Lawrence voters should expect an active voice of opposition to a proposed sales tax to fund an approximately $28 million police headquarters project.

What’s still unclear is how loud and large the opposition group will be.

“I think there will be an active opposition campaign,” said Conor Brown, a Lawrence produce farmer who is organizing the Lawrencians Against the New Police Headquarters group. “I think it will be pretty small. I don’t think anybody has a huge amount of money to put behind it. But that’s fine.”

Brown said the group likely will do a lot of campaigning on social media sites, speaking at events and through old fashioned flyers and pamphlets.

About 10 people attended an organizational meeting at the Lawrence Public Library on Tuesday evening, but Brown said another dozen people had already signed up to volunteer for the group, but weren’t able to attend the meeting.

“I think we’ll do a lot of research to try and prove that we do not need as big and flashy of a police force as what we are being told,” said C.J. Brune, a longtime Lawrence activist who is part of the group.

The Nov. 4 ballot will include a 0.2 percent sales tax question that would fund the police facility, which would house officers, detectives, administration, evidence storage and a host of other functions all on one site. Currently, the various functions of the department are spread out at seven sites. Police department leaders and a citizens group called Friends of Lawrence Police have contended the department will become much more efficient if the functions are moved to one location and brought up to modern standards.

As currently proposed, the facility would be built on vacant ground across from the Hallmark Cards production plant near the Kansas Turnpike interchange on McDonald Drive. The sales tax would last for no longer than nine years but could end sooner if the sales tax generates more revenue than projected.