Planned park to honor Naper will have to wait

Naperville's plan to honor its past will have to wait for the future.

Councilmen this week approved a design for a park on Joseph Naper's homestead but will hold off on actually constructing it until the city works out its budget issues.

"As much as I'd like to honor Mr. Joe Naper, the $282,000 to do construction there and $15,000 a year annual cost to maintain it, I don't think the economic situation we're in right now it's wise to do that," Councilman Doug Krause said.

Naper founded the city in 1831. In 2006, the city purchased his former homestead at 338 Jefferson Ave. Two archaeological digs at the site have produced more than 25,000 artifacts that help tell the story of Naperville's past.

Hitchcock Design Group has designed a park on the site to educate visitors about Naper and the features of his land.

The park's features would include stones outlining the foundations of buildings that once occupied the site, an old-fashioned hand pump, wooden bike racks, wooden benches, pathways and a small prairie area with native plantings.

Construction is estimated to cost $282,472. City staff recommends using money from its Special Events and Cultural Amenities Fund to pay for the work.

However, the fund already receives more requests each year than it has money to give and some councilmen have proposed scaling the fund back.

While councilmen on Tuesday gave their stamp of approval to the park design, they plan to wait until after the current round of budget talks to decide when to proceed with construction.

Councilman Grant Wehrli said Naper and Native Americans have been overlooked and are deserving of recognition.

"It's somewhat sad to me that Joe Naper is going to be put on the back burner but I think he'd appreciate our fiscal stance on this," Wehrli said.

Once the park is constructed, city staff also recommends adding two public art pieces in cooperation with Century Walk Corp. - a sculpture of Naper and a piece that depicts the Naper family trading with Native Americans. The art pieces also would likely be funded from SECA grants.