Desplaines Valley News

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Township awards nearly $5 million in park funding grants

By James Pluta

Fifteen municipal recreation departments and park districts in the
Township of Lyons have learned they will soon be the recipients of nearly
$6 million in park facility improvement awards, courtesy of taxpayers
throughout the township.

The one-time financial bonanza of-sorts, doled out one-by-one by the
four-member Town Board at its Feb. 16 regular meeting, comes five years
and three months after township voters approved a $10 million bond issue
referendum which some Western Springs residents had initially believed was
intended just for their efforts to preserve open land in a new residential
development.

However, successful efforts of such village leaders as Summit Mayor Joseph
Strzelczyk and former Lyons Mayor David Visk in the months and years
following the November 2004 ballot question led the township to change the
focus of the bond issue so as to try and more equitably disburse the funds
to as many communities as possible.

In the end, 22 different entities requested of varying amounts totaling
more than $57 million — for everything from inline skating parks and
jogging paths to recreation centers and new ballfields — proposals which
in some cases were more refined in recent months.

“I’d like to commend trustees and presenters for their work on this
laborious project and the time they all put in to it,” said Township
Supervisor Russ Hartigan. “Times are tough and (the awards) may not be
exactly what you want, but it’s something you can use according to
whatever your project may be.”

Although Finance Committee Chairman Trustee Tom Garrette of Justice made
it clear awards for the remaining seven entities will be announced at a
special meeting after more specific funding breakdowns are sought in the
next two months, already $4,600,000 worth of awards have been made public,
representing 59.7 percent of the total bond funds to be disbursed.

“The board members have worked diligently, some as many as 50 hours over
the last month alone,” he said, “and our goal ... was to get each township
resident a tangible park project in each community.”

Park and recreation officials, mayors and trustees crowded the Countryside
City Council chambers as the Town Board approved each award — the highest
amount of $508,000 going to the Park District of La Grange for
redevelopment of Denning Park across from Lyons Township High School’s
South Campus and the lowest of $109,000 given to Riverside for resurfacing
of village tennis courts, installation of fabric fencing surrounding them,
as well as baseball field backstop fencing, dugout repair and parking lot
improvements.

Speaking of parking lots, Countryside was awarded $430,000 for all the
paving work needed in conjunction with the long-planned redevelopment of
Ideal Park, a project being jointly financed by the city, the township and
Elementary School District 105.

The award was lauded afterward by Superintendent Glenn Schlichting, Ideal
School Principal Steve Bahn and School Board President Mark Smith, who
attended the meeting alongside Countryside Mayor Robert Conrad.

The park project was originally slated to be funded by a state government
Open Space, Land Acquisition & Development (OSLAD) grant, but caught a
hitch when the School Board couldn’t commit to a caveat that would have
assured nothing could be done with the land for the next 25 years.

Under this intergovernmental agreement, they said the district could seek
to change the use of some of the property within a more reasonable 10- to
15-year period.

The township award, which represents a full third of the overall project
cost, will fund paving of all paths, driveways and parking areas needed to
access the new park — which, with other funds will include a redesign of
all grounds, new ballfields and playground equipment.

“I think it’s great that it’s been a partnership,” said Schlichting. “We
worked together with balancing playground and recess areas ... and it fits
in well with the city’s needs, too.”

Willow Springs lost out on its bid to fund a new jogging path, but will
receive $367,350 for the entirety of its proposed project, while the
Bedford Park District will earn $198,415 for construction of a courtyard
outside of its main offices.

Bridgeview Park District, whose director Tom Landek is the brother of
Bridgeview Mayor and Township Highway Commissioner Steve Landek, will get
$320,000 for the purchase of new equipment in all three parks.

The Bridgeview money will also pay for new baseball and soccer fields in
Wierzba Park at 78th Street and Oketo Avenue and Commissioners Park
adjacent to the main office and outdoor swimming pool near the 8100 block
of South Oketo.

Brookfield Mayor Mike Garvey and Trustee Brian Oberhauser were on hand to
applaud their village’s receipt of $300,000 for a proposed concession
stand building and shelter, Indian Head Park learned it will earn $165,000
for redevelopment of Blackhawk Park and Lyons will earn a whopping
$403,000 for improvements to its new park adjacent to the new Village
Hall.

Work there, originally proposed by the prior board and refined by the new
administration of Mayor Christopher Getty — in a Town Board motion made by
former Lyons trustee Mark Anderson — will include ground prep and
lighting, baseball field lighting and fencing, playground equipment with
basketball courts and a skate park and a new senior citizen recreation
area.

In addition, Hodgkins Park District was awarded $328,500 for improvements
to the 3-1/2-acre Lenzi Park on Lenzi Avenue just south of Joliet Road,
Justice Park District was given $317,000 for a sports lighting package and
restoration of basketball and hockey courts at Commissioners Park behind
Village Hall and the District offices and Summit Park District will get
$312,000 — representing half the cost of extensive improvements to Summit
Park at Archer Road and Bulldog Drive.

“It feels great!” exclaimed Hodgkins Park District Executive Director
Ronald Kubicki, saying he looks forward to repositioning the new soccer
field away from the street to the rear of the park, a new playground
closer to Lenzi Apartments and a new basketball court on the northeast
corner.

This award, he said, funds one phase of the three-phase, $2.1 million park
upgrade project.

Garrette, who also serves as Justice’s administrative adjudicator and
whose wife was head of the Park Board before she resigned late last year
in an ethical dispute versus current board members, made the motion to
grant the Park District its award. His wife, Karen Garrette, was one of
the original ones to advocate for installation of new lighting in the
park.

Summit Park officials were equally elated at news of their award, which
continues to help fund an entire park improvement that began in 2005.

“That’s great!” remarked Park Executive Director Tom Suhs, whose award was
announced by Town Board Trustee William Mundy, also Summit’s building and
code enforcement director. “Obviously, like anyone, we’d love to have
received $5 million for a rec center, but this is good. We can do a lot
with this.”

In addition to replacing fields and field fences, the project includes the
new skate park, playground equipment, new areas for seniors and other park
improvements.

“I feel very good,” said longtime Park Board member Judy Pollick, to which
fellow board member Dallas Anderson — a big fan of the skate park —
agreed: “I feel good about the money. I think improvements of the park
will be real nice.”

The awards, which were also doled out to the Village of Hinsdale and Burr
Ridge Park District to the tune of $140,000 and $150,000, respectively,
will either be in the form of a reimbursement or a direct bank payment by
the township, depending on individual financial circumstances, said
Supervisor Russ Hartigan, noting everyone must sign intergovernmental
agreements.

Before announcing the awards, the board unanimously approved a two-page
document to which all awardees must adhere, called “Conditions upon
Approval of Park Bond Proposals and Disbursements of Funds Thereunder.”

The measure lays out the legal implications of using said funds, from
seeing no funds be disbursed until completion of work or for any purpose
other than the project outlined in the proposal, to a ban on future
project modifications and submission of contracts for all work.

Garrette agreed with Mundy that any entity not yet named should have no
hurt feelings, as not all the awards have been finalized yet.

“We all worked very hard on this ... it was a very tough task,” Garrette
concluded. “Entities not mentioned were in no way rejected ... but please
break down your projects into (more finite) parts or project segments.”