photo by: Bremen Keasey

Millie Pageau (left) and Cori Wallace with the City of Lawrence's Communications and Community Relations department speaking with residents at the Sports Pavilion Lawrence. The "pop up" event that discussed a fee proposal for rec centers is part of the city's engagement strategy on the topic, with the team hoping those events build trust with the community.

Amid the squeak of sneakers from basketball games at Sports Pavilion Lawrence on Thursday night, Lawrence city staff were hearing from dozens of speakers who had turned out to share their opinions about the city’s proposed entry fees for recreation centers.

The conversation was a “pop-up” event hosted by Cori Wallace, the city’s communications director, and Millie Pageau, a community engagement specialist with the city. Here, residents could give feedback and get questions answered about the fee proposal that the Parks, Recreation and Culture department is considering as part of the city’s 2026 budget process.

PRC has been exploring adding entry fees to city’s four recreation centers — Sports Pavilion Lawrence, Holcom Park Recreation Center, the East Lawrence Recreation Center and the Lawrence Community Building — since January, as the Journal-World reported. That was when the City Commission authorized the department to explore the possibility of implementing user fees to help the city close a $6.6 million budget gap. The fees would help PRC mitigate the impact of a $1.8 million cut, which is about 10% of its current budget.

Raising fees in Lawrence has been discussed multiple times in recent years — it was floated during the budget process in both 2019 and 2023. But the public pushed back, and these fee proposals stalled, as the Journal-World reported.

Those past attempts are part of why the city wanted to provide more chances for the public to give input this time around. Knowing how the previous attempts turned out and the strong feelings residents have about this specific topic, Wallace said it was important to create more ways for the public to engage with the proposal. She feels these pop-up events can be an important tool for getting feedback and creating a stronger connection between the local government and residents.

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The pop-ups were held at all four of the city’s rec centers, with two events in the morning two weeks ago and two evening events this past week on Monday and Thursday.

The first three were more casual, with a few people stopping in to ask questions or share their thoughts. But on Thursday, at Sports Pavilion Lawrence, Pageau and Wallace knew they would have to change their plans a bit.

It wasn’t just a few people there for the feedback session — it was a few dozen. The communications team had originally had planned to set up a table in a common area of the rec center, but the noise from the basketball courts would have made it hard to hear all of the attendees in that space. So the meeting instead had to shift into a long room beside the courts.

It’s typical for the last in a series of events like this to have higher attendance than the rest, Pageau said, but it also reflected the popularity of Sports Pavilion Lawrence as a location.

photo by: Bremen Keasey

Dozens of people came out Thursday to a City of Lawrence pop up event at Sports Pavilion Lawrence to share their feedback and get questions answered about a plan that could add entry fees to the city’s four rec centers.

The attendees asked questions about the fee proposal and the membership plan. Some people asked about if there would be free or reduced-price options for youth or older people on fixed incomes. One person asked how the city would determine the process for getting a reduced fee, and said that the need to apply for a scholarship could be “intimidating” or “create obstacles to health.”

Others asked if the city had data for how many people used the rec centers. Many criticized city leadership for getting the budget into a situation where cuts and fee increases were necessary in the first place, and they asked whether other budget-cutting options had been explored.

Wallace at times told the crowd she didn’t know the answer to their questions. But other times she was able to give more context or explain the reason for something. When someone asked if people would have to pay an entry fee if they had already enrolled in and paid for a class at the rec center, Wallace said the plan would not require an additional entry fee for that.

Altogether, across the four events, 52 people came by to give their feedback and get questions answered, Pageau said.

Some of the questions or comments can feel pointed, Pageau said, but she also said those same people were thankful to have a chance to be heard and to talk to an actual person about these issues.

“They’re happy to see us out in the community being willing to answer questions,” Pageau said.

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One question that the communications officials didn’t directly answer was exactly how much the fees would be. Although some of the outlines of the plan have been worked on — using public feedback to help in the process — Wallace said the city would not give a “harder number” on the fees until the process was complete.

During the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board meeting on Monday night and the Thursday night pop-up, officials said the numbers would first be presented to the City Commission on July 15.

In the Monday night meeting, Lindsay Hart, an assistant director with PRC, outlined to the board some of the structures of the plan, which Hart said aims to protect the department’s essential services and create a sustainable funding model. The city would offer flexible membership — day passes, “punch cards” that allow for multi-visit flexibility and monthly or annual memberships.

There would be pricing for City of Lawrence residents and non-residents, with the non-resident fee being about 20% higher. Additionally, there would be tiered pricing for youth, adults and seniors, and there would be an option to get a household pass that could cover up to five people.

The city also plans to address some of the concerns about youth access by providing free entry after school for youth ages 5 to 17. As proposed, the rec centers would be free for use by that age group from 3 to 5 p.m. every weekday except Wednesday, when they would be open from 1 to 5 p.m. because of the school district’s early release schedule.

PRC Director Luis Ruiz was at the pop-up event on Thursday night, in the crowd. He said his goal was just to hear the feedback and ideas shared by residents, and he was taking his own notes along with the communication team. He noted that many of the concerns, like access for youth and costs for older or low-income people, had been shared by the Parks and Rec board members before, and officials were using that feedback to help guide the initial draft proposal.

Along with the pop-up events, the city has received more than 2,600 survey responses about the fee proposal. Wallace said that number was “extremely successful” for public outreach, which she felt was because the community cared a lot about this issue. She said at least 500 survey respondents expressed an interest in being part of a future focus group on the issue, and that those focus groups would happen later this month.

That type of engagement is something the city welcomes, Wallace said.

“It is better to hear things in context and conversation,” she said.

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Over the course of nearly an hour on Thursday night, the conversation covered just about every concern that’s been raised so far about the fee proposal.

Most of the attendees were against implementing fees at all. Many felt unsatisfied by an estimate from the city that said the fee proposal could raise $500,000; some felt that number was a drop in the bucket for the total budget, while others said they thought the number might be higher.

All of the points were written down in an Excel spreadsheet, and the raw data and comments will be shared with the City Commission and the PRC department, Pageau said.

Wallace said Lawrence residents have strong opinions and share candidly how they feel about their government. She characterized Lawrence residents as people who “want to be well informed” about local issues and to be good stewards of the community.

Although at times the room could be tense during the discussion, many attendees came up afterward to thank the communications team. Pageau said that people often left the pop-up meetings “with a smile on their faces,” and Wallace thinks these events help build trust with the government.

In the three other events she led, Pageau said there was always someone with the PRC department on hand. Not only were these meetings helpful for the specifics of the project, but residents also gave feedback on what they’d like to see more of with the presentations. During Thursday’s meeting, for example, multiple people said PRC should provide data on how many people currently check in at the rec centers with their free access cards.

Wallace said research shows that human-to-human interaction helps improve how people process information and makes it more likely to stick, especially if it’s coming from someone they trust. When city staff asked how people heard about this event, the majority said they were told by friends who knew about it. Getting that feedback helps the city staff better plan its outreach, but Wallace also said it shows how crucial these person-to-person moments are for building a better relationship between the government and its residents.

“Looking someone face to face, right in the eyes and talking with them, it is easier to start building trust and transparency,” Wallace said.

photo by: Bremen Keasey

Sports Pavilion Lawrence is one of the city’s four recreation centers.