Rainy weather can spell trouble for Geneva's Island Park

If we got hit with one of those "100-year" rainstorms, the Fox River was surely going to rise over the banks of Island Park in Geneva. It was a risk you take when creating a recreational and picnic area for residents on what essentially is an island plucked down in the middle of a river.

The Geneva Park District has always had that uncertainty in its dealings with maintaining or upgrading Island Park for area residents.

But the guesswork has been taken out of that equation the past five years or so. The Fox River has submerged parts of Island Park with a regularity park district officials didn't particularly want to see - but now view as an annual reality.

Thus, the weekly summer concerts moved to River Park and the bike trail and other parts of Island Park become off limits for periods of time - and the water damage leaves unsightly patches of turf and lots of bugs and mosquitoes.

So, what is the park district to do about the Island Park predicament?

"Because it is flooding so often, what we are talking about now is limiting the damage to the park," said Sheavoun Lambillotte, executive director of the Geneva Park District.

"Water recedes quickly over the sides of the retaining walls, but it stands on the east side of the park for a long time and that disrupts the turf in a huge way and affects the trees, and we have a lot of newly planted trees," she said.

With that, the park district has to determine the best approach for draining the lower areas of the park as quickly as the river recedes.

"We can't control the amount of times it floods, but we can get the water out of there faster so it doesn't cause as much damage to the turf and foliage there," Lambillotte added. "That is where our discussions are right now."

She's not inclined to point only at climate change as the culprit in the ongoing flooding woes, as Lambillotte feels a local reality is certainly playing a role.

"We're just getting more inches of rain, and it's a guess on my part that because we have more and more development, that is when you have more stormwater released into the river," she said.

"The more blacktop you have, the more opportunity for water to congregate."

An overflowing river was actually only one reason the park district moved its Wednesday night summer concert series.

"The island is just harder to get to, and we were never experiencing crowds over 100 to 150 people," Lambillotte said. "Our neighboring towns have far more people at community concerts because they have better parking.

"We had quite a few more people attend when we moved to River Park last year," she added. "I have a feeling it is because of the parking right across the street, and the fact that people downtown can just walk over there after having dinner."

A barbecue update:

Because the "coming soon" sign for Firewater BBQ was taken down from the building at 524 W State St., word began to filter through town that maybe this new restaurant wasn't coming into that location after all.

That's not the case. The building permit process has taken longer than was expected because of the large firewood stove setup used in the barbecue process, said building owner David Wagenaar of Plan C Properties.

In addition, when I spoke to Firewater owner Matt Weil a couple of months ago, he was one of the more enthusiastic and confident fellows I have talked to about bringing a new restaurant into the area.

It made it a little difficult to envision him pulling the plug on his plans.

As for the sign, it came down simply because it had passed the 14 days that a city ordinance allows for such public broadcasting on buildings.

An organic option:

It's going to be in a location that has been a small coffee shop in the past, but Kava Diem Organic River Café is touting something different for coffee lovers.

The site at 1 W. Illinois St. in St. Charles, around the corner from Eden on the River restaurant, touts coffee, juice and food that is all organic.

The café website says it will open soon, providing separate menus for vegetarians, vegans, or those on Paleo, gluten free or keto diets.

Most importantly, Kava Diem says the coffee and food tastes great, whether you are following a diet or not.

Enjoyed the memories:

Reader Dave Bergeson thanked me for bringing back some fond memories in my column about the Thompson Middle School campus and its former role as the community high school - and Reid Field as the home of the football Saints.

After all, his father, Paul Bergeson, was the athletic director at St. Charles for many of those Reid Field years. In fact, his dad helped build the press box at Reid Field, Dave wrote.

Dave seemed to get a kick out of another item in my column about my simple plans for retirement. He especially wondered how I could view eating at the food court at Costco as some type of special retirement activity.

Ironically enough, the day before my column was published, the Costco food court made headlines in the business section because Costco patrons were beside themselves with the company deciding to take the Polish sausage off the food court menu.

So, maybe this could be better than I thought. Don't forget, I've never had a bite to eat at Costco, basically because I've never had time to do it. That will change as a man of leisure.

Drawing those characters:

Well before I figured out that writing was a skill set I could put to good use, I always wished I had the skill to draw pictures of cartoon or comic book characters. It just seemed like it would be great fun.

Anyone else having those same thoughts might find it interesting and fun to participate in a hands-on "How to Draw Anything" session with comic book author and artist Gene Ha from 4 to 6 p.m. Wednesday, July 25, at the St. Charles Public Library.

This fellow has won the most prestigious awards in the comic book industry for drawing superheroes for comics and novels.

Those interested can register at the library reference desk, on the library website or by calling (630) 584-0076, ext. 1.

dheun@sbcglobal.net