Final bill comes due for city on Rock Chalk Park improvements; first candidate files for City Commission

It is my day to wear green eye shade, and I’m not just talking about the makeup practice my daughter conducts on me when I fall asleep in front of the TV. No, today’s a big number day with the city, so I’ll do my best imitation of a number cruncher. The city has released the final numbers for Rock Chalk Park construction, and what has long been assumed is now official: The city is paying for nearly all the infrastructure costs associated with the public/private partnership.

I’ll do a more complete article later today, but here are some of the basics:

• Total infrastructure costs for all of Rock Chalk Park check in at $11.59 million. Infrastructure includes things such as parking lots, streets, sewer lines, water lines, lighting and other such items. The project was designed so that infrastructure could be shared between the city-owned recreation center and the privately owned track, soccer and softball facilities that are owned by a group led by Lawrence businessman Thomas Fritzel, who then in turn leases the facilities to Kansas Athletics.

• For the shared infrastructure, the city will pay $10.45 million of the total.

• Early on, Kansas University basketball coach Bill Self said his Assists Foundation would donate $1 million to help fund a west Lawrence recreation center. That $1 million donation is now being applied to pay for the shared infrastructure cost for Rock Chalk Park.

• After those two payments are made, what’s left of the infrastructure bill is $145,835. The city memo on the subject doesn’t provide much detail on how that amount will be paid, but based on prior conversations, I’m assuming it will be paid by the Fritzel-led group that owns the track, soccer and softball facilities that will benefit from the infrastructure.

There are probably several ways to look at this, but for those of you trying to figure out what percentage of infrastructure the city paid for compared to what percentage of facilities the city owns at Rock Chalk Park, here are some numbers: The construction value of the city’s recreation center is $10.5 million. The construction value of the facilities owned by the Fritzel group is about $40 million. The entity that owns the $10.5 million worth of facilities at the park — the city — is paying for a little more than 90 percent of the infrastructure costs. Bill Self’s Assists Foundation, which own none of the facilities at the park, is paying for about 8.6 percent of the infrastructure costs. The ownership group of the track, soccer and softball facilities appears to be paying for about 1.2 percent of the infrastructure costs.

It is fair to note that the city’s recreation center likely will be the largest generator of day-to-day traffic at the complex, so people will have to determine on their own how that should be factored in to creating an equitable split.

City commissioners are being asked to make the infrastructure payment to Fritzel’s group at their Tuesday evening meeting. The amount comes as no surprise. Figures close to these have been projected for several months now. But the numbers are different from when the project was first proposed.

At several points in the process, the city believed it would be paying $25 million for a recreation center, infrastructure and other amenities that would have a value of $33 million. On several occasions, city commissioners said they were viewing the difference as a donation to the city that made this project a unique opportunity that warranted the city deviating from its standard bidding process. The final numbers have not quite worked out that way. The total amount of money the city has paid for the project is less than $25 million, but there does not appear to be any donation of the amount once anticipated by the city.

I’ll attempt to check in with city officials and Fritzel today to review the final numbers.

In other news and notes from around town:

• The ring of robo calls has not yet left my ears, but make no mistake a new campaign season has begun. It is for the Lawrence City Commission. The first candidate for the commission has filed. Lawrence-Douglas County Planning Commissioner Stan Rasmussen has filed for one of the three seats up for election on the five-member commission.

Rasmussen and I have exchanged some emails, but I haven’t yet been able to conduct a full interview with him. He is an attorney with U.S. Army — officially he’s the regional counsel for the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Installations Energy & Environment — and he is tied up in some meetings that haven’t allowed us to meet for an interview. But we’ll chat in the coming days and I’ll bring you more about his campaign positions and such.

In terms of the basics, Rasmussen, 52, has been in Lawrence for about 35 years. He’s been active in the world of Lawrence city advisory boards. He’s a veteran member of the planning commission, and also has served on the Lawrence Board of Zoning Appeals, sign code board of appeals, and the Lawrence Historic Resources Commission. He currently is one of the 10 members on the steering committee looking at how Horizon 2020 may need to be rewritten.

Rasmussen is the first to file, but he certainly won’t be the last. I’m expecting strong interest in the seats this year. As we previously have reported, Leslie Soden, an East Lawrence resident who has been active in several City Hall issues, has said she is seriously considering another run at the commission. Kris Adair, a Lawrence school board member who also is an owner of Wicked Broadband, has said she is considering a run for the city commission.

Just recently, I also heard from Lawrence attorney and social service professional Eric Sader. He said he’s forming a committee to explore a run for the commission.

The three commissioners who have terms expiring are Mike Dever, Terry Riordan and Bob Schumm. None has said whether he intends to seek re-election, although Schumm has made comments that indicate he plans to.

If we have seven or more candidates file for a seat on the commission, we’ll have a primary election to whittle the field to six on March 3. The general election will be April 7. All the seats on the City Commission are at-large seats, so voters simply will pick their top three choices.

The filing deadline for the race is noon on Jan. 27.