ROCHELLE — On Friday afternoon in a special meeting, Flagg-Rochelle Community Park District board members approved a severance and release agreement for former executive director Roger Bunger, who has not been on the job since early March.

Following a closed session commissioners voted on the agreement, but park district attorney Phil Nye, Jr. said details could not yet be released yet as Bunger has until this Monday afternoon to review before it becomes official.
Bunger was not present at the regular park district meeting on March 19, nor was he at Friday’s special meeting. He was reached for comment on Saturday morning and stated that he had resigned to pursue other opportunities.
“I resigned on March 5 and I am going back to the financial consulting and insurance business,” Bunger stated, adding that he could not comment on the severance agreement.
Bunger, who had previously served nearly 10 years on the park board, stepped down as president of the board in the fall of 2016 to fill the vacant executive director position on a part-time interim basis before accepting the full-time role in January of 2017.
Park board member Bud Norcross said on Saturday that the commissioners are going to take some time to review the director position before moving forward with a new hire.
“I can tell you that we won’t be naming a new executive director immediately,” Norcross commented. “We are going to be talking to the staff to find out what our needs are in that position and then go from there.”

Park board president Brent Carmichael said that in the meantime current staff members will cover all day-to-day operations in the park district office until a decision on the position is made and it is filled.

School deal
In other business, park commissioners approved an amended intergovernmental agreement with the Rochelle Elementary School District. Currently, an agreement between the two has the park district mowing the west field at Rochelle Middle School in exchange for use of land where the Little League fields are on the May School property. The amendment calls for the park district to also mow the south field.
“Looking it over, it probably needs approximately 45 minutes to an hour for us to mow that,” park superintendent Don Elliott said on Friday. “I don’t necessarily have a problem with doing that, we’re already there, we’re not going to provide manpower to trim and do those kind of things, but we will certainly mow the big area.”

Skare Park mitigation
The park board also approved a Skare Park Mitigation Deed Restriction with Land and Water, Inc.
Last year the board entered an agreement with the company to restore the creek and return a large portion of the park into its original state. The work would include taking out all invasive vegetation species, planting native prairie grasses and trees and reworking the creek to its natural winding path.

John Ryan, president of Land and Water, Inc. addressed the board at the March 19 meeting about the project.
“There are 76 acres as part of the agreement, which helps us provide you with up to $288,000 in funding to help you continue upgrading this jewel of a park you have.”
Ryan told the board in March. He also said he has already spent $150,000 on preliminary work and urged the board to sign off on required deed restriction paper work so the project can move forward.

Bank card changes
Finally, changes on the signature card with Central Bank Illinois were also approved Friday allowing for authorized signers to include Elliott, commissioners Tim Hayden, John Dobbs, Brent Carmichael and Bud Norcross. Staff member Maureen Stevens was also added as view only.