Lengthy commitment to park district pool biting Gurnee

Former Gurnee mayor Richard Welton issued a financial warning to four opposition village board members in January 2000 that's proving true today.

Welton voiced concern about the concept of village government committing money to the Gurnee Park District - a separate taxing body - to help pay for an aquatic complex. He said the village's sales and amusement tax revenue were fragile.

Nonetheless, a village board majority in December 2000 went along with the wishes voiced by residents in an advisory referendum and agreed to provide the parks with no more than $400,000 annually for 20 years. That deal started in 2001.

Now, with Gurnee's revenue sliding in the middle of a national recession, Trustee Hank Schwarz raised the idea of the village renegotiating the terms of its annual $390,000 commitment to the park district on a loan that paid for the $6 million Hunt Club Park Aquatic Complex. The pool opened in 2002.

Schwarz asked the question during a discussion Monday night on the tentative 2009-10 village budget.

It didn't take long for Schwarz to receive an answer from Village Administrator James Hayner.

"The mayor and I did discuss it with them," Hayner said, "but it wasn't fruitful."

Gurnee's tentative $45.4 million budget will run from May 1 through April 30, 2010. Sales tax still is expected to account for most of Gurnee's revenue at $14.4 million.

Budget projections are for Gurnee's sales tax to drop by $1.3 million, or 8 percent, with amusement tax dwindling by about 1 percent to just under $2 million.

Schwarz said the park district's reliance on mostly property tax is more steady at this time than sales tax.

On Tuesday, park district Executive Director Susie Kuruvilla said while her agency values its relationship with village government, the pool deal would be too complicated to alter. She confirmed Mayor Kristina Kovarik and Hayner approached the park district about redoing the village's financial commitment.

Kuruvilla said the village's annual $390,000 to the park district represents 75 percent of the loan repayment on the pool complex. The park system pays the other 25 percent.

"We don't have the ability to kick in more money, unfortunately," Kuruvilla said.

David O'Brien, who was a Gurnee trustee in December 2000, was the lone dissenter in a 5-1 village board vote in favor of providing the money to the park district for the aquatic center. He said back then sales tax revenue would slide in a declining economy.