WOOD DALE PARK DISTRICT

Put on a happy face! Wood Dale Park District officials are hoping to stretch a recently passed $485,000 bond referendum into a million dollar park development program. On Valentine's Day, Park District voters approved a $485,000 referendum by a 133 vote margin. A six-to-five vote margin, 679 yes votes and 546 no votes, was as expected. An earlier study of the Park District indicated that the vote would be very close. In fact, the 53-47% vote was almost equivalent to the 5-4 or 51-48% prediction from the Wood Dale Attitude and Interest Survey.

PRIOR PLANNING

The close vote margin was expected. Wood Dale is a very tax conscious community. Our successful referendum can be attributed to many factors, however, the key factor is prior planning. Wood Dale Park District was formed in November, 1967 and the first tax monies were received in June, 1969. We had been operating for nearly two years on just one year's tax receipts. We used this time to attend conferences and do our master planning. Attendance at the Illinois Association of Park Districts Annual Conferences and University of Illinois Commissioners Training Sessions provided valuable educational insights into park planning and development. Helpful suggestions were received from other park commissioners and their executive staff. Arthur Schultz, Executive Vice President of Illinois Association of Park Districts and Chuck Pezoldt, Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois, attended one or more of our initial Board meetings and broadened our awareness of a new park district's path to success.

From our discussions with other park commissioners and executive staffs, we interviewed private planning and consulting firms seeking a long range master plan.

McFadzean and Everly, Limited of Winnetka, Illinois was selected with Mr. Alan Caskey as planner-in-charge. McFadzean and Everly was hired as a planning firm primarily because of their ability to include a "Leisure Attitude and Interest Survey" in a long range park and recreation master plan. Briefly, the leisure attitude and interest survey consisted of delivering questionnaires to a statistically chosen representative sample of adult and youth residents of the Park District. The questionnaires produced information concerning community characteristics, time use, leisure behavior, attitudes and recommendations for improvement of park and recreation facilities.

The Leisure Attitude and Interest Survey is fashioned after research work headed by Dr. Alien Sapora of the University of Illinois, Department of Recreation and Park Administration. The survey showed what Wood Dale citizens want in park and recreation services. More importantly, the survey gave an indication of whether they would or would not be willing to pay for increased park services. In a series of questions about willingness to pay, the adult respondents gave a rather discouraging outlook for a successful referendum.

In response to the statement "I would be willing to pay a fee for me and my child to learn a recreational skill" over 70% said "not true", 13% said "true" and 14% did not answer the question. To another statement "Borrowing money is an appropriate way for government to finance the construction of major facilities such as ice skating rinks, recreation centers, and swimming pools" over 52% of the adults said "not true", 16% said "true" and 31% did not answer the question.

To the third statement on the willingness to pay for services, about 34% said "not true", 16% said "true" and 51%

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did not react to the statement, "I would be willing to tax myself to provide the above type of facilities in Wood Dale".

The results to the three statements were discouraging and confusing. However, based on McFadzean and Everly's past experience with the Attitude and Interest Survey, a meaningful pattern emerged. Another question in a different section of the questionnaire "I would be willing to pay for increased programs that are needed" indicated a 52% "yes" and 48% "no" attitude. Also, another question on willingness to increase tax for a recreation center showed a 5-4 favorable advantage.

The Survey results and the master plan analysis indicated that land purchases, park development and a swimming pool were the most needed and desired by Wood Dale residents. Based on our planners recommendations and our entire Board's support, we decided to conduct the public referendum.

REFERENDUM CAMPAIGN

The referendum campaign was conducted according to a pre-arranged plan. With our planner we laid out the entire referendum campaign. All local press releases and publicity items were spaced and issued at pre-arranged times. Cooperation with Syd Jameison and Dick Barton of Paddock Publications, our local news publisher, was excellent. These men were included in the entire park master planning process. Mr. Jameison, a long time reporter of Wood Dale news, took a special interest in the Park District program.

Unexpectedly, we received one of the largest "day before referendum" surprises any public taxing body could receive. Dick Barton, editor of the Paddock Publication paper serving Wood Dale chose Friday, February 13 to push his paper's advertising campaign in Wood Dale. Every home in the Park District received a free copy of the paper. Wood Dale Park Referendum was front page. A picture of a future park site, a descriptive article of all developments, and a special seven inch column editorial expounded on "The Public will benefit from a 'yes' vote." Donald Mazur, another Park Commissioner, was greatly relieved. Mr. Mazur had been quite busy making presentations before local groups. He was in charge of the final mailing.

James Mixon, Vice President of the Park Board, found a set of color slides explaining the Park District's story was helpful. Mixon is also President of the Wood Dale Lions Club. Anticipating another speech in front of this Club, he anxiously practiced several times with the colored slide presentation explaining the referendum. The slide presentation was provided as part of our contract with McFadzean and Everly.

The slide presentation enabled any commissioner or other interested citizen to present the referendum and all the facts in an interesting and convenient manner. One night we had three P.T.A. meetings to attend at different schools at the same time. Slide presentations enabled one park commissioner to handle each meeting.

Dr. John Perkinson, another Park Commissioner, who practices locally, found the park designs displayed in his office waiting room dominated his patient's conversation for almost two months. Instead of expensive oil paintings of future park sites, several colored pencil "blue line" prints were prepared by McFadzean and Everly. By having several sets of drawings made, the park designs received greater exposure. We had designs drawn for the three park sites that we planned to develop.

A swimming pool was a big selling point of the referendum. Early in our initial planning stages we were informed by the Wood Dale Village officials that a developer, Robert Fend, was willing to donate the land and $220,000 for a swimming pool in Wood Dale.

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WOOD DALE

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Through the splendid efforts of Mayor Hansen and the Wood Dale Village Commissioners, Wood Dale would receive a public swimming pool at a fraction of the cost. However, $220,000 would not build the size swimming pool that Wood Dale needs now and certainly not in the next 10 years. Meeting jointly with the park planner, the Village Commission and Park Board, reached an agreement whereby the Park District would provide another $80,000 to finance the larger size pool and the Village officials would turn over ownership and management of the swim pool to the Park District. A scale model of the pool and pictures were displayed, prepared by Architect, Russ Danken of Lax & Edwards, Champaign, Illinois.

SPECIAL FLYERS

Instead of one direct mail multicolored flyer explaining the referendum, special flyers were prepared. These flyers were written for and delivered to special groups. These special groups were identified from the Attitude and Interest Survey. Thence separate one page mimeograph letters were distributed in local schools. These emphasized park-school developments along with general information about polling places, tax rate, etc.

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Another one page direct mail or hand-to-hand flyer was sent to all homes. This flyer had a picture of the swimming pool scale model. Another letter was mailed to all who registered for the past season swim instruction. Another letter went to all who registered for the past summer's recreation program. A special flyer was distributed in all apartment complexes explaining the apartment dwellers relationship to the Park District. Since four different neighborhood parks were planned, four different flyers were prepared and delivered to each area's residents.

Not knowing in advance of the district-wide newspaper distribution, the local Boy Scouts delivered door-to-door a final letter and fact sheet. All of the flyers were prepared and distributed at a relatively low cost. Part time clerical help was used to print and assemble all the publicity information. Public posters were painted by high school students. Special interest groups such as homeowners associations and little leagues were involved in the planning and conduct of the referendum. Park Commissioners attended over 10 meetings showing the colored slides and park designs. School Boards and Administrators were contacted. The Wood Dale Church sermons "carried the story" the preceding week. A telephone campaign, free coffee and donuts, and additional posters marked the referendum day.

$1,000,000

The Wood Dale Park District hopes to stretch the $485,000 referendum into a $1,000,000 development program. The Village of Wood Dale donated $220,000 for the pool and $80,000 in land. The Board chose not to take referendum bonds which would have made available another $160,000. Over $200,000 of the referendum $485,000 is slated for land acquisition. We hope to obtain $200,000 in matching Federal Funds for land acquisition.

The Wood Dale Park District Board of Commissioners is grateful to all those who gave us a "list or trip" or willingly lent us an hour of their time. We are especially grateful to Mr. Frank McCoy, Director of Franklin Park Park District and to Mr. Alan Caskey of McFadzean and Everly for his assistance, to whom we paid $10,500 for the Master Plan, Attitude and Interest Survey, Referendum assistance, Federal Aid applications and a generous amount of telephone time. We hope our experiences, as reported here, will assist other park districts to accomplish their goals.

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