Roselle Boy Scouts might lose longtime meeting spot

Roselle's Boy Scout Troop 194 soon may not be able to meet monthly at their home of five decades.

The Roselle Park District decided last week to transform The Lodge, at 304 E. Pine St., from a meeting room to a storage facility for a local softball and baseball group.

However, park officials have another location in mind for the Scouts -- and will discuss the proposal at 7 p.m. today at St. Walter's Church in Roselle.

Ron Feldman, assistant scoutmaster of Troop 194, says he's among many who are mad with the park district's decision. But he's looking forward to tonight's meeting.

"We'd like to see exactly what they have to offer in the long-term plan," he said. "Basically, the entire Scouting organization's been left out in the dark, and this is the first dialogue we've had with them."

Park Director Tom Kruse said the Scouts have to move because the building doesn't meet handicapped accessibility codes and the park district needs more storage space.

He also said the district exhausted efforts in trying to find alternative sites for the Roselle Medinah Softball and Baseball Organization, as they have an agreement to provide fields and facilities for the group. The only other option was to use public storage, which would cost about $1,000 each month.

Roselle park officials have made arrangements with Medinah Park District to let the Scouts use the Thorndale Recreation Center, which is about a mile from the lodge, Kruse said.

In 1954, The Lodge was built with the assistance of the Lions Club, which helped get money and approvals processed by the village, Feldman said. Since then, the community, park district, Scout groups and Lions all agreed the building should be used for Scouting activities, he said.

Kruse said he was unaware of the agreement.

Feldman also proposed the Scout group could gather resources to bring the building up to code.

Kruse said he'd like to hear the Scout's ideas, but that the building's in pretty bad shape; repairs could cost about $100,000.

"The bottom line is even if there was fundraising for that and they did raise enough money to renovate the building," Kruse said, "it would still be a small, underused building with limited purposes."