Central DuPage giving back to Winfield
Several large donations from Central DuPage Hospital are keeping a community grant program alive in Winfield, while also giving a boost to the town's efforts to repair roads and construct a downtown riverwalk.
CDH this month announced that it would continue to contribute $100,000 a year for another three years to support the "community chest" grant program. Started three years ago, the community chest has provided grants to various not-for-profit groups in the village. This year's grant recipients include Winfield in Action, the Winfield Bikeways Planning Group and the Winfield Historical Society.
"We believe that there are a number of activities in Winfield that we can help support," said Jim Spear, executive vice president of Central DuPage. "So we are happy and proud to give $100,000 to community activities that are consistent with our mission."
To the surprise of town officials, the hospital's generosity didn't stop with the community chest program.
Spear also presented the village with a $300,000 check for road repairs. That donation comes as village officials are appealing to taxpayers to raise millions of dollars in new revenue to keep local streets from crumbling.
Voters will be asked to consider two questions on the November ballot related to the roads. The first asks permission for the village to borrow $3.3 million to resurface its most deteriorated streets. The second will ask voters to let Winfield collect an extra $700,000 in property taxes each year to fund a 20-year maintenance cycle for the entire network of local roads.
If approved, the combined ballot questions would cost the owner of a $300,000 home about $230 extra in village property taxes each year.
Spear said the hospital made its $300,000 donation because it appreciates the need for good roads.
"We know that the roads here in Winfield are in need of repair," Spear said, "and these are difficult economic times. So we thought we'd step up with this one-time contribution."
CDH also is doing what it can to help the village build a riverwalk along the DuPage River in downtown Winfield.
Earlier this year, the hospital agreed to provide an $80,000 matching grant for the first phase of engineering work related to the riverwalk project. As long as the not-for-profit group Advocates of the Winfield Riverwalk raises the other $80,000 through its fundraising, the engineering work could start in about a year, Village Manager Curt Barrett said.
"We need to get the engineering done for some of the grants we want to go after for construction of the riverwalk," Barrett said.
Once construction of the pathway starts, the village will have some land to work with. CDH is planning to convey two vacant parcels along High Lake Road to Winfield.
"You start adding up the different things, and they're contributing," Barrett said of CDH. "They have been active on a number of fronts. We appreciate it."