The Community Building and its exercise and free play facilities will remain free for the public to use for another three months following the Lawrence City Commission’s 4-1 vote on Tuesday.
The city never charged Lawrence and Douglas County residents fees to access recreation centers, but that changed at the start of the year as part of plans to eliminate a portion of a multimillion-dollar city budget deficit.
City staff plans had called for the Community Building, 115 W. 11th St. in downtown Lawrence, to no longer offer free play, and for its use to be limited to only people who are enrolled in programming or those who pay to rent the building.
However, commissioners voted in December to keep the Community Building open to offer free access for a trial period of three months.
Don’t miss a beat … Click here to sign up for our email newsletters
Click here to learn more about our newsletters first
Looking at about two months of data — Jan. 5 through Feb. 25 in 2025 and 2026 — the city recorded more than double the card scans at the Community Building, with 2,527, this year as it did last year.
In previous years, staff members weren’t as diligent about asking people to swipe their cards upon entry so the data is skewed, but for the same time period in 2025, they recorded 1,050 visits.
Please support
The Lawrence Times!
Subscribe here.
Lindsay Hart, interim director of Parks, Recreation and Culture, told commissioners staff had estimated that it would cost $56,000 to keep the Community Building open to the public for the remainder of the year.
Staff previously estimated that staffing the building for three months would cost about $13,000, but Hart said building logistics meant the rec center would require extra staff at different times, increasing the cost to an estimate of $69,000 annually.
There was no action planned on the meeting agenda, but commissioners chose to make a motion and vote on whether to use $17,000 from the city’s fund balance to support another three months of open access at the Community Building.
“We can give it another three months and continue to track the data and plan to come back,” Hart said.
Mayor Brad Finkeldei, Vice Mayor Mike Courtney, and Commissioners Mike Dever and Kristine Polian voted in favor; Commissioner Amber Sellers voted against the motion.
The Community Building’s hours are 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturdays and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sundays. Following the commission’s vote, drop-in access will remain free through June.
Read more about the rec center fee implementation in the articles linked below.
In other business, Finkeldei, Dever and Sellers voted in favor of allowing the city to issue $158 million in general obligation bonds and about $26 million in temporary notes to fund capital improvement plan projects. Polian and Courtney opposed the motion, and Dever hesitated before ultimately voting in favor for the motion to pass 3-2.
If local news matters to you, please help us keep doing this work.
Don’t miss a beat — get the latest news from the Times delivered to your inbox:
Click here to learn more about our newsletters first
Mackenzie Clark (she/her), reporter/founder of The Lawrence Times, can be reached at mclark@lawrencekstimes.com. Read more of her work for the Times here. Check out her staff bio here.
More coverage:
August Rudisell/Lawrence TimesLawrence city commissioners vote to keep Community Building free to use for 3 more months
Nathan Kramer / Lawrence Times
Nathan Kramer / Lawrence Times
Latest Lawrence news:
Molly Adams / Lawrence Times
Jeanine Michna-Bales
