The Kenilworth Park District is focused on building community, enhancing recreational opportunities and providing youth and adult enrichment programming in a fiscally responsible manner.
Since COVID, we have focused on offering community events centered at Kenilworth Assembly Hall. Think Food Trucks, Bags and Bocce leagues, Easter egg hunt and the Holiday tree lighting, along with indoor and outdoor concerts. The sense of community has certainly grown stronger, and as a small park district, our staff is closely linked to the community and knows most everyone by name.
With the new Sears School expansion, we have been able to partner with the school to provide additional youth enrichment programs during the school year, including after school care, computer programming, cooking, etc. We’ve also enhanced our summer Little Springs and Sports plus summer programs.
We have achieved this while continuing to honor our community’s commitment to fiscal responsibility. Our park district receives only 2.5% of local tax dollars to fund operations, compared to our neighboring districts who receive around 4% of local tax dollars, which means we are adept at doing more with less. We budget and spend conservatively, operating under full transparency with strong checks and balances. We’ve professionalized the district’s financial operations, built up responsible fund balances, and projected for the future with a capital account and 5-year capital replacement program. As a result, we won the IGFOA (Illinois Government Finance Officers Association) Budgetary Excellence Award for the 3rd year in a row.
While we are doing everything we can to serve our community members, we continue to fall short on our recreational capabilities and offerings. Townley Field is a wonderful asset, but it needs investment. We have started at the south end and with grant support we are constructing a new playground, sport court, small shelter, and other amenities that will be available this fall. Next, we would like to improve North Townley Field by replacing a very tired Village House with a new recreation center to host many of the indoor and outdoor recreational services the community desires, especially during inclement weather and the cold winter/wet spring months.
In order to define these recreational opportunities, the Park District has been collaborating with the community on a plan to provide the amenities and top-notch facilities Kenilworth residents deserve.
This community-driven plan will appear on our ballots for approval in the upcoming November 5th election. If successful, the referendum would support the development of:
- New, Safer Green Bay Bike Trail
- New Recreation Center to Provide Year-Round Programming for All Ages
- Ongoing Improvements to the Outdoor Recreational Spaces on Townley Field
The referendum would allow funding to improve the Green Bay Bike Trail.
We would connect the trail between Winnetka and Wilmette through the west side of Townley Field, mitigating safety concerns caused by bicyclists navigating through streets and the school blacktop, and reducing the risk of accidents.
The referendum would allow funding for a new recreation center, replacing the Village House with a modern, larger, more energy efficient facility that supports all-age programs year-round and during inclement weather.
This will include a basketball gym to support sports activities, indoor pickleball, and clinics. It will include indoor multipurpose spaces for all-age programs, space for the school during inclement weather, and space that can be rented by community organizations for meetings and events. It could also include an outdoor terrace attached to the rec center to allow residents to enjoy outdoor sporting and leisure activities.
The referendum would also allow for improvements to Townley Field.
Improvements include adding new indoor and outdoor ADA accessible restroom facilities, upgrading to new natural grass and a commercial irrigation system, and replacing current lighting with energy efficient LED lights.
With this plan, we will continue to seek additional financial support through applications for various grant opportunities provided by Illinois to park districts with shovel ready projects.
This would build an even stronger community where people of all ages could create memories that last a lifetime. We would be able to provide more community events and enhanced opportunities for a broader range of ages. We would eliminate the gap in services during colder months. And we would make our community even more desirable, increasing our residents’ property values.