Plans moving ahead for park renovations
By David Sharos For The Sun January 31, 2013 11:14AM
Shannon Godsil asks Naperville Park District director of planning Eric Shutes about the various options available for the new Ashwood Park playground during an open house for residents to decide on equipment on Tuesday, December 11, 2012. | Jeff Cagle~For Sun-Times Media
Updated: March 2, 2013 12:04PM
Renovations at two parks in Naperville are moving closer to reality.
Members of the Naperville Park District Board are set to receive contract proposals this month for renovations at two park sites.
Park District Director of Planning Eric Shutes reported that the Ashwood Park playground development project, which was first previewed last August and again this past December at a public open house meeting, would be moving forward soon.
“We’ll be presenting the board with a contract proposal at our Feb. 14 meeting that calls for around $140,000 to add equipment that was selected based on more than half a dozen options we previewed for the public,” Shutes said.
Plans call for swing sets and a toddler play island with a double slide and climbing apparatus. A contract will also be presented for approximately $200,000 for the Country Commons facility. According to Shutes, the improvements there will include parking lot renovations and a new basketball court.
“We had discussions with the board last year about the communication process and our procedure now is to inform the board ahead of time regarding our intent to present a contract for approval so there is time for them to review the projects and ask any questions before actually receiving the contract,” Shutes said.
Director of Finance Sue Stanish also presented to the board this week an overview of how budget assumptions for next three years would be developed.
“We pretty much have our capital projects lined up already although those can change,” Stanish said. “Our major expenditures will be the Knoch Knolls and the Southwest Community Park projects, but we’ll be presenting some hard numbers based on our property tax projections and other revenue later this spring.”
