Naperville park candidates discuss outdoor, indoor space needs

New Naperville Park District Executive Director Ray McGury is very popular with district candidates and all nine of them believe the district needs to continue repairing its relationship with the public.

Where they differ, however, seems to be in the district's role of providing both open space for outdoor recreation and indoor facilities for programs and sports training.

The candidates shared their views on that, as well as several other topics, during Monday night's candidate forum hosted by the League of Women Voters.

Candidate John Polich said he sees a need for both as seniors need programs and indoor facilities and families continue to demand open recreational space.

"I'd like to investigate the possibility of partnering with the DuPage Forest Preserve District and city of Naperville for possible land sharing. I'd also like to encourage partnering with owners of local vacant space to provide any of our programs," Polich said. "Our open space is diminishing while the demand appears to be increasing."

Incumbent Gerry Heide said he hopes to focus on a section of the district's master plan that calls for getting more use of the water detention ponds to add open space.

"The conversion of our stormwater detention facilities into naturalized water detention with passive/active recreation can create usable open space and an amenity where there was liability," he said.

Jim Ensign said he was "OK" with the district investing heavily in outdoor space and almost hardly at all in indoor space. The private sector provides enough opportunity for fitness centers and other indoor programming that the district should not be competing with, Ensign said.

"There's a lot of people who make New Years' resolutions to work out, but not everybody does it," he said. "There are a lot of places where we can look to fulfill those kinds of needs."

Candidates Kirsten Young, Michael Riley and Rich Janor all called for finding the right balance between indoor and outdoor space.

"We do need more indoor space and outdoor space. I would like to see an indoor field house, not so much a fitness center on north and south side of town," Young said.

Riley also addressed the needs of the north and south sides.

"There is a lot of open space in the northern part of the district," Riley said. "In the south, though, there is a strong opinion from many parents that there is a shortage of little league fields."

Janor said more indoor space needs to be added to achieve the balance the district needs.

"My involvement in sports organizations in the area tells me that this area is actually starving for indoor recreation space and the master plan calls for one field house-type facility in the north and one in south Naperville. I'd like to see us pursue that plan," Janor said. "When we talk about acquiring additional land and property at this point, I think we really need to take a close look in tough economic times and ask ourself 'is there a burning need for this land?' and 'is this a fiscally responsible decision?'

Tim Belgio both took a harder stance against land being purchased for green space.

"We have indoor space needs in the community and I think we have to have multiuse, multifunctional facilities available," he said, adding he'll look to customer survey results for more answers. "If we're going to purchase new land just because it's available and we don't want development on it, that I'm not a fan of."

Incumbent district President Suzanne Hart said neither need is more pressing than the other and she also will look at the survey results before proceeding.

Of the nine candidates who filed to run for a board seat, only one specified he is running for the 2-year seat - incumbent Commissioner Andrew Schaffner. If no write-in candidate emerges for the seat, he will be unopposed.

The two-year seat is needed to fill the remaining term of Charlie Brown, who resigned from the board in June. The park board appointed Heide to fill his post until the April election, but the remaining two years of the term now goes on the ballot.

Heide has filed to run for a 4-year term along with fellow incumbent Hart and newcomers Belgio, Ensign, Janor, Polich, Reilly and Young.