November 01, 2024
Local News

Community meeting slated for Joliet Park District rec facility

Nowell Park arena would include indoor soccer field

JOLIET – A future recreation center at Nowell Park would likely include an indoor soccer and baseball field, but just what it contains could be shaped by residents who attend a community meeting Tuesday.

The Joliet Park District will hold the meeting at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Hartman Recreation Center, 511 N. Collins St.

Much is still to be decided about the future East Side recreation facility, one of a number of projects funded by a bond referendum approved by voters in November.

"It's going to be more of an indoor soccer and baseball stadium with a walking track," Park Board President Glen Marcum said. "It could have a fitness facility. It could have a community room. There are different options."

Some decisions still outstanding include whether the recreation center will be built in Nowell Park.

"If everything goes right, that's where we want to build it," Marcum said.

Surveyors are at Nowell Park this week checking a possible sewer line running underneath that could affect construction. Marcum said the park district learned about the sewer line recently. It does not know if the line is still in use.

Other matters that might be more interesting to those attending the Tuesday meeting include just what should go into the building.

"We're asking all the residents who want to hear about it or have an opinion on what we should do with it to come to the meeting," Marcum said.

If all goes right, construction could start this year, with the facility opening in July 2016, Marcum said. But, he added, that is an optimistic timetable.

The park district has hired an architectural firm, Dewberry, which will have representatives at the community meeting to present photographs of facilities similar to what may be built in Joliet. Community input will be important in designing the Joliet building, Marcum said.

"The important thing is that it has to be self-sufficient. It has to make money," Marcum said. "We see it as attracting people throughout the park district."