25 years ago: Fundraising for Holcom Park center goes to voters

From the Lawrence Daily Journal-World for June 24, 1986:

  • Fundraising for $500,000 through private donations had come up short, so a proposal to build a recreation center in Holcom Park was going back to the ballot. Since the private fund drive had begun six months earlier, only $280,000 had been raised. Not only was that amount short of the goal, but the original goal was no longer enough, as construction costs had risen since cost estimates had been made in July 1984. City commissioners agreed that the best way to pursue the project was to ask voters to approve a new $1 million bond issue.
  • Lawrence school board members had chosen Hillcrest School as the site of the district’s new special education addition. The 6,000-square-foot addition was expected to cost approximately $430,000, including furnishings. The other two schools that had been under consideration were Sunset Hill and Centennial, but those making the decision expressed their belief that Hillcrest was the school that best met such criteria as traffic flow, centralized location, and accessibility.