Dan Bird: Candidate profile

Bio

Name: Dan Bird

City: Carol Stream

Office sought: Commissioner Carol Stream Park District (4 year term)

Age: 55

Family: I have been married for 35 years to Kim. Kim and I have two sons Joey (28) and Josh (24). Josh is engaged to Cassie Busch. They have an October wedding planned.

Occupation: Along with my brother Mike Bird, I own Bird Inc. Bird Inc., is a Carol stream based excavating and grading company that our father Joe Bird started in 1971

Education: Some college

Civic involvement: I remain involved in many community events on a regular basis. For the past few years I have been on the Veterans Memorial task force. This has been an unbelievable honor. I have been able to spend quite a bit of time with many great Veterans. The new Veterans Memorial at Town Center will open Memorial Day 2019. I am also very fortunate to be one of the founders of Brittanys-Trees. Brittanys-Trees is a annual event that celebrates the memory of Brittany Valene by raising funds for the SADS foundation and donating AED's to local entities.

Previous elected offices held: This spring I will have completed my 4th four year term as a Park Board Commissioner.

Incumbent? Yes.

If yes, when were you first elected? I was first elected in 2003

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Issue questions

What are the most important issues facing your park district and how do you intend to address them?

CSPD is continuously looking at and evaluating important issues. Two issues that are very important on an ongoing basis are 1) insuring that CSPD operates with proper fund balances and 2) continuing to "take care of what we have". Both of these important issues involve funding. The tax based percentage of the CSPD's annual budget continues to shrink every year. Because of this the board and staff of the CSPD are continuously looking for new sources of revenue. Recently the CSPD began running concession operations "in house". In house concession operations is proving to work out as a very positive revenue producer. Facility rentals are also increasing. The facility rentals are truly a win win for the users and CSPD. CSPD will continue to seek out local and federal grants as well as sponsorships. Finally, user fees are continuously evaluated to be as fair as possible for the park district users, but still help produce the much needed revenues.

If you are a newcomer, what prompted you to run for the park board? If you're an incumbent, list your

accomplishments or key initiatives in which you played a leadership role.

As an incumbent for the last 16 years I have been involved in 100's of key initiatives that are part of what make CSPD what it is today. There are so many of these initiatives that space does not allow for me to name them all. I would say most importantly, I have been involved with creating and keeping up with past and current policies, strategic plans, master plans and capital plans. The policies and plans are important useful tools. These tools are utilized on a regular basis by the CSPD board and staff to run CSPD effectively. Another really important initiative that I have been part of through the years are the community needs assessment surveys. CSPD performs needs assessment surveys every few years. These surveys help the Board and staff hear the residents needs and opinions. These surveys become important tools that the board and staff utilize to steer CSPD in the correct direction.

Which programs aren't paying for themselves? Would

you keep, eliminate or change them? How and why?

At times the CSPD board will hear about various programs that are not paying for themselves. Realistically the staff not the board will typically figure out a strategy on dealing with these programs based on customer needs. The staff does a great job at searching for alternate methods to fund all programs and especially those programs that are needed but are not paying for themselves. Ultimately the fees may be raised, or the program may be cancelled. Occasionally the program will run at a loss because it does serve a popular need. A great example is programming and usage of Coral Cove water park. Although Coral Cove is not always a great revenue producer, it is a very popular and heavily used facility. In order for Coral Cove to pay for itself some creative pool pass marketing as well as in house concession operations, which I previously mentioned, were added. In 2019 district fees, services and charges will be thoroughly reviewed by the CSPD staff. Once this review takes place the CSPD board will receive results and feedback as well as a plan from staff on how to deal with the findings. In these situations the staff typically comes up with very good solid plans that the board is willing to support.

Is there any additional open space the park district

needs to acquire? Please describe.

This summer CSPD will be adding a new park on Gary AVE between Elk Trail and Klein Creek Condos. This park will serve an important need for quite a few of the local residents from that area.

CSPD is currently working with the Village of Carol Stream and Dupage County to obtain adjacent parcels of Community Park which is in the southeast corner of the district. Once these parcels are obtained CSPD will have a master plan of the park created. The plan is to upgrade and rejuvenate portions of the existing park.

Other than these two park projects, CSPD has adequate open space for now and the foreseeable future.

Are there any unmet recreational needs? If yes, what are they and how would you propose paying for them?

I have heard some residents asking for a change in fitness instruction programming. This will reviewed soon in 2019 and be part of the fees, services and charges review that I mentioned earlier. Of course, Forever Young programming is really popular so CSPD continues to add more programs for those active agers. These programs are payed for with modest fees. A really tough group to bring in is the middle teens group. I applaud the CSPD staff on continuously trying new programs to welcome that hard to reach group. Other than those, I have not heard of any large scale recreational needs that are unmet. Occasionally small groups come forward and ask if CSPD could provide a certain program. In most cases the staff listens and tries to offer that programming on a trial basis. These programs would be covered with user fees. Some programs really catch on, others flop and are cancelled.