ROCHELLE — The Flagg-Rochelle Community Park District board discussed plans to put its former office and storage buildings on 2nd Street up for sale at its monthly meeting Monday. 

Board President Tim Hayden said a 60-day period will start Tuesday to see if the park district receives one or more sealed bids. Advertising will be done for the property. Hayden said the property has been appraised at $140,000. The property would likely have to be rezoned upon sale. He said the park district has already received inquiries about the property that has been vacated by a move to the newly-constructed REC Center. 

“Since it's a good real estate market and we've had some inquiries, we're going to see what kind of opportunities come about,” Hayden said. “Hopefully we'll have someone make it their new home and we'll get some capital to do something that needs to be done somewhere else.”

New vehicle

The board unanimously approved the purchase of a new truck from Prescott Brothers Ford for $49,647. 

The Prescott Brothers bid was the only one the district received after submitting two requests for proposal. It includes “everything” the district was looking for including a plow, lift gate and super cab package. 

Two trucks are being replaced by the district. One will go up for sale at a municipal auction and the second may as well, if it’s not traded into Prescott Brothers for the new truck.

Helms roof 

Park District Executive Director Jackee Ohlinger said two bids were received late last week for the replacement of the roof at Helms Field. She didn’t anticipate receiving any bids due to the lack of supplies available in the roofing industry. 

“We are going to be doing a little more research on these bids and provide the board with a recommendation at the next meeting,” Ohlinger said. “We haven't been able to contact the bidders and get all the information yet.”

Spring Lake

Ohlinger said the state came to do its final walkthrough of the Spring Lake improvement project last month and she’s started the submission of the project for grant reimbursement. 

She said that will involve a lot of paperwork and she hopes to have it done soon. The park district did receive a $19,000 new fishing pier for Spring Lake recently that had seen delays in arriving. The pier will likely be installed in “the next couple of weeks,” Ohlinger said.

“During the final walkthrough I was informed the fishing pier would not be part of the reimbursement process because it came after the timeframe,” Ohlinger said. “Unfortunately it was out of our hands. It shouldn't affect any of the dollars in the funds that we receive. It just won't be included in the project.”

Bike path project

Ohlinger said the park district’s bike path stabilization project started last week to combat erosion that had been seen “for several years.”

The City of Rochelle has worked with the park district with its long arm excavator from the field across the creek. Ohlinger said she’s happy with the project and thankful for the city’s help. 

“They reached over and removed some of the materials that were starting to erode and go near to under the bike path area,” Ohlinger said. “We had it trucked away and our staff worked on laying landscape fabric and we brought in 2-3-inch rock as well as rip rap to lay on top of the fabric to hopefully not have those problems and we can stabilize the bike path for many years to come for the community.”

Tax levy

The board unanimously approved its 2022 tax levy ordinance at the meeting. Hayden said the district’s tax rate will go down in 2022, due to its Equalized Assessed Valuation going up from its original budget number by almost 10 percent. EAV determines the rate at which property owners will be taxed. 

“The desired levy of the district multiplied by the current EAV determines property tax revenue that will be received from collections of taxes within the district's boundaries,” Ohlinger said. “We typically work to keep our taxes under that five percent, which doesn't require the district to do the truth of taxation or public hearing.”

Other things

The board resolved to use a multi-purpose room at The REC Center for its meetings permanently going forward. In the past it has met at City Hall or the Spring Lake Marina. 

Ohlinger said all parks have been winterized for the season and staff will be putting up new park signage that was received last week.