No referendum for Lisle Park District

A new recreation center still may be in Lisle's future, but any request to boost taxes to pay for it is at least a year away, park district leaders say.

Executive Director Dan Garvy said the park board believes this spring is too soon to go back to voters who overwhelmingly rejected plans in November for a $21.9 million tax increase to fund construction of an 85,449-square-foot indoor facility in Community Park.

Instead, Garvy said, the park staff is taking a close look at all its programs to cut any fat and determine precisely what's needed in a new center.

Some residents have suggested pursuing plans for a smaller facility, but Garvy says that may be putting the cart before the horse.

He said park leaders view a rec center as a "long-term fix" for their programming needs.

"The building needs to reflect our programming, not the other way around," he said.

Garvy hopes to have a recommendation ready for the board by November on whether to pursue a referendum proposal in spring 2010.

Unless the economy turns around rapidly, he knows any such request will be tough.

"It's the understatement of the year to say it will be a challenge," he said.

Roughly 59 percent of voters opposed the park district's referendum proposal on Nov. 4.

That plan would have cost the owner of a $300,000 house about $99 more annually for each of the next 20 years.

Officials say a new building is needed because the district's two existing indoor facilities - the community center in Community Park and the Meadows Center at 5801 Westview Lane, which it leases from Lisle Unit District 202 - are both aging, expensive to maintain and lack flexibility for programming.

The park district's lease for the Meadows Center is scheduled to expire at the end of September.