A proposal for a new recreation center in the poorest part of southeast Evanston will be presented Monday night at the City Council meeting, but one alderman said the proposal is likely to plummet because the plan could be too expensive.
“The southeast Evanston proposal isn’t going anywhere,” Ald. Arthur Newman (1st) said.
A survey of 216 southeast Evanston residents found that 40 percent supported a minimal tax increase for a community and recreation center in their neighborhood. According to the survey, the center should be for children and families and provide scholarship assistance for program fees because of the demographic profile of the targeted area.
But the high cost of a recreation center, in addition to the construction of the new nearby Levy Senior Activity Center, makes the plan a bad idea, Newman said. The Levy center, which will be located at the southeast corner of James Park at Mulford Street, will be open evenings and weekends for people of all ages.
Newman said the proposed recreation center should have been targeted toward the community’s needs and should have had focused on offering social services. According to the Cook County census, which is included in the proposal, the area where the center would be built had the lowest estimated average household income in the southeast Evanston for 2001.
Doug Gaynor, director of parks, forestry and recreation, said that Evanston cannot afford to build a new center but that the city is planning ahead for the time when it would be able to afford it.
“(The recreation center) has been a high priority of the recreation board for a long time,” Gaynor said. “I think it will remain a priority and we are just going to have to find a source for funding.”
Newman said improving the facilities at the Robert Crown Center, 1701 Main St., was a higher priority for him than building a new recreation center.
Originally the proposal suggested three places where the recreation center could be located: the space above the Skokie Swift CTA Line; the parking lot at the Clyde Avenue and Brummel Street intersection; and the parking lot and residential properties at Sherman Avenue.
After a Human Services Committee meeting April 1, the committee decided the location at Sherman Avenue was not feasible, said Jessica Bullock, management analyst for the recreation department.
If the recreation center was built above the Skokie Swift CTA line, the center would cost $15.3 million and would be 37,000 square feet. This center would have a swimming pool, basketball courts and fitness equipment.
Another proposed location would be smaller and would not include a swimming pool.
If the center were to be located at the Clyde Avenue and Brummel Street intersection, the project would cost $9.9 million and would be 29,000 square feet.
The survey, compiled by Brailsford and Dunlavey, was sent to more that 2,600 households and 216 people responded. The survey is included in an official proposal for a recreation center in southeast Evanston.
“I support recreation, but I just don’t support that type of building at that location,” Newman said.
