At upcoming meetings of the Lawrence City Commission and Douglas County Commission, the City of Lawrence, Douglas County, and other members of the Housing and Homelessness stakeholder group will be sharing an update on the Housing and Homelessness Strategic Plan, which is called A Place for Everyone: A Community Plan to End Homelessness. 

Douglas County District Attorney Suzanne Valdez today announced that Isaiah J. Duckworth, 36, of Lawrence, was sentenced to 79 months in the Kansas Department of Corrections for the aggravated sexual battery of a teen.

Judge Sally D. Pokorny sentenced Duckworth to 47 months on the first count, and 32 months on the second count. Judge Pokorny ordered the sentences to run consecutively.

Duckworth was convicted of two counts of aggravated sexual battery on June 6, 2023, when he pleaded no contest at the beginning of his jury trial. 

Kansas Senate Bill 180 goes into effect on July 1, 2023. This statewide law bars transgender people from using restrooms, locker rooms and other public facilities that have been earmarked for cisgender use. Until this bill was passed, trans people were free to utilize these services according to their gender identity.

The Douglas County District Court Legal Self-Help Office is open to the public. The office will assist self-represented litigants with finding and filling out necessary forms as well as providing information about court processes and available resources. The office is open:

• 9 a.m.- noon Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays
• 1-4 p.m. Wednesdays

The Legal Self-Help Office is located in the Judicial and Law Enforcement Center, 111 E. Eleventh St., on the first floor next to the court security screening area.

The Douglas County Clerk’s Elections Office is being recognized today for excellence in election administration with a national Clearinghouse Award for “Outstanding Innovations in Elections – Small/Medium Jurisdictions.” Also, known as the “Clearies,” the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) presents the awards program annually to celebrate the hard work of election offices across the country.

Starting on Monday, March 6, Douglas County Route 458 (N1000 Road) is scheduled to be closed for construction at two locations:

The historic Douglas County Courthouse, 1100 Massachusetts Street, designed by famous architect John G. Haskell, has been a landmark in Northeast Kansas since its construction in 1903. Douglas County invites local organizations to display their artwork on its second floor, so that they may take part in its history. This will become a rotating exhibition in the administration department of the courthouse. 

The Treatment and Recovery Center (TRC) of Douglas County will begin a phased opening on April 10.

Douglas County Commissioners approved a lease agreement and an operating agreement on April 5 for the Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center to operate the TRC, located at 1000 W. Second St.

The Lawrence-Douglas County Housing Authority has received an Award of Excellence from the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials (NAHRO) for project design of The Cottages at Green Lake. It was one of only 16 housing and community development organizations to receive an award. It was selected from an initial pool of 178 Awards of Merit recipients.

Common Ground, the community gardening and urban agriculture program, has 11 sites across Lawrence and needs volunteers (individuals or groups) to help maintain the gardens, plant and harvest produce, and transport produce to local food banks.

For the 2023 season, Common Ground sites that need the most volunteer help are:

The Housing and Homelessness steering committee, which is facilitated by the City of Lawrence and Douglas County, is working to draft a five-year Housing and Homelessness Strategic Plan. The goal is to create a community-wide system that achieves functional zero in homelessness through policy, system and environmental changes that give all Douglas County residents access to safe, accessible and affordable housing. When a community achieves functional zero, homelessness is a rare and brief occurrence.

USD 348 (Baldwin City school district) and USD 491 (Eudora school district) called for a special bond election to be held today, May 16.

Unofficial results can be found here: http://dgcoks.org/spelection23.

The canvass will be held at 9 a.m. Thursday, May 25, at the Douglas County Elections Office, 711 W 23rd Street, Suite 1.