The Referendum Project included two years of planning before residents voted on Feb 2, 2010. The research timeline is shown below.
May 2008 – The discussion started with focus groups and one on one interviews with community leaders and citizens. We asked people what they thought of our current parks and recreation facilities. We asked people what changes or improvements they thought were most important. Clear patterns began to emerge.
June 2008 – Three public input sessions were held in June 2008 to gather more input.
October 2008 – The ideas and opinions from these sessions were used to create a survey mailed to every household in the park district. Nearly 1,100 households responded. Results confirmed what we were hearing and brought up new ideas in four general categories:
1) New Community Recreation Center
2) Indoor Pool
3) Improvements to Parks & Trails
4) Long-term Care and Maintenance
See 2008 Community Survey Results
Read 2008 Community Survey Summary
May 2009 – Citizen Steering Committee formed to gather more input from the community, study and refine the concepts, and present a recommendation to the Park Board.
June 2009 – A Public Forum was held to discuss the four categories of ideas and help rank the individual components. This forum was followed up with four smaller study groups - one for each category.
August 2009 – A public Open House was held in August 20 at Town Center to show visual examples of concepts and gather more input from everyone in the community. Comments were collected and used to revise the 2025 Plan.
September 2009 – A third Open House was held September 23 at the public library to showcase the refined plan. Final comments and ideas from this Open House will help the Steering Committee and volunteers refine the concept and form a recommendation to the Board.
October 2009 – The Steering Committee and volunteers presented their final recommendation to go for referendum to the Park Board of Commissioners at the regular board meeting.
November 2009 – The Park Board decided to place a referendum on the Feb 2010 ballot.
February 2, 2010 – Election day. The Referendum passed.