photo by: Bremen Keasey

Luis Ruiz, the city's Parks, Recreation and Culture director, presenting a membership fee proposal to the Lawrence City Commission Tuesday night. Commissioners were receptive to exploring the membership plan at a lower cost that the intial proposed rates.

Lawrence city commissioners expressed interest Tuesday in exploring potential membership fees for the city’s Parks, Recreation and Culture department rec centers, but they advised the department to consider cheaper costs than the initial proposal and make access free for low-income residents.

As the Journal-World reported, the PRC publicly released details for the membership fee proposal featuring fees that would cost Lawrence residents as much as $25 a month for adults and up to $5 for day passes, though there were other options for punch cards, annual memberships, family memberships, households that could demonstrate need and free after-school times for students.

While Commissioner Lisa Larsen and Vice Mayor Brad Finkeldei said they felt that $25 figure could be too expensive, they said they were interested in entertaining the membership fee program further. The city provided a lower cost plan that would be for accessing neighborhood centers like Holcom Rec Center and East Lawrence Rec Center, but not Sports Pavilion Lawrence which had more usage. In general, those membership fees were half as expensive, with the rate being $12 a month for adults and the senior and youth rate costing $8 per month.

The department has been tasked by the city with cutting $1.8 million from its 2026 budget — nearly 10% — due to budget cuts proposed across the city that would total around $6.5 million, as the Journal-World reported.

Luis Ruiz, the PRC director, said that if the department added its proposed membership fees — and spectator fees for tournaments at Sports Pavilion Lawrence — the department projected it could add around $500,000 in additional revenue from memberships and $250,000 from spectator fees. Without that additional revenue, the department would need to cut close to $1.4 million from its budget as opposed to around $690,000. That sharp of a decrease would see the department’s service levels drop in a variety of ways: Pools would close half an hour earlier, three additional full-time positions would be cut, 39 of 71 parks would have see less maintenance work and the rec centers’ hours would be reduced.

“We will see an impact to our department,” Ruiz said.

Finkeldei asked Ruiz and Lindsay Hart, an assistant director with the PRC, what the projected revenue would be like if the $12 membership rate per month for adults was the base rate. Hart said the department projects it would get $350,000 — a reduction of $150,000 in projected revenue.

The commission told PRC staff to continue working on the proposal. Commissioner Bart Littlejohn said the department has seen many reductions over the past few years where it’s almost “bone on bone at this point.” Finkeldei said implementing membership fees could help the department balance the current cuts and maintain access to its facilities.

“I think it’s more detrimental to close rec centers or reduce hours,” Finkeldei said.

The commissioners’ feedback differed from public input regarding the membership proposal. Over 40 people wrote in public comment ahead of the meeting asking the city to not consider the membership fee plan, while around 10 people spoke during public comment against the membership fee proposal.

Some of the biggest concerns from the public input were about whether lower income residents could access the facilities and the potential cost for the youth in Lawrence. In its proposal, the PRC had included a 60% reduced rate for any resident who can demonstrate “financial hardship.” Commissioner Amber Sellers said she was interested in seeing an option that would waive all fees for those residents. There were also reduced membership fees for youths aged 5-17, but Commissioner Bart Littlejohn said he did not want to see any costs to youth.

In a city survey about the potential fee proposal, 81.5% of the over 2,632 respondents were strongly opposed to implementing a fee. Finkeldei noted that most of those respondents’ biggest concerns mentioned those same worries of equitable access. He said in discussions he’s had with people in the community, they told him they would “be willing to pay a fee, but don’t want the low income person to pay.”

Finkeldei also felt if the starting cost for membership was lower, it could lead to more people signing up for a membership. According to the city presentation, the National Parks and Rec Association found the typical membership rate of a population that is a part of its city’s public recreation centers is between 3 to 5%. The PRC said if the fees were implemented, its goal was to get 2,000 residents signed up for annual or monthly memberships — which is about 2% of the city’s population as the city staff said they wanted to put in a conservative goal for the launch.

Finkeldei said he thinks starting with the lower fee rate could have less people resisting — understanding that adding fees for the recreation centers is novel in Lawrence — and get more a higher number to sign up to add more revenue.

“I think it’s a lower level that people can afford easier, but I think as we’re trying to get people who may be hesitant on board,” Finkeldei said.