Batavia parks feeling out of the loop

Alan Leard doesn't have a problem with the components of a Batavia High School expansion plan.

What the vice president of the Batavia park board does have a problem with is where they are.

He said at a park board meeting this week the school district had all but abandoned plans to build facilities that would serve all community members after a successful $75 million referendum request earlier this year.

"I assume they have just forgotten that they promised the entire community an auditorium, a field house and rec center that would be jointly built with the park district on acquired land," he said during Tuesday's meeting.

Superintendent Jack Barshinger said the district was very clear in its referendum materials that the first priority was building the facilities on its current campus.

Officials said if more land was bought -- specifically, land from Mooseheart -- they would review that plan.

"But there's nothing to review now, because we don't have any land," Barshinger said.

Since the groups started discussion seven years ago, the school's needs have changed and the need for more space is critical, he said.

As the district moves ahead with its plans -- the expansion plans are scheduled to go before the Batavia plan commission in January -- it gets more and more expensive to change them, Barshinger said.

Leard said the park district supported the referendum effort in part because the groups were going to work together on the plan and that school officials had consistently said they wanted to work with the park district.

Both groups still are in negotiations with Mooseheart to buy property there.

School district, park district, city and Mooseheart officials are scheduled to meet again today. The groups have been mostly tight-lipped about the process, but officials have hinted that negotiations are going well.

Voters approved $5 million for the school district to buy Mooseheart land in 2003, but the ability to spend that money expires in April.

Batavia Mayor Jeff Schielke said he was optimistic a land deal still could be worked out.

"I think when it's all over and done with, that area on Main Street could be the pride of the west side of Batavia," he said.

For years, the school district thought it couldn't do all of the expansions it wanted on its 46-acre campus.

But in January, consultants told the board that they didn't need as much room for storm water detention as originally thought, and could fit the project on the district's current campus.