The Park District of Oak Park (PDOP) emailed me (1) and some other residents last week inviting us to a focus group on May 16 to share our thoughts on a proposed indoor pool, reportedly cited as a community “want” in a recent PDOP mail-in survey (2). Thanks for the invitation, but having attended countless PDOP and Oak Park and River Forest High School (OPRF) pool/facility meetings over the past decade where my input was ignored, I have no interest in attending another one.
But if PDOP truly wants my opinion on an indoor pool, here it is:
Instead of building another pool, PDOP should collaborate with OPRF to share the use of its soon-to-be-built Imagine Plan pool. There will be plenty of pool to go around. It’ll be so large that it will accommodate up to 17-practice lanes (each 7-feet wide x 25-yards long, per the Illinois High School Association requirement), six lanes more than the school’s two current pools combined (3)(4).
PDOP was willing to collaborate on a community/high school pool at Ridgeland Common, but OPRF declined, opting to keep the Imagine pool for itself. This taxpayer-funded pool should rightfully be a high school/community pool, not a high school/private swim club pool that OPRF pools have largely been since at least 2012, according to the board-commissioned 2013 Stantec Report that reviewed pool usage and a 2016 OPRF pool usage report (5).
Sharing resources among our taxing bodies maximizes our limited tax dollars and land. In this case, it would prevent the unnecessary duplication of an indoor pool: expensive to construct, operate and maintain. Pool collaboration is common in other communities, such as Waukegan and Bradley-Bourbonnais (6).
Collaboration among PDOP and OPRF isn’t a new idea. In 2022, they signed an intergovernmental agreement (IGA) to share park district land, highlighted on the school’s website, enabling the building of the school’s new outdoor track, which is open to the community when not in use by the school (7). Likewise, these taxing bodies can share our new Imagine pool when not in use by the school, and PDOP can oversee its use for the community who should have priority over any private group.
Please consider joining me in emailing PDOP Director Jan Arnold (jan.arnold@pdop.org), her board (pdop_board@pdop.org), OPRF Superintendent Greg Johnson (gjohnson@oprfhs.org) and his board (boe@oprfhs.org) and encourage them to enter into an IGA to share the use of our new Imagine Pool.
I’ll also remind them that the funding for a major capital project, pool or otherwise, belongs on the ballot for voter approval, a basic principle of public finance. Moreover according to the Cook County Board of Elections in the Nov. 3, 2020 election with 31,092 votes cast, 76% of Oak Park voters approved a non-binding referendum that major capital expenditures over $5 million should be subject to a binding referendum (8). Will PDOP honor this community input moving forward, having ignored it to build the recreation center? OPRF is thumbing its nose at it to build the over $100-million Project 2 and its Imagine Pool, construction and borrowing costs, choosing to circumvent voters and fund the project via loopholes.
An invitation to the PDOP focus group should reasonably be extended to all. If you’re interested, there will be space for at least one more.
Sources:
1) PDOP 4/11/24 email invitation to Indoor Pool Focus Group Meeting
2) March 26 WJ story on the PDOP survey
3) OPRF’s two current pools are 6 lanes and 5 lanes, (each lane 7-feet wide x 25-yards long) respectively, meeting the Illinois High School Association lane requirements:
Competition Pool: Minimum 75 ft. (25 yds.) long – Minimum 45 ft. wide (no less than 6 lanes that are 7 ft. wide)
4) OPRF website lists the Imagine Pool’s dimensions as 25 yards x 40 yards
5) According to the Stantec Report (pp. 2.10, 5.28-5.35), after the close of the school day, TOPS, a private swim club operated by the YMCA, is the greatest user of the school’s pools besides the OPRF aquatic teams
The 2016 OPRF pool usage report showed that TOPS continued to be the greatest user of the school’s pools after OPRF aquatic teams.
6) Chicago Tribune story on the opening of the Waukegan community/high school pool
Bradley-Bourbonnais Community High School Pool Facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/BBCHSPool
7) OPRF website page outlining the PDOP and OPRF IGA for the track and field project
8) 11/3/20 Cook County election results (p. 14) non-binding referendum on major capital expenditures
Monica Sheehan is an Oak Park resident.