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Work on Carbondale’s Super Splash Park Outdoor Aquatic Center may be close to resuming.

Carbondale Park District officials will hold a press conference Thursday to announce that the Illinois Department of Natural Resources has lifted the suspension of state grant funding for the project.

“The suspension has been lifted,” Park District Executive Director Kathy Renfro said Tuesday. […]

In March, IDNR informed the Park District that it was suspending its grant funding for the project at the order of Gov. Bruce Rauner. The pool, located at the Superblock, had been scheduled to open at the beginning of last summer.

…Adding… Naperville isn’t so lucky…

A new park planned as a gateway into North Central College is not likely to become part of the view from downtown Naperville in the coming year.

Construction once was planned to start last August, but the site of the future North Central College Washington Street Riverwalk Park now serves as a temporary parking lot. Its development is on hold while most of the state funds needed to pay for it remain in limbo in Springfield.

A $1.1 million grant for the park’s development, announced by former Gov. Pat Quinn in October 2014, was suspended in June by now Gov. Bruce Rauner, who cited the looming state budget stalemate as reason to withhold the funds.

*** UPDATE *** Actually… no…

posted by Rich Miller
Thursday, Nov 12, 15 @ 8:32 am

Comments

What is the cost of suspending all of these capital improvement projects and losing an entire construction season?

Comment by Stones Thursday, Nov 12, 15 @ 8:49 am
The only condition was that it had to be renamed Superstar Sham! Aquatic Center.

Comment by Wordslinger Thursday, Nov 12, 15 @ 8:49 am
Stones-

Why it’s not a “cost”, it’s “winning”! Rauner is now the Great Compromiser./s

Comment by Anon221 Thursday, Nov 12, 15 @ 8:54 am
Better that any funding goes toward a project in central or southern Illinois than a project at some state-funded college.

Just curious…did the state utilize eminent domain to take property away from Naperville taxpayers just so they have the land to build this park…or was this part of the existing acreage the college currently has?

Comment by Jake Leonard Thursday, Nov 12, 15 @ 9:08 am
These announcements are starting to really add up.
Sounds like the budget “crisis” is over! Yes! I don’t have to worry about paying more taxes starting in January! Rauner has fixed everything!
On to Term 2.

Comment by Cassandra Thursday, Nov 12, 15 @ 9:11 am
The giant list of suspended capital projects are indefensible, and causing irreparable harm to workers and state infrastructure.

Comment by Handle Bar Mustache Thursday, Nov 12, 15 @ 9:11 am
Just my opinion, these are the kinds of expenditures that SHOULD be eliminated.

Comment by Blue dog dem Thursday, Nov 12, 15 @ 9:14 am
Agree with Blue dog! Does Naperville really lack enough parks or have no local money for this? Given the many other pressing needs of the state, is a splash park really the priority here?

Comment by Put the Fun in unfunded Thursday, Nov 12, 15 @ 9:25 am
Blue dog @ 9:14

Understand that sentiment however one has to weigh the costs of stopping projects in their tracks when funding had previously been committed. Going forward, if the Governor wants to eliminate these types of projects - then that’s his business.

Comment by Stones Thursday, Nov 12, 15 @ 9:27 am
Was ALL the funding coming from the State for these projects, or were there matching funds/grants to implement them that were put in jeopardy because of Rauner’s halt?

Comment by Anon221 Thursday, Nov 12, 15 @ 9:33 am
==Does Naperville really lack enough parks or have no local money for this? Given the many other pressing needs of the state, is a splash park really the priority here?==

A splash park actually creates revenue and attracts people from outside of the city. That builds the economy far more than a vacant piece of land. As for the park at the College, a parking lot doesn’t do much to make a school attract potential students. A park and a nice campus might.

Comment by Dilemma Thursday, Nov 12, 15 @ 9:33 am
If you halt a project, but then eventually resume it, then you are not saving any money - you are spending (wasting) even more money to cover the shutdown/startup costs.

That is a constant issue with many of this Admin’s decisions. When you are not basing the decision on some sort of governing principle that will be consistent for an extended period of time, but merely to create temporary wedges to try to force people to chose against their interests, there are going to be significant costs involved with that. We haven’t really been hit with those costs yet.

Comment by Henry Francis Thursday, Nov 12, 15 @ 9:35 am
Two words: Brad Cole

Comment by Juvenal Thursday, Nov 12, 15 @ 9:48 am
hey capt fax if you get around to writin’ about the flood families and the ck claim they need a state budget to pay for the new homes could you ask the SuperStars provide some paperwork on their “request”

Comment by Anonin' Thursday, Nov 12, 15 @ 10:06 am
UPDATE- Has Carbondale received any monies from the IDNR grant since 2011 when they received word of approval? If not, it looks like a $2.5 million dollar grant just became a $1.875 million dollar grant (75%) that used their $625,000 match in the calculation.

Comment by Anon221 Thursday, Nov 12, 15 @ 10:09 am
Why should DNR be granting money to build LOCAL parks when it doesn’t have enough funds to maitain the State Parks?

Comment by anon Thursday, Nov 12, 15 @ 10:28 am
Has anyone compiled a complete list of the construction job sites that have been suspended due to Illinois’ budget crisis? If you know of one, would you please share the link? (I’ve found multiple lists in AP stories that are labeled as complete, but none of them listed all 218 Illinois job sites where work stopped on July 1.)

– MrJM

Comment by @MisterJayEm Thursday, Nov 12, 15 @ 10:33 am
When you announce that the funding previously committed (e.g. Film Industry credits), will in fact be released only after “we have an agreed budget” —

Is that “releasing a hostage”, or only confirming “proof of life” for one that you’re holding.

Comment by walker Thursday, Nov 12, 15 @ 10:35 am
MrJM-

I didn’t count the spots, but here’s a map from the CDB-

Zoom in and click on the yellow marker. Shows a great deal of info:

http://www.illinois.gov/cdb/about/Pages/Project-Webmap.aspx

Comment by Anon221 Thursday, Nov 12, 15 @ 10:55 am
UPDATE: Doh!

Comment by Juvenal Thursday, Nov 12, 15 @ 11:00 am
218 suspended construction projects listed at

http://www.sj-r.com/article/20151108/NEWS/151109630/?Start=2

Comment by Handle Bar Mustache Thursday, Nov 12, 15 @ 11:10 am
Hint on the excellent link from Handlebar (!), you can right click and export that spreadsheet to an excel file for easier viewing and sorting.

Comment by Anon221 Thursday, Nov 12, 15 @ 11:17 am
Business as usual with the RAUN Man. Spend,spend,spend.tax,tax tax tax.is this guy a republican or a democrat.?

Comment by blue dog dem Thursday, Nov 12, 15 @ 1:07 pm