photo by: Bremen Keasey

Lawrence’s Parks, Recreation and Culture department will have to scale back its programming if it doesn’t raise its existing entry fees or implement new ones, the department’s director warned the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board on Monday.

Director Luis Ruiz told the advisory board those conversations about adding fees would happen as part of ongoing city budget discussions. As the Journal-World reported, the city is facing a $6.5 million budget hole for 2026. Ruiz noted there will be cuts for departments across the city, and the parks department will likely be a big share of those.

Ruiz said no definitive decisions had been made yet about the scope of cuts at any department. However, his department faced cuts last year that reduced both full-time and part-time staffing hours and cut its allocation from the city’s general fund — from which it receives most of its funding — by $267,000.

In the discussion with the advisory board, Ruiz said that if there were certain cuts to parks staff who maintained recreation fields, reductions to programming like youth sports could be on the table, because the fields would not be properly kept up for demand. One way to to maintain those programs would be through increasing revenue by implementing fees — something other departments can’t do.

“We have the ability to defray some of the cuts (by adding fees),” Ruiz said. “If we don’t initiate certain fees, we will have to reduce programming.”

This is not the first time in recent years that the idea of increasing fees for parks and recreation programs has been discussed. In January 2023, the department proposed $3 daily entry fees for adults at the city’s four recreation centers — Sports Pavilion Lawrence, Holcom Park Recreation Center, the East Lawrence Recreation Center and the Lawrence Community Building — as well as the Prairie Park Nature Center, with monthly and annual membership options also available. After public outcry, the advisory board voted that same month against the proposal, as the Journal-World reported, but did approve a proposal that raised parks and recreation program fees by anywhere between 10% and 60%.

In initial budget discussions this January, Lawrence city commissioners talked about exploring the fees for Parks, Recreation and Culture services, as the Journal-World reported. The addition of fees is also a recommendation in the department’s proposed Master Plan, which will be examined by the commission later this month.

Ruiz said Lawrence is an “outlier” compared to many similar communities in the fact that it does not charge any entry fees for its recreation centers. The department hasn’t increased any fees, including activity fees, in two years, despite the department’s expenses “(going) up every year,” Ruiz said. The fact that the department hasn’t been operating in a more sustainable way, despite the fact that it can generate revenue through fees, is part of why “we’re on the chopping block,” Ruiz told the board. Discussing reasonable pricing policies is a way to “minimize the impact” of cuts to the department’s service levels.

Ruiz emphasized to the board that these discussions were part of the ongoing budget process, and no final decisions will be made until September, when the City Commission will vote to approve the 2026 budget. He said that in the City Commission’s April 1 meeting, the commission will receive another budget update that could shape the department’s next steps.