photo by: Kim Callahan/Journal-World

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

With temperatures expected to hit triple digits every day for the next week, the City of Lawrence is still offering cooling sites at most Parks and Recreation facilities to provide relief from the extreme heat.

On Saturday, the heat index could reach 110, and every day after that through next Friday temperatures are expected to reach the 100s, according to the National Weather Service.

According to a social media post from the city Friday afternoon, the following facilities will be open as cooling sites during their normal operating hours:

• Community Building, 115 W. 11th St.

• East Lawrence Recreation Center, 1245 E. 15th St.

• Holcom Park Recreation Center, 2700 W. 27th St.

Previously, Sports Pavilion Lawrence has also been available as a cooling site. But the city’s Parks and Recreation Department announced earlier this week — and a representative with the city confirmed to the Journal-World Friday — that most of the facility including the wellness area, lower level, basketball courts and turf field will be closed for maintenance from Monday, Aug. 21, through Wednesday, Aug. 30, with only scheduled fitness and gymnastics programs scheduled to continue as planned.

More information about the operating hours of each facility is available on the city’s website.

The city is also encouraging people to use Lawrence Transit buses, which remain fare-free through the rest of 2023. The city is asking riders to follow Lawrence Transit’s policy of staying on board a bus for no more than one full loop through a route, after which they’re welcome to transfer to another bus route if desired.

The city has offered the cooling sites since earlier this summer, as Lawrence has experienced dangerous heat indexes across multiple days on more than one occasion.