Aubrey Critical of Park Board's Safety Village Vote

Commissioner Ron Aubrey is disappointed his new park board colleagues do not support continued funding of a new safety village.

“I don’t get why they won’t support this. They don’t know the long term consequences of the action, and they don’t seem to care,” Aubrey said Thursday night in a telephone interview. “The safety village teaches 200 kids a year. This is an investment. I don’t put a dollar figure on this. If it saves one life then it’s worth it.”

On Tuesday, the board voted 5-1 to formally terminate a contract for construction of the village at . The commissioners agreed to pay approximately $13,000 for the work that has already been completed, said Jay Kinzler, the board vice president.

Before the new board was seated, the previous board, of which Aubrey was a member, laid out a program to restore the safety village, including paving, new storm sewer lines and pouring concrete foundations. But just weeks later, once the new board was sworn in, they argued the park district could not afford the restoration of the project. Kinzler said the project's estimated total was $500,000 to $800,000, which he says only impacts 50-75 children annually.

Kinzler said the $13,000 in expenses incurred so far are not a total waste. He said part of the $13,000 spent included storm sewer lines that were needed. However, he said those funds could have been used to benefit a larger group of park district participants.

“That $13,000 or $14,000 we could have used to fix soccer fields, baseball fields, it could have been worse,” Kinzler said.

Kinzler said that the he feels the previous board commissioners were “irresponsible” to pass something at the last hour in their very last meeting.

“What we just did was damage control to try and save the taxpayer money by stopping the project as soon as we possibly could.”

But Aubrey disagreed with Kinzler’s assessment. He said he was on the board when the safety village was created and believes that it is a worthwhile project to keep funding.

“I’ve experienced the joy of seeing it go from idea to reality. But with the change of the majority of the board, they just don’t feel the same way about the value of teaching children safety,” Aubrey said.

The park district safety village instructs children in various safety programs including stranger danger, stop drop and roll, water safety, bike safety and street sign awareness. Aubrey said those programs are worth preserving. Not only did Aubrey criticize his fellow commissioners’ reasoning, he said voting to cease a contract sets a bad precedent for the board.

“When you say what you were going to do, you can’t change your mind when something better comes along,” Aubrey said. “We as a park district rely on volunteers to work and keep the costs down on our programs. What kind of message are we sending … that the park board doesn’t care and has changed its mind at will.”

Aubrey also believes backing out of the contract will negatively impact the park district’s position any time they attempt to bid out a project. Aubrey said he thinks a lot of contractors will hesitate to do business with the district because of the precedent the board set by backing out of the contract.

“They’ve gone back on their word. This is the first time the park district has ever cancelled a contract. This is a loss of credibility and the fall out could be for years,” Aubrey said.