Our Town, Our Field Meeting with District 87 Tonight

Community members and District 87 officials of how to better utilize Memorial Field at Glenbard West's campus since early.

Since then, some community members have banded together into a group—Our Town, Our Field—to oppose the addition of stadium-style lights to Memorial Field and to call for additional safety improvements on Crescent Boulevard which runs along the north side of the field.

But today, Our Town, Our Field revealed that they have a plan in the works that they think will appease everyone involved.

"It's just a rough idea," said Our Town member Kirk Burger in a phone interview today. "But we want to be a part of the solution."

Details of the plan will not be fully released until after tonight's meeting  at 7 p.m. with District 87 Superintendent Mike Meissen and Chris McClain, assistant superintendent for business services.

The hour-long meeting will be privately held between the district officials and representatives of Our Town, Our Field where they hope to propose a complete overhaul of the plans at Memorial Field—but in a way that takes both side's concerns into consideration.

"We've heard them about the ," Burger said of school officials and pro-enhancement community members who have said that by adding lights to Memorial Field, students would no longer need to be bused to other fields in Glen Ellyn for practices and games.

"We don't want to just complain about it, we want to come up with a solution that will work for everyone," Burger said of Our Town, Our Field's plan. 

Burger said that while the traffic safety concerns still need to be addressed, the new plan the group is offering will make adding the lights a non-issue. Burger said the new plan comes from an old idea of how to better utilize Memorial Field, from the group Gain Ground.

District 87 officials were not immediately available for comment tonight on the issue.

Editor's Note: Patch will be following up with this report tomorrow with additional information and complete coverage of the meeting and District 87's response. If you would like to be notified, please click the Keep Me Posted link below this article.