Lemont Park District residents will decide on a $17 million referendum to improve the Centennial Community Center, The Core Fitness and Aquatic Complex, and Derby Farm Park, as well as building pickleball and tennis courts.
The referendum would keep taxes at the present rate, said executive director Louise Egofske, because it would replace funding of a 2007 referendum, which was for $16 million to build the fitness and aquatics center.
The bonds for the 2007 referendum will mature in 2025, Egofske said, so the district is asking residents to continue paying the same tax rate — about $175 a year for a $400,000 home — to finance the four projects.
“We have put together what we feel could be an opportunity for our community to experience some new additional recreation opportunities, so that is where our requests come in to not increase taxes but now to allow us to maintain our debt service levy at the same rate or below and not raise taxes,” Egofske said.
Park Board President Bill McAdam and Egofske both said without the referendum residents would see a decrease in their property taxes after the 2007 referendum bonds mature in 2025.
“We didn’t want to ask for additional resources,” McAdam said. “We were really conscious about the community already made that decision to invest in the community — they saw what that bought — and be able to take those same resources and extend those same resources and then invest back in the community once more.”
Park officials have surveyed residents over the last five years to gauge what they would like to see improved or added to the district, Egofske said. That work culminated in 2023 as officials took a deeper look at survey responses, created a task force to review the responses, held town hall meetings and sent out more surveys to gauge community support and completed facility studies, she said.
At Centennial Community Center, the projects would include new gathering spaces, a space with a kitchen area for events and programming, facility modernization, infrastructure enhancements and improved accessibility to the building, according to a park district news release. Egofske said the projected cost is $7 million.
Near the Centennial Community Center, park officials propose building six pickleball courts, four tennis courts and a walking path, while leaving some open space and creating more parking. The projected cost is $2.5 million, Egofske said.
Plans for Derby Farm Park include a 4,000-square-foot splash pad, multisport fields and courts, shelter area and concession stand, walking path, playground, restrooms and parking. The projected cost is $4.5 million, Egofske said.
At the Core Fitness and Aquatic Complex, the projects would include more programming rooms, expanded group fitness spaces, increased athletic programs to include youth sports, adult leagues and pickleball and improvements to the building’s lobby, officials said. The projected cost is $2 million, Egofske said.
Through surveys and at the town hall meetings, Egofske said residents voiced support as long as property taxes did not increase. As Lemont’s population grows, she said the park district is preparing to capture that growth with more programming and spaces.
If the referendum does not pass, McAdam said park officials will decide how to move forward with the projects.
“We’d go back and communicate with the community,” McAdam said. “We would go back, speak again with the community, listen to what they said in the referendum and then make informed decisions at that point about what our next steps would be.”
akukulka@chicagotribune.com
