City of Lawrence announces office closures, service alterations for upcoming holidays

photo by: Rochelle Valverde/Journal-World

Lawrence City Hall, 6 E. Sixth St., is pictured on Jan. 31, 2023.

Various City of Lawrence offices and facilities will be closed for the upcoming Christmas and New Year’s holidays, and other service alterations will also be in effect.

The City of Lawrence announced the details of those upcoming changes in a news release earlier this week. On both Monday, Dec. 25, and Monday, Jan. 1, 2024, city offices including the Parks and Recreation Department’s administrative office in South Park and cemeteries office in Memorial Park will be closed.

The same goes for Lawrence’s recreation centers — the Community Building at 115 W. 11th St., the East Lawrence Recreation Center at 1245 E. 15th St., Holcom Park Recreation Center at 2700 W. 27th St. and Sports Pavilion Lawrence at 100 Rock Chalk Lane. Other Parks and Recreation facilities, including Prairie Park Nature Center at 2730 Harper St., the Indoor Aquatic Center at 4706 Overland Drive and Eagle Bend Golf Course and Learning Center at 1250 East 902 Road, are also closed on Christmas Eve.

The holidays will also affect bus service and downtown parking. Public transit service will not run on either Dec. 25 or Jan. 1. Parking at meters, lots and garages in downtown Lawrence, meanwhile, will be free on Dec. 24, Dec. 25, Dec. 31 and Jan. 1. The city is also offering two hours of free downtown parking for mobile payment users through Dec. 23 using the code “ParkLawrence23.”

Finally, Lawrence residents should expect delays and changes to solid waste collection during the next two weeks. Residential trash and recycling collection services, for example, will be delayed by one day for all residential customers. That means that customers who typically have collection scheduled for Monday will be moved to Tuesday and so on.

Throughout the entirety of both weeks, the city will not be facilitating yard waste collections or bulk item pick-ups. Roll-off services and cart swaps, deliveries and maintenance will still take place, but not on the holiday or Saturday of either week.