The Park District Oak Park’s preferred plan for a new Community Center was revealed recently (WJ online May 24, in print May 25) to have an estimated price tag topping $40 million. That’s a pretty hefty price tag!
What I hope is that it represents the cost to build the “Rolls Royce” of community centers — if money were no object. But that is an unrealistic way of thinking. While it all sounds wonderful, the ideas need to be refined and narrowed down to provide what we need that we don’t already have in some other park district facility.
The park district already has plenty of wonderful spaces that provide programming for children — the Gymnastics Center, the indoor play area at Ridgeland Common and the rec centers in the various parks. In addition, many after-school youth sports programs take place right in the schools. These existing buildings also provide facilities for adults, such as fitness studios and dance studios, rooms for meetings and special events, areas for children’s programming and much more.
The new facility should focus just on what’s not provided elsewhere in the community — such as an indoor pool, indoor walking track and a couple of gyms for basketball, volleyball, badminton and other adult recreation. Most children’s programming should continue to take place at the grade schools and the rec centers.
The neighborhood rec centers and other facilities are wonderful assets and we should not waste money duplicating what’s already provided.
Maureen Kleinman
Oak Park