Peru pool referendum closer to reality, 562 signatures turned in

A former Peru alderwoman has completed a critical step to place an advisory referendum on the November ballot for a municipal swimming pool by collecting the required number of signatures.

Sherry Mayszak, who has been working on the referendum since last fall, said she received 562 of the 331 required signatures to have the question placed on the November ballot.

She said she handed in the 62 signature sheets to Peru City Clerk Dave Bartley on July 25. Bartley chose not to put informational flyers inside city bills in March, saying the city of Peru should not get involved in publicizing a political topic.

The referendum would be advisory and not binding, meaning the results may serve to guide elected officials on policy, but action is not required to be taken, regardless of the results.

An elections official said that for a referendum to be placed on a ballot, a resident needs to collect 8% of the total votes placed for governor in the previous election from registered voters within the affected precincts.

La Salle County Clerk Jennifer Ebner said petition-based referendums have until closing Aug. 5 to turn them in to the affected government – in this case, Peru. Then, there is an objection period until closing Aug. 12. If no one objects to that entity, Peru has until Aug. 29 to pass it along to the clerk’s office, and the clerk will tell the vendor to put the referendum on the ballot.

Ebner said that if there is an objection, she would have to hold a hearing within three to five business days from when she received the objection, and it’s typically a quick process to determine whether everything is valid.

“The response I got from residents was overwhelmingly in favor of bringing an outdoor swimming pool back to Peru,” Mayszak said. “Many were upset that the original pool was demolished in the first place and felt it could have been repaired.”

She said some residents shared memories of children learning to swim in the pool, while some still having pool baskets from the old pool that were sold when it was demolished.

Mayszak said she encountered about three residents who were against the referendum, sharing various reasons for no longer needing a municipal pool in Peru.

“One man was old and said he wasn’t interested in it,” she said. “One man was worried his property taxes would go up even though I explained it was being funded from the hotel/motel tax, and one woman said she had her own pool and didn’t care if the rest of Peru had a place to go swimming.”

Mayszak referenced a plan floated by Peru Mayor Ken Kolowski in March 2022 to fund a new swimming pool from tax collected from hotels/motels.

Mayszak said even though she has 562 signatures, she still has work to do.

“Even though we have enough signatures,” she said, “I think it’s important to get the details out to as many residents as possible. I originally bought 3,000 copies of the flyers, and I’ve distributed about half that amount so far. It is a huge task to get flyers to every home in Peru, so I mailed some of the flyers to the harder-to-reach homes.”

She said she will continue to hang flyers until she runs out – even then, if it’s before Nov. 5, she’ll buy more and finish any homes she missed.

Mayszak said that after the feedback she received from the public, her hope is that this referendum passes with 75% of the vote.

“I think 75% is a reasonable goal,” she said. “That will give us a strong case to present to the aldermen who oppose the pool. I believe Mayor Kolowski will decide when he will bring it back to the council for a vote.”

Kolowski said he 100% still supports his plan for the pool, but it needs to be revamped, and he believes the benefits of a community pool will affect generations.