photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

The Community Building at 115 W. 11th St. is pictured on Wednesday, Dec. 22, 2021.

Lawrence city staff now says it would take about $18,000 a year to keep the Community Building open for youth free play after school, and the City Commission will accept a report on those findings at its meeting next week.

The report is attached to the commission’s meeting agenda for Tuesday. On an average Monday, Tuesday, Thursday or Friday, it says, 1 to 5 youths visit the Community Building. And on Wednesdays, when Lawrence school district students are released early, the average jumps to 15 youth per day.

As the Journal-World has reported, the city previously announced that the Community Building would be closed for free play gym hours starting next year.

For $18,000 in part-time wages, the report says, the city could provide supervision from 3 to 5 p.m. on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays and from 1 to 5 p.m. on Wednesdays. It says summer hours would vary based on staff availability and other programming schedules. Just opening on Wednesdays would cost about $6,000 a year.

The current annual cost of operating the building is $50,000, the report says; in 2024, the total number of visits by users of all ages at the Community Building was 10,237.

The item is listed in the city manager’s report section of the meeting agenda, and the commission will not be voting on anything related to it on Tuesday.

In other business:

• Multiple items related to end-of-year budget adjustments are on the commission’s consent agenda for Tuesday.

One has to do with Lawrence Transit and its contract with service provider First Transit. The commission will consider an amendment to the contract and a budget adjustment of $300,000; half of that money would come from a federal grant, and the other half from the transit fund.

The contract amendment is described as being related to “certain changes in technology and the related Technology Fee, upon which the parties have reached an agreement.” Neither the amendment nor the memo it’s attached to explains what the changes in technology are.

Another budget adjustment is being requested by Lawrence-Douglas County Fire Medical to correct an item that drew its funding from the wrong place in the budget. LDCFM said in a memo that there would be “no net impact to the General Fund balance” from the change.

The commission will also consider scheduling a future public hearing for amending the Fleet/Central Maintenance Garage Fund.

• Also on the consent agenda is a contract for about $214,000 to repair the facade of LDCFM’s training facility at 1941 Haskell Ave. With contingency funds, this item’s cost would come to $250,000.

The consent agenda is a group of items that the commission can consider and approve on a single vote. There are no items on the commission’s regular agenda for Tuesday.

The commission will meet at 5:45 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall, 6 E. Sixth St.