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St. Charles, other park projects in limbo as state suspends grants

Suspended state grants leave districts in funding lurch

Two St. Charles Park District projects are among the dozens in limbo, with the state suspending grants to local parks and museums.

Until the district knows whether the suspension is temporary, it won't seek bids for improvements to Ferson Creek Park, or for Excavation Station, said Laura Rudow, superintendent of parks and planning.

Letters were sent to grant recipients earlier this week. Gov. Bruce Rauner's office said it asked all affected recipients of grants dating at least to 2013 to halt construction and stop taking on costs. Suspending state grants was necessary because the state has a $1.6 billion deficit.

"The governor's budget office is taking actions necessary to address the fiscal crisis that the governor inherited," Rauner's office said in a statement.

The St. Charles district was to receive $259,000 for the Ferson Creek work. The park district was going to stabilize the shoreline, put in a fully accessible fishing pier, install a dock for kayaks and canoes, and replace a playground and picnic shelter.

It is in the final stages of getting permits for the water-related work, and was going to seek construction bids next month, Rudow said.

The other grant was for Excavation Station, an installation that would showcase the creation of kames - irregularly shaped hills of sand or gravel that accumulate in a depression of a retreating glacier - at Hickory Knolls Nature Center. A state museum program was due to pony up $130,400 for that.

It, too, is just in the planning stages, Rudow said. "It was going to be really neat," she said.

Overall, the project was expected to cost $230,000. The state grant was announced in June 2014.

Several recipients of the letters had already completed projects, or are close.

• Sugar Grove Park District is putting the finishing touches on the $800,000-plus construction of Harter Community Park. The state promised to pay $400,000.

Because the project is so far along, the district will finish it, said Executive Director Greg Repede. It will use money from its reserves.

The park will feature three ball fields, a court that can be used for tennis or in-line hockey, wetlands, a picnic shelter, a natural area, a playground and a bags area.

The remaining work is the turf for the fields, Repede said.

• Geneva Park District had submitted bills for $95,000 that was promised to it for the redevelopment of the history room and welcome center at the Peck Farm House, as well as the rebuilding of its front porch. The house is in Peck Farm Park. The work is done.

"With our project being complete, this decision could not come at a worse time. The suspension not only threatens jobs that are helping to grow Illinois' economy; it creates exposure to local taxpayers for existing contractual obligations and project costs," said Sheavoun Lambillotte, the district's executive director.

• Kane County Forest Preserve District was expecting $150,000 from the museum program for its white-oak exhibit at Creek Bend Nature Center in St. Charles. The exhibit opened last year.

It was also expecting $400,000 for work at Brunner Forest Preserve, in a grant announced in April 2013. The district installed trails, shelters and interpretive signs, and worked on restoring wetlands.

"And we don't know if more (suspensions) are forthcoming," said Laurie Metanchuk, spokesman for the forest district.

Officials are worried about a $569,000 grant announced in January for the purchase of 75 acres to add to Freeman Kame - Meagher Forest Preserve near Gilberts. The state didn't send a letter about that grant, Metanchuk said.

The district has signed a contract for purchase but hasn't closed yet, she said.

If the forest district doesn't get the reimbursements, it will have to "rethink other things," Metanchuk said.

• Fox Valley Park District is awaiting $2.8 million in suspended state grants, with the largest amount - $2 million - promised for a fitness project at Prisco Community Center in Aurora.

Spokesman Jeff Long said roughly 60,000 people live within 2 miles of the center. The plan was to triple the fitness center space from 1,500 square feet to more than 5,000 square feet on two levels.

The project called for larger group- and senior-fitness facilities, more early-childhood classrooms, renovated locker rooms and accessibility improvements.

Work hadn't started so, "we're in a holding pattern right now," Long said.

Funding was also suspended for Jericho Lake Park and Copley I Park.

Contracts have been approved but work has not started on Jericho Lake Park in Montgomery, which was to get $400,000 for improvements including two new shelters, a permanent dock and floating pier, a new parking lot with permeable pavers, restrooms and a regional trail connection.

One aspect of work planned at Copley I Park in Aurora, installation of new ballfield lights, likely will go forward even with the suspension of a $400,000 grant for the project. But other features, including a new shelter, playground and other ballfield upgrades, are on hold, Long said.

• Batavia Park District isn't due any IDNR grants. But Executive Director Allison Niemela wonders what will happen with the Illinois Youth Corps Program.

Last year, the district used a grant to hire 10 teenage maintenance workers, and a supervisor, for the summer.

"The grant saved the district in excess of $30,000," Niemela said, and she planned to apply for it this year.

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Park districts 'scrambling'

Bad turn for park projects

Lake County park projects' future unclear

  An open break from the canopy along a trail at Freeman Kame - Meagher Forest Perserve in Gilberts reveals a large marsh area. Forest preserve district officials are wondering whether the district will receive $568,000 the state had promised for the purchase of 75 acres to add to the preserve. LAURA STOECKER/lstoecker@dailyherald.com, 2009
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