LAWRENCE — Lawton's should reopen this summer, say city officials, who are still steaming over a threat by the hot dog stand's owner to move to Methuen.

Michael Sweeney, the head of the city's planning department, said he met with the property owners last week to discuss shoring up the North Canal embankment the restaurant sits on and rebuilding the sidewalk adjacent to it, so that customers can once again flock to the shop for their favorite dogs.

"Mission one is to go out and do what's necessary to stabilize the area and allow Lawton's to get back up and operational," Sweeney said.

About a month ago, restaurant owner Joanne Curley arrived at the 80-year-old take-out joint and found that the embankment the shop sits on was slumping into the canal. The doors to the building were sticking, a small deck was slipping off to the side and the septic tank had become disconnected from the building.

She closed the restaurant, located at the corner of Canal Street and Broadway, because she could no longer use the bathroom or sinks in the building.

Since then, a host of interests have become involved in the problem, including the city, which owns the sidewalk; Michael Graffeo of Salem, N.H., who owns the land the restaurant occupies; Enel Corp., which owns the North Canal; and AT&T, which had recently dug up the sidewalk to bury fiber optic cables.

Presently, the area of sidewalk around the restaurant has been cordoned off by Lawrence Heritage State Park workers. The park actually maintains the land that borders the canal, including the sidewalks, according to acting Park Supervisor Jim Beauchesne.

Under the sidewalk, the ground has eroded, leaving the conduit carrying the fiber optic cables exposed. A guardrail preventing people from falling into the canal has mostly fallen over, and the sidewalks are cracked.

Sweeney said that during a meeting last Monday, all parties involved agreed on the best course of action.

He said AT&T will go in and do whatever it can to stabilize the ground under the sidewalk, which should keep the building from moving any further.

"They will redig the area — that's the baseline that needs to be done — in cooperation with Lawton's, Enel and the city," he said.

While the building is being stabilized and the restaurant reopened, engineers will conduct an in-depth study of the area around it to try to figure out why the earth is moving there.

"There will be an engineering analysis of that entire area, to figure out what type of action will be needed long-term," he said.

Dave Mancuso, a spokesman for AT&T, said the company is willing to do work at the site but doesn't want to make the situation worse.

"We want to get Lawton's up and running as soon as possible," said Mancuso, who attended the Monday meeting. "We want to do whatever we can to try to achieve that. What we talked about is making sure we don't do anything that creates any more problems."

He said the company planned on meeting again this week to discuss a timeline for action.

Joanne Curley, meanwhile, said she hasn't heard anything from the city, and that neither she nor her husband were invited to the meeting last week.

Scott Curley said last month that if the city and utility companies don't move quickly on fixing the problem, that he would consider moving the business to Methuen.

Scott could not be reached for comment, but Joanne Curley referred questions to the property owner, Michael Graffeo, whose company owns the property.

Graffeo could not be reached for comment, but he did attend last week's meeting.

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