Improvements at the newest District park and expansion of green space are just some of the proposed capital projects District staff is planning for in 2021.

Details about potential capital projects were presented at the January 25 Park Board meeting as part of an overview of the 2021 proposed budget.

The Elmhurst Garden Club announced a donation of $1,000 to the Elmhurst Park District at the November 9 Park Board meeting.

The Garden Club has made donations to the Park District for several years, using money raised at their annual Garden Walk and Faire fundraiser. The Garden Walk also funds the club’s scholarship program. However, due to the pandemic, the Garden Walk was cancelled this year, making the Garden Club's donation especially significant given this year's challenges.

Join us as we safely celebrate the grand opening of the Crestview Park Pickleball Courts! We’ll celebrate with a ribbon cutting and a pickleball demonstration on the brand new courts. Stop by Crestview Park on Saturday, September 26 at 10 a.m.

Friendly reminder of the 3Ws: Wear a mask, watch your distance, and wash your hands.

Plans are coming together for the redevelopment of Eldridge Park’s east playground, which Elmhurst Park District intends to replace in 2020. The Park Board approved playground concepts at the Monday, January 13 Park Board meeting.

In order to gather feedback and engage the community in the playground’s concept, the Park District performed in-person surveys at Eldridge Park during the spring and summer of 2019 and held a Party in the Park Input Meeting last August to see what changes the community was interested in seeing at the park.

At the October 14 Park Board meeting, the Board approved a contract with V3 Companies Ltd. to perform additional assessments at 837 S. Riverside Drive. The property located at the intersection of Route 83 and Riverside Drive, also known as the Kieft Brothers property, is 16.4 acres divisible over two adjacent lots and is the planned location of a potential indoor sports facility.

Addressing park drainage and standing water issues is a project Elmhurst Park District intends to tackle in 2020. Steps toward achieving that goal were made at the most recent Park Board meeting.

Community feedback gathered in 2016 and 2017 rated District parks in “fair” condition overall on maintenance and upkeep. The District’s Vision 2020 Plan, formed based on that feedback, includes improved condition and maintenance of parks and amenities as one of its primary goals. The improvement of drainage would substantially improve park conditions for visitors.

At the September 9 meeting of the Elmhurst Park District Board of Commissioners, staff presented the implementation plans and financial options for addressing Vision 2020 large-scale projects. The six projects, which can be viewed at vision2020.epd.org, were a direct result of community feedback. After reviewing the financial plans, the Park Board decided to pursue a voter survey that will determine the level of community support to fund the six projects through a referendum.

With the roll out of Vision 2020, six key goals emerged including improved condition and maintenance of parks and amenities. To align with that goal, a fence improvement project will begin soon at Berens and Van Voorst parks. The project is based on athletic field park assessments that were completed during the Vision 2020 process.

The Park Board emphasized the importance of safety and the ability to improve access to the Salt Creek Greenway Trail at the May 13 Park Board meeting, where they approved providing a letter of support to the City of Elmhurst in its plan to construct a pedestrian/bike bridge crossing over Route 83. The proposed bridge will extend over Route 83 from the North Graue Woods neighborhood to Cricket Creek Forest Preserve in order to link north Elmhurst to the Salt Creek Greenway Trail.