Survey says two pools; but Dundee Township Park District questions if that’s doable
Though a community survey shows support for an indoor and outdoor pool in Dundee Township Park District, commissioners want more information before deciding what to do next.
The park board will meet with the aquatics citizens advisory committee on Aug. 21 to discuss the study and the advisory committee’s recommendation to get cost estimates for two pools.
“The board wants to get together with them (the advisory committee) to have some dialogue and better understand their interpretation of the (survey) results,” said Dave Peterson, executive director for the park district.
The park district launched an aquatics needs study earlier this year after the closure of Sleepy Hollow pool. Last fall, park commissioners announced they would not reopen the 60-year-old pool, noting it was beyond repair and leaked more than 3.8 gallons of water that summer.
Dolphin Cover Family Aquatic Center, an outdoor facility, remains open at 300 N. Kennedy Dr. in Carpentersville. An indoor pool at the Rakow Center, 665 Barrington Ave. in Carpentersville, also remains open.
The Sleepy Hollow pool was the only public pool on the west side of the park district.
Park commissioners are eyeing a referendum for a new pool, said Frank Scarpelli, park board president. However, two pools could prove too expensive for taxpayers.
He added that while most of the survey results show support for two pools — an outdoor pool in Sleepy Hollow and an indoor pool at the Randal Oaks Recreation Center — only a fraction of the district’s 64,000 residents took the survey.
“We know doing one pool — between infrastructure and maintaining the pool annually — would be a challenge alone, let alone doing two of them,” Scarpelli said, adding the district has not successfully passed a referendum since the early 1990s. “One pool would be fiscally responsible. I believe two pools would just be far more than we can bite off.”
The Aug. 21 meeting will begin at 7 p.m. in the senior center at the Rakow Center, 665 Barrington Ave. in Carpentersville.