ROCHELLE — At its monthly meeting Monday, the Flagg-Rochelle Park District Board of Commissioners heard a report from Executive Director Jackee Ohlinger on recent and current outdoor projects in the district as warmer weather has allowed for more work than usual for this time of year.

The park district recently took delivery of its new backhoe and has been using it for clearing a beaver dam and tree line work at Flanagan Park and Skare Park. Skare Park has also been the site of brush removal work. The park still has issues from the 2015 EF-4 tornado that hit it.

The park district has worked with the Rochelle Fire Department recently on a controlled burn schedule at Skare Park for the next five years.

Helms Stadium has been the site of recent sandblasting and exterior mortar repair in recent weeks. Painting will be the next step in that work.

Server

The park district is currently considering two proposals for its future server needs. The park district now has the ability to utilize the cloud for storage and get rid of one of its two on-site servers. The park district has not replaced its servers in six years and usually replaces them every five years.

The first proposal involves two servers onsite at a cost of over $23,000 with a yearly maintenance fee of over $8,000. The total five-year cost would be $64,327.

The second proposal would be one server on site and utilization of the cloud. The server cost would be just over $15,000 with a yearly maintenance fee of about $3,000. The five-year total cost would be $76,267. Ohlinger said the second proposal is what the park district is leaning towards.

Spring Lake

Ohlinger said that while Spring Lake Pool season is not upon the park district yet, work is currently ongoing to prepare the facility for the summer.

"We are really busy with preparing for opening," Ohlinger said. "There are a lot of projects that need to be done. Some are weather-dependent. Some are not. We'll be doing some deck repairs, recaulking the gutters like we did last year that helped with reducing water loss. We're going to be sandblasting and painting the diving boards. And we are working with an engineering firm on an upgrade to the ADA chair lift. We're also working on upgrades in our chemical controllers.”

RWC

The board unanimously approved an affiliate agreement with the Rochelle Wrestling Club. The club currently has about 100 kids and plans to work more with the park district in the future, including holding more events at The REC Center.