Proponents of a park system in Campton Township west of St. Charles are accusing elected officials of ignoring the issue and using funds set aside for buying land to make up budget shortfalls.
The recent complaints follow almost two years of vigorous citizen lobbying and planning, including the nearly unanimous adoption of pro-park resolutions at the township`s last three annual town meetings.
”It`s absurd to see what has transpired over the last couple of years,” said resident Joe Garbarski, head of a citizens committee compiling a land-acquisition plan in the township. ”There`s something wrong with collecting tax dollars for one purpose and spending them for another.”
Garbarski referred to $100,000 appropriated over the last two years in a special ”building” fund. In November, the Township Board voted to use $33,000 from that fund to cover shortages in other areas.
Township Supervisor Rich Gerdes said most of the $100,000 actually was a working capital reserve to pay expenses in a three-month lag period between March, the end of the township`s fiscal year, and July 1, when property-tax revenues become available for the next budget year.
The Township Board has set aside about $25,000 for land acquisition in the last couple of budgets, he said.
At the heart of the controversy is the question of where more than 1,000 Campton Township children are going to play organized sports in the coming years.
In many incorporated municipalities, developers donate land for parks and schools as part of the development agreements with the local government.
But in Campton Township, where the Township Board is the only unit of government, no land has been donated for recreational space even as the population grew by 60 percent during the 1980s to about 9,500.
Gerdes said Campton`s population, before the residential development boom, was mainly farmers and people in associated agricultural industries who saw no need for a park system.
Those people generally do not to share the desires of the new families who have moved into the subdivisions that have replaced the cornfields, Gerdes said.
Another bone of contention is a board-sponsored plan to seek voter approval in a referendum to issue $750,000 in bonds to buy 50 acres.
