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WEDNESDAY • NOVEMBER 18 • 2015
Three city manager finalists selected
STORE SLUMP
By Nikki Wentling Twitter: @nikkiwentling
Mike Yoder/Journal-World Photo
ONE RETAIL STORE, THREE RESTAURANTS AND A HOTEL RUN TOGETHER IN THE 700 BLOCK OF MASSACHUSETTS STREET DOWNTOWN. The number of retail stores in downtown Lawrence is at its lowest point in years, according to a new study released by City Hall.
Number of downtown retailers is lowest in years
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Town Talk
Chad Lawhorn clawhorn@ljworld.com
n recent years I know downtown Lawrence has produced more of some things: more apartments, more hotels, more reasons for my wife to wear a disguise when she sees a parking control officer. But one thing it is has produced less of is one of its more important commodities: retail stores for shoppers to spend money. The number of retail stores in downtown Lawrence is at its lowest point in years, according to a new study released by City Hall. The 2015
Retail Market Report prepared by the Lawrence-Douglas County Planning Department found that there are only 82 businesses in downtown Lawrence that actually fit into the “retail” category. That’s down from 116 in 2012 and down from a recent high of 126 in 2006. Obviously there are more than 82 businesses in downtown Lawrence, but most of them aren’t shops or stores. Please see RETAIL, page 5A
The Lawrence City Commission released Tuesday night the names of three finalists for the vacant city manager position. The finalists are: Roderick “Rod” Bremby of Glastonbury, Conn.; Cheryl HarrisonLee of Gardner, Kan.; and Thomas “Tom” Markus of Iowa City, Iowa. Bremby is a commissioner of the ConnectiCITY cut Department of Social COMMISSION Services. Harrison-Lee is the city administrator of Gardner, and Markus is the city manager of Iowa City. Please see FINALISTS, page 5A
LEGISLATURE
Testimony on same-sex foster parents presented By Peter Hancock Twitter: @LJWpqhancock
Shelter names new executive director By Mackenzie Clark Twitter: @mclark_ljw
The Lawrence Community Shelter board named a new executive director at its meeting Monday. Rev. Peter Luckey, president of the board, said the board selected Trey Meyer, who has been involved with the shelter since November 2014.
“We believe that he is the one person of all the candidates we met who has the most promise for helping the shelter be successful in its mission,” Luckey said. Meyer worked as an attorney from 1999 until 2014. At that time, he said, he ran into some personal challenges that served as an impetus for him to reconsider
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director of operations, he has been able to help others, which he said is also very beneficial to him personally. Now, as executive director, Meyer has started making plans for the shelter. He said that as a nonprofit, it seems the shelter is always worrying about money. Please see SHELTER, page 5A
Please see FOSTER, page 2A
INSIDE
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his career path. “I made some decisions about practicing law not being a great fit for me personally,” he said. “It was the kind of thing where in order to be really good at practicing law, I had to be some things personally that I just didn’t enjoy being.” Meyer said the shelter “came onto his radar” last fall. Working there as
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Topeka — A special committee of the Kansas Legislature heard testimony Tuesday both for and against allowing same-sex couples to be foster parents. Sen. Forrest Knox, R-Altoona, who chairs the Special Committee on Foster Care Adequacy, indicated it’s an issue that is likely to be debated by the full Legislature next year. “It’s interesting to me that family structure, which I think we all know has a tremendous influence on outcomes to children, doesn’t seem to be an issue in qualifications for foster parents,” Knox said. “And it’s not even tracked. That’s why I wanted to introduce this topic.”
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Vol.157/No.322 34 pages
The Kansas Board of Regents today will discuss proposed increases to housing and dining plan costs at all six state universities. Page 3A
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