Work has begun on a permanent home for Western Springs’ Safety Village program.
“We removed trees that needed to be removed, ground out stumps and tore down the little shed,” said Tracy Alden, the village’s director of recreation.
Construction fences have been erected around the site on land just southeast of the Recreation Center, 1500 Walker. Excavation and grading work are expected to begin later this week.
If everything goes as planned, construction on the site should be done by June 1, with the Safety Village program for kindergartners and first-graders set to begin June 15.
“Progress is as we had hoped,” Alden said. “If the weather is cooperative, things will move ahead.”
The village will not have to worry about drawing kids to the program. Registration for the program, which teaches safety information to youngsters, opened Friday and all 75 spots were filled the same day.
More Top Picks Delivery Soil
Alden said a wait list has been created to see if the program can be tweaked to accommodate more children. The village’s Recreation Department is also looking at the possibility of adding a second program.
The Safety Village program runs Monday through Thursday mornings for two weeks giving youths a chance to learn safety procedures from emergency personnel in the village.
Alden said there are many benefits to creating a permanent home for Safety Village, which for the past five years had been at Forest Hills School.
“It is a new facility. It is a little larger so we can have a few more kids; and there are amenities that we could not have with a temporary site, such as electric lights,” Alden said. “We will have permanent houses, as well as better traffic flow; and the classroom space is better.
“The content of the programs remains the same. We are just making physical improvements. With the temporary site, we had to set up, take down and store the buildings every day.”
Utility wires that were overhead at the site are being moved to the nearby right of way so they are not damaged during construction.
The village has $175,000 budgeted for the project, but Alden estimated the village’s cost will be substantially less than that as much of the work will be donated. The team that helps put on Safety Village also will be doing fundraising.
To have a child added to the Safety Village wait list, individuals can call 708-246-9070.