Business owners, housing advocates, and housed and unhoused community members filled Lawrence City Hall on Tuesday night to speak out about the city’s handling of homelessness and management of the camp behind Johnny’s. Rick Renfro, owner of Johnny’s Tavern in North Lawrence, closed his restaurant as a form of protest Tuesday morning, saying he wouldn’t reopen until the city installed a fence around the camp adjacent to his property. He also asked the city to assign a staff member to oversee the camp from 9 a.m. to 2 a.m to manage the site and monitor who goes in and who goes out. Before the meeting, the city partially acquiesced by installing a fence that delineates the separation between Renfro’s property and the camp, which is on city-owned property.
Source: The Lawrence Times
