Carol Stream's JustPlay! cut to one day this year

Carol Stream Park District's JustPlay! event will last only one day this year instead of two in an effort to reduce costs and staff involvement with the festival.

The annual event takes place at the Ross Ferraro Town Center and offers residents the chance to try out recreational activities. Although it's free for residents, it comes with a price tag for the district.

Considering direct and indirect expenses, JustPlay! lost about $44,000 last year, $48,000 in 2013 and $52,000 in 2012, according to park district estimates.

"We felt that by limiting it to one day, we can control the costs enough so that we still provide a quality product for the residents and pretty much the same experience," park board President Tim Powers said.

With a two-day model, he said, the costs were too high.

Limiting the event to one day will help reduce staff involvement as well, Executive Director Jim Reuter said.

"You look at it as a one-day event, we look at it as a two-week event because I got setup, I got a day and I got take down," Reuter said. "And two days were just, I think, overtaxing staff a little bit. So in order to try and reduce some of the costs involved with the event, bringing the event back to our roots, we thought it was a good idea to maybe scale it back for this year."

For this year's event, the district also will try to highlight more of what it offers residents.

"Where we've kind of gone in the last couple of years is we've started to look at activities and bringing in performers and demonstrations from way outside our area, bringing activities that aren't offered near here," Special and Community Events Supervisor Mary Frusolone said. "I think that's really where we're saying let's go back to our roots."

The district also will be bringing in human foosball and archery to this year's event, Frusolone said.

Reuter said they will evaluate the impact of the change at a later date.