News and notes from around town:

• As we reported last week, new renderings for the $18 million expansion of the Lawrence Public Library are nearly done. Now, library officials have confirmed that they’ll hold an event from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. on Sunday. The event will be after the library has closed for the day, but the showing will be open to the public. There will be a brief presentation about the library’s private fund-raising campaign, and then the unveiling. So, if you want to get a sneak peek at the biggest project to come to downtown in a quite awhile, mark your calendars.

• There is a lot going on in the fitness world in Lawrence these days. Not with me personally, mind you. The 100-degree heat has limited my physical activity to 12 oz. curls. But health club operators clearly have Lawrence in their sights. A deal closed Monday that sold the Maximus Fitness and Wellness Center at 2339 Iowa to Wichita-based Genesis Health Clubs. All operations at the club will continue, but plans call for remodeled locker rooms, steam rooms, additional cardio and weight machines, expanded hours and new personal training options. According to a statement from Genesis, the company plans to hire all Maximus staff members who wish to stay with the new owners.

But the company’s owner, Rodney Steven II, said he also has other plans for Lawrence. He said he’s actively looking for a second location in town. No word yet on where that may be.

This news comes as downtown gets closer to having its first full-service, privately owned fitness center. As we’ve previously reported, a health club is the major commercial tenant for the new multi-story building being constructed at Ninth and New Hampshire streets. Now we have more details on that club. North Lawrence-based Next Level Sports Performance will move its operations into the ground floor of the new building. Currently, the company focuses on private training. But at the new locations they will operate a 9,000-square-foot fitness center open to anyone who buys a membership. That gym will be called The Summit. Next to The Summit will be a 3,000-square-foot facility that will operate as Next Level personal training. That area only will be open to people who have subscribed to those services. A 1,000-square-foot area in the basement of the building will house locker rooms, a dry sauna, a deep tissue massage area, and an acupuncture service.

Scott Elliott — who along with longtime trainer Chad Richards — is an owner of the business, said the company sees a lot of potential for a fitness center in Downtown Lawrence. In addition to the residents who will be living in the 55 apartment units located on the upper floors of the Ninth and New Hampshire building, Elliott said the club will target professional who work downtown.

“All those employees in the US Bank Tower building, all the other employees that work downtown, that’s not only the demographic we’re hoping to attract but it will be the demographic we really target,” Elliott said. “I believe Ninth and New Hampshire really is going to be the new synergy point for downtown.”

Lawrence developer Doug Compton, who is leading the group developing the building, told me thinks the fitness center can be a major traffic generator for all of downtown. He said the club easily could have 700 to 1,000 members. Some of those members may choose to stay in downtown after their workout to do a little shopping or grab a bite to eat. (A sensible meal, of course.)

Elliott said the company hopes to be in the new space by October, but of course, that is dependent upon construction at the site. The gym is expected to employ 15 to 20 people.

In addition to all of that, I hear from various sources around town that there are at least two more fitness club operators looking around Lawrence for locations. I asked Elliott if there is some type of national fitness center boom taking place, and he said not really. He said the fitness markets in major metro areas have become fairly saturated, so companies are starting to look to smaller, well-educated communities such as Lawrence to start new locations.

It will be interesting to see what develops. In the meantime, somebody wake me up when it cools down.

• Of course, when it comes to fitness centers, one other thing to keep in mind is an idea for a West Lawrence recreation center near Sixth and Wakarusa. I wrote about that project yesterday, and how parks and recreation leaders are worrying that the idea is starting to lose momentum. At one point it looked like there was a chance that city leaders would give the go ahead to really start planning for that center in 2012 with the idea of starting construction in 2013. A significant donation from Bill Self’s foundation was going to provide the project a boost. Now, it looks like the project — which probably would cost about $15 million — could be on a slower track. Commissioners haven’t had any public discussions about the recreation center idea yet. Those probably will come in mid-August. But there have been plenty of rumblings. Based on those, I would guess that if the center were put to a vote today, it would lose on a 3-2 count. Nothing is written in stone, of course, but I think Commissioners Mike Amyx, Hugh Carter and Bob Schumm would need further convincing that now is the time to move ahead with the project. Of the three, I suspect Carter is the swing vote in that equation.

• I may start calling Kansas Highway 10 the Magic Highway. As I have mentioned before, I fill my F-150 up in Eudora quite often. (Actually, that’s a lie. I haven’t filled both tanks in the F-150 up for a looong time.) As I’ve also mentioned before, I’ve noticed an odd thing. Gasoline prices in Eudora have been about 11 cents cheaper than they have been in Lawrence, just six miles down the highway. It got me thinking that there must be some type of magic portal we drive through on that six-mile stretch that alters the price of gasoline. Well, there are some signs that the portal may be weakening a bit. I was at the pumps yesterday. I filled up at the Eudora Kwik Shop at $3.48 per gallon. When I drove into Lawrence, immediately after filling up, the price of gasoline at the Lawrence Kwik Shop was $3.53 per gallon. Still a 5-cent difference for two stores six miles apart owned by the same company, but that’s better than an 11-cent difference. Some stations along 23rd Street, though, hadn’t gotten the memo yet that the portal was only operating at half-strength. Zarco was at $3.53 per gallon, but the other stations I saw, including QuickTrip, were still at $3.59 to $3.61 per gallon. This morning, it looked like more of them had dropped to $3.53. Obviously, it is a free country and gasoline station owners can price their product however they choose. And I’m sure they have their reasons. I don’t think the public understands them, but that doesn’t mean they don’t exist. Regardless, I find it an interesting study in economics.