 |
Home | Search | Browse | About IPO | Staff | Links |
|
Home | Search | Browse | About IPO | Staff | Links |
|
Potpourri URBANA POOL DESIGN GOLD MEDAL WINNER The Urbana Park District has been awarded a Gold Medal Award by the Midwest Chapter of the National Swimming Pool Institute for design excellence of their new swimming facility opened in June of 1980. This pool was designed by the architectural firm of Unteed, Scaggs, Fritch, Nelson of Champaign, Illinois. This facility by winning this award was automatically entered in the international competition judged by the National Swimming Pool Institute. Entered by the Halogen Supply Co. of Chicago, the 25-meter public pool has 12,500 sq. ft. of water surface and a separate diving area. Underwater lights are included at the diving well and the pool has an automatic chlorine feeder and D.E. filter. REVENUE SCHOOL DATES GIVEN The National Recreation and Park Association announced today that the fourth annual Western Revenue Sources Management School will be held February 15-19, 1981, at the College Inn Conference Center of the University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado. The School is a two-year education program for park and recreation executives and supervisory personnel. Its purpose is to develop a better understanding of the philosophy and management principles behind public revenue-producing facilities. Both the first and second year courses will be offered concurrently. The first year course curriculum is designed to introduce the student to the professional approach to revenue source management, and to equip the student with skills, techniques, and methods for work. Emphasis will be placed on philosphy, financing, and operation of revenue-producing facilities and activities. Students taking the second year course will acquire a broad knowledge of revenue source management and will further develop the specific abilities and skills essential for effective operations. The second year course will also provide the student with a working knowledge of the most important functions of special service facilities. The school is sponsored by the National Recreation and Park Association; the University of Colorado; and the Colorado Parks and Recreation Society. For further information contact the University of Colorado, Center for Conferences and Management/Technical Programs, 970 Aurora Avenue, Boulder, Colorado 80302, or call (303) 492-8356.
Illinois Parks and Recreation 12 January/February 1981 ARTESIAN WELL PROBLEM SOLVED The Rockford (Illinois) Park District offers a potpourri of programs and facilities, including numerous playgrounds, an excursion riverboat, a children's farm with animals and rides, a four-mile bicycle/jogging path, an ice rink complex, a horseback riding facility, four golf courses, an outdoor education center and three museums. So the District's three landscape architects have plenty of opportunity for design and implementation, from the installing of playground equipment to prevent soil erosion. Recently, however, a problem of natural origins of a different type cropped up. Although it involved water, it wasn't an erosion problem, but dealt with an artesian well. The artesian well is on the northern tip of the 317-acre Anna Page Conservation Forest Park in northwestern Rockford. But between insects, birds and abuse by the human animal on the rustic artesian well, the county sanitary department wanted something done with the natural spring water bubbling up in an out-of-the-way trail site at the park. Jim Reid, a landscape architect and supervisor of design and construction for the Park District, second largest in Illinois, was in charge of the work on the well. "For sanitary reasons, we raised the level of the well above ground through the use of concrete sewer pipes, a galvanized spigot and capped it with a manhole cover. Basically, what we did was to cover the well at its exposure point on the earth's surface and provide a spigot for about $500." And during the time that work crews from the Rockford Park District were at the site making the installation, there was an average of 20 people a day who would fill up containers with artesian spring water for household drinking and cooking purposes. Who needs Perrier? Reid says the work wasn't all that easy and that the sewer pipe was installed and relocated before the main artery of the natural well was capped. Even now, there is another nearby spot where water trickles through the ground. The park, second largest in the District, is used for picnics, large group gatherings, fishing, hiking, snow-mobiling, horseback riding and day camp, among other activities.
When? by Robert Nichols When? Observers to the testimony of Local Government Officials and the questions of State Legislators at the recent Finance Study Commission hearings were treated to a rare sport with both wit and purpose. After awhile, you could anticipate the listing of the major local burdens that are causing increased concern for schools, cities-towns-villages, park districts, libraries, and other local districts. Inflation, fuel and energy, employee demands, insurance, and greater service needs are problems common to all of us. Each Local Government representative had his list of legislative relief items needed. Increased or new state aid and/or adjustments to local property tax rates were explained. Changes in assessment, tax collection, and tax distribution procedures received lesser notice. After each presentation the questions would begin. One legislator had the same simple question for each official: when? "When did your district have its last referendum?" In most cases the answer was "years ago" or some statement to the effect that "people don't support referendums" any more. Having made his point the legislator would stop his questions. One official gave a recent date and went on to state that his district had reached all their legal limits and that they needed help to do the job assigned to them. Those watching knew he had made his point to the legislator. When we go to Springfield and Washington to ask for aid and assistance, it might be well to remember the legislator and his question: when? A Run for Awareness by Jerry Handlon On August 5th, 1980, the Illinois Park and Recreation Association's Public Awareness Committee conducted a 240-mile run, from the Chicago Daley Plaza to the entrance of the Illinois State Fairgrounds in Springfield. The purpose of this special three-day event was to attempt to get public awareness throughout the state of Illinois for I.P.R.A. and for the park and recreation movement. That purpose was accomplished. Besides getting good news coverage throughout the state, including newspapers, radio, and television, there were some very good contacts made with government officials in Springfield, through both the Governor's Office and the Department of Agriculture. The event started at 1:30 P.M. on August 5, 1980, at the Daley Center, where three runners took a pair of scissors that were encased in a sheath, and ran the first ten miles of the 240-mile trip. The scissors were then handed to three more runners, who then ran the next ten miles, and so on down the line, all the way to Springfield and the entrance to the Fairgrounds. The runners were accompanied the entire route, around the clock, by support vehicles. One of those vehicles was donated by Anheuser-Busch Natural Light Beer, another by the Woodridge Lion's Club, and the third by the Illinois Park and Recreation Association. Several volunteers helped with the run by supplying water and food for the runners. The Joliet Park District, the Decatur Park District, the Bloomington Park District, and the Normal Park District were very helpful in meeting the runners and arranging for police escorts for the support vehicles and runners as they proceeded through those cities. There were over thirty park districts represented by runners in this event
At approximately 11:00 P. M. on August 7, most of the runners who went the entire trip to Springfield, gathered at a point approximately one-half mile from the Fairgrounds; and there, led by John Block, Director of the Department of Agriculture, and Dale Hench from the Department of Conservation, who ran the last ten-mile leg into Springfield, took the scissors up to the ribbon where Governor Thompson was waiting and handed the scissors to Governor Thompson. At that time, Governor Thompson thanked the Illinois Park and Recreation Association for this marathon run. He then stated, "I and the Illinois Park and Recreation Association officially open the 1980 Illinois State Fair." With those scissors, he cut the ribbon. Those scissors have been placed in the Governor's Mansion Museum, along with a card identifying what they were used for and identifying the I.P.R.A. as the organization carrying the scissors that cut the ribbon. The cooperation from park districts and police departments throughout the state was tremendous.
Illinois Parks and Recreation 14 January/February 1981 |
|
|
