TV media reported that the PPD is receiving $350,000 from the state to help pay for costs to remodel the 33,000 sq. ft. soon to be the former Lakeview Museum. The Park District owns the building and have long coveted this property to be their new headquarters.
While the State of Illinois cannot pay their bills, our local representatives to Springfield were able to pass, as a beginner, $350,000 to expand an already bloated bureaucracy. Bloated, yes their budget to be proposed this year is in the mid $40 million range, approximately $14 million in property taxes, yet little is free at the District. Example: a few years ago, you could rent a shelter for $15. I checked about 4 years ago and the price was $50. The new shelter, playground and two basketball half courts on the north end of Peoria Stadium, lack water and toilet facilities.
Fortunately, there are a few trees in the area.
The strongly promised new softball fields, promised to be ready for National Tournaments by 2004, never materialized, the land swap where Bradley regained ownership of the former Meinen Field, now Shea Soccer Stadium; in exchange, the land promised to the taxpayers out on Rt. 91 and Fox Road, this exchange never materialized. Bradley still owns the land and collects government taxes on this "supposed" PPD land swap.
Bradley also is paying on a $2.1 million mortgage they took on this 161 acres plot of farmland paying a near record price of $13,000 an acre.
Check it out. Also, see how much is in the park budget for erosion control of the approximately 9,000 acres of hilly and erosion prone land owned by the PPD.
Fortunately, the taxpayers will not have to fund a $5,000,000 new entrance and parking lot to accommodate the huge number of visitors PROJECTED for the zoo expansion. Not to worry, both will probably happen as the PPD has another $100,000,000 proposed to expand Glen Oak Park over the next few years.
I enjoy parks and use them mainly to play tennis. I don't like false promises and bloated bureaucracies.
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