The Lawrence Times

A COVID-19 testing program used since August in the Eudora school district aims to reduce COVID-19 quarantines. Students and staff exposed to a positive case can “test out” of quarantine as long as they don’t have symptoms and continue to test negative for the virus. Mark Dodge, spokesperson for Eudora Public Schools, said an advantage of the plan was that it helps students and staff stay in schools as much as possible — and with no financial cost to the district for testing supplies.“We are a ‘test-to-stay’ district and do not quarantine students due to close contact,” Dodge said in an [...]

Last summer, Lawrence city officials took measures to allow downtown businesses more room for safety against COVID-19 by allowing outdoor seating to occupy some downtown parking spaces — temporary “parklets.”  Now the parklets may be here to stay for a while longer. The temporary right-of-way program is set to expire on Dec. 31, but the city is considering implementing a long-term parklet program after this one expires, according to a city news release Thursday. The long-term program would include several changes to the current regulations for parklets, including “fire code, safety regulations, right-of-way permits, historic design guidelines, equity among local businesses, parking [...]

The Douglas County Commission approved $125,ooo toward emergency local homelessness prevention at Wednesday’s meeting. This allocation comes from American Rescue Plan funding and will go toward rent and utility assistance. The request came from the Douglas County Housing Stabilization Collaborative, a community program originally formed by Family Promise of Lawrence. The DCHSC plans to allocate $100,000 toward rent and $25,000 toward utility assistance. Following this summer’s expiration of the eviction moratorium, Gabi Sprague of the DSHSC said the community is seeing the effects. Data has been hard to collect, they said, but at least 70 households between housing service providers in [...]

The Lawrence Police Department headquarters will soon feature a new piece of public art. The commission’s design concept approval Tuesday follows the approval of the Lawrence Cultural Arts Commission, which discussed the design for the art piece at a meeting in July. The pavilion will be made of stainless steel, with a circle of several glass pairs of eyes around its top, and it will sit north of the facility, near the trails where officers and residents sometimes run. Joe O’Connell, the city-selected artist for the project, told commissioners the design is inspired by compassion and understanding of others. Source: The [...]

The Douglas County Commission on Wednesday approved a new emergency health order for people experiencing homelessness, aimed at minimizing COVID-19 exposure. Effective as of 12:01 a.m. Thursday, the order allows clients from community agencies who are experiencing homelessness to be temporarily housed in hotels. The intent of the order is to leave more space for people who have tested positive for COVID-19 to be sufficiently isolated. Under this order, the county would reimburse the agencies through FEMA disaster relief funding. Assistant County Administrator Jill Jolicouer explained that a previous agreement between the Lawrence Community Shelter and the county worked well before, and this new [...]

City leaders are interested in continuing a discussion about the decriminalization of certain behaviors associated with homelessness or other social issues, such as removing contents from a refuse container, violating park hours and consumption of alcohol in public. As part of its meeting Tuesday, the Lawrence City Commission discussed the potential repeal or amendment of various city ordinances that deal with social issues or that criminalize behaviors associated with poverty. Commissioners indicated they would like to consider potential changes and will soon discuss a process for doing so. Source: LJWorld.com

Gary Hinman has always been able to find something special in the objects right under our noses. At 5 years old, he started a collection in a candy box of tiny found objects. He picked up every bottle cap, shiny piece of glass, or rusty nail that caught his eye. Now, as an artist, he has a garage full of artwork inspired by those types of objects. Some of his sculptures are made out of rusted abandoned tools he found at Clinton Lake or sticks he’s picked up. For Hinman, “junk” isn’t really junk.  “I’ve always liked the idea of reusing things that have [...]

A new fund from the Lawrence-Douglas County Housing Authority aims to reduce high barriers for people to get housing by spurring landlords to loosen some screening requirements and agree to lease their units. The Landlord Risk Reduction Fund aims to help individuals and families who are either experiencing homeless or at immediate risk of becoming homeless, according to information from LDCHA. In order to do so, the fund will provide financial incentives to landlords in Lawrence and Douglas County: A lease up bonus will pay double the amount of rent upon successfully leasing to an LDCHA-referred tenant. That is a per-unit [...]

The city is now accepting donations from residents to help their neighbors in need pay their utility bills, according to a news release Monday. Though there’s no set date for the city to restart utility shutoffs, customers who have a delinquent balance for more than 22 days could lose service once shutoffs do resume. Currently, that’s about 10% of the city’s residential customers, according to the release. “The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated a problem with outstanding utility payments as it left some of our community members unable to keep up with bills due to lost employment, an inability to work, or [...]

Researchers who have been gathering data to determine whether racial-, ethnic- and other bias-based policing is a problem in Lawrence and Douglas County will present their preliminary findings on Monday, Aug. 9. The study asked law enforcement officers from Baldwin City, Eudora, Lawrence and University of Kansas police departments and the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office to gather data on the demographics of drivers and pedestrians they contacted, the reasons why, plus the results of the stops — whether someone was let go with a warning, ticketed, searched, arrested and so on. Source: The Lawrence Times