Oswegoland Park District plans ‘more efficient’ new administration center

With Oswegoland Park District’s aging Prairie Point administration and operations center now razed, plans for its new building are moving forward.

At the June 25 Oswego Village Board meeting, village trustees unanimously approved the Park District’s redevelopment plans. The redeveloped site will have one building with two separate wings: the administrative wing fronts along East Washington Street and the operations facility is at the south end of the site, perpendicular to East Washington Street.

“There is a main parking lot west of the administrative offices, as well as a small parking area within the outdoor storage area,” village planner Rachel Riemenschneider said in a memo to village trustees. “Southeast of the operations facility is a fully-fenced outdoor storage area with six storage bins to keep material such as mulch.”

Trustees also approved rezoning the land from residential to business. The current address of the site – 313 E. Washington St. – will change to 3220 Grove Road.

The recently demolished 14,453-square-foot building was built in 1974 as a John Deere dealership facility and acquired by the district in 1986. Plans are to build a smaller, more efficient 11,000-square-foot administration building and a new 15,000-square-foot park maintenance and operations building on the site.

“We’re going to make our administration center a little bit smaller and we’re going to upsize our operations facility that services all of our 66 parks and playgrounds and the 1,200 acres of natural area,” Oswegoland Park District Executive Director Tom Betsinger had said in talking about the project. “A little bit larger operations center helps our fleet, our trucks and our guys who are out servicing the parks and the playgrounds and the trails.”

Rehabbing the building proved not to be an option.

“We looked at if we could rehab and refresh it, and once you get through all of bringing this building up to code, it is more cost effective to knock it down and build a smaller, more efficient administrative center on the same site,” Betsinger said.

Expanded parking also is part of the project, which is expected to be completed by fall 2025.

At the Feb. 15 Oswegoland Park Board meeting, commissioners unanimously approved an 18-month lease agreement for the use of the village of Montgomery’s former public works facility at 891 Knell Road, Montgomery. The Park District will pay $8,953.10 a month in rent, including utilities.

Chad Feldotto, the district’s director of parks and planning, told commissioners the 9,400-square-foot facility offers a base for the district’s fleet mechanic, offices for two park supervisors, some external and interior storage, park operation staff parking and access to fuel pumps.

The Montgomery Village Board approved the lease agreement at its Feb. 12 meeting.

At the meeting, Oswegoland Park Board commissioners also approved three other lease agreements for space.