PEORIA, Ill. — Many people came out to Donovan Park for the Peoria Park District’s ‘Talk About it Tuesday’ meeting.
The hot button item; whether or not the park district should approve a new pavilion that would cover 18 acres of Donovan Park.
Opponents said the pavilion would eat up a lot of green space that many use to walk the trails. They said it would add noise and light pollution to the area and would be disruptive to the nearby hospitals and neighborhoods.
“Personally I’m one of those walker, hiker, snow-shoers that doesn’t want this green space gone,” Luan Railsback of the Friends of the Open Space Donovan Park told news partner 25 News. “We also believe that the park district should not be utilizing a private organization to raise the funds.”
The Friends of Open Space also criticized the financial risk. In their official petition they said, “this expensive venue may not succeed given the rise of private sector competition. The resulting failure of the facility would require the park district to pay for long-term maintenance.”
The Peoria Park District said they would take everyone’s opinion into account. They would weigh the feedback before making a potential arrangement.
“The way that we operate as a park district is, especially as staff, we provide information to our board and we ask them to make a decision,” Peoria Park District Executive Director Emily Cahill said. “The way that the board makes that decision is to not only take the data that we give them, but also to take into account what everybody else feels so this is an essential part of our process.”
The park district said it takes time and they asked for patience.
