McCaul steps up to head Fox Valley Park District

Nancy McCaul has been preparing to lead a park district for the 22 years she's spent working in the field.

Wednesday, she takes the top leadership role at the Fox Valley Park District, becoming its executive director.

McCaul comes to the job having served 5 years as the district's director of finance and administration. She previously had held a variety of administrative positions in park districts in Naperville, Bartlett and Homewood-Flossmoor. She replaces Steve Messerli, who is retiring after five years as the district's executive director and 40 years in parks management.

The Daily Herald sat down with McCaul after she accepted her new position to talk about her goals and what's next for the park district that serves more than 200,000 residents in Aurora, North Aurora and Montgomery with 155 parks, 41 miles of trails and 2,400 acres of parkland. This is an edited version of the conversation.

Q. What are your thoughts about taking over as executive director?

A. Well, of course, I'm very excited. I've been in the field of over 20 years, so as we've mentioned, it's a career goal of mine. I'm happy to be in a district of this size, and I'm the first female executive director for the park district, so I'm very proud of that.

Q. The park district is in the middle of a move to the Cole Administration, Park Operation and Natural Resources Center. How will the new building benefit the park district?

A. It's going to allow more departments to be able to work together. Our marketing department will be in with the administration area. A couple more recreation staff will be housed in there. We will be under the same roof as our maintenance facility as opposed to having these separate buildings, and their vehicles will be able to be stored inside.

There's a lot of green initiatives that were put into there and we actually have saved a lot of money. We saved $3 million to $4 million over what the cost to build new would have been.

It's going to be an easier location, I think, for the public access. I think it's going to be easier to find.

Q. Voters in 2008 approved funding for a plan that has allowed the park district to build and renovate parks. What's next with funds from the referendum?

A. We've been very fortunate with our referendum from 2008, so we have about $20 million left for projects. We've developed a lot of new parks over the last few years with the referendum, and we just have to ensure that we are able to have funds available to maintain those parks.

Q. What are your goals for the upcoming years?

A. Obviously what we need to keep maintained is our current financial stability. We've been very fortunate to pass that referendum to do a lot of capital projects, but now we're facing declining assessed valuations. This is the first time, probably, in the history of the park district that we're expecting a decrease (in property value). Right now only about 50 percent of our revenue comes from property taxes; the rest is made up of user fees, grants, investment income, other sources. So we just have to make sure that the services that we're offering are able to fit within the means that we have.

Q. How will your financial background help with these goals?

A. Given the current economic conditions nationwide, locally, it's going to be very helpful because I've been developing our budget and our tax levy here for the last five years so I have a very thorough knowledge and understanding of all the effects of lower assessed valuations, tax rates, how all these components work together and what they will mean for our budget and our availability of resources. I think it's going to be key that I have the strong financial background that's allowed the park district to have great financial success in the past five years.

Q. What trends are coming in park district management?

A. I just came back from the National Recreation and Park Association conference, and there was a lot of discussion on childhood obesity and how can we make parks more interactive for all ages so there's more physical challenges there. What they had noticed was while kids might be interactive, parents are sitting on a bench. So how can you get parents to be involved in some type of physical activity at a park?

There was also a seminar that was talking about intergenerational programs and how many children now live with their grandparents or their grandparents alone are raising them and how they can have programs together.

Q. What is the park district's overall goal? A. We want people to be fit and happy.

Meet Nancy McCaul

Age: 50

Hometown: South Holland

Residence: Aurora

Family: Husband, Joe; two grown sons

Education: Bachelor's in business accounting from Valparaiso University; master's in public service management

Awards: Received the Government Financial Officers' Association Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting multiple times; the Fox Valley Park District received the Government Financial Officers' Association Distinguished Budget Presentation Award the past three years

Civic involvement: Board member and finance committee member for the Illinois Parks and Recreation Association; claims committee and finance committee member for the Park District Risk Management Agency; board member for The First Tee of Aurora and Fox River Valley

Favorite recreational activities: Power walking, golfing and doing yard work. McCaul played softball and volleyball when she was young and said she loves baseball.

Other hobbies: “I like to scrapbook because that's so opposite of what I do, you know, it's the creative side. … It's not the financial side, it's the kind of relaxing side.”

• “I do like photography. I take a lot of pictures.

• “I do have a group of very close girlfriends I've known since grade school that we all still hang out and go on annual vacations together and that's very fun for me.”