Oak Brook Parks to add inclusive family locker room
Shutting down for a few weeks in August is routine for the Oak Brook Park District Family Aquatic Center, 1450 Forest Gate Road.
Each year, staff completes routine maintenance and deep cleaning while many residents and members are away on last-minute summer vacations or getting ready for school.
But this year's shut down has been anything but routine. When the facility closed Monday, Aug. 14, the park district began a complete renovation of the Family Recreation Center locker rooms. The project includes improvements to the adult locker rooms, male and female locker rooms, and the addition of an inclusive family locker room.
"In evaluating the responses from the comprehensive community survey, as well as ongoing requests from members, we had clear direction to prioritize locker room improvements," Executive Director Laure Kosey said.
According to Kosey, the new facility provides a solution for mixed gender and mixed age families who visit the aquatic center for recreational swimming, lessons, swim team or events. Currently, the park district does not allow children older than 6 to enter the opposite sex locker room.
"A dad that brings his 7-year-old daughter to the pool would have to allow her to go through the female side by herself," said Kosey. "Many parents are not comfortable with this, and it poses a problem for parents with children that have special needs."
The park district expects that the Inclusive Family Locker Room will significantly alleviate crowding in the male and female locker rooms during peak hours, providing an overall better experience for all patrons.
The Inclusive Family Locker Room will be located down the center of the current locker complex and will include 10 secure changing areas. One of the changing areas will feature an ADA accessible toilet, shower and adult changing table to better accommodate families that have older children with special needs or patrons with limited mobility that require home health aides. Two of the new changing areas will be equipped with infant changing tables.
The project also adds a "rinse off shower" on the pool deck, just outside the entrance of the Inclusive Family Locker Room. The cluster of showers will allow families to quickly rinse off multiple kids in their swimsuits so they can easily towel off and change in a dry room.
The current locker rooms have been undergoing upgrades as well. The shower areas are being retiled and a new epoxy floor is being installed. Patrons will be greeted by new carpeting and lockers throughout the facility.
The locker room renovation project budget is $1.1 million and the Family Aquatic Center and locker rooms will be through Friday, Sept. 15. The aquatic center will reopen Saturday, Sept. 16, though access to showers and locker rooms will be limited until the end of November.
Staff anticipates the project will be complete by the end of November.