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A Study in Persistence Commissioners and Community Create an Aquatic Phoenix
by Gail Loefgren
Swimming is an integral part of our summers— we all have fond memories of hot days spent at the old swimming hole—yet for three years the 15,000 residents of the Flagg-Rochelle Park District, located in northern Illinois, were without a public swimming facility. No, this is not a fairy story, for who could believe that there would be no swimming for three summers without some sort of rioting, but rather a tale of how a small, conservative community finally got together, with the Park Board as the catalyst, and solved a complex and controversial problem. The City of Rochelle had, in 1928, turned an old rock quarry into a spring-fed lake and built an elaborate bath house that served as the meeting place, at one time or another, for most of the citizens of Rochelle. The quarry was known as Spring Lake, and due to its beautiful surroundings which included a waterfall, fountain, gold fish pond and an enormous slide in the middle of the lake, it drew people from many of the surrounding larger cities such as Rockford and Chicago. When the Flagg-Rochelle Park District was formed in 1966, it took over the facility which is a 4.3 acre complex with the lake itself making up 2 acres of the entire area. The Park District made several improvements, but could make no major improvements due to a lack of funds. Gradually Spring Lake began to deteriorate. It became more difficult to control the pollutants in the water and the bath house became unsanitary. Maintaining the lake at state standards was becoming too costly. Because of the deteriorating conditions, much of the paying public became disenchanted with the lake. In 1978, the last year Spring Lake was open to the public, Rochelle's "gathering place" since 1928 lost $13,000. The lake was officially closed in 1978 by the state of Illinois because the Park District found it unrealistic to spend the money to bring the bath house up
Illinois Parks and Recreation 4 July/August 1982 to code. There had to be another way to solve the swimming problem. The stage was now set for years of intricate and interwoven developments which ultimately led to a magnificent and much admired swimming complex. During 1978-79, the Park Board had several problems already existent: 1) Previous boards had tried to pass referenda due to the perceived inevitability of the decline of Spring Lake and each time the referenda failed miserably. The two previous referenda, the first in December 1975, and the second in July, 1976, both for $1,200,000, were for indoor complexes. 2) Three factions existed in the Flagg-Rochelle community. The first faction consisted of those who wanted a modern contained pool. They felt Spring Lake was contaminated, an eyesore, and a health problem. No one could convince this group that Spring Lake would ever be worth renovating. The second faction was a group emotionally involved with Spring Lake which had existed as a social center since 1928. Many residents had wonderful memories of summers spent there. Generations were linked by the lake and this group felt that the lake still had exciting possibilities and should not be abandoned. The third faction was a group that wanted an indoor pool because they felt the climate in northern Illinois made it reasonable to have a year-round swimming facility.
3) Rochelle is a small conservative community which does not vote for tax increases easily and to which change comes very gradually and only after much consideration. 4) The two groups who had consistently voted against a pool complex were the senior citizens and the farmers—each for different reasons. The seniors, living mostly on fixed incomes, didn't understand why their taxes should be increased to pay for a facility that mostly children would use. The farmers, who own tremendous amounts of land, felt the tax burden would fall on them to pay for a pool they also would probably never use. Each of the problems was eventually used in a positive way, nevertheless, to come to a final conclusion. Here, then, is the sequence of events which began in 1977 and ended in 1981. In 1977, after the last referendum failed, a group of concerned citizens, headed by a former Park Board commissioner, was formed to collect donations from business and private citizens and to obtain revenue sharing monies from the municipality and the township. The effort was most successful with $250,000 raised over two years and turned over to the District in 1979 to be used to build an outdoor pool. The Board then hired an architectural firm, Wight and Co. from Downers Grove, to do a feasibility study on building an inexpensive pool in one of Rochelle's existing parks. The cost estimate was $600,000. However, the people who lived around the park chosen for the pool organized to object—they did not want a pool with its ensuing problems to be a part of their neighborhood. At the same time the indoor pool faction began to become more expressive, so the Board decided to have the architect do another feasibility study on the cost of an indoor pool at the township high school. The cost estimate of this concept was $2,158,000, but the high school board, while recognizing the value of having a pool on their grounds, was not willing to provide a fair portion of the operating cost. At this point the Board eliminated one of the options with good reasoning. The indoor pool group had been satisfied by the conscientious effort and would no longer advocate for that concept. The Board then went back to drawing up plans for an inexpensive outdoor pool. As the Board was getting deeper into the design and development phase, Illinois Parks and Recreation 5 July/August 1982 the third faction became active. They organized and called themselves the "Citizens for the Renovation of Spring Lake". They elected officers, collected a few thousand dollars, descended on Board meetings in droves and, finally, presented their own plan for the total renovation of Spring Lake. The only option the Board felt it had was to put a hold on Wight and Company's progression with the outdoor pool and have them do one more feasibility study on the renovation of the lake. The plan turned out to be gorgeous— however, the cost was gorgeous too—$2.1 million dollars. This was a staggering figure, especially to the citizens who just wanted to have a rock quarry to swim in again. These good people kept fighting for a simple plan without really understanding that in order to make the lake prosperous, the renovation had to be total and elaborate.
After several months, meetings and discussions with director Lyie Kunde, and architect Gary Pingel resulted in a brilliant compromise—why not build a contained, modern pool at Spring Lake? Could it be done? It seemed to be the answer to all of the problems—if only a hole could be dug deep enough in a rock quarry to sink a pool. The architect embarked upon his final feasibility study. Borings were taken first to make sure it could be done and the answer was yes. The cost estimate was $950,000 which included the pool and bath house at one end of the lake and the marina and docks on the other end of the lake plus an elaborate decking system, fish for the lake, related recreational equipment and improvement of the surrounding land into a beautiful park. Finally, after many months of investigation and many dollars spent on feasibility studies, everyone seemed satisfied. And what a novel conclusion—a pool sitting next to a lake in a rock quarry. The recreational possibilities seemed endless. The district had $250,000 already collected from the citizens, municipality, township and businesses, so the remainder needed was $700,000 from the taxpayers. The Board felt that since a year had been spent investigating all possibilities and that this would be the last attempt at a referendum, it had to be done right. In February of 1980, May of that year was selected as the time for the referendum. The Board felt two months would allow plenty of time. The complex had something for everyone—swimming, fishing, paddle boats, canoeing, a park for the senior citizens and it would be used year round to provide winter activities such as skating and hockey. A Citizens Advisory Group was formed by the Board and included influential residents plus some of the most respected farmers in the area as members who served to organize the drive to pass the referendum. Then the entire park staff and all the commissioners took the show on the road. For two months this group educated every citizen that could be found through speaking engagements, coffee parties, pamphlets, buttons and bumper stickers. May came very quickly but all of the hard work, investigations, money spent and input accepted from the voters paid off. The referendum passed by a 3 to 1 margin. Construction began in September of 1980 and the Spring Lake Becreational Complex opened June 6, 1981. This tale is a textbook example of how a municipality, private citizens, and businesses can cooperate to solve a problem that seemed insolvable. This episode also proved that Park District Commissioners can accomplish almost anything if they listen to and work with the citizens who elected them. Elected officials can never forget that their most valuable assets are an open mind and a willingness to compromise for the benefit of the people they represent. The Board learned it sometimes takes much patience and understanding to arrive at a solution—but that every problem has one. The cooperative effort and persistence displayed during this project will serve as a useful model for the future as the Flagg-Bochelle Park District provides the best service possible for the community.
All photos are courtesy of Rochelle News Leader. Illinois Parks and Recreation 6 July/August 1982 |
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