Voters sink Lake Park pool plan

An attempt to build an indoor swimming pool at Lake Park High School once again has been sunk by voters.

With all 45 precincts reporting, unofficial totals show 4,329 votes against and 3,698 votes in favor of the proposal to borrow $8 million to build the facility at the Roselle school's east campus.

And a companion ballot question — on a tax increase to cover the pool's estimated $380,000 annual operating costs — tallied 4,334 against and 3,421 in favor, with the same number of precincts reporting.

People for a Pool, the group of residents and parents that pushed the pool plan, tried to persuade Lake Park High School District 108 voters by emphasizing the facility would have been used for much more than high school athletics.

Still, both ballot questions had to be approved for the pool to be built.

Tuesday's election results will be added to a long history of failed pool proposals.

In 1991, the District 108 school board voted against using reserve cash to build an indoor swimming pool. Six years later, voters overwhelmingly rejected a plan for a facility at Lake Park's west campus. Other suggestions that never materialized include a 2005 proposal that called on District 108 to form a coalition with several villages and park districts to construct a pool.

The latest indoor pool idea was floated after People for a Pool approached school board members in November 2011 with concerns about Lake Park's swimming and diving teams being displaced through February 2014 from College of DuPage — their home site — due to renovations to COD's pool facility. This past season, swimmers practiced at Streamwood High School and divers practiced at Hoffman Estates High School.

Supporters argued that it's important for the school to have an indoor pool because none of the area park districts have one. District 108 would have allowed park districts to use the facility to offer aquatic programs.