St. Charles Park District takes over Norris Recreation Center

The Norris Recreation Center, as the St. Charles community has come to know it, will exist in name only come July 1. That's when it will be reborn under the guidance of the St. Charles Park District.

The Norris Recreation Center Board voted to dissolve itself April 18. The not-for-profit board, whose members have been appointed by the local school district, began daily operation of the rec center in 1986. The board leases the facility from the school district for about $426,000 a year.

The end of that relationship awaits a corresponding vote by the St. Charles Unit District 303 school board next week. That will start a period of limbo where auditors will work to get the financial books in order in preparation for the St. Charles Park District assuming management and programming responsibilities. The building will remain a school district asset.

A school board memo indicates the facility has operated at a loss in recent months.

"Current financial projections for the NRC indicate the potential of closing the year with a deficit balance of approximately $48,000," the memo states. "Despite NRC interim management's best efforts to reduce expenses and increase revenues, the (school) district will be required to fund any potential losses for the year and fund the park district's initial month of operation."

The transition will most likely result in the school district losing two months of rent the Norris Center board would have paid for leasing the facility. That's an income loss of about $46,000.

School district Spokesman Jim Blaney said the Norris board dissolved to pave the way for the school district's looming takeover.

"Once the park district is running the operations, it will essentially be the park board overseeing the facility," Blaney said. "You can't really have two boards overseeing the same thing."

Park district staff are already preparing for the transition. They've hired a new assistant superintendent, Andrea Masoncup, to run the Norris rec center.

Hollie Cabel, the district's director of parks and recreation, said her staff has already been observing the current operations. The park district has already sent out a survey for current rec center members in anticipation of making improvements to the facility and its offerings.

"The indoor tennis courts and indoor pool are two amenities that the district doesn't have for offering, and two amenities that the community feels are important," Cabel said. "We want to understand what the current members are thinking and feeling, what works and what would they like changed."

Cabel said the programming guide for the center that will come out in the fall will feature everything park district staff designed for the rec center based on the member surveys and feedback through the center's website and social media accounts.