Glenview Park District earns awards; Price on the move
The Illinois Park & Recreation Association recognized the Glenview Park District in several capacities at its "Soaring to New Heights" virtual conference on Jan. 28.
• The Glenview Community Ice Center restoration was the overall winner in the Outstanding Park & Facility category. That honors outstanding and unique achievements in design and development of new or existing facilities.
After a 2018 referendum and 15 months of construction the Ice Center recently reopened (under COVID mitigations), showcasing additional space of more than 35,000 square feet. It's got two NHL rinks and a studio rink, including a new NHL-size rink with spectator seating for 550 people plus six locker rooms. New facility features also include a great hall, a dryland training room, a full-service restaurant with seating for 50 people and a community room, capacity 100.
• The Grove Interpretive Center renovation earned an IPRA award in the Outstanding Park & Facility category as well, within its division. The center offers live animals, interactive displays and a wing devoted to naturalist Robert Kennicott, who owned the 145-acre nature preserve and National Historic Monument with his father.
The Grove also recently earned an Award of Excellence for its exhibits by the Illinois Association of Museums at the IAM "Adapting to New Realities" virtual conference on Feb. 4.
• Wagner Farm's Feeding Glenview initiative received the IPRA Outstanding Program or Special Event award.
Under COVID-19 the initiative shifted focus from public programs to food production. The farm donated more than 600 dozen eggs and 1,600 pounds of fruits and vegetables to the Northfield Township Food Pantry. Wagner Farm also produced more than 5,300 pounds of beef, pork, lamb, chicken and turkey that were sold through local markets.
• Todd Price, the Glenview Park District's superintendent of leisure services since 2018 and the first director of Wagner Farm, earned the IPRA Community Impact Award. This goes to professionals who are not their district's executive director but nonetheless are crucial to operations.
"It's good to have places like The Grove and Wagner Farm, just preserving our town's history," Price said. "They were significant to the national story, but those were preserved and in a lot of places that just didn't happen. You have two historical sites that were saved because of a referendum, and that's the village placing importance on preserving those resources, and the park district making them the best they could be."
He was raised on the family farm in Clarinda, Iowa, in the state's southwest corner. His mother, Janet, and brother, David, still live and work on the farm, which the Prices have worked since the 1850s, Todd Price said.
Under Price's leadership umbrella as superintendent of leisure services is the Wagner Farm, Glenview Park Center, The Grove, Air Station Prairie, Schram Memorial Chapel, the Glenview Senior Center and the district's outdoor pools and its general recreational programs.
The IPRA noted that Price's leadership "shined in the face of COVID-19." IPRA Executive Director Debbie Trueblood said, "Todd Price's name is synonymous with leadership in recreation."
He will be bringing his leadership elsewhere. Joining the Glenview Park District in 2001, Price will be leaving effective Feb. 26. His new position will be as senior manager at The Farm Foundation, an 87-year-old, Oak Brook-based foundation that explores solutions to agricultural challenges and opportunities.
Or as Price called it, a "think tank."
"It's a lot of academics, but it's trying to put people together to have a conversation about new approaches and ways to improve agriculture," he said.
Price built the historic Wagner Farm into a regional attraction and Glenview icon. He was promoted to superintendent of leisure services in 2018 to capitalize on his leadership skills and to focus on the community at large.
"It has been an amazing opportunity, quite honestly. My family and I moved here with the idea it'd just be a couple years' stop, but we fell in love with this town. The town made us feel like this is our home base, and made us feel so welcomed. And the park district has been very aggressive with how it looks at our historic resources," Price said.
"They have been such really good people to work with and for, from the commissioners down to the volunteers. This has been just an amazing opportunity to work in Glenview and with the park district, and to have partnerships with the schools and the village, it's just been an absolute dream."