photo by: Nick Gerik

The Community Building, 115 W. 11th St., is pictured June 22, 2019.

Lawrence city commissioners on Tuesday agreed to use the gymnasiums of two city recreation centers for overnight shelter of the homeless, despite the city’s fire chief expressing concerns about the safety of the idea.

Commissioners at their weekly meeting unanimously approved a plan to use the Community Building, 115 W. 11th St., and the East Lawrence Recreation Center, 1245 E. 15th Street, to each house up to 75 people experiencing homelessness during cold winter nights. The plan, though, required the city to temporarily suspend portions of the city’s fire code meant to protect life and safety, and Fire Chief Shaun Coffey told commissioners he didn’t support the plan due to those changes.

“Unfortunately, the Community Building, the sprinkler system is in the basement. It is not on the ground floor,” Coffey told commissioners as he outlined his concerns. “And there is not even a fire detection system within the building. Same way with the East Lawrence center.”

Commissioners, however, said they could overcome those concerns, given that failure to use the recreation centers likely would result in upward of 150 people potentially sleeping outdoors in cold winter weather.

“I certainly don’t fault the code or Chief Coffey’s position, but I think when we are comparing having people sleep on the street and looking for a different option, I think this is a good option,” Mayor Brad Finkeldei said.

Finkeldei said the situation is similar to approvals that have been given for churches to house people overnight in emergency situations, even though they also haven’t been designed for overnight shelter. Finkeldei said those operations have worked relatively smoothly for a number of years, although the church operations have been capped at lower levels — usually no more than 40 overnight guests — than the 75-person limit approved for the recreation centers.

At one point, city leaders had hoped that churches could serve as emergency shelters this winter, but several churches that had participated in the past told city officials they were not interested in doing so this year, Finkeldei said.

The shortage of winter shelter space comes at a time when the Lawrence Community Shelter has chosen — in part due to the pandemic and staffing issues — to reduce its capacity. Unlike the recreation centers, the LCS building in eastern Lawrence is rated for overnight guests and has a winter capacity of 140 people. However, LCS leaders are choosing to operate the shelter at a capacity of 50 for the winter, which is up from a recent capacity limit of 40 guests.

After Tuesday’s meeting, Finkeldei said he had not had conversations with LCS leaders about what was holding the shelter back from accepting more guests, and potentially alleviating some need for the city to set up emergency shelter in the recreation centers. But he said new board leadership is talking with city and county staff members about a host of issues.

“Certainly we want to look at all the spaces available without having to temporarily suspend the code,” Finkeldei said. “But currently it is up to LCS and its board about how they operate the shelter. There are complicated issues I’m not fully aware of, but I think it is an ongoing conversation we will have trying to figure that out.”

The plan approved by commissioners will allow the two recreation centers to be used for overnight shelter from 8 p.m. to 7 a.m. through March 31. The centers will only be used when overnight temperatures are expected to be 35 degrees or colder. The city plans to use the Community Building first, and then house people at the East Lawrence Recreation Center if numbers exceed 75 people.

The city estimates it will cost about $50,000 to staff and operate the shelters. The buildings will be open for recreational uses during the day, and the city is working to shift several evening recreation classes planned for the buildings to other city recreation centers.

In other business, commissioners also briefly heard about a change in how the city intends to clear streets of snow this winter. Commissioners were told that city crews generally will not begin plowing residential streets until 2 inches of snow has accumulated.

That’s a change from past practices. Historically the city has not had a minimum amount of snow that has triggered street plowing operations in neighborhoods. The change only impacts residential streets, not the large arterial streets that carry the bulk of city traffic. It also will not change the city’s practices in treating for ice.

Commissioners were told the changes are driven by budget issues. In recent years, the city has spent about $860,000 a year in snow removal.