Why would Scott City be the destination for fertilizer from Russia and grain from North Dakota? The bigger question, asks Michael Deines, is, “Why not?” The local businessman and his partner, Woodrow Fanning, have a shared vision of making Scott City a regional trade hub with construction of additional railroad and warehouse facilities over the next year. Those plans are quickly moving from the drawing board to reality. “Even as we speak, our first shipment of fertilizer is being loaded in Russia,” Deines said on Tuesday afternoon. After being off-loaded in Texas, about 45 days from now that shipment will be [...]

Crediting it for helping spur recent additions at the city’s business parks, Lawrence city leaders have extended a fast-track economic incentives program. As part of its meeting Tuesday, the Lawrence City Commission voted unanimously to authorize an extension of the Catalyst Incentive Program for another three years, until April 1, 2025. ... Under the program’s shortened review and approval process, companies bypass the city’s regular economic incentives policy requirements and the commission approves incentives directly. When the program was introduced, city staff and local economic development leaders argued that the city’s usual economic incentives policy could not accommodate companies that wanted [...]

The City of Lawrence is preparing to take legal action against a local business that the city believes is operating without the license required for a sexually oriented entertainment business. Following an executive session Tuesday evening, the Lawrence City Commission voted unanimously to direct the city attorney to file the appropriate court documents to take action against Lawrence Entertainment LLC, doing business as Allstars, and related parties. Source: LJWorld.com

An issue with some of the city’s new automated water meters resulted in three commercial utility customers being overcharged close to $164,000 on their water bills over the past several months. The City of Lawrence has been working to replace its old water meters with automated meters, which capture and transmit usage data digitally instead of requiring manual reads. A particular issue with certain retrofitted commercial meters resulted in $163,834 of erroneous charges on the three accounts, which has since been refunded or corrected, according to a city staff memo to the commission. Source: LJWorld.com