Naperville Park District’s theme for 2022 is “rebuilding and renewing,” which includes rebuilding its membership base back to pre-pandemic levels and hiring/retaining employees.
Park district officials detailed the successes and challenges of 2021 and their 2022 goals in the annual state of the park district address, which was presented in podcast form.
Executive Director Brad Wilson said the participation rate at its facilities last year was at 87% of what it was in 2019, the last full year before the COVID-19 pandemic began.
Numbers were down for active adult/senior, early childhood and performing arts programs and Fort Hill Activity Center membership continued to lag, attributable in part to COVID-19 measures and the continuing unease some had for returning to indoor group activities.
Wilson said they plan to introduce new programs and gather feedback in an effort to spur more participation.
Wilson told podcast host Sameera Luthman, the district’s marketing/communications director, they want to “gain a greater understanding as to the types of programs (residents) are interested in seeing the park district offer and what would make them feel better about returning to some of those in-person programs.”
Hiring remains a challenge, especially in open gym, childcare, party room positions, Human Resources Director Katie Sepe told Luthman.
Party room hiring was finally seeing progress in early 2022 with a strong applicant pool, she said. “When I say finally, that started in June. We’re talking seven months of efforts,” Sepe said.
In 2022, the park district plans to adopt measures to better assess recruitment and retainment by, among other things, posting open positions prominently on its website, surveying employees and holding pop-up job fairs.
Supply chain issues plagued the park district as well. Planning Director Eric Shutes said some playground equipment items that would normally have taken four to eight weeks to receive are now taking four to eight months.
On the plus side, facilities like Centennial Beach and its golf courses reported some of their best numbers ever. Wilson said membership sales at Centennial exceeded 2018 and 2019 numbers and enrollment in swimming lessons was significantly higher than in 2019.
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The expansion of outdoor facilities continued in 2021 with the opening of Wolf’s Crossing Community Park and the 40-acre Frank Rus Reserve at Knoch Knolls.
“What we see by the amount of use is the community really welcomed (Wolf’s Crossing),” Wilson said.
A new outdoor fitness court at the Frontier Sports Complex and two new parks at the Naper Commons and Heritage Place developments are among the new facilities that will open in 2022.
The agency’s state of the park district podcast series divided the presentation into seven different episodes, each running seven to 26 minutes in length. In two, Luthman interviews the four park board commissioners elected in spring 2021.
All district podcasts can be accessed by going to www.napervilleparks.org/podcasts.