Quarrel over quarry snags Batavia's rec center plans

Residents with a desire to keep old-town tradition and those who said Batavia should move into the 21st century butted heads Thursday night as the Batavia Park District held a community forum seeking feedback on a new recreation center.

About 50 Batavia residents attended the park district's second forum and the attendees were nearly evenly split for and against the location being considered for the center.

After whittling down 15 sites to five, discussion centered on 400 S. Water St., the location of an old quarry, now home to Harold Hall Quarry Beach.

Batavia resident Nancy Coates, who said she has been going to the quarry for 30 years, said the site is one of the first places she shows people when they visit her.

"The quarry is unique," she said. "It's unique to anybody who ever comes here. They're wowed by it."

The beach began as a limestone quarry in the mid-1800s and in the 1930s, a diving board and park shelter were added to a pool already used for swimming.

Park district board President Pat Callahan said the quarry has become a financial burden on the park district with about $300,000 being invested in 2006 to install a well to pump water into the pool to maintain water levels. However, he said he was happy with the turnout at the forum.

"Anytime you get a divergence of opinion at a community forum, where people express their honest opinions, it's a good thing," he said. "The whole point of doing this is not for people to tell us what we want to hear. It's for them to tell us how they really feel."

Dan Brace, who lives in the 700 block of Mandrake Drive, said it has been time for a recreation center for 10 to 15 years.

"There has been a demonstrated need for a recreational facility in Batavia for a long, long time," he said. "Different health clubs in the area have grown trying to respond to that need because Batavia has not provided it."

The community expressed approval for a recreation center in four surveys the park district has distributed during the last decade.

But Coates said the survey did not specify where the park district would build the center.

"I responded that I would love a rec center, and I would," she said. "But not at the risk of the quarry."

The board will discuss the future of the proposal during its Aug. 19 meeting. If it decides to put a referendum for funding on the November ballot, it must submit it to the county by Sept. 2.