Sports Pavilion Lawrence at Rock Chalk Park

Lawrence Memorial Hospital is proposing to pay the city $100,000 a year to be a “presenting sponsor” of Sports Pavilion Lawrence, the city-owned recreation center in the Rock Chalk Park complex, and to lease space in the facility where it can offer a variety of fitness, health and wellness programs.

Those items are part of a lengthy agenda Tuesday that will begin with the selection of a new mayor and discussion of how the commission plans to fill the vacant seat created by last week’s resignation of former Mayor Jeremy Farmer.

Sports Pavilion Lawrence was originally designed to include 6,000 square feet of additional space where the hospital planned to operate a wellness facility. But hospital officials later decided that wasn’t enough space to accommodate their plans.

The hospital is now proposing to lease 4,007 square feet, at a base rate of $50,000 a year, for 10 years. The proposed lease would allow the city to raise that fee by 3 percent a year in the third, sixth and ninth years of the contract.

Hospital spokeswoman Janice Early said LMH plans to move some of the programs it now offers at the hospital campus, including youth sports performance training as well as health and wellness programming, to the new recreation center.

“We’re also looking at new classes we might develop in conjunction with the Parks and Recreation Department,” she said.

The Parks and Recreation Department plans to use the remaining unfinished space to provide classes and programs, as well as meeting and hospitality space for he general public and tournaments, according to information from the city.

Separate from the lease, the sponsorship contract, at $50,000 a year, would allow LMH to have a sign inside the facility, as well as two banners at each of the city’s other three recreation centers: Holcom Park; East Lawrence and the Community Building.

Those two proposals come at the same time city officials are touting the economic impact that Sports Pavilion Lawrence has had on the community, which they estimate at $4.4 million so far this year.

That report, which will be part of interim City Manager Diane Stoddard’s presentation, is based on an analysis by the Lawrence Convention and Visitors Bureau, using information from Parks and Recreation about participation and attendance at the 29 tournaments the facility has hosted since Dec. 27.

Megan Gilliland, the city spokeswoman who is also interim director of the Convention and Visitors Bureau, said the numbers are based on the assumption that overnight visitors spend, on average, $159 a day when they’re in town, and those who come in just for a day to attend or take part in a tournament spend about 40 percent of that, or $63.60 per day.

Since Dec. 27, the report shows 1,666 volleyball and basketball teams — almost 50,000 individuals — have participated in tournaments at Sports Pavilion Lawrence, generating $4.4 million in hotel room rentals, dining and shopping.

Diversity request

As the commission opens up its search to fill the vacancy left by Farmer’s resignation, the local branch of the NAACP is asking commissioners to take racial diversity into account.

“Lawrence is a diverse community; however, there are no racial minorities on the policy making body for Lawrence,” Ursula Minor, president of the Lawrence Branch of the NAACP, wrote in a letter to the four remaining commissioners.

“The commission cannot, indeed must not ignore the fact that while whites make up 78 percent of the Lawrence population, whites comprise 100 percent of the commission,” the letter continued. “At-large voting does not contribute to a diverse commission — you can. Seize the opportunity.”

Actually, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures, whites make up 82 percent of Lawrence’s population, which is slightly less than the statewide average of 83.8 percent.

But Lawrence has a smaller proportion of black residents: 4.7 percent in the city, compared with 5.9 percent statewide. It also has a smaller proportion of Hispanic residents: 5.7 percent in the city, compared with 10.5 percent statewide.

During the most recent City Commission elections, 14 candidates vied to fill three seats on the commission. All of the candidates who ran were white.

The same was true in the 2013 election, when nine candidates ran for city office.

The City Commission will meet at 5:45 p.m. Tuesday in City Hall, 6 E. Sixth St.