Glen Ellyn Park District voters to soon decide fate of indoor aquatic center

Glen Ellyn Park District voters in a few days will decide whether to pay $13.5 million to add an indoor aquatic center to the Ackerman Sports and Fitness Center.

The park district is asking voters in the Nov. 4 election for permission to borrow the money to build a pool facility that officials say would serve swimmers of all ages and ability levels in programs such as parent-tot lessons, aquatic fitness, open swim and competitive swim teams.

Plans call for the addition to Ackerman to house a 25-yard main pool with a smaller warm-water pool, as well as spectator space, locker rooms and multipurpose space. Parking at Ackerman also would be expanded.

To fund the construction, the district would refinance existing loans that would be paid off in 2017 and borrow up to $13.5 million that would be repaid with property taxes, replacing the existing debt.

The financing plan means property owners wouldn't pay more taxes as a result of the borrowing, but they also wouldn't see an anticipated decrease as the existing debt is paid off.

District officials project the owner of a $400,000 house would continue to pay about $146 annually for the 10-year life of the debt.

Additional information is available through an information portal on the park district's website, gepark.org.

Getting to the ballot

In a 2012 Glen Ellyn Park District community survey, respondents were asked what potential park district projects they would be most willing to fund through their taxes.

Residents' top choices were maintaining park district facilities and property, upgrading existing neighborhood and community parks, upgrading Lake Ellyn Park and the boathouse, creating new walking trails and connecting existing trails, and building an indoor swimming pool at Ackerman.

“It's clear the demand has grown,” park board President Gary Mayo said. “More people are swimming. More are looking for programs that require water.”

Initially, park commissioners looked at the idea of asking residents to fund a plan that would pay for a pool as well as the upgrades and improvements residents had supported in the survey, Mayo said. But the district formed a citizens finance committee that reviewed the budget and projections for future income and expenses.

As a result, the district now has a 20-year plan that allows for maintenance, improvements and upgrades at Lake Ellyn and the boathouse — all within the district's current operating budget, said Nick Cinquegrani, superintendent of finance and personnel.

Residents who support the idea of an indoor pool formed the Glen Ellyn Aquatics Initiative, which asked the district to consider putting the question of funding just an aquatics facility to voters.

The group paid for the park district's independent aquatic center feasibility study, which showed not only that the pool would be used, but that the facility could be self-supporting.

The Western suburbs are in what Glen Ellyn Aquatics Initiative Chairman Rob Pieper calls an “aquatics desert.”

“There's very few really adequate indoor pools for the demand of the type of programming that our residents are really looking for,” Pieper said.

“Although there are some small facilities within Glen Ellyn proper, some are in need of major repairs, some are not open to families, and some just are insufficient and are not open to certain programming.”

In August, the board officially voted to ask residents whether they would pay for a new aquatic resource.

The plan

If voters approve the financing, the district would prepare to break ground in October, 2015, on the addition to the north side of Ackerman Sports and Fitness Center at 800 St. Charles Road. The facility would open in late summer or early fall of 2016.

The main pool would be 25 yards-by-121 feet, about the equivalent of 16 lanes, with a movable bulkhead that would allow for different activities to use the pool at the same time. The pool depth would range from 4.5 feet to 13 feet, deep enough for diving from 1-meter boards and scuba training, park district Executive Director Dave Harris said.

A separate 30-by-60-foot pool would be shallower and kept warmer to cater to learn-to-swim classes, active adults and water fitness, Harris said. Meanwhile, multipurpose rooms could be used for meetings or even birthday parties.

“The pool would be a multigenerational facility for recreational and competitive swimming,” Harris said. “Everyone from infants to seniors to those with special needs, from the casual to the high-end competitive swimmer, could use it.”

In some ways, the pool would allow the park district to build on programs offered outdoors during the summer, he said. Lessons could be offered year-round and members of the Glen Ellyn Gators swim team, which had 350 swimmers and a waiting list last summer, could join a recreational swim team during the school year.

An indoor facility also would offer lap swim and fitness opportunities, which are difficult to fit in around swim team practice and open swimming at Sunset Pool, Harris said, and lessons could be offered consistently, giving new swimmers a better chance to master their skills.

And parks officials already have been in talks with other organizations eager to rent time at an Ackerman aquatics center, he said. The competitive Wheaton Swim Club, which has many Glen Ellyn members, has shown interest in renting practice time as has the B.R. Ryall YMCA for its swim team.

Meanwhile, Glenbard High School District 87 has asked about having its Glenbard South/Glenbard West co-op swim team practice at Ackerman and has pitched the idea of using the pool during the day for physical education classes, Harris said.

With all the potential demands for pool time, park officials are placing a priority on keeping some of the pool open for lap swimming and recreational use at most times of the day. Ackerman fitness center members would be able to use the pool as part of their memberships, and fees would be adjusted to include the aquatic center, Harris said.

And as tempting as it might be to go bigger or build more, the park board has pledged to hold the line on indoor pool costs and reject the changes and cost overruns that plagued the original Ackerman construction.

“We have vowed we will not go over $13.5 million,” Mayo said. “If the bids come back higher, we will make changes and cut back. We will not go over.”

Community input

Officials in park districts where voters have approved pools and water facilities say community input played a key role in their success.

In 2002, 71 percent of Fox Valley Park District voters said yes to a $33 million plan that included the Vaughan Athletic Center in Aurora. The center provides exercise and recreational resources for residents, including indoor tracks, fitness equipment, tennis courts and an indoor aquatic center equipped with a main pool, a warm-water therapy pool, water slides and water play elements.

“It wasn't just a … willy-nilly 'let's go for this referendum and build an athletic center,'” Fox Valley Park District Public Relations Manager Jeff Long said. “It was like all of our referendums, mostly all of our projects that we do: We collaborate with the public and kind of take their pulse, and we seek out their feedback and their input.”

Long said the park district had conducted a comprehensive community needs assessment survey, and the results reflected a desire for a facility on the west side of Aurora.

“That's when we started moving forward with plans for a referendum and then, at that point, it was just a matter of informing the public, educating them, making them aware, including them in all dialogue and taking all their suggestions and kind of incorporating that into the planning process,” Long said. 


Like Fox Valley, voters in the Carol Stream Park District approved a $37 million referendum in 2010 that, in part, helped build the community's Fountain View Recreation Center. The rec center also was funded through grant money.

Like Vaughan, Fountain View offers recreational amenities — an indoor track, a gymnasium and multipurpose rooms — as well as a lap pool and a warm-water therapy pool.

Among its community outreach efforts, the park district sent out a survey to community members in 2008. In that survey, 75 percent of respondents indicated they were either somewhat or very supportive of the park district building a new multipurpose recreation center and retiring the Aldrin Community Center in Armstrong Park. More than half of respondents also indicated a need for an indoor swimming pool.

Director of Marketing Services Julie Vogl said that although the pool was a key part of the plan, she does not think residents would have approved the financing if the center has been purely a pool without the other fitness and recreation features.

“Whenever you do this, you go for the top needs that appeal to the most people,” Vogl said. “And the combination of those got enough community support to pass that referendum.”