photo by: Josie Heimsoth/Journal-World

Douglas County commissioners met on Wednesday, February 19, 2025.

The FIFA World Cup in 2026 will give Lawrence and Douglas County the chance to build relationships with people from around the world, local officials say, and a newly formed group of stakeholders is already working hard to prepare.

On Wednesday, the Douglas County Commission heard an update on the planning process and the challenges associated with preparing for the World Cup in 2026. Six matches, including a quarterfinal, are scheduled in June and July of 2026 in Kansas City, and Rock Chalk Park in Lawrence has been identified as one of three potential base camp sites for a World Cup soccer team.

“We’re going to see benefits culturally and socially,” Deputy Director of Emergency Management John Stipetich told the commission. “We’re going to build ties with other countries, with other localities and people from all over the country and all over the world … (This is) a chance for us all to feel such a profit and be able to showcase that.”

Stipetich told commissioners that in January of that year, 32 teams and their base camp locations will be announced, and the remaining 16 teams will be announced in March. He said this was a short turnaround time to know who’s coming before they might be here. It’s not just the possibility of a base camp that needs to be accounted for, but also plans for fan celebrations, parades, and other events surrounding the World Cup. And Stipetich also said it’s estimated that around 55,000 hotel rooms will be needed within a 2.5-hour drive of Kansas City.

To prepare for the massive event, Douglas County Emergency Management and stakeholders have created a Unified Command structure to coordinate and share information among different governments and agencies that will be involved. A Unified Command is a structure that’s more typically used in emergency management, and its function is to enable each agency to maintain responsibility for its area of expertise while sharing resources.

FIFA has shared a safety and security concept with potential base camps, which includes a list of 18 areas that they want these communities hosting their events to focus on. This includes emergency preparedness, health and medical, crowd management, FIFA fan festival venues, airports, fire and rescue and many other things.

So, it follows that the Unified Command includes stakeholders from many different disciplines, too. The key entities that are involved are Douglas County, the City of Lawrence, the University of Kansas, the Lawrence chamber of commerce, Explore Lawrence and LMH Health. According to a letter to commissioners, staff on the Unified Command have been meeting every other Friday for the past couple of months to discuss work for the World Cup.

Commissioner Shannon Reid said she appreciated the work that is already being done on laying the foundation for the massive event. And Commissioner Erica Anderson asked if there would be impacts in other cities in Douglas County outside of Lawrence, like Eudora and Baldwin City. Director of Emergency Management Robert Bieniecki said that the event is projected to impact the entire county, and they will be considering all local communities in preparations.

Among the upcoming steps will be to identify projects and expected financial needs to incorporate into government and organizational budgets for the upcoming fiscal year. There are also plans to create a full-time, jointly funded, temporary position to coordinate World Cup preparations and reduce the workload for city and county staff.

As the Journal-World has reported, Kansas’ economy could see a more than $160 million windfall from the event. Douglas County noted in its legislative priorities statement that the state of Kansas has already pledged $28 million to support World Cup operations, and it said the county “looks forward to the continued collaboration necessary to ensure the success of this global event.”

In other business, county commissioners:

• Adopted a resolution to transfer remaining funds from the 2024 budget for Consolidated Fire District No. 1 to an equipment reserve fund. The approved budget for 2024 had a $150,000 transfer to the fund, and the budget had a remaining amount of $404,939 that staff recommended transferring to the fund for a total 2024 year-end transfer amount of $554,939, according to a memo in the agenda.

• Heard a presentation on a nearly 180-home development — called Shadow Ridge North — proposed for approximately 42.5 acres of property north of an existing subdivision in Eudora and west of Eudora High School. The developers of the project have requested the use of a Reinvestment Housing Incentive District to assist with the “financing of the public infrastructure improvements associated with the site.”

As the Journal-World reported, Eudora has to establish the district in order to qualify for state tax incentives that assist with funding infrastructure projects in new developments. The incentives would include a property tax rebate for up to 25 years, and they would help developers pay for items like streets, sidewalks, utilities and other such infrastructure components. The rebate for this project is not yet known.

The Eudora City Commission has a public hearing scheduled for Feb. 24 to further review the project. Following the hearing, an ordinance will be considered to formally establish the district, referencing the development plan and agreement. The Eudora school district and the County Commission will then have 30 days to assess any potential “adverse effects” the proposed district may have on their respective entities and adopt a resolution addressing these concerns. If a resolution citing adverse effects were adopted, it would nullify any city ordinance establishing the district, according to the memo provided to commissioners.

• Purchased emergency fire dispatch protocol software for the Emergency Communications Center in the total amount of $154,406 in 2025 and $19,000 annually in ongoing maintenance from 2026 to 2029. The system would allow Emergency Communications to give instructions to help callers stay safe until help arrives, and it would improve resource management for fire departments across the county.

• Approved a letter of intent that will have the county participate in the Kansas Department of Health and Environment’s Healthy Families Outreach, Prevention and Early Intervention program. The letter says that the county will provide matching funds to “pull down federal funding for the program.” It states that the “source for matching dollars will be from the county’s general fund, and Douglas County has adequate funding to provide up to $350,000 in matching dollars.”

The program helps identify families that are in need of preventative health services for their children, connects families to health care resources and works to prevent child abuse and neglect, among other things.

• Approved plans and specifications prepared by the county engineer for a bridge replacement on North 1800 Road, also called the Farmer’s Turnpike, over Baldwin Creek, and authorized Public Works to seek bids for the project. The Kansas Department of Transportation granted the county $1.4 million for the bridge replacement.

• Approved a tow service provider agreement for local tow contractors to be included in a rotation list managed by the Emergency Communications Center staff. In 2024, there were eight tow contractors that submitted agreements. Staff met with these operators in January to discuss and review the terms of the annual agreement.

• Heard an overview of the Heritage Conservation Council and sustainability department. The session was for informational purposes only, and no action was taken afterward.

• Expressed interest in sending a letter on behalf of the County Commission to the congressional delegation, state legislators or other entities to express concerns about the Trump administration’s cuts to federal workers.

As the Journal-World reported, dozens of Haskell Indian Nations University employees were laid off last Friday following an executive order from Trump. The layoffs amounted to nearly a third of the university’s workforce, including several instructors.

“I think the main issue that affects us most now is the Haskell layoffs,” Commissioner Gene Dorsey said. “I think for a lot of things, it’s kind of too soon yet to see what’s going to happen, but certainly the Haskell layoffs have been impactful.”