Can a central Illinois community of less than 23,000 inhabitants construct a new 102 acre public recreation center which includes a football stadium, an all weather track, an aquatic center, an indoor recreation center, ball fields, soccer fields, a two acre paddle boat and fishing lagoon and hiking trails? The answer is yes! It is known as EastSide Centre and its existence is a testament to what can be accomplished when local governmental entities cooperate with one another.

EastSide Centre is a state of the art recreation center located on a former gravel pit in East Peoria and created through the cooperation of the City of East Peoria, the Fon du Lac Park District, East Peoria Community High School District No. 309, East Peoria Grade School District No. 86, the East Peoria Mass Transit District and Fondulac Township. The park, completion of which is anticipated during the fall of 1996, is designed for enjoyment by all age groups and provides recreational opportunities for entire families at one safe, central location.

One of the primary components of EastSide Centre is a unique family aquatic center featuring a "Lazy River" (an 860 foot current driven encirclement of the aquatic center for rafting and inner tubing), a Treehouse (a forty foot tall interactive water play system which, each few minutes, cascades a thousand gallons of water down onto patrons) and a 250 foot super water slide. The family aquatic center also includes more traditional elements such as a toddler's zero depth pool and a lap pool for competitive swimming, lap swimming and lessons.

The indoor recreation center is a 53,000 square foot indoor sports complex and athletic facility including a fully equipped exercise room, a running/walking track, basketball courts, soccer facilities, batting cages, a concession area and a gaming arcade.

EastSide Centre also includes a 4,000 seat stadium with a lighted and irrigated football/soccer field and track and field facilities. The stadium was designed primarily for structured sporting events of East Peoria Community High School District No. 309.

The center also contains four regulation lighted soccer fields, and ten lighted baseball and softball fields (for use by the community youth sports organizations for hosting tournaments, and for unstructured play); two open play areas with playground equipment (located in close proximity to ball fields for enjoyment of family members while structured games are being played); and a two acre lagoon offering fishing and paddle boating.

EastSide Centre was developed in response to the individual needs of the various governmental bodies and their shared desire to be responsive to the needs of the community as a whole. In 1993, the Fon du Lac District found it necessary to close its old fashioned lap pool due to deterioration and obsolescence. East Peoria Community High School lacked a track and its football stadium was over sixty years old with extremely limited parking and poor accessibility. Additionally, the Comprehensive Plan of the City of East Peoria, completed in 1994, clearly identified a need for more and varied recreational opportunities for both structured events, such as soccer leagues and ball leagues, and for non-structured events.

Without assistance or an increase in tax revenues, the governmental bodies found it impractical, if not impossible, to individually construct the facilities needed to serve their constituents. Together, however, the governmental entities recognized that each could compliment the other to achieve mutually beneficial goals of serving the varied needs of their constituents. Moreover, since each of the governmental entities have boundaries which are, in large respect, coterminous, each recognized that cooperation would not only result in better individual facilities, but that cooperation would lessen the overall cost for the taxpayers. For example, the aquatic center, the football stadium and the indoor sports complex all share the same locker facilities located in the indoor Recreation Center, thereby eliminating the need for identical triplicate facilities. Since the locker facilities are used by the aquatic facility, the football stadium and the indoor sports complex in different seasons or primarily at different times, the sharing of such locker facility results in a lower net cost with no diminution in services,

Richard M. Joseph is a partner in the law firm of Miller, Hall & Triggs, in Peoria, and concentrates his law practice in the areas of governmental law and finance. He is the attorney for EastSide Centre, Inc., attorney for the Fon du Lac Park District, Assistant City Attorney for the City of East Peoria and Assistant School Board Attorney for East Peoria Community High School District No. 309.

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Another example of the benefits of the intergovernmental cooperation is the shared parking. The Aquatic Center, the football stadium and organized youth soccer, baseball and softball all need significant amounts of parking — but not always at the same time.

Moreover, combining the various elements in one location creates a synergistic effect where, at one location, there are recreational opportunities for entire families and individuals of all ages. For instance, a family would be able to come to EastSide Centre and a daughter play organized softball, a toddler and mother enjoy the Aquatic Center, and the father exercise in the Recreation Center — all at the same time and in one safe, convenient location. No longer must siblings sit idly by while one family member is playing in an organized ballgame — they can now swim, paddle boat, play basketball, or enjoy any one of a number of other opportunities offered at EastSide.

The end result of the cooperation of the local governmental bodies is better and varied services and facilities at a lesser cost to the taxpayers.

Given the size of the undertaking and the number of governmental entities involved, the structure of EastSide Centre needed to be quite formal. Nevertheless, EastSide Centre has, as its basis, the Illinois Governmental Cooperation Act. The Act authorizes (and encourages) state and local governing bodies to cooperate in the performance of their responsibilities by contract and other agreements. During the later part of 1994, the four governmental bodies of the City of East Peoria, the Fon du Lac Park District, East Peoria Community High School District No. 309 and East Peoria Grade School District No. 86 entered into an Intergovernmental Cooperation Agreement approving the formation of EastSide Centre, Inc. and establishing bylaws regarding the governing of the organization.

EastSide Centre, Inc. was then organized as a not-for-profit corporation for the purpose of designing, constructing and maintaining EastSide Centre. In order to ensure that the corporation remained responsive to the needs of the public, the corporation's only members are the governmental bodies. Moreover, the City, the Park District and the two school districts each hold one seat on the eleven member Board of Directors. The remaining seven seats were filled by the four governmental bodies agreeing on community members who would bring various experiences and expertise to the corporation and thus round out the Board of Directors.

Finally, EastSide Centre, Inc., once incorporated, sought and obtained an advance ruling as a 501(c)(3) corporation; thus resulting in beneficial tax treatment and the ability to seek tax deductible donations.

The total estimated value of EastSide Centre, once constructed, is expected to exceed twelve million dollars.

The various individual components of EastSide Centre were financed in a number of different ways with a strong emphasis on volunteerism and limiting the use of tax dollars. To achieve its primary objective of constructing a water park, the Fon du Lac Park District leased ground from EastSide Centre, Inc. for $1.00 per year for 99 years and refunded its outstanding debt to obtain $1.5 million of the $1.7 million necessary to construct the aquatic facility. The refunding was structured so as not to increase the Park District's tax rate. An additional $200,000 was obtained through a grant from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources.

To finance the stadium, East Peoria Community High School District No. 309 and EastSide Centre, Inc. cooperated in the issuance of General Obligation Limited Tax School Building Certificates Of Participation. By prearrangement, the Certificates of Participation were then sold to local banks thus generating $2.27 million. The Certificates of Participation will be retired by EastSide Centre, Inc. through annual rental receipts paid by the high school pursuant to a 90-year lease between EastSide Centre, Inc., as lessor of the stadium, and the high school, as lessee.

The City of East Peoria, through an Installment Purchase Agreement, acquired title to the land from EastSide Centre, Inc., and pledged 20% of its gaming tax revenues (East Peoria is host to a riverboat casino) over the next ten years to provide the $4.5 million needed for the completion of the necessary infrastructure improvements and the Recreation Center.

EastSide Centre is also the recipient of a tremendous amount of community support in terms of volunteer labor and donations of materials and money. The cooperation of the governmental bodies rippled through the community prompting an outpouring of volunteerism from organized labor, the business community and citizens in general. For instance, the Operating Engineers Local 649, through its upgrade pro-

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gram and the volunteer efforts of many of its members, contributed greatly by shaping the once gravel pit into a site capable of development as a recreation facility. Architects' estimates as to the value of the donations of labor for site preparation exceeds $500,000. Individuals, in the hundreds, volunteered to lay drain tiles and watermains, to move rocks and to seed fields. Store owners and civic clubs volunteered food and provided lunches on volunteer days and businesses and individuals continue to donate materials as well as cash ranging in amounts from $1.00 to $25,000. In fact, the high school anticipates that through significant volunteer efforts, the final cost of the stadium will be several hundred thousand dollars less than the architect's estimated cost of $2.27 million.

EastSide Centre did not happen overnight or by chance. It took time, hard work, creativity, bold leadership and first and foremost, cooperation. The needs of each of the governmental bodies, combined with the substantial benefits to be achieved for the citizens of the community and an aggressive "can do attitude", permitted each governmental body to see beyond the "turf battles" so prevailing in many communities. The result is EastSide Centre, a facility which will serve the recreational needs of a growing, prosperous and caring community well into the twenty-first century. •

April 1996 / Illinois Municipal Review / Page 15