Back to the drawing board for $37.5 million high school pool
Jean Lotus — January 28, 2016
The Oak Park and River Forest School Board listen to public comments, during a Jan. 14 meeting. (Photo by Jean Lotus/Chronicle Media)
The Oak Park and River Forest High School District 200 board voted Jan. 19 to abandon the resolution to use a “back-door referendum” to issue $17.5 million in bonds to tear down a parking garage and build a new Olympic-sized swimming pool. The total cost of the proposed pool was $37.5 million, with $20 million to come from the district’s cash reserves.
The board backpedalled on the bonds after opponents to the project gathered 4,300 signatures in two weeks to force the bond issue on the March 15 ballot for referendum.
Neighbors of the school opposed the location of the pool, saying the demolition of the parking garage would cause parking problems throughout the neighborhood.
The board gave three reasons for withdrawing the bond: To create a better parking proposal; to allow the Park District of Oak Park to study building a community center, which could partner with the high school for a new pool; and to create an education campaign to put the new pool bond on the ballot for referendum in the Nov. 8 election.
The referendum question is now considered “moot,” a statement from the district said, so the question will be pulled from the ballot.
“The Board needs to determine what its next steps should be, but the parking garage will not be removed prior to next school year as originally planned,” said district spokeswoman Karin Sullivan.
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Taxpayers revolt against Oak Park swimming pool project
— Back to the drawing board for $37.5 million high school pool —
