The City of Lawrence has agreed to pay nearly $1 million in back overtime to dozens of firefighter captains, police sergeants and other city employees. Following both an outside and internal review, the city determined it had mistakenly misclassified certain positions as not eligible for overtime when they actually were, according to a city news release Friday. As a result, the city will be paying back overtime totaling $998,600 to 21 fire captains, 24 police sergeants and three city planners. “The City has a responsibility to ensure employees are paid accurately and fairly,” Human Resources Director Lori Carnahan said in the release. “We are committed to correcting any underpayment of overtime to which our employees may be entitled. This is a complex computation and we have been working hard to get it right for our employees.”
Source: LJWorld.com.

As the home-buying season gets underway in Lawrence, those in the industry say the city is facing a historic shortage of homes on the market that requires city leaders to take action. Lawrence Board of Realtors President John Huntington said that in his 30 years of experience, he has never seen such a low inventory of homes for sale. As of this past week, he said, only 44 homes were on the market in Lawrence. “We’ve never come even close to numbers like this,” Huntington said. By contrast, around this time last year there were roughly 400 local listings. The board sent a letter to the Lawrence City Commission this past week stating that the city’s housing shortage had hit a “critical crisis” and that the board is seriously concerned about how it will affect housing affordability as well as other economic factors.
Source: LJWorld.com.

Most of the four-story building, erected in 1910 as a downtown office building, has been vacant for more than 50 years — and it shows, with crumbling plaster ceilings, grime-coated floors and deteriorating plywood in the windows. … Their plans now, [Mark] Davenport said, are to convert the building into a boutique hotel. “It will be like a hotel style, but unique to the building,” Davenport said. “So, not like a hotel chain vibe, but it will present the history and character of the building in the décor and design of the building.” The first floor housed some retail space. Its last tenant, Classic Barber Shop, moved out in 2010 after Davis advised he was marketing the building. The second through fourth floors were all offices, though they’ve been vacant since the 1960s, when the building’s elevator was shut down. “There was a lot of history there,” Davenport said. “It’s still there.”
Source: Hutchinson News

The new terminal project at the Garden City Regional Airport is progressing. Rachelle Powell, director of aviation at the GCRA, said the initial investigation into the project began in 2016. … The new terminal will be built in the same foot-print of the existing facility but will nearly triple in size, Powell said. It will be longer and wider and will also have a partial second story that will house the restaurant facility as well as extra seating where people can come watch airplanes and will include a baggage belt and a larger hold room. Once constructed the new terminal will have two gates, one will have a jet bridge that can accommodate anything from a regional jet with 50 seats up to a 747 with 150 seats, Powell said. Additionally there will be a ground-boarding option that can accommodate any size aircraft.
Source: Garden City Telegram

After being in central Kansas since the 1950s, ElDorado Bus, a division of Forest River Inc., will close its facility in Salina. Forest River issued a Workers Adjustment and Retraining Notification (W.A.R.N.) Act Notice to employees this week telling them the operation at 1655 Wall St. in Salina will close. The notice said the closure is because of a reduction in business caused primarily by the COVID-19 pandemic. The facility is set to close during a 14-day period from May 10 to May 24 and termination of employment will occur during this time as well.
Source: Salina Journal.