Century Walk needs consistent funding from city
I write in response to Nancy Turner’s recent letter to the editor in which she claims the proposal calling for the city of Naperville to provide Century Walk with $150,000 annually (as a city obligation), inclusive of the $50,000 it currently receives for art maintenance, would eliminate competition for SECA funds and deprive numerous popular events of funding.
If one were to read Ms. Turner’s letter without investigating the facts, one might conclude that providing funds to Century Walk in this manner would be highly unusual. To the contrary, as things currently stand, approximately $1 million is allocated to organizations and projects as part of the SECA Grant Program City Obligations Allocation.
For instance, in 2021 the Naperville Municipal Band received approximately $155,000 as a city obligation allocation. The DuPage Children’s Museum received $150,000. And NCTV 17, another great organization, received $60,000.
Each of these comes “off the top,” reducing the discretionary funding available to SECA commissioners such as Ms. Turner.
While there are many great organizations that apply for funds through the SECA Grant Program, Century Walk stands head and shoulders above the crowd. Over the past 25 years, Century Walk has installed 50 pieces of public art (art that is available for everyone in the community to enjoy at no cost), working in concert with various community partners and raising substantial funds through private donors. As a result, Naperville’s public art program is light years ahead of neighboring communities, including Aurora, which employs a public art director.
But in recent years, Century Walk has struggled to obtain consistent funding from SECA for projects such as the Fallen Firefighters Memorial. Due to tension between the commission and Century Walk, the Naperville City Council in early 2020 requested that a public art task force be assembled.
While that task force has just recently begun to meet, it has been slow-moving and, as a practical matter, it likely would be several years before a public art committee could move forward with a public art project (if that is the direction in which the task force decides to go). In the meantime, Century Walk has “shovel ready” projects that are moving forward and recently developed a long-range plan through a diverse group of local residents and artists who comprise Century Walk’s Long-Range Plan Committee.
The bottom line is Century Walk needs the support of the community to which it has given so much and requires consistent funding — funding that can best be achieved by a City Council decision to add Century Walk to the list of city obligations allocations recipients for the next three years.
Ronald M. Amato, Naperville
Century Walk’s spending, politics called into question
Recently there have been articles and letters to the editor in the Naperville Sun about Century Walk, the private organization that has supplied Naperville with its public art for more than 20 years.
Since Century Walk has asked Naperville City Council for $450,000 over the next three years, some writers have rightly examined the way Century Walk has spent its funds — spending that some believe is in a self-serving manner inappropriate for a 501(c)(3) — and now is seeking more money from Naperville taxpayers.
Something that has been overlooked in these articles, however, is the inappropriate political behavior of the organization. Under the Internal Revenue Code, all section 501(c)(3) organizations are absolutely “prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office.”
According to Illinois Sunshine, Brand Bobosky, president of Century Walk, has donated to candidates for council and given his public support to council candidates by allowing them to list him as a supporter and the president of Century Walk on their websites. Before the municipal election this year, he publicly withdrew his support for John Krummen on Century Walk’s website and Facebook page after then-Councilman Krummen voted to support the public art task force and to await its report before awarding more public dollars to Century Walk.
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Century Walk should not be given any more taxpayer dollars without an audit of their finances. Council members who received campaign support from Century Walk and Mr. Bobosky should recuse themselves on Aug. 17 from voting on the proposal to award more money to this organization.
Dianne McGuire, Naperville
No question the DuPage River’s a public waterway
A recent letter stated that 83.4% of residents surveyed for the Illinois Statewide Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan for 2021-25 believe outdoor recreation plays an important role in their everyday life and more than two-thirds stated there should be more public access to lakes, rivers and streams.
Unfortunately, public access to fishing and floating on the DuPage River — named after a French fur trapper who established a trading post on the river — is under attack because a landowner is arguing the river is not a public waterway.
The Illinois chapter of Backcountry Hunters & Anglers believes the Illinois Department of Natural Resources has erroneously failed to designate the DuPage as a public waterway, which is the state definition of a public body of water ((615 ILCS 5/) Rivers, Lakes, and Streams Act).
It’s clear the DuPage River falls under the state’s definition of a public body of water and has since before Illinois was accepted into the Union. Since the turn of the 20th century, Illinoisans have utilized river access points in Plainfield, Naperville and other towns to float the river, including boat rentals at Electric Park in Plainfield in the early 1900s. At one point, there was even a paddlewheel boat named the “Mary Lee” that steamed up and down the river.
According to a 2019 U.S. Department of Commerce analysis, outdoor recreation in the state of Illinois generates $15.6 billion a year. That’s 1.8% of the state’s Gross Domestic Product, with boating and fishing combining for almost $644 million of that revenue.
With the recent increase in outdoor recreation, access to our public lands and waters should increase as well. In this case, there would be a decrease due to complaints of landowners who want to hoard the resource for themselves. Restricting access and opportunities on the DuPage River not only hurts recreationists, but also damages local communities’ economies.
Please join me and all the river users working to maintain access on the DuPage. Contact your state representative and senator and ask them to expand public recreational rights on Illinois waters. In the meantime, take the time to go out with your family and friends and enjoy public water on a hot Midwestern day.
Seth Trokey, Highland
President, Illinois Chapter Backcountry Hunters & Anglers Board
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