I feel compelled to write this: The Kewanee Park District and the city of Kewanee are two separate entities.
Let me go ahead and reword it. We need to make it clear: The Kewanee Park District and the city of Kewanee aren’t the same thing and except for occasional partnering on projects, the two are separate units of government that act independently of each other.
This issue has come up in the past. Invariably when the park district takes on a large and pricey project, as they are doing now with the reimagining of the clubhouse, several people will comment on social media under the post about how we need to focus those millions of dollars on roads and not on frivolous things like an awesome new place for the community and golfers to gather.
One reader shared the post and chided the city writing “Can’t fix the roads around here but there [sic] gonna spend 3 million on this, things that make you go hmm.”
Statements like that don’t make me go hmm, they make me want to write an editorial and set the record straight so that’s what I will try to do here.
By giving the community a new clubhouse, the Kewanee Park District is doing exactly what they are supposed to do. They are enriching this community by improving our parks. Those parks that are governed by the board of commissioners are: Baker Park, Chautauqua Park, Northeast Park, Liberty Park (but not West Park) and Windmont Park. To be clear, the city of Kewanee does care for and maintain parks such as McKinley, Francis, West and Berrien, but they do so separately from the park district.
I could get into the history of how the park district came to be, but others could do a better job, so I won’t. What I will say is that five commissioners elected by Kewanee voters make decisions about the park district. The Kewanee mayor, the City Council, the city manager have absolutely no say in it and we report every month what the park district is doing at their meetings to keep people informed.
So when a Kewanee resident complains about roads not being repaired in lieu of an awesome splash pad at Liberty Park, they are confusing the two bodies of elected officials.
The splash pad completed this summer has been on the desk of the Parks Executive Director Andrew Dwyer, who was hired by the board, for several years and this summer, with the help of state OSLAD grant, he and the commissioners were able to get it across the finish line, and I praise their hard work and efforts. They also completed a Baker Park pavilion last year and this summer, a dog park at Chautauqua.
While the park board does rely on taxes to maintain the parks, those taxes have nothing to do with and don’t take away from tax revenue that the city would use for roads. So lamenting why money that’s going to be used to totally redesign the clubhouse isn’t going to fix our roads makes no sense.
As far as the roads, yes, we all want the roads fixed, but it won’t be the Kewanee Park District that will fix them. That will fall on the city of Kewanee, and they are currently trying to do something about that. Many people aren’t happy with the recent sales tax increase that’s been promised to fix the roads, and we will need to remain diligent on ensuring those taxes collected for the roads are actually used there, but if the city can start fixing our roads with the revenue then it might be worth the few cents it will add to our local purchases.
So now that we have cleared that up, we can start truly giving the credit and praise that is so richly deserved to the park district. Our parks are a source of pride for this community, and we have the Kewanee Park District director, staff and board to thank for it.
Next time the park board announces another exciting project on the horizon, let’s cheer them on and think about what we’ll gain as a community instead of dwelling on issues outside their ability to fix.
