Having twice failed to obtain taxpayer approval to fund a new recreation center, Tinley Park’s Park District is trying again.
Park officials recently approved placing a referendum plan on the March 21 ballot seeking to issue $12 million in bonds to pay for a swimming pool and long-sought recreation center at 171st Street and 80th Avenue.
“We’re getting a lot of people who move in and ask, `Where’s the rec center?’ ” Parks Director John Curran said. “People are stunned when they come here and find there isn’t one.”
“I think (village trustees) see this not as a Park District issue, but as a community issue,” Curran said.
Issuing the bonds would mean residents with homes valued at $125,000 would pay a maximum of $26 more annually on the Park District portion of their property tax bill. Those with a home worth $250,000 would pay $52. That amount would decrease yearly as interest is paid off and as population increases, Curran said.
The district sought a tax rate increase and bond issue for a recreation center in 1992, and last year it sought a tax rate hike.
Curran said that high costs doomed the original plan that and last year’s proposal had a lasting tax hike, lacked a pool, and was on the ballot with two school referendum plans.
“The biggest comment was that people did not want a permanent tax increase,” he said of the last referendum plan. “The swimming complex was not in the immediate plan, and feedback was that people would like to see it built soon. And a lot of people had to make a choice between education and recreation.”
If the bond issue is approved, construction of the center could begin in September and take about one year, Curran said, adding that work on the pool would begin shortly thereafter in preparation for a summer 2002 opening.
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Besides gyms and a game room, the rec center may have a kitchen and batting cage. The swim complex would resemble a water park.