Lawrence

East Ninth Plan @ City Commission May 24 | Live TV Live Report

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On Tuesday, May 24th at 5:45pm at City Hall, The City Commissioners will review the East Ninth Project Concept Plan as part of the Regular Agenda, item #2.

MEMORANDUM from Porter Arneill, Director of Arts and Culture.
CORRESPONDENCE from LAC.

***If you cannot attend the meeting, you can send an email regarding the East Ninth plan to City Commissioners before Tuesday’s meeting.
Make sure to copy the city manager Tom Markus tmarkus@lawrenceks.org and bjwalthall@lawrenceks.org so that your letter will be included in Commissioner’s packets.***

The full City Commission meeting agenda is here.

Also!  A new installment from intrepid throwback reporter Biff Beluga and the LTVL crew…

“Live TV Live hits the streets once again to hear from long standing Lawrence business owners concerning the newly proposed 9th street development plan. Thoughts on skyrocketing property taxes, proposed loss of parking and concerns for use of city funds lead to an alternative plan proposal. Take it in and come share your thoughts this Tuesday, May 24th at Lawrence’s City Commission meeting.”

Last Minute Funding Review Today | 4:30pm

/ Archibald Katz

If you are signed up for alerts regarding the city’s Cultural Arts Commission,  you probably received the following e-mail at 9:57 this morning,  “A meeting has been scheduled for 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday, September 30 in the City Commission room at City Hall, 6 East 6th Street, for a special meeting of Lawrence Cultural Arts Commission to review the 2017-18 National Endowment for the Arts “Our Town” grant application.”

However, the email alert containing the grant application was not sent until 2:07pm and does not seem to be readily available on the city’s LCAC landing page.   For the sake of wider information dissemination and transparency, here is the link to the Lawrence Art Center’s grant application for 2017-18 Free State Festival, which includes requested additional funding and support from the City of Lawrence.

 

Arts Center Funding Request at City Commission Today

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The Lawrence Arts Center will be asking the city for an additional $100,000 for the Free State Festival at this today’s City Commission meeting (see here for current LAC funding)  The following is a quote from their request that appears to assume that what will be built on 9th will be used as infrastructure for Free State Festival.

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“There is no mention of the Free State Festival in the March, April, May, June 3 or June 27 minutes.” said Phil Collison, 9th Street CAC member, ELNA Board Member, and Property owner along 9th street in affected area.  In a letter to City Commissioners, Collison noted,

“In fact, the first mention of the Free State Festival is in the July 29 minutes and those are denials that the street project is being built for any specific venue. Those minutes state, “The grant says that the street will be the showcase for Free State Festival events.” Response: “The specific direction that was given to el dorado was to incorporate language about the project not becoming an entertainment corridor in a way that stood out and wasn’t buried within the document. The design team would never pursue this project as a sanctioned entertainment corridor”.

Regarding the funding source, from yesterday’s Lawrence Journal-World:  “As part of its 2016 budget, the city has created a grant process for events to seek out transient guest tax dollars. But the program, which has a total budget of $150,000, is only in beginning talks and hasn’t yet begun accepting applications.”

Here is the link to their full request on the City’s website and a link to the full agenda.  Also on today’s agenda, LAC will be requesting “the Lawrence Cultural Arts Commission that the City of Lawrence partner with the Lawrence Arts Center in its application for the National Endowment for the Humanities Our Town Grant”.