Island Lake weighs trading land for cash

How much is a large recreational park worth?

That's the question Island Lake trustees asked themselves Thursday night at a village board meeting in which they discussed trading half the size of a future park for what they said was a much-needed cash injection.

"The village needs cash money to operate more than it needs that park," Trustee D.B. Saville said, referencing a park that would come fully built to the village should it approve an annexation for the future Hillside Estates subdivision, which would include 120 homes on the north side of the village.

"What I'm interested in is cash for this village," he said. "We need working capital."

Saville floated the idea of halving the park's size and taking the rest of the park's value in cash. He estimated they could take as much as $250,000 in a cash replacement.

But other trustees seemed ill-disposed to the proposal, saying they thought the park was a needed asset, not just to the village, but to the developer.

"It's open land, which is something that we need to maintain here," Trustee Rich Garling said, noting that more houses on the land would just further drain the aquifers. "I want to see we maintain that open space."

Former village Trustee Daniel Schmidt, who attended the meeting and helped negotiate the terms of the annexation deal, agreed.

"I would guess that a prime selling point for this development is that park," Schmidt said, while acknowledging the tight straits of village finances. "I think this is the wrong way to gain revenue."

Saville said he was merely looking to find a way to get the village money to operate.

"Nobody's talking about taking away the park," he said, adding a park isn't essential to village functioning. "I see a big rush to get these parks built. That's my opinion."