Controversial Oak Park-River Forest Pool vote too close to call

By Jean Lotus Staff Reporter
Voters rejected a $25 million bond to fund a swimming pool and facilities plan for Oak Park and River Forest High School by a narrow margin of 118 votes. (Photo courtesy of Oak Park and River Forest High School)

Voters rejected a $25 million bond to fund a swimming pool and facilities plan for Oak Park and River Forest High School by a narrow margin of 118 votes. (Photo courtesy of Oak Park and River Forest High School)

School board members of Oak Park and River Forest High School District 200 are waiting until all absentee ballots are counted before conceding defeat in a Nov. 8 referendum asking residents to approve $25 million in bonds for a new pool and other improvements.

Early election results showed a 118-vote spread, with 17,384 votes against the referendum or 50.17 percent, and 17,266 votes (49.83 percent) for the plan. Eighty percent of registered voters voted on the referendum question.

Critics of the plan said the proposed 11-lane 40-meter pool was overkill. A “vote no” group, Pragmatic Pool Solutions, also disliked the district’s plan to tear down the existing campus parking garage and rebuild a smaller version.

“The oversized 40-meter, 25-yard pool that was on the ballot was a want of the 89 members of the IHSA aquatic teams and not a need of the other 3,200 students at OPRF,” wrote PPS spokesperson Oak Park resident Monica Sheehan.

The school board’s proposal paid for the upgrades with $20 million of the district’s reserves and sought voter approval for an additional $25 million in bonds. Supporters said the property-tax increase would amount to an additional $90 per year of an Oak Park home valued at $362,000.

Initially, the board had approved a 50-meter Olympic-sized pool built on the parking garage site using $10 million of reserves and borrowing $17.5 million through a process known as a “backdoor referendum.” A backdoor referendum is a tax increase or bond issue orchestrated by a taxing body by tacit consent of taxpayers. To bring the issue to a vote, 5 percent of registered voters, or 5,000, whichever is less, must file petitions signatures within 45 days

Sheehan spearheaded a group who collected 4,000 community signatures in 2015 to force the pool plan onto the March, 2016 ballot. The school withdrew the 50-meter plan and proposed the smaller alternative, along with other improvements to classrooms and the drama department.

Replacing the high school’s two 88-year-old pools has been an ongoing goal of the high school for 10 years, but progress really began in 2013.

That’s when the board swept aside a proposal favored by current opponents of the present pool plan.

“[In 2013 … school engineers] recommended that OPRF build one 8-lane, 25-yard standard high school competition pool in the East Pool site expanding into the South Gym to replace the school’s two old pools,” Sheehan wrote in an email. The PPS group also said tearing down the existing parking garage and rebuilding a smaller one could waste up to $15 million.

The D200 Vote Yes committee addressed this concern in a statement before the vote: “While some would ask why the parking garage should be torn down and rebuilt, we argue that the existing garage is taking up too much space on our space-limited campus.”

While the vote was close, board members realized they needed to go back to the drawing board to find a solution voters could approve.

“With the failure of the referendum, the board will begin new deliberations to determine next steps and will keep the community apprised of developments in the project,” said a statement on the school website.

New School Board members will be elected in 2017, but Sheehan says she’s not interested in running for the board.

“We look forward to working with the Board to craft a pragmatic solution to the pool problem that serves the best interests of the school and the community, and we thank everyone who worked to inform the community on the pool referendum,” Sheehan’s statement said.

 

Brookfield voters weren’t ready to approve a $10.3 million bond for a new 32,000-square-foot library, but supporters may bring the question back on a later ballot. (Rendering courtesy of Brookfield Public Library).

Brookfield voters weren’t ready to approve a $10.3 million bond for a new 32,000-square-foot library, but supporters may bring the question back on a later ballot. (Rendering courtesy of Brookfield Public Library).

Brookfield rejects library bond referendum

Voters in the Village of Brookfield voted “no” by more than 500 votes Nov. 8 to a plan issue $10.3 million in bonds to tear down the villlage’s 30-year-old 13,000-square-foot library and rebuild a newer 32,000-square-foot facility across the street.

The library had already saved $4 million for the plan, which would have expanded what some considered a cramped space that doesn’t compare with facilities in neighboring towns such as La Grange and Riverside.

Some voters believed they were being asked for too much with the passing of a March, 2016 village road repair referendum. Also competing on the ballot was a limiting rate increase in parts of town within the D102 boundaries, which passed in a close race with 50.58 percent of the vote.

Supporters in the Residents Championing Our New Library group said the referendum reserved the right to put a new library on the ballot at a future date.

 

Several Cook County towns and taxing districts voted down tax increases.

Westchester residents voted “no” by 60.06 percent to 39.94 percent on a referendum to increase the property-tax-limiting rate by an additional 0.238 percent, raising about $1 million. The so-called “Back the Badge” referendum was earmarked for hiring three each of new police officers and fire fighters, as well as to staff a second village ambulance.

Voters in the Village of Burr Ridge also shot down a property tax increases of differing amounts, depending on if a home owner lived in Cook or DuPage County. The change would have raised about $500,000, which was earmarked for “funding street and other infrastructure improvements within the village.” Burr Ridge voters chose “no” 57.89 percent of the time, as compared to 42 percent voting “yes.”

Voters also rejected tax increases in several school districts.

Voters said “no” to a Palatine Community CSD 15 plan to issue bonds for $130 million to buy land and build two new school buildings. The vote was 70.64 percent against to 29.36 in favor.

Voters in River Trails D26 voted against a $29 million bond to build and equip and early learning education center. Of a total of 6,346 votes cast, no votes won by 66.38 percent with 33.62 percent in favor.

 

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