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player ready...The Naperville Park District is experiencing “through the roof” program participation levels, but is still dealing with some staffing and cost challenges, officials said.
“We continue to see growth in a lot of areas with our programs,” Executive Director Brad Wilson told the Naperville Park Board last week. “And that was after some major surges in growth last year.”
The district, however, continues to deal with rising supply and equipment costs, including for vehicles, as well as supply chain and staffing issues, he said.
While the labor market has improved, the park district has still had trouble recruiting in such areas as custodial, parks maintenance, food and beverage, customer service and birthday party hosting, Wilson said.
“So staff continues to be creative in finding ways to be able to provide programs to get the work done,” he said. “But that’s an area where we continue to be challenged.”
Volunteer participation, a major focus for the district coming out of the pandemic, has picked up, Wilson said. The district has completed 27 parks projects so far this year, compared to 18 last year. There have also been seven Eagle Scout projects this year, compared to four in 2022.
“We are seeing volunteers increase in those areas beyond just the youth athletic volunteers so it’s a very good sign,” Wilson said. “It certainly helps with park projects as well as our special events.”
Golf course rounds and memberships and driving range revenues are up over budget and over last year, said Andrea Coates, director of recreation and facilities. “Weather, of course, is certainly helping us,” she said.
At Fort Hill Activity Center, fitness memberships have been “very impressive,” Coates said. Membership revenue is up 39% year to date, with fitness membership usage up 55%, largely driven by group fitness participation. More than 6,600 people now belong to the center.
Coates gave a “wow” when summarizing summer day camp enrollment, saying it “really surprised us.” The district had more than 2,500 campers this year. She cited the “reasonable” prices and said the programs are active, robust and much more than just “babysitting.”
“Our soccer programs, day camps and basketball have been through the roof,” she said. Youth athletics are experiencing participation levels not seen since prior to 2016.
Aquatics program participation is down, though private lessons are up, evening things out a bit, she said.
Another challenge is pay compression, where new employees earn as much as experienced ones, because the state of Illinois has been increasing its minimum wage, Coates said. The minimum went up to $13 an hour at the beginning of this year is to increase to $15 by 2025.
For equipment pricing and inflation, Coates gave the example of two mowers the park district purchased in 2018. Back then, they paid $78,000 and $20,000 for them. Nowadays, the same mowers cost $116,000 and $44,000, respectively.
Giles Bruce is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun.