Voters to decide Batavia parks rec center, pool question
Batavia Park District voters get to decide in November whether taxpayers should borrow $36 million to build a recreation center and redesign Harold Hall Quarry Beach.
The park board voted 4-0 Friday afternoon to put a question on the ballot. Commissioner Phil Elfstrom was absent.
"I believe this community has illustrated to us, not the least of which was in four surveys, that it is time to provide the community opportunity to make a decision. The reality is that this has been requested of us. The park district moves at the will of the people of this community and it is time to ask them what they want," board President Patrick Callahan said.
Other residents have questioned, in public forums this summer, why Quarry Beach should be changed, and why the district isn't buying the shuttered Siemens-Furnas factory site on the west side of town and building a recreation center there.
The district would issue general obligation bonds for the money. It proposes to have user fees pay for operating costs, but has not published any fees yet.
District property owners presently pay 43.88 cents in taxes per $100 of equalized assessed value of their property.
The district estimates that the tax rate would increase 20.76 cents, on average. The district estimates that the owners of a property with a market value of $250,000 and assessed value of $77,500 would pay an additional $190.32 a year in taxes.
The owner of that hypothetical property now pays $340 in taxes to the district. (The Claritas demographic company estimates the median market value of an owner-occupied housing unit in Batavia is $290,334).
The recreation center would include a six-lane, 25-meter indoor competition pool, a leisure pool with a "lazy river" play feature, a gymnasium with an elevated track, fitness class and weight-training rooms, three locker rooms and multipurpose activity rooms.
Harold Hall Quarry Beach, at 400 S. Water St., is just west of the Fox River and south of downtown Batavia. It is in Frederick H. Beach Park. Beach bought an abandoned limestone quarry, into which water was seeping, in 1920 and donated it to Batavia Township for use as a swimming hole. The Works Progress Administration build limestone locker rooms there in the 1930s. In 1993 the park district, which had been given control of the park and beach, renovated the facility.
The district contends Quarry Beach needs $1 million in repairs, that current attendance is down 45 percent compared to that in 1995, and that the beach has been losing money (from $4,000 to $38,000 in four of the last five seasons.) Attendance figures for the 2008 haven't been released yet. In 2007, 27,627 visits were logged, compared to 92,201 in 2006.
For several years, the park district and the Batavia school district pursued the idea of building a joint facility, on land owned by Mooseheart across from Batavia High School. School district voters OK'd buying land, but Mooseheart did not want to sell, and the school district decided not to take land forcibly. The permission to buy land expired this spring.
Only two visitors besides reporters attended the meeting Friday. One said she hasn't decided yet whether she will support the request. The other, a man, said he would.
He presently purchases an out-of-district pass to use the Vaughn Community Center in western Aurora to exercise. There is no indoor pool or track at any private gym in Batavia, or indoor pool in Geneva or North Aurora. There is an indoor pool and track at Delnor-Community Health and Wellness Center in Geneva. Parts of the City of Batavia are not in the Batavia Park District, and parts of the City of Aurora and the Village of North Aurora are in the district.
Decide: Only two peo ple attend meeting
<div class="infoBox"> <h1>More Coverage</h1> <div class="infoBoxContent"> <div class="infoArea"> <h2>Related documents</h2> <ul class="morePdf"> <li><a href="/pdf/batreccenter.pdf">Park district slideshow of proposed rec center</a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div>