The idea of consolidating Douglas County and Lawrence city parks and recreation services is an old one, but it’s an idea local leaders are willing to reconsider.

In the near future, county commissioners would like to sit down with the Lawrence Parks and Recreation Advisory Board and start a new discussion about possibly consolidating services. Monday, they directed County Administrator Craig Weinaug to arrange that meeting.

“We have a number of parks properties that are being run by Public Works, who are wonderful and good stewards of the land, but they are not schooled in recreation,” Commissioner Charles Jones said. “They are road people.”

Public Works maintains county roads and bridges as well as parks outside city limits. But Jones and Commissioners Bob Johnson and Jere McElhaney said they would like to see more recreation opportunities offered to the public at county parks.

Such activities might include nature trails and canoeing lessons at Lone Star, Jones said.

City advisory board chairman Bill Penny and Parks and Recreation Director Fred DeVictor said consolidation is worth discussing. They just want to know where the money for such an expansion of services would come from.

Hally Haas, 9, left, and her sister Gabe Haas, 11, sit with their grandmother Donna Writt on Monday at Brook Creek Park in East Lawrence.

“Our desire is to serve the county as best we can,” Penny said.

A few years ago the city did an analysis of taking on county parks, especially Lone Star, DeVictor said.

“Our assessment was that (the park) was maintained pretty well, but (recreational) programming things would take some additional costs,” DeVictor said. “We didn’t recommend that we do anything.”

In addition to Lone Star, county Public Works also maintains Wells Overlook Park and Robert Hall Pearson Memorial Park east of Baldwin and adjacent to Black Jack Battlefield, which the county also has taken a stake in because of illegal dumping area there.

Both the city and the county handle certain maintenance operations at Broken Arrow Park, because it is on the city limits and some of the grounds falls under the county jurisdiction. The duties of each entity is covered in a written agreement that has been in existence a few years. DeVictor and Weinaug said the arrangement has worked well.

The county is not in the business of providing park recreation services, Johnson said.

“I generally favor consolidation, period,” he said. “When you apply that principle to the city and county parks, it makes more sense than almost anywhere else.”

McElhaney questioned whether it would be necessary for the county to come up with more money to help the city take on the extra work. He noted a 1-cent sales tax approved several years ago for providing additional park services, and said he would want to make sure all of that money is being used wisely.

It is, according to DeVictor and Penny. They say the money has been used for capital improvement projects such as the Indoor Aquatic Center and Prairie Park Nature Center.

“We’ve used that extensively to take care of the needs we have, and there’s a lot more on the list,” Penny said.