River Forest Park District focuses on saving for rec center

The River Forest Park District is still trying to figure out who, exactly, it should partner with on a new indoor recreation facility. But during its Oct. 7 meeting, park commissioners agreed to hold off on new major capital improvements in order make saving money for a recreation center a priority.

The park district has already been setting aside some money. But with the commissioners mulling over several other major projects, board President Ross Roloff suggested they should focus on the indoor facility. Commissioners agreed, and they decided to use next year’s community survey to get resident feedback before they proceed. 

The park district has been looking for an indoor facility that it would have at least some control over, as opposed to having to lease spaces from someone else. It has been talking about possibly partnering with other local agencies to expand the existing River Forest Community Center, at 8020 Madison St., replace it with a new building or build a new center elsewhere in River Forest. 

More recently, the West Cook YMCA approached the park district to see if it would be interested in contributing money to build a second YMCA location in Melrose Park. 

With both the River Forest Community Center collaboration and the West Cook YMCA proposal, the park district would be required to contribute funds. While a study commissioned by the village of River Forest to determine the costs of the former hasn’t been completed yet, the YMCA requested $3.1 million from the park district to be a partner for that option.

Roloff told commissioners that he and park district Executive Director Mike Sletten have been discussing how much they would be prepared to spend to achieve what they were looking for. Based on their projected capital needs over the next three years, he said, they estimated that they would be able to allocate around $2 million, plus additional $500,000 from 10-year limited bond proceeds. 

Sletten said the park district could choose impose a levy for special recreation, which the park district doesn’t currently do. A special recreation levy would not be restricted by tax caps. 

That doesn’t mean there aren’t limits to using that strategy. The park district would need to use the money specifically for “all of the [Americans with Disabilities Act] functions.” The money could only be used in the event the park district partnered on the River Forest Community Center project, since the YMCA would be a private building. 

Another potential source of revenue, Sletten said, would be alternate revenue bonds. When asked how much money the park district might get from the alternate revenue bonds and a special recreation levy, Sletten said that it was hard to say.

Roloff said that while the park district would still be moving ahead with certain capital projects, he thought it would make sense to avoid doing anything large-scale and focus on saving the money for the indoor facility.

“This is really sort of – to make an analogy – the kids are getting older, and we need to start saving for college,” he said.