Village Manager's Message
Shortly after I hit send on this email, I will be heading over to the site of the new Recreation Center for the groundbreaking. This is a big deal in Villa Park. It will create a unique, indoor public space that is owned by the Village, open to the public, and constructed and dedicated primarily to the usage by the citizens for their use, not the government’s operations. The Iowa Community Center (ICC) was constructed as a school building, and it has served some of the purposes of a recreation center well. But the ICC has few opportunities for unscheduled, personal recreation and fitness. The new Recreation Center will have a fitness and weight room, a walking/running track, modern meeting rooms, a kitchen, and an adult-sized gymnasium.
The Recreation Center is a bold project that is situated adjacent to the revitalization of the old downtown on Villa Avenue, parts of which were originally developed by the Wander Corporation (Ovaltine). This winter it will be made part of our seventh Tax Increment Financing (TIF) District – the Saint Charles Commercial Corridor TIF. This will include The Union which will begin construction next summer. The addition of 8,000 square feet of new retail space and over two hundred small households will create a stronger economic engine in an area that already boasts unique local businesses from Villa Perk on the south end to Funky Java and Kuppie’s Bakery close to St. Charles.
The further development of St. Charles will follow based on the results of the Comprehensive Plan. This coordinated approach to building a brighter future fir Villa Park will need public support. These ideas are not entirely new. Many of the ideas being brought up the Do-It-Yourself meetings and the public discussion at the kickoff by Planning and Zoning are found in the 2009 Comp Plan. But they never got traction. If you haven’t already, I urge you to take the Comprehensive Plan Survey.
Aside from the “new” Police Station, that is over 20 years old, few of our Village buildings were built for the purpose for which they are used. The assessment of our buildings is in the report preparation stages now, and although it will arrive a little late to impact on this year’s budget, it will be incorporated into plans to make our buildings more user-friendly to the staff and the customers. Those customers are the village residents, local businesses and prospective businesses, visitors, and passers through who may only need to pay a traffic ticket.
There is lots to do now in Villa Park as well. The Autumn Jubilee will be just west of the Villa Park Historical Museum on Saturday, September 30, and a week later at Cortesi Park we have Brewfest. Plus, if you want to watch competitive curling, the 5U – Bonspiel is taking place at Windy City Curling in the Villa Oaks Shopping center (behind the Sonic on Roosevelt, with parking on the north side of the strip mall).
I will miss many of these events as I will be in Austin, Texas for the International City/County Manager’s Association conference. I have already made plans to meet with several important vendors and am looking forward to bringing back some valuable insight. This week I met with department heads about the budget and with the entire group at our Department Head meeting on Tuesday. I’ll return from Texas on Wednesday, so until then I hope y’all will be nice to Assistant Village Manager, Suzanne McVey who will be in charge in my absence.
Sincerely,
Matt Harline
Village Manager
To access the full manager's report, click here
To access last weeks report, click here
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