New leader, new name for Elgin rec center

It's been seven weeks since Elgin leaders shuttered God's Gym for three day after a city-employed gang-prevention specialist was arrested in a drug probe.

Since then, city's Parks and Recreation Department has taken assumed control of the facility at 1080 E. Chicago St. and renamed it the Eastside Recreation Center.

Officials also have named a new program director: Julian Sanchez, a 34-year-old Elgin resident and founder and director of the Puma soccer club.

"He's a long time Elgin resident. He knows the community. He knows the people," said Randy Reopelle, parks and recreation director. "He has a real passion for the community."

Sanchez was introduced to city council members Wednesday night and said he was eager to serve.

"I definitely had an interest in the facility and an interest in the programs," said Sanchez, a 1991 Elgin High School graduate who previously worked at the Elgin-based Renz Addiction Center as a bilingual prevention specialist.

Sanchez founded the soccer program, which operates out of the ERC and draws nearly 500 kids, aged kindergarten through high school.

In late February, city officials shut the facility down after Angel Vega, a gang-prevention specialist, was arrested in an FBI drug sting.

Vega was fired, along with Joel Perez, a city employee serving as the gym's program supervisor. Perez, one of the gym's co-founders, was not among those arrested in the city and federal drug probe.

The city did not receive any complaints that Vega was selling drugs directly to the rec center users, Reopelle said.

Reopelle said the teen intervention programs at the ERC have stopped for now.

But other long-standing programs, such as the weight room, boxing, martial arts, soccer and career counseling, have continued since the center reopened Feb. 25.