Ashlar LC. Old English Lutheran Church. Professional Office Suites

10/31/2023

Our thoughts and prayers are with the Patterson family following the untimely loss of Craig Patterson, the architect who supervised the restoration of “the Church” and who was a longtime tenant. He was a great man, a great architect, and a great friend. Our condolences.

09/07/2023

“In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right . . . to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.”

— U. S. Const. amend. VI

The offices at 1040 New Hampshire Street in Lawrence will soon be reopening its doors to a new chapter in the life of “The Old English Lutheran Church”. The Bell of Justice will now ring over Lawrence’s new public defender’s office. Established 60 years ago in Gideon v. Wainwright, the case established the right to legal representation and duty for states to provide it according to the fifth and sixth amendments:

“[L]awyers in criminal courts are necessities, not luxuries.”

From Wikipedia: “Gideon v. Wainwright, 372 U.S. 335 (1963), was a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision in which the Court ruled that the Sixth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution requires U.S. states to provide attorneys to criminal defendants who are unable to afford their own. The case extended the right to counsel, which had been found under the Fifth and Sixth Amendments to impose requirements on the federal government, by imposing those requirements upon the states as well.”

The Kansas State Board of Indigents’ Defense provides defense counsel for people who are charged with felonies and cannot afford an attorney. They do so in one of two ways: the public defender system or the assigned counsel program.

The impact that this agency’s services have on Kansas’s criminal legal system is huge. On average, 85% of adults charged with felonies in Kansas qualify for its services. In fiscal year 2020, BIDS handled a grand total of 26,237 cases. Given these statistics, the relative health of the Kansas public defense system has a substantial impact on the ability of our criminal courts to function.

A strong public defense system not only protects their clients’ legal rights and satisfies the constitutional requirements of the Sixth Amendment, it also protects Kansas citizens’ liberties as a whole, increases the effectiveness of our court system, and is essential to maintaining the legitimacy of the entire judicial process.

02/28/2023

07/06/2022

The public is invited to a retirement reception on Thursday, July 7, for The Honorable Judge Kay Huff, of the Seventh Judicial District. The reception will be from 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. in the historic County Courthouse, 1100 Massachusetts St., in the County Commission meeting room on the second floor.

Judge Huff hears felony criminal cases and major civil cases including tort, contract, property and administrative matters. In addition to her regular judicial duties, Huff has presided over Douglas County Drug Court since it was launched in January 2020.

12/11/2020

Participants describe Douglas County’s new Drug Court program as life-changing. “My health has vastly improved and I just don’t know where I would be without Drug Court – probably in jail, probably miserable. I’m five months sober today and I feel like a new person.”

They credit the program’s structure, goal-setting and accountability. But more importantly, they say it’s working with a team of people who "really do care" about them. The team includes Drug Court Officer Shannon Bruegge, left, and Douglas County District Court Judge B. Kay Huff, who presides over the specialty court. They were pictured in January 2020 when Drug Court was launched.

Full story: http://dgcoks.org/drugcourt1220

01/30/2020

A development group that sought to build a five-story apartment and retail building in downtown Lawrence appears to have abandoned its effort. The development group and the property owners sued the City of the Lawrence last year after the City Commission rejected its project, but have recently agree...

07/26/2019

They should offer a class on the “impossibile to understand” downtown design guidelines! Some great ideas in there!

After city leaders rejected a controversial proposal to build a five-story apartment and retail building downtown, some local elementary students were so inspired to come up with alternative plans that they’ve spent their summer working on them. In May, the Lawrence City Commission rejected the pr...

07/24/2019

"The City Commission considered the Hub project after the developer appealed previous decisions made by the city’s preservation board, the Historic Resources Commission, regarding the certificate of appropriateness and the downtown design guidelines. The certificate was required because the project would be adjacent to three historic buildings: the English Lutheran Church, the Douglas County Courthouse and the former bank building that currently houses the Watkins Museum of History.

Both bodies denied the project based on several factors, most notably that its size and scale were not appropriate for downtown’s historic district and were out of line with design guidelines. The City Commission approved its own findings of fact related to both denials and essentially upheld the HRC’s decisions. Those findings, which comprise 16 pages, include that the main building overwhelms the city landmarks and is incompatible with the height and width of other one- and two-story structures downtown.

The project’s two buildings would cover the equivalent of 16 original townsite lots and provide 610 bedrooms targeted to college students. The primary structure covers nine lots and would be a five-story apartment and retail building that would stretch the width of the block between Massachusetts and New Hampshire streets, partially covering the alleyway. The secondary building would be a three-level parking garage and mixed-use structure on the east side of New Hampshire Street."

06/14/2019

Good fences make good neighbors, but this is a crappy fence...

06/13/2019

The story continues:

05/01/2019

We need your help. City commissioners need to hear from you over the next few days about your feelings about the massive HUB student housing project that has been proposed for 11th and Massachusetts streets downtown. The City Commission is scheduled to hear arguments on May 7 on an appeal being brou...

11/16/2018

“For a new kid on the block to come in and be the most massive structure with those three significant historic structures is just wrong,” Brown said. “It’s not something that Lawrence should support.”

Plans to build a six-story apartment and retail building on the northeast corner of 11th and Massachusetts streets will continue to be discussed at City Hall, but the city’s historic preservation board has major concerns with the building’s size. Members of the city’s Historic Resources Commis...