The 1:55 p.m. Greyhound bus headed to Topeka and southwest to Dallas, drops off a passenger Tuesday, July 5, 2016 at the bus stop between City Hall and the Riverfront.

The City of Lawrence and the Greyhound bus service are negotiating an agreement for Greyhound to use an area near the Lawrence Public Library as a bus stop, the city’s public works leader said Friday.

Two locations are being considered for the stop, Public Works Director Charles Soules said. One is directly north of the library on Seventh Street, and the other is in front of the library on Vermont Street.

City staff and Greyhound representatives are also negotiating a monthly fee for use of the site, Soules said.

Originally, the city proposed to charge Greyhound $1,000 per month to use the area north of the library, based on the parking fare the city would forego by removing four metered parking stalls. Greyhound was not receptive to that amount, indicating it was significantly more than it typically pays for a stop. At the Lawrence City Commission’s meeting on Tuesday, Mayor Leslie Soden suggested the other area on Vermont Street, which would utilize open curb space and potentially one parking stall.

Greyhound provides service to Lawrence three times a day — at 8:55 a.m., 1:55 p.m. and 5:50 p.m. — on its route between Topeka and Kansas City, and connects to thousands of cities across the country.

The original proposal to use an area near the library as a bus stop came from Brad Allen, the library’s director, who said it would allow bus riders convenient access to shelter, restrooms and computers to print tickets.

Allen said since making the proposal, he has heard some concerns from the community about the library “becoming a bus depot.” However, he noted that lots of people, not just bus riders, already use the library to print tickets or other documents, and that the library is meant to serve the community.

“Most people who are leaving from Lawrence on a bus, I would guess a lot of them are Lawrence residents or students, and we serve them,” Allen said. “We serve everybody.”

Allen also said he didn’t anticipate the relatively small ridership on Greyhound would make much of an impact on the library. Greyhound representatives have said the Lawrence stop serves about 3,000 arrivals and departures per year, and Allen pointed out that’s only about eight people per day on average.

He said the potential loss of parking, at least during the day, would be a more contentious issue.

“To me, I think the biggest problem is just how the public is going to stomach four parking spots at Seventh and Vermont sitting empty,” Allen said, though he noted it could be possible to allow parking in the evening if the city elects to use that area for the stop.

The negotiations between the city and Greyhound follow 14 months of the bus service using city property as its stop free of charge while it attempted to find a permanent stop. On Tuesday, the City Commission voted for the fifth time to extend the agreement for Greyhound to use the city’s right-of-way at East Sixth and New Hampshire streets, this time until March 14. However, commissioners indicated that was the final deadline for Greyhound to make other arrangements.