Candidates for both the St. Charles Park District and library board are considering ways to engage more residents in programs and services.
A new recreation center is a needed asset for the city of St. Charles, the candidates for park board agree. And library board candidates are considering ways to keep services relevant in the digital age.
Park board
Four candidates for park board are vying for three open seats – incumbents Jim Cooke and Bob Thomson, along with Vanessa Bell-LaSota and Trish Beckjord. The three commissioners elected April 7 will serve a four-year term.
Voters also will decide on Election Day whether to allow the Park District to borrow $28 million, the bulk of which will be spent on an 81,800-square-foot recreation center at James O. Breen Park.
Cooke, a longtime park commissioner and an attorney, said that surveys and community groups have long articulated the desire for a recreation center.
“One of the things we feel our constituents need is the recreation center. … We’re the only park district of our size without a recreation center,” Cooke said. “We don’t have an appropriate space for programming, and we don’t want our citizens to keep having to go all the way to places like Aurora for basic programming and recreation we could give them.”
Bell-LaSota, a marketing coordinator for a local foundation and Mary Kay consultant, is a member of several St. Charles organizations, including the Park Foundation board.
“I have invested my time thoroughly, volunteering, keeping abreast of city issues, helping to inform and support my neighbors,” she said. “Together with my background in education, business and art, working with a broad cross-section of local groups and sitting currently on the Park Foundation board, I bring a unique set of skills.”
The recreation center would fill a need voiced by the residents, she said.
“In the 2013 resident survey, the top two requests were ‘provide more recreational facilities’ and ‘acquire and preserve more open land,'” she wrote in an email. “This project answers both calls to action.
“This facility also provides our special needs community the opportunity for recreation close to home. Currently, the Fox Valley Special Recreation Association programsare offered inAurora.”
Trish Beckjord is a landscape architect who also serves on several area conservation groups and boards. She supports the referendum, which also calls for spending a portion of the $28 million on securing open lands.
“As a volunteer, I have worked in and organized natural area stewardship programs, planted native plant display gardens and taught others about the benefits of these and other topics through a variety of educational forums, which I continue to do,” she wrote in an email. “I understand the native ecosystems of Illinois, and know and love the native plants that are found here.”
Beckjord said the Park District’s first priority should be “preserving, expanding and enhancing our open space and surrounding natural environment.”
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But she also said the district needs to find new ways to engage the community.
“We must also continue to challenge ourselves to find ways to meet the recreational needs of our youngest and oldest members, and to partner with community businesses and to enhance our outreach as the population served by the Park District continues to grow,” she wrote.
Bob Thomson, a teacher at Geneva District 304, could not be reached for comment. He is the park board president and has served as a commissioner for 15 years.
St. Charles Public Library
In the library Board of Trustees race, four candidates are vying for three seats — Anne Francissen, Michael Hill, Norman Huntley and Daniel Prath. Each of the elected board members will serve a six-year term.
Norman Huntley, a retired St. Charles principal, is seeking another term after serving 46 years on the board. He’s seen the library grow and evolve over the decades.
“There’s always something going on; we’re always doing new things as the community asks for them.”
He said the library’s biggest issue is its space needs and how the library will serve its population by reorganization or possibly adding a small addition.
Huntley said the library continues to fill an important need for the community, perhaps more than ever.
“We’re even more relevant – as a meeting space, as a technological center, as a place that is doing all it can to draw in” various age groups, he said. The library is no longer “a shhh place anymore.”
Anne Francissen, a financial adviser at Ameriprise Financial in St. Chalers, said she will bring an accounting and finance background to critically evaluate the budgeting and tax levying process. She also worked part time in the library’s circulation department in 2012 and served on St. Charles North’s PTO, she said.
“The library has been an integral part of my family’s life for the past 18 years,” she said. “I want to be a part of responsibly maintaining this community resource for future generations.”
She said she wants to increase the number of households in the district with library cards.
“The percentage of households in the district with library cards has been around 50 percent for the past several years,” she wrote in an email. “I think it’s important to increase that, especially with the opportunity to engageresidents who have not typically used the library in the past that might now be interested in all the resources and services that are available electronically from their home computer.”
Daniel Prath was appointed to the board in January 2014 and is seeking a full six-year term. He could not be reached for comment.
Michael Hill did not return calls and emails requesting comment. He has served as trustee for 10 years and is retired. He was a teacher, librarian and director of media and technology for School District 303.
– Tribune reporter Marwa Eltagouri contributed to this story.
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