Possible Projects

Today the Forest Preserve District staff briefly presented some project ideas for planning purposes. Some of them will reduce operations expenses. Some will provide better access to our preserves and certain recreational improvements. It will be interesting to see how the Commission will deal with these projects. As they are presented with a little more detail over the next few weeks, I suspect there will be some vigorous discussions.

One area that will put us through the paces, will be how we handle historic buildings. We have just decided to not pursue restoring the old District Headquarters. The alternative appears to be to demolish it, since there is no apparent District need here, and noone was offering any money to accomplish any of the potential uses that a few people had suggested might be possible if we could/would restore it. On the other hand, it is no secret that I am interested in developing the Greene Barn at Greene Valley Forest Preserve into a nature education center. I will not belabor here the many reasons that this makes the most sense for the District. What I will say, is that I am busy talking to potential partners that will help with the capital improvements necessary for the barn and some that will help with the operations once it is up and running.

Still, the question will be, once we build this or that, how are we going to operate it. This is why I have been pushing alternate revenues since I have been on the Commission. I believe that a comprehensive approach to funding will give us several funding sources, so we are not stymied if one pool of funds dry up.