Two consultants will help the Naperville Park District prepare for a possible bond referendum to generate funds for new indoor recreation space under contracts the park board approved at its most recent meeting.
The board approved spending a total of $129,000 on planning, public engagement, and architectural services to prepare for a potential ballot question related to funding a new indoor facility.
The possible new building could help meet the needs identified in the district’s Indoor Recreation Space Needs Assessment, which was completed late last year. In the report, the public showed support for indoor aquatics space, more facilities in south Naperville, and enhanced programs aimed at seniors.
Referendum prep, ‘done by an expert’
Park board members supported the idea of using outside expertise to best navigate the process of preparing for a potential ballot question. Consultants Williams Architects and Beyond Your Base bring the know-how needed to design a new facility, determine how much it would cost, present options to fund it, and explain these options clearly to the public, several commissioners said.
“The process for a referendum is deliberate and long and very involved. And having professionals guide us is so important,” park board Vice President Leslie Ruffing said. “I can assure you — we’ll all learn as we go through this process — how important all those steps are to be done by an expert.”
Consultants to ‘make sure we do this right’
Williams Architects was the district’s architect and engineer for the construction of the Fort Hill Activity Center, leading up to its opening in 2016. Beyond Your Base, according to a park district memo, is a “public affairs and pre-referendum consulting group that develops and implements comprehensive public engagement programs.” The organization is a consulting arm of architecture firm Wight & Company and helped Indian Prairie School District 204 prepare for its bond referendum last fall, which voters approved.
“We need to make sure we do this right. We owe that to our residents to make sure they have all of the information possible to make a decision,” Commissioner Aishwarya Balakrishna said. “I think this (use of consultants) sets us up in the best way possible to do that.”
Park board members unanimously supported both consultant contracts. But Commissioner Rich Janor unsuccessfully asked staff to scale back the scope of both contracts by 15 to 20% to remove tasks that district finance or marketing employees could do themselves.
“It’s important that we scrutinize these types of consulting engagements,” Janor said. “All in all, I do think this is very specialized work, and I do think we would benefit from consulting.”
Park board hears support for indoor swimming
None of the steps the board took last week mean the district is committed to putting a question on a future ballot about funding for indoor space.
But the district is already hearing from residents supportive of building a new indoor pool.
Shelia Sarovich of the masters swim team Naperville Waves and Connor Yao, a Naperville Central High School swimmer, both talked up the health benefits of swimming and called for a new facility in Naperville to make more aquatic opportunities possible.
“This would ensure the next generation of swimmers in Naperville have the tools necessary to chase their dreams,” Yao said. “Let’s build something that serves every resident, strengthens our community, and gives Naperville a long-lasting legacy in aquatics.”
Referendum prep follows direction from community
The newly approved consultant contracts come in addition to a total of $36,000 in preliminary deals inked earlier this year with the same two firms, Williams Architects and Beyond Your Base. The new agreements bring the total the district has invested on planning for a potential ballot question to $165,000.
With strong support for indoor aquatics from last year’s assessment, commissioners said it’s logical to move forward on designing a building, investigating how to pay for it and asking voters to decide.
“Taking these steps is already listening to the public,” Ruffing said.
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