photo by: Journal-World File

Lawrence's Outdoor Aquatic Center at 727 Kentucky St.

Parks department staff said Monday night that larger, more expensive design options for a major renovation of the Outdoor Aquatic Center came from public feedback and comments by city commissioners.

Mark Hecker, the assistant director for the parks division, said feedback stemming from public work sessions and from city commissioners implied the initial design that fit in the $6.1 million budget was too small, so the department asked their consultants for some larger, and more expensive, designs. The three options provided by the department will be voted on by the City Commission on Tuesday night

The basic design, known as the “preferred concept,” would have 16,000 square feet of recreation area, which is about 3,000 square feet smaller than the center’s current configuration.

photo by: City of Lawrence

This rendering shows the basic “preferred concept” design for the proposed renovation to the Outdoor Aquatic Center. The City Commission is scheduled to vote on a design on Tuesday night .

For the expanded projects, one of them would cost $7.3 million and would add 1,500 more square feet of recreation space by expanding the splash pad and recreation pool and adding a second waterslide. The other would cost $8.5 million and would have the second waterslide, an expanded lazy river and 2,000 more square feet of pool space than the basic “preferred concept.”

photo by: City of Lawrence

A concept for the Lawrence Outdoor Aquatic Center shows a $7.3 million expanded design that includes a second waterslide.

photo by: City of Lawrence

A concept for the Lawrence Outdoor Aquatic Center that includes a second waterslide and a longer lazy river is expected to cost $8.5 million.

All three of the designs would keep the deep dive pool, a 25-meter section of the lap pool and plunge pool on the complex’s west side. The bathhouse will also be renovated, with a focus on upgrading the drainage of the space and increasing privacy features.

Hecker said the lap pool in all three designs will have flexibility in use, and could remove some of the lane lines and add in other implements like a volleyball net, floatables and basketball hoops for another recreational aspect during free swim.

The designs also include a new “family water slide” in the plunge pool where multiple people could use it at once, Hecker said.

Hecker said it’s now up for the city commission to decide which concept they prefer. He told the Parks and Rec advisory board that all the funding for the project is debt funded, so the city commission will have to choose whether to raise the debt funding ceiling or take a different project away from the Capital Improvement Plan if they vote for a more expensive design.

Hecker said once the plan is approved, the construction for it should start in the early summer of 2025, with the hope of having the pool open for part of the season.

The department also gave the parks board an update on where some proposed budget cuts stand for this year and next.

In the initial proposed budget, the department would eliminate three vacant full-time jobs and decrease part-time staffing hours. Those part-time reductions in particular would have potentially caused reduced hours to many recreation centers and aquatic facilities, Luis Ruiz, the director of the Parks and Recreation Department, said.

Ruiz said the department has since worked on plans to transfer some funds from the special recreation fund into the general fund to pay for one-time expenses, allowing for fewer part-time staffing reductions.

Ruiz noted that all of the proposals and decisions facing the department were up in the air, but said that despite some potential workarounds, there will still be cuts.

“Every scenario we are giving something up,” Ruiz said.

One effect of the cuts will be a reduction in a fund that helps the department replace certain outdated facilities. That doesn’t mean they would be gone overnight, but those structures would not be replaced as planned due to the decrease in funding.

During a city commission meeting in July, the presentation said five parks — Clinton Outlet Park, Broken Arrow Park, Park Hill Park No. 1, Chaparral Park and McSwain Park — would eventually lose their playgrounds. Clinton Outlet Park and Broken Arrow Park would also eventually lose their shelters, along with Deerfield Park, and Brook Creek Park would eventually lose its restroom.

The department also has to deal with cuts for the current 2024 budget, which is facing a $6 million shortfall as the Journal-World previously reported. The Parks and Rec Department is looking at about $525,000 in cuts, most of which will come from eliminating vacant positions and parts of a sidewalk and parking lot repair project.

Ruiz said with the use of the special recreation fund there would not be as much of an impact to services as initially anticipated, but the new projections suggest these kinds of difficult budget choices will be “a new reality” for the department going forward.