Plans for a $6 million aquatic center on the west side were made public this week and on Tuesday received the support of the City Council.
In a unanimous vote, the council approved the concept plan for the tentatively named Blackberry Aquatic Center, the costs of which will be shared by the city and the Fox Valley Park District. The district is expected to vote April 25 on the plan.
Robert W. Vaughan, the district’s assistant director, said the plan, drawn up by Leisure Concepts & Design Inc. of Mt. Prospect, includes a fan-shaped, zero-depth-edge leisure pool with six lap lanes; a 700-foot “lazy river,” complete with rapids for tube riders; a “spray play” area; and tube water slides with a splashdown pool connected to the “lazy river.”
He said it also includes two sandy areas, one for play and one dedicated to volleyball, as well as two large turf areas, a parking lot and pond.
“We wanted to come up with elements of this facility that would complement Phillips Park so people can use both facilities,” Vaughan said.
The Phillips Park Aquatic Center on the east side was completed in 1991 at a cost of about $4.5 million. The depth of the proposed Blackberry pool would be 5 feet at its deepest spot. The Phillips pool is 12 feet deep with slides that do not accommodate tubes.
Once the new pool is complete, possibly in 1997, passes will be good at each park, Vaughan said.
Last year, 10,000 people bought season’s passes at Phillips Park, and 145,000 visits were made to the aquatic center, leading to overcrowding, officials said. Park officials hope the new facility would alleviate that problem, Vaughan said.
Under an agreement similar to that for the Phillips Park center, the city will pay for the work at Blackberry and then recover half that cost over time from the Park District, which will maintain and run the pool.
The new center will be built on about 10 of 30 acres of land just across Barnes Road from the Blackberry Historical Village in Pioneer Park, near the Virgil Gillman Nature Trail. The city bought the land for two water treatment plants but ended up building one.
The city has budgeted $2.5 million toward the pool this year, which will come from the proceeds of a $17 million bond issue expected to be approved Tuesday.
Once the second aquatic center is complete, the city will have replaced two pools built in the 1950s and closed in the late ’80s and early ’90s.
