You know you live in Oak Park when you feel gratitude to a taxing body for only spending $23.5 million when they might have spent $29 million.
A week after property tax bills hit mailboxes carrying the burden of paying for the new District 97 elementary school referendum, the Park District of Oak Park considered the remaking of Ridgeland Common.
Two options were presented for the most heavily used and near totally worn out facility at Lake and Ridgeland:
A gut rehab of the inconsequential 50-year-old building housing locker rooms, offices, meeting rooms and the concession stand. The rehab would effectively offer a brand new and expanded interior ice rink and make minor changes to the existing pool.
The tab: $23.5 million
A new construction proposal would move the pool, rink and locker room/office structure to the west end of the park. Everything would be new and regulation sized.
The tab: $29 million
Like the park board we choose the gut rehab. Saving $5 million plus is the obvious but not the exclusive benefit. Getting the final 10-to-15-year lifespan out of the existing pool feels right. Keeping the shell of the current, non-descript building and salvaging the roof supports of the ice rink meshes with a philosophy that the fun and enjoyment that will be had at the improved facility is not reliant on an extravagant outlay, and that an extravagant outlay is simply at odds with the current reality of our lives.
Ridgeland Common must be rebuilt. The rink is shot and has become expensive to keep in operation. The building was ineptly configured a half-century ago and is not improving with age.
The park board has planned well and has a financial plan that — while it includes adding debt — does not call for a tax increase to fund this improvement. Planned upgrades to other parks may be delayed if Ridgeland moves to the head of the line and those delays have to be plainly spelled out.
This is also the week that the park district closed on its $880,000 purchase of the former Aldi grocery further east on Lake Street. That key corner will be converted either into the new gymnastics center or the park district maintenance garage. As previously stated, we’re strongly in favor of the gymnastics center at this gateway intersection.
All in all, a notable week for the park system. We see these ambitious plans as the culmination of a decade of good, hard work by the park district. Executing them well and paying for them over time within existing resources are the next essential steps.