photo by: Rochelle Valverde

Supporters of Prairie Park Nature Center rally Tuesday, July 12, 2022, at City Hall ahead of a meeting at which city commissioners will discuss a proposal to close the center.

Story updated at 10:30 p.m. Tuesday:

Dozens of Lawrence residents spoke against the proposed closure of the Prairie Park Nature Center on Tuesday as city leaders prepared to make decisions related to the 2023 budget.

The Lawrence City Commission began discussing the city manager’s recommended budget as part of a study session on Tuesday. To attempt to address a multimillion-dollar budget imbalance, the recommended budget includes both revenue increases — via new fees and increases in utility rates — and budget cuts, such as the proposed closure of the nature center.

About 100 people protested the proposal to close the nature center ahead of the meeting, and about 40 people spoke in opposition to the closure during public comment, including parents, children, center volunteers and residents who grew up going to the nature center. The commission heard about two hours of public comment specifically against the nature center’s closure and also received more than 600 pages of overall correspondence ahead of the meeting, the majority of which was in opposition to the closure.

photo by: Rochelle Valverde

People gather in overflow space outside the City Commission chambers at City Hall, 6 E. Sixth St., as the commission begins discussing the 2023 budget.

Many spoke about the center’s value as a free activity accessible to low-income families, as well as the educational and recreational value of the camps, story times and other programs the center provides. Jenny Gay, a parent of three, said that the nature center is an activity that all her kids enjoy and an irreplaceable part of Lawrence. She said she sends her children to the center’s summer camps, where they participate in archery, canoeing, fishing and art.

“There aren’t any other camps that include all of these experiences,” Gay said. “… Closing down the Prairie Park Nature Center is as absurd as taking down the South Park Gazebo.”

Linda Wheeler, a representative of the Prairie Park Neighborhood Association, said that when the center and nature preserve were established years ago, the understanding was that the city was committed to keeping them as a permanent feature. Wheeler urged the commission to save this “wonderful, unique resource.”

“It would be a tragic loss, not just to the Prairie Park Neighborhood, but to Lawrence as a whole,” Wheeler said.

Some children also addressed the commission, including a 12-year-old named Nadia, who said she had been going to the nature center since she was a baby, and had good memories of making bird feeders and other projects with her mom.

“If you close it, you are depriving so many other kids of making these memories,” she said.

City Manager Craig Owens’ recommended budget for 2023 totals about $436.8 million across all funds and keeps the city’s property tax rate flat at 33.290 mills. It also proposes new parks and recreation fees, utility rate increases, and $936,000 in cuts to city services and positions, some of which are offset by other additions. The city is proposing $1.2 million in new parks and rec fees — potentially including new admission fees for recreation centers, which are currently free to access — and the closure of the nature center. Proposed budget additions include increased funding for economic development, information technology and two new positions.

The budget calls for $936,000 in reductions, the biggest of which is the closure of the nature center. The educational building features habitat dioramas, educational displays, and live animals, including prairie dogs, turtles, ferrets and a live bird of prey collection with eagles, owls, hawks and falcons. Closing the center, which opened in 1999, is expected to save the city $337,000. The budget states the center’s staff, which includes two full-time employees and 12 part-time employees, would be transferred elsewhere in the city and a plan would be developed to safely rehome the animals currently living at the center. The center is part of a 100-acre nature preserve that includes trails and Mary’s Lake, but the city is not proposing closing the preserve.

The budget states that the center scored low under a new process that evaluates programs in relation to the goals in the city’s strategic plan. Many of the city’s parks and rec programs and facilities are either completely or partially subsidized by the city, meaning residents pay no fees or only a small fee, and Finance Director Jeremy Willmoth previously told the Journal-World that the level of subsidy required for the center was also a consideration. He said the nature center is subsidized at a rate of about 85%, and that for comparison, the public pools are subsidized at about 55% and the city golf course at 15%.

Though the recommended budget would keep the city’s property tax rate flat, the budget assumes a 12% increase in property valuations, which the city anticipates will generate approximately $4.7 million in new taxes. The budget also assumes an approximately 5% increase in sales tax collections, some of which is related to inflation costs the city must also account for, amounting to a $2.55 million increase in sales tax collections.

The city has also been allocated $19.3 million in federal pandemic relief funding from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), provided over a two-year period, some of which the city used to fund several new positions, staff raises and other initiatives as part of the 2022 budget. Because some of those costs were ongoing instead of one-time, using the ARPA money to pay for those expenses created a “structural imbalance” in the city’s budget. Though growing revenues have reduced the projected imbalance, the revenue increases and cuts in the recommended budget are proposed as a way to nearly eliminate the gap in 2023. The recommended budget would spend another $878,000 in 2023 in ARPA funds toward general fund expenses, and set aside the remaining $9.1 million for city projects.

Tuesday’s study session kicked off discussions of the 2023 recommended budget. The next step in the city’s budget process will occur on July 19, when the commission must determine whether it wants to maintain the possibility of exceeding the “revenue neutral rate” by collecting more property taxes in 2023 due to the 12% increase in property values. The public hearing for the budget is scheduled for Aug. 23.

The commission’s discussion at the study session had just started as of 10:20 p.m. Tuesday.

photo by: Rochelle Valverde

Supporters of Prairie Park Nature Center rally Tuesday, July 12, 2022, at City Hall ahead of a meeting at which city commissioners will discuss a proposal to close the center.

photo by: Rochelle Valverde

Supporters of Prairie Park Nature Center rally Tuesday, July 12, 2022, at City Hall ahead of a meeting at which city commissioners will discuss a proposal to close the center.

photo by: Austin Hornbostel/Journal-World

Supporters of Prairie Park Nature Center rally Tuesday, July 12, 2022, at City Hall ahead of a meeting at which city commissioners will discuss a proposal to close the center.

photo by: Austin Hornbostel/Journal-World

Supporters of Prairie Park Nature Center rally Tuesday, July 12, 2022, at City Hall ahead of a meeting at which city commissioners will discuss a proposal to close the center.

photo by: Austin Hornbostel/Journal-World

Supporters of Prairie Park Nature Center rally Tuesday, July 12, 2022, at City Hall ahead of a meeting at which city commissioners will discuss a proposal to close the center.

photo by: Austin Hornbostel

People write messages in chalk in support of Prairie Park Nature Center on Tuesday, July 12, 2022, at City Hall ahead of a meeting at which city commissioners will discuss a proposal to close the center.

photo by: Austin Hornbostel/Journal-World

Supporters of Prairie Park Nature Center rally Tuesday, July 12, 2022, at City Hall ahead of a meeting at which city commissioners will discuss a proposal to close the center.