Wauconda Park District floats $12 million pool idea

When the only umbrellas in sight are keeping the rain off your back and frosty liquids are in the air instead of your glass, it may be hard to get into a summer mindset.

But Wauconda Park District officials hope that by the time the Feb. 5 election rolls around, residents are ready to think summer and approve a $12 million referendum request.

That money would go to build a long-awaited pool with multiple amenities and would also help expand the current community center at 600 N. Main St.

"We want to hear from our residents if they truly want this type of facility," said Nancy Burton, Wauconda Park District director.

The district and local volunteers have worked for years to bring a pool to the village, with the 30-plus-year-old Wauconda Township Pool Foundation giving the park district $65,000 this year to help realize the dream.

If voters approve the 2008 request, the new pool would feature three slides, a zero-depth area for children and a "lazy river" that allows people to float on an inner tube down a slow-moving current.

"There's something for everyone," Burton said, noting that residents of all age groups attended a series of park district forums on the pool proposal.

"We had a wide range of opinions there," she said. The message received loud and clear from residents, she added, was that there should be a variety of amenities to appeal to children, teens and adults alike. "We had to have a balance."

And it's a balance Burton said the park district feels it achieved. More work will be done on the proposal, she said, when and if voters approve the $12 million, which could be a close call if the past repeats itself.

In 2000, a referendum request to build a new pool failed by just 80 votes.

After a park district survey of what residents wanted from park facilities, Burton said, officials now have a better idea of what's needed in the community. They're also trying to communicate more through their Web site, www.waucondaparks.com, about developments in the pool plan.

"We are trying to get as much information to the public (as possible)," Burton said.