photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

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

City leaders will soon weigh in on whether the Community Building should stay open to the public for free — and whether two other city rec centers should stop charging fees in 2027.

At its meeting on Tuesday, the Lawrence City Commission will hear an update from Parks, Recreation and Culture staff on the Community Building and other rec centers. As the Journal-World has reported, the city implemented fees for three of its four rec centers at the beginning of the year and has been keeping the fourth one, the downtown Community Building, open for free on a trial basis after previously planning to close it.

Staff has been monitoring demand for the Community Building, and it’s asking commissioners if they want to keep it open through the rest of 2026 and into 2027, and where the funding for that would come from. It would cost $39,000 to keep the Community Building open and free to access for the rest of 2026, and $69,000 to keep it open and free in 2027.

A presentation from city staff attached to the commission’s meeting agenda says that from Jan. 5 through May 25, the Community Building has had 6,830 visits. It averages five youth visitors after school on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays and 10 youth per day on Wednesdays, when the school district has early release.

The presentation also includes information on two of the city’s other rec centers, the Holcom Park and East Lawrence centers. These two centers currently charge fees, but between Jan. 5 and May 25, they’ve had 7,246 visits between them — a little over 400 visits more than the Community Building alone.

City staff is also asking the commissioners whether these two rec centers should be free in 2027. It estimates that if East Lawrence and Holcom Park were offered for free, the city would lose out on about $45,000 from memberships and other fees.

If the city removed fees at those two centers, that would leave Sports Pavilion Lawrence as the only city rec center that still charged for access.

Through the end of May, the parks and rec department has collected $265,817 from memberships, day passes and punch cards, which is 59% of its $450,000 goal for the year. It has also collected $191,730 in tournament spectator fees at Sports Pavilion Lawrence, which is 77% of its goal of $250,000.

The Lawrence City Commission meets at 5 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall, 6 E. Sixth St.