Fundraising drive starts for Batavia Riverwalk band shell
As the Batavia Riverwalk turns 10 years old, some of the volunteers who built it are proposing to improve it.
And they have an ambitious fundraising and construction schedule.
The Batavia Parks Foundation wants to add a band shell and stage area to the south end of the Peg Bond Center, a small building on the west side of the Riverwalk. It serves as a warming house when Depot Pond is open to ice skaters, has hosted art exhibits and is the backdrop when local musical groups perform concerts on the Riverwalk during the summer.
The Riverwalk was originally envisioned as having an amphitheater, but it didn't seem to fit and was too expensive, said Britta McKenna, marketing coordinator for the original Riverwalk effort and a leader of the band shell effort.
"It was just kind of natural to add on," she said.
Preliminary cost estimates peg the addition at $271,000, but the plan is still being adjusted with advice from leaders of some of the groups that might use it, such as the Batavia High School band director.
The Batavia park board approved the concept in January, she said. The foundation is seeking donations, including grants, to pay for it.
Including a matching grant from Kane County's riverboat gaming fund, the foundation will try to raise $100,000 in 100 days, McKenna said, to prove it's serious. One way would be to sell off 175 of the path bricks that will need to be removed for the project.
The group would like to start construction in June and finish it within 175 days, not the seven years it took to build the 3-acre Riverwalk. It's a nod to Batavia's 175th anniversary.
A sketch of the band shell is on the group's Web site, www.its-coming.org.
The Peg Bond Center, which cost $50,000, was donated by Bond's estate. Bond, an art teacher, died in 1995. She was committed to improving Batavia, through the Riverwalk, the Batavia Plain Dirt Gardeners club, the Playmakers club and the Batavia Artists Guild.
Nearly 7,000 people helped build the Riverwalk, laying bricks, planting flowers providing lunches or doing other tasks under the supervision of construction manager Dennis Kintop, owner of MIC Construction. Kintop is helping with the band shell effort.
Volunteers old and new will be welcome at the Saturday workdays.
"Within the last 10 years there have been a lot of new people moving to town (who know about the Riverwalk effort) but never had a chance to help," McKenna said.