
Bart responded to the two issues by saying:
He was informed of the issue concerning the railroad just recently and said that he now has knowledge on it. Bart said there will be a storm water plan for the corridor improvement plan and that it will be a part of the improvement plan. Bart would like to do more impact studies for other areas of Lawrence. Bart reiterated the significance of storm water when it comes to North Lawrence.
Bart also stated the county and the interaction with them concerning the solar project is intricate and that North Lawrence will need to adapt along with working with the county in concerns to the storm water plan. Another resident asked that the storm water improvements need to be made before the solar project.
Bart spoke on the new implementation of the asset management plan with the city and planning to fix things before they are broken. Another resident asked about the grocery store plan for North Lawrence and Ted spoke about the grocery store plan and the corporate relations that were discussed to implement the grocery stores in North Lawrence.
The pandemic and the transient camp both derailed the potential for a grocery store behind Johnny’s Tavern.
Ted spoke about the detriment that the transient camp had on the building of new houses in North Lawrence. When the transient camp at North Lawrence, housing production stopped.
There are still issues with transients showing up at the Phillips 66 north of town looking for the homeless camp.
Ted spoke about the corridor plan on how the city leaders have not been discussing with the residents of North Lawrence.
Ted spoke about starting up the grocery store plan once again to bring a grocery store to North Lawrence.
Ted said the plan will be restarted and pursued once again.
Bill spoke on the issue with being priced out of his home when it comes to the utility rates as well as property taxes. He is talking about the tax breaks given to businesses and that the city is not giving tax breaks to residents. Bart stated that the city has not been developing new businesses and new commerce for quite awhile which has costed the city dearly.
A resident discussed applying for assistance on her water bill. She no longer applies for anything because she makes too much money to qualify.
Ted talked about the federal COVID money that the city spent on the homeless programs and how the city leveraged the residents to pay for the current homeless programs with taxes.
Bart talked about the homeless programs division being the solution to clean up the public parks and the issues with the homeless population in Lawrence.
Ted talked about the issue with the city not separating groups of the transient homeless and the local homeless.
Ted said about how he wants the city to kick out the homeless population of the transients.
Bart said he hears what is going on and that he wants the city to address the issues with the homeless population and how it affects the communities surrounding Lawrence.
Another guest speaker is Jerry Jost an election volunteer for the city. He is imploring to make sure people are registered to vote in the city of Lawrence. Jerry included election information and advocated for people to vote.
Ted spoke about North Lawrence not being against solar but against the location of the proposed solar project. He implored residents to call the number to complain about the solar project.
Weekend after Mother’s Day will be the neighborhood garage sale in North Lawrence.
Ted proposed a solution to Bart about attaching a backup generator to the pumps that pump out the water in the overpass.
Ted discussed the social media group on Facebook that has pivoted from North Lawrence to being extremely negative and tumultuous, TJ Everett has created a new North Lawrence group and the NLIA will be sharing news to that group and no longer pass information to the old group due to the issues.
Meeting adjourned…8:37pm
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