April 11--St. Charles Park District officials were surprised that the request to borrow $28 million for a recreation center, among other projects, was resoundingly defeated April 7. The referendum would have resulted in higher taxes for up to 20 years.
"It's a hard defeat. I knew it was a close race, but I didn't expect it to be such a large defeat," said Jeff Greenwald, superintendent of recreation.
About 75.6 percent of voters rejected the request to build an 81,800-square-foot recreation center, according to unofficial totals from the Kane County clerk's office and DuPage County Election Commission.
The loan would have raised taxes to the district by about $5 monthly or $60 yearly for the owner of a $200,000 house. The owner of a $300,000 home would have had to pay a tax increase of about $8 monthly or $92 yearly.
While the taxes would have ended when the bonds were paid off, officials estimated the loan would have taken up to 20 years to pay off.
Several residents April 7 hit the polls to vote against the referendum because of the tax increase, saying they shouldn't have to "pay for people to go to the gym."
"My taxes are godly -- out of control," said Debbie Keith, who voted at St. Charles Public Library. "Everyone we've talked to is upset about this. If I want to take gymnastics or some other class, I should budget for it on my own."
While Greenwald and other park officials expected some residents to vote down the tax increase , they hoped the public's desire for a recreation and programming facility would outweigh its cost. Now they are wondering if their envisioned recreation center will ever become a reality.
"I thought we had a very good plan, and we received many compliments," he said. "But people are recovering from the downturn of the economy. People still remember. People are still feeling it. They spoke with their votes."
Between concept designs, research and construction cost estimates, the Park District spent about $54,000 on the referendum, said Holly Cabel, director of parks and recreation, in an email.
Without the referendum, the district has no funds to pursue the proposed recreation center, which was estimated to cost about $23 million. Land acquisition and building of two synthetic turfs, two additional referendum projects, were expected to cost about $4.9 million.
The Park District's one back-up option for financing the project would have been through state grants. But Gov. Bruce Rauner negated that possibility in February when he announced state funding for park projects across the state -- including two in St. Charles -- would be suspended.
"We were hopeful we would receive a park grant for the recreation center, which normally would've been an attractive project for the state to award," he said. "But no information's been released about any new park grants."
Rauner suspended expected grants for two separate projects for the Park District. The first was a $259,000 grant to restore Ferson Creek Park through improvements such as shoreline stabilization, constructing an easily accessible fishing pier, and building a dock for paddle sports like kayaking and canoeing. The grant also would cover the cost of a new playground and picnic shelter, park officials said.
The second grant was for Excavation Station, a glacier-themed educational installation at Hickory Knolls Nature Center. The grant was for about $130,400, according to a June 2014 state government news release.
With the referendum's failure, Greenwald said it's possible the recreation center could be built with help from the private sector.
"We'd be open to discussions with somebody who came forward and was interested in pursuing the projects," he said. "I think the public would like to see the recreation center built but just don't want to back it with their tax dollars."
The center was planned for the James O. Breen Community Park, on the west side of St. Charles. Final concept designs showed the building housing a large fitness center with member locker rooms, a four-court gymnasium with spectator seating, an indoor track, two group fitness centers and outdoor sports courts, among other facilities.
The center also would have been home to a preschool facility to meet the wait-list demands of the Park District's programs.
But to use the recreation center, voters would have had to pay an additional membership fee on top of the tax increase. While Park District officials never approved pricing, they estimated membership to cost about $35 a month for a resident, $59 a month for a two-person membership and an additional $8 a month for each additional household member.
In addition to the taxes and membership cost, some voters Tuesday said the recreation center's west St. Charles location was inaccessible to east St. Charles residents.
Greenwald said, while there were more centralized opportunities for the recreation center in the downtown area, they were less feasible, and would provide more hurdles and higher costs to the Park District.
"You drive through town and see empty storefronts and one razed property after another," Greenwald said. "I think the public wanted to see something that would've helped with that. But where's the best location in terms of east or west St. Charles? Probably neither."
meltagouri@tribune.com
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