Kane County Forest Preserve District proposed budget is balanced

The budget for the Kane County Forest Preserve District’s next fiscal year is balanced, and includes several new projects local residents may be interested in, including a new deer population study.

Member’s of the district’s finance committee reviewed the draft budget Tuesday. The district’s fiscal year begins July 1, and the budget calls for revenues to match expenses to the dollar in the general fund, which is the account that fuels day-to-day operations. There is a slight increase in expenses attributable to the proposed hiring of one full-time employee and several part-timers. Salaries would increase by 2 percent, based on merit, the same pay raise district staff received in the current fiscal year. The raises would amount to about $68,000 in additional costs.

Built into the budget are several projects, chief among those is a deer population study. The number of white-tailed deer, and their location, has been a controversial subject the past couple years as state officials have killed dozens of deer in the county to track the presence and spread of chronic wasting disease. The study would document deer numbers and examine their feeding impact upon natural areas. If district commissioners approve a deer population management plan, limited scale hunting (pending state approval) and culling by district staff members would begin. The study will cost $15,000.

The budget also calls for several projects with a larger price tag. Those projects include $200,000 to demolish old or unneeded structures. Several of those structures involve buildings acquired as part of recent land purchases.

A total of $275,000 would also be spent to resurface four miles of asphalt bike trails, including those on the Fox River Trail, Les Arends Trail, the Great Western Trail and the Geneva Prairie Path.

The most expensive project in the budget is a new drive and parking lot for the Creek Bend Nature Center at the LeRoy Oakes Forest Preserve. The preserve is one of the busiest in the county and home to the St. Charles North High School cross county team.

District President John Hoscheit said he believes, despite the small increase in expenses, the new budget is a plan local taxpayers can feel good about.

“As we’ve gone through our referendums, we’ve significantly increased our land holdings and the responsibilities of our employees,” Hoscheit said. “We’re going to add roughly 2,000 acres of property through the last referendum. That alone is a 10 percent increase in our holdings. But our expenditure changes are only in the 2-percent range. That’s a testament to our conservative nature.”