Naperville park candidates debate need for indoor pool
Candidates for three seats on the Naperville park board say the activity center the district plans to begin building this year will do much to meet indoor space needs.
The Fort Hill Activity Center will have a walking track, fitness center, courts for basketball and volleyball, multipurpose rooms for seniors and people with special needs, an indoor playground and a cafe.
One amenity it won't have is an indoor pool. Four candidates seeking the three seats were asked Monday at a forum sponsored by the Naperville Area Homeowners Confederation whether that signals a pool is a pressing unmet need or a dead idea.
The two challengers seeking seats, Jim Ensign and Melvin Kim, said it falls somewhere in between. Incumbent Rich Janor characterized an indoor pool as a “money pit” and incumbent Marie Todd said it's a wanted amenity, but there simply wasn't enough space on the activity center's five-acre site at Fort Hill Drive and Quincy Avenue to include a pool.
The candidates are squaring off in the April 7 election to fill the expiring seats held by Janor and Todd as well as Commissioner Ron Ory, who is not seeking re-election after 20 years on the board.
Janor said he hopes someone builds a pool in Naperville — it just shouldn't be the park district using taxpayer dollars.
“There has been talk about the need for a 50-meter pool in this community for as long as I have been involved,” said Janor, a 37-year-old business owner who has served four years on the park board. “This is a need I would prefer be addressed in the private sector.”
He said park district staff members have tried time and time again to come up with a funding model for an indoor pool and/or an ice hockey rink, but never have come up with a “fiscally responsible” way to build and maintain either facility.
Todd, 63, has been on the board for 10 years and said she considers indoor swimming an unmet need.
“We certainly could use an indoor pool to be able to teach swimming lessons,” Todd said. “We're always at the throes of when the high school pools are being used.”
Todd said she, too, has heard the calls for a 50-meter pool, but building one at 25 meters “makes more financial sense.”
Ensign, a 54-year-old computer consultant and former parks and recreation professional, said outcry for an indoor pool often comes from competitive swimmers and their families. But the way to operate a pool without losing money is to focus more on recreational and instructional swimming. Or to start the facility with a large donation to fund construction and operation.
“The only way to have a pool that's self-sustaining is to have a huge endowment,” he said, encouraging a small audience at the Naperville municipal center to donate if they'd like a pool to become a reality. “I'm not against that.”
Kim, a 36-year-old who works as grants and research coordinator for DuPage County, said he'd like the park district to make all decisions based on data about program use, resident needs and finances.
“The park district operates Centennial Beach and swim lessons at the high schools,” Kim said. “I'd want to take a look and see how effective that schedule is and get feedback from participants.”