ROCHELLE — The Flagg-Rochelle Community Park District Board of Commissioners held its monthly meeting at the REC Center on Monday evening. Among the agenda items were the approval of the 2024-25 fiscal year budget and appropriations as well as the approval of an easement agreement with Bluebird Network and approval of the 2023-24 fiscal year audit.

All agenda items were approved unanimously during Monday’s meeting. The next park district board meeting will be held on Monday, Aug. 19 at 6:30 p.m. at the REC Center in Rochelle.

Spring Lake Pool

At Spring Lake Pool, the Rochelle Rays will host their season ending banquet on Thursday evening. Ohlinger also shared that several lifeguards have been honored by aquatics director Tori Schultheis with Guard of the Week awards for their service at Spring Lake Pool. Ohlinger said that Spring Lake Pool has seen a recent influx of attendants from a handful of Rochelle’s surrounding communities including Leaf River, Ashton, Oregon, DeKalb, Rockford and more.

“We have a free community swim almost every week and last Saturday and Sunday were both free community swim days,” Ohlinger said. “We have quite a bit of overflow from our surrounding communities as we’re currently the only outdoor pool in the area… We have some daycares that stop in for field trips and we’ve had several KSRA groups come in as well.”

Horse bridges

Ohlinger said that horse bridges located on the north end of Skare Park have been repaired and new trails have been created. Ohlinger said that the bridges were damaged after a storm moved through the area a few years ago and caused the bridges to become off-kiltered. 

“Earlier this year, we regained control of that property and we were able to go in and start working on installing those horse bridges,” Ohlinger said. “We’ll be having some new trail markers and trail maps so everyone can enjoy that area of the park again.”

REC Center

Ohlinger said that the REC Center is currently closed for its annual two weeks of preventive maintenance. Ohlinger said that the REC Center typically undergoes preventive maintenance during the summer time due to the slower traffic as well as the availability of the outdoor facilities. Ohlinger said that a new prone bike will be added to the fitness center, which will also be receiving mirrors and racks for the deadlift station sometime within the next several weeks.

“Our members have given us positive comments on doing the preventive maintenance,” Ohlinger said. “We’ve had great support from our members about our cleaning.”