Lincolnwood pool fees increased for residents

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by JASON MEREL

The Lincolnwood Village Board of Trustees at its meeting Jan. 21 approved a resolution changing 2020 fees for people to use the Proesel Park Family Aquatic Center and remanded to the park board resolutions dealing with how many non-village residents can use the pool.

Parks and Recreation director Melissa Rimdzius-Marsh said that the goal with revising the fees was to eliminate inconsistencies found in previous years since revenue from the pool has been declining since 2018. Season pass fees will be lowered for non-residents due to "exorbitant" costs and slightly increased for village residents. Season pass fees for non-residents will still be 2.75 times more than the resident fees, however.

"We’re seeing a drop in revenue at the aquatic center," Rimdzius-Marsh said. "It’s such an important aspect of our operation and to our village."

As part of the resolution, individual season pass rates for village residents were matched with the 2019 rate of $103. The new fee structure also adds $50 for a second family member and $30 for each additional family member. The new costs will also be $77 for seniors age 55 and older and $127 for a senior couples age 55 and older.

For non-residents, the season pass will be $283 for an individual, $421 for a family of two, $503 for a family of three, and $586 for a family of four, $212 for seniors age 55 and older and $349 for senior couples.

Rimdzius-Marsh said that fewer non-residents have been buying season passes because of "insane" costs, leading to a more than $64,000 decrease in revenue in the past 2 years and that’s why it was decided to lower the non-resident fees to attract people to purchase more season passes again.

More contentious resolutions regarding allowing non-residents to purchase daily and season passes as well as increasing the cap on how many non-residents per season are allowed to purchase season passes, which is currently capped to prevent overcrowding, were remanded back to the park board for further discussion at the urging of a park board member. The park board will discuss the matter on Feb. 11. Another item that will be discussed is whether residents need to accompany non-residents when they visit the pool.

Park board commissioner Laura Tomacic said at the meeting that the board needs to discuss further the issues of allowing more non-residents to use the facility.

"The Lincolnwood pool is a gem and a jewel in our community," Tomacic said. She said that rules and control are required in Lincolnwood and that "not anyone should be able to come in, even if they can afford it."

"We don’t want this," Tomacic said.

Also at the meeting, trustees voted to approve an ordinance amending the code regarding e-cigarettes. The ordinance established a definition for e-cigarettes in the description of tobacco products, added e-cigarettes as a tobacco product under the current municipal code definitions and added a provision prohibiting tobacco use in any location protected by the Smoke Free Illinois Act, with the sole exception of product sampling within retail tobacco stores.

Finally, the village board voted to approve a resolution awarding a contract to MQ Construction of Chicago for the installation of sewer restrictors and covers in relation to the North Shore Outfall Sewer project.

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