By Heart of Illinois ABC
BLOOMINGTON – The Bloomington City Council is willing to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars on a pair of projects to upgrade recreational facilities.
For years, the city held off on replacing the O’Neil Park swimming pool, which dates back to the 1970s. The pool was supposed to have only a 25-year life span, but budgetary constraints kept the pool in use until the COVID-19 pandemic, and it’s now been demolished.
Monday night, the council unanimously agreed to hire Williams Architects of Itasca at a cost of up to $775,000 to design an aquatic center, including a new pool, plus a skateboard park and other park improvements.
Council member Jeff Crabill acknowledged the cost is “pretty high” for the architects, but the city is getting a lot for its money.
“The west side of Bloomington has been ignored for too long,” Crabill said.
“I’m glad that we’re putting forth this amount of investment into the west side into that pool,” Crabill added.
Meantime, the council unanimously agreed to apply for state grant money for the Constitution Trail’s southeast extension, with an estimated cost of almost $1.4 million.
The city government’s share might reach almost $343,000 to extend the biking and hiking trial from Lafayette Street to Hamilton Road. The rest of the money would come from the Illinois Transportation Enhancement Program, or ITEP.
City leaders said the trail extension would provide a safe pathway under Veterans Parkway, and it would connect trail users to Downtown Bloomington, and to parks, businesses, and residential areas in west and south Bloomington.
While supporting the project, Crabill said he was worried about the cost, given financial uncertainties tied to the pandemic.
“Once the state approves this, we’ll get our final number on what the local match will be, and then we’ll have the opportunity to approve it, and we can determine at that point what our financial position is then,” Crabill also said.
