photo by: Lauren Fox
Volunteers listened to county and city leaders prior to the start of Douglas County s final mass vaccination clinic on April 28.
Douglas County hosted its last mass COVID-19 vaccination event on Wednesday after more than three months of clinics.
Since Jan. 29, Douglas County has held 26 mass vaccination clinics at the Douglas County Fairgrounds and administered around 55,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines. Prior to the start of the final event on Wednesday, county and city leaders addressed the crowd of volunteers to thank them for their involvement and commemorate the success of their efforts.
“I have been involved in a lot of things: the births of children, the deaths of a lot of people, the happy times, the sad times, the rewarding times … and I tell you that this clinic has been one of the most rewarding and fulfilling things I will ever do in my entire career,” Dennis Leslie, division chief of training with Lawrence-Douglas County Fire Medical, told
Staff report
A Lawrence Police Department vehicle is seen in this file photo from September 2018.
An out-of-town bomb squad determined that a suspicious device found in Lawrence Thursday night was a “very loud” carbon monoxide alarm that had been discarded, a Lawrence police official said Friday.
Around 11 p.m., police responded to a call of a suspicious device at the Kwik Shop at 1420 Kasold Drive, where an officer could hear something repeatedly saying “evacuate,” according to Journal-World news partner Operation 100 News.
Patrick Compton, a spokesman for the Lawrence Police Department, said the department coordinated a response with Lawrence-Douglas County Fire Medical, which called in the Overland Park Police Department’s bomb squad to investigate. After investigating, the squad found the sound to be coming from a carbon monoxide alarm in the garbage.
Lawrence City Hall, 6 E. Sixth St., is pictured on May 3, 2016.
After an outside study of Lawrence’s and Douglas County’s emergency medical services agreement called for the county to increase its contribution, city leaders said Tuesday that they were ready to move toward the creation of a new agreement.
As part of its meeting Tuesday, the Lawrence City Commission received a report regarding the EMS study, which was recently completed by the Public Policy and Management Center at Wichita State University. Under the city’s and county’s current agreement to jointly fund and provide emergency medical services, the city pays about three-quarters of the cost for the service and the county pays the remainder, but the consultant recommended that the county increase its share.
Lawrence City Hall is pictured in September 2018.
Lawrence city leaders will soon discuss an outside study of the city’s agreement with Douglas County to jointly fund and provide emergency medical services, the results of which call for the county to increase how much money it provides toward the service.
As part of its meeting Tuesday, the Lawrence City Commission will receive a report regarding the EMS study, which was recently completed by The Public Policy and Management Center at Wichita State University. Currently, the city pays about three-quarters of the cost for the service and the county pays the remainder.