Skaters take to the surface of the city's artificial ice skating rink, located between the Lawrence Public Library and the neighboring parking garage, Friday, Nov. 28, 2014. The rink is about 60 feet by 80 feet and is made of synthetic ice, a plastic-like surface usable in all types of weather.

The city’s artificial skating rink is looking for a concrete home.

After three years of a costly set-up involving a wooden base on the Lawrence Public Library lawn, city officials are looking for a cheaper installation option.

“If you take that (cost) out of there, you have probably a pretty reasonable winter attraction,” said Mark Hecker, assistant director of the Parks and Recreation Department. “So what we’re looking at in the future is how can we cut those costs down?”

Lower than expected attendance at the rink has made the set-up change increasingly necessary. Winter attendance at the rink dropped by about 1,000 people compared with last season, and the rink’s set-up makes up more than half of its operational costs, according to a city revenue and expenditures report.

For the 2016-2017 winter season, the rink saw about 2,000 attendees and operated at a loss of nearly $20,000 when factoring in depreciation of the skates and artificial ice surface, according to the report.

The installation for the rink is costly because it requires the removal of part of the library’s sod lawn, construction of a wooden deck, and the re-installation of new sod once the eight-week skating season is over, Hecker said. At a total of more than $9,000, the installation costs are about the same as staffing rink attendants for the season.

Hecker said there are three possibilities for a concrete base for the rink: converting part of the library’s lawn to concrete; pouring a concrete slab on city property elsewhere; or using existing concrete surfaces on city property. In all instances, the slab would serve another use when the rink isn’t operating, such as a basketball court, volleyball court or a parking lot, Hecker said.

If the library property is ruled out, Hecker said the possibilities are limited by the fact that the location for the rink would require public bathroom facilities and a heated structure to house the skate rental booth. He said potential options are a new concrete surface at South Park and the existing tennis courts at Sports Pavilion Lawrence.

“Things like that have potential, but honestly we haven’t really looked into great detail at all,” Hecker said.

Attendance at the rink dropped substantially after its debut season in the winter of 2014-2015. The first season, about 8,500 people attended, according to the report. The second season, about 3,000 people attended, making the 2,000 attendees of the most recent season the lowest showing yet.

The synthetic-ice rink is made out of plastic pieces that fit together. There is a $3-per-skater fee to use the rink, which includes the requisite skate rental. The surface has drawn some complaints from people who are used to skating on real ice, which is slicker than the plastic. The rink itself cost the city $80,000.

Though attendance has dropped, Hecker said that 2,000 people in a season is still good use and that they think it’s still worth doing in the future. He said if the operational costs could be lowered, it would put the rink in a better situation.

“You hate to just scrap it, you know, because there was obviously a cost to purchase it and purchase the skates,” Hecker said. “You’d hate to scrap it after three years. If we can make it work better operationally, then I think that’s a big thing.”

The most recent season closed last week, and Hecker said different programming options for the rink would be looked at for next season as well. He said evaluation of other installation options is forthcoming.

“We’ll probably start discussing it here in the next few months, just to see if there’s a better location that we can come up with,” he said.