To accommodate crews working on the Senior Center, from Thurs., Aug 1 through Sat., Aug 3 the Recreation Center elevator will be out of service. On Thurs., Aug 1, from 8am to noon, the Recreation Center locker rooms will be closed and the entrance to the Center will be limited to the southeast side, next to the lobby and the emergency exit. Also, on Thurs., Aug 1, from noon to 5pm, the Recreation Center’s pool and locker rooms will be closed and the hot water will be shut off. We appreciate your patience during this time.
To accommodate crews working on the Senior Center, from Thurs., Aug 1 through Sat., Aug 3 the Recreation Center elevator will be out of service. On Thurs., Aug 1, from 8am to noon, the Recreation Center locker rooms will be closed and the entrance to the Center will be limited to the southeast side, next to the lobby and the emergency exit. Also, on Thurs., Aug 1, from noon to 5pm, the Recreation Center’s pool and locker rooms will be closed and the hot water will be shut off. We appreciate your patience during this time.
Are you looking for ways to reach your target audience, maximize your marketing efforts and build your brand as an involved community business? The Park District offers a variety of sponsorship and advertising opportunities throughout the year for as little as $100. New sponsorship and advertising opportunities are now available at Sunset Valley Golf Club and The Preserve of Highland Park.
To learn more, contact Nik Lapin at 847.971.0718 or email him at [email protected]
Depending on the level and type of sponsorship you select, you will receive:
Recognition on promotional materials surrounding the event
A link to your company website from the Park District website that attracts over 350,000 visits per year
Promotion in our bi-monthly e-newsletter which is distributed to over 15,000 local Highland Park e-mail addresses
On-site banners/signage at the event
Display and sampling opportunities
8/26/20 – The Park District is committed to helping families through this challenging time and to provide important recreational and educational outlets for the health and well-being of your children. We are pleased to announce a series of recreation-based enrichment programs to supplement your child’s school year. Our enrichment curriculum includes a wide variety of options for preschool through eighth grade and will fit any schedule, including morning, afternoon, after school, home schools, and micro-pods.
Below is a listing of our program offerings by category. Click on the categories you are interested in for more information and to register. For your convenience, we have also included these programs in our Fall brochure.
Scholarships are also be available to ensure everyone has an opportunity to participate. We do not want a program fee to be a deterrent to your or your family members from participating. If you are experiencing financial hardship, please email scholarships@pdhp.org to speak with our staff about available scholarship opportunities. All scholarships and inquiries regarding financial aid are completely confidential.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us at 847-831-3810.
Heller Nature Center Supplemental Learning Programs
Register for a developed program or a customized program to fit your needs. We offer programs on-site (your students come to us) and off-site (we come to your local park). Whatever best meets your needs! Click here for details.
In keeping with the global movement of fish that takes place each spring, Saturday, May 16 would have been World Migratory Fish Day. This year’s official celebration has moved to October 24, but that doesn’t mean we can’t mark this amazing rite of passage!
The Park District of Highland Park has tracked migratory fish at our lakefront parks since 2010. Four years ago, we were among the first to take part in a Shedd Aquarium study on the movements of a Lake Michigan native species, the White Sucker! Most years, volunteers are at the streams daily to check on their progress. While monitoring has been limited this year, we do know that Ravine Drive Beach and Rosewood Beach both had fishy visitors! Learn more about the project, check out the Shedd Aquarium’s Conservation Research Pages.
The Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting has been awarded to the Park District of Highland Park by the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) for its comprehensive annual financial report (CAFR) for the 2018 fiscal year. This is the 30th year in a row that the district has received this recognition. The Certificate of Achievement Award is the highest form of recognition in governmental accounting and financial reporting, and its attainment represents a significant accomplishment by a government and its management.
“This award demonstrates the Park District of Highland Park’s continued commitment to ensure our CAFR is thorough and provides the information required for a full assessment of the district’s financial strength,” said Park District of Highland Park Executive Director Brian Romes.
The Park District of Highland Park CAFR was judged by an impartial panel and meets the high standards of the program including demonstrating a constructive “spirit of full disclosure” to clearly communicate its financial story and motivate potential users and user groups to read the CAFR. The Certificate Program was established by the GFOA in 1945. It was instituted to encourage all governments to prepare and publish an easily readable and understandable financial report.
The GFOA is a nonprofit professional association advancing excellence in government finance by providing best practices, professional development, resources and practical research for more than 20,500 government finance professionals and the communities they serve.
On Friday, January 24, the Park District of Highland Park was presented with the 2020 Illinois Park and Recreation Association’s (IPRA) Outstanding Program Award for the Park District’s new ParkSchool early childhood program. The award was presented at the IPRA annual business meeting held at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Chicago, Illinois. It is the association’s top award given to one agency out of over 2,000 from across Illinois for outstanding and unique achievements in the development and implementation of a program. The Park District of Highland Park won the IPRA Outstanding Facility Award for the renovation of Sunset Valley Golf Club in 2019 and Rosewood Beach in 2016.
“We are very pleased to kick off the new year with this significant honor and recognition from IPRA,” commented Brian Kaplan, President of the Board of Commissioners for the Park District of Highland Park. “It has been gratifying to work cooperatively with Highland Park families and our dedicated staff to create this one-of-a-kind program.”
Based on the extensive parent feedback, in the Fall of 2019, the new ParkSchool opened its doors, offering Highland Park a fresh new concept in early childhood education.
(left to right) Park District of Highland Park Executive Director Brian Romes; Recreation Supervisor Sara Stanke; Recreation Manager Cathy Fiori; Park Board President Brian Kaplan; Park Board Commissioner Terry Grossberg
What sets ParkSchool apart, is a new combination of modern early childhood education methods along with the expertise in recreation and access to the natural world that only the Park District can provide. The educational staff partnered with the Park District’s entire team of recreational professionals to deliver a new level of STREAM (science, technology, recreation, engineering, art, and math) for young learners.
Core to ParkSchool is introducing children to activities like tennis, golf, art, dance, gymnastics, nature, and athletics to develop
fine and gross motor skills that are essential to successful learning. Professional staff from our golf and tennis clubs, athletics and performing arts departments, gymnastics, and nature centers teach ParkSchool students the fundamentals of sports and creative movement.
The program’s progressive curriculum with creative projects and interactive lessons embraces children’s natural curiosity and builds toward kindergarten-readiness. Children build confidence, learn to follow instructions, receive a progressive introduction to reading, writing, color, number and letter recognition, and develop social skills to form friendships through sharing, collaborating, and creative expression.
It is a priority at ParkSchool to foster a sense of community. Through weekly communication, newsletters, and evening events, the goal is to connect parents within our community who have children of similar ages and interests. Events include our Introduction to ParkSchool evening held in early Fall, a Fall Family Campfire, and a Graduation Day event in May.
The Park District of Highland Park was awarded a $400,000 Open Space Lands Acquisition and Development (OSLAD) grant that will be used for trail work, park amenities, interpretive signage, and landscaping at Community Park located at the Recreation Center of Highland Park. Last year, the Park District was awarded $144,672 Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (lllinois EPA) 319 grant funding to enhance the shoreline of the north pond located at the Community Park. To date, the Park District has been awarded over $500,000 in grant funding for the development of Community Park.
“We are grateful to the State of Illinois for awarding us the grant funds to complete this unique project,” said Brian Romes, Executive Director for the Park District of Highland Park. “Community Park will provide new one-of-a-kind outdoor recreation options surrounded by natural habitats that can be enjoyed by all ages.”
The Park District of Highland Park acquired the 100-acre Community Park property from the City of Highland Park in 2018. In accordance with the Park District’s GreenPrint 2024 Master Plan and with input from community residents and stakeholders, the Park District has worked with land planning specialists to create a Community Park master plan that includes green spaces interwoven with natural areas, gardens, and woods through which people can walk, bike and run. The property also offers unique connectivity to the Recreation Center of Highland Park, adjacent trails, and the Skokie River Woods property.
The Park District of Highland Park Competitive Gymnastics Team participated in their first meet of the season on January 11, 2020, hosted by Viking Gymnastics Club at Niles West High School located in Skokie, Illinois. It is the second year the growing team has competed.
The Level 3 team gymnast Rowan Kach placed second place on bars, floor, and All-Around. Joining Kach in the Eight-Nine-Year-Old Group, Hannah Maletsky placed third on floor, and fourth on bars and All-Around, and Sydney Genser placed fourth on floor and fifth on All- Around.
In the Ten-Year-Old Group, Naomi Rago placed fourth on vault, and eighth All-Around. Alexa Spector placed third on bars and floor, and fifth All-Around. Fiona Brownstein was awarded first on floor and third All-Around.
Charlie Weisbart placed ninth on floor and beam, and eleventh All-Around in the Eleven-Year-Old age group. Lauren Smiley placed fourth on vault and bars, and fifth All-Around.
“Our gymnasts are working hard, improving on their skills and routines, and exhibiting more confidence while having fun showing off their routines,” said Bruce Keeshin, Park District of Highland Park Competitive Gymnastics Team Coach. “We have started the season off strong.”
For more information about Centennial Ice Arena recreational and competitive gymnastics programs, please contact Carol Sassorossi, [email protected].
Photo: Bottom row (left to right): Charlie Weisbart, Sydney Genser, Hannah Maletsky, Naomi Rago. Top row (left to right): Alexa Spector, Rowan Kach, Lauren Smiley, Fiona Brownstein
If you have been to a Lake Michigan beach over the last year, no doubt you noticed the effects of the abnormally high lake level. Across the Great Lakes, beaches are shrinking, property is at risk, and public access is being washed away. New forecasts by the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) are predicting lake levels will continue to rise in 2020, breaking century-old records. This month, Lake Michigan is over 17 inches higher than it was in January 2019. The USACE predicts record-breaking Lake Michigan levels will occur between this month and summer. Already, Lake Michigan is more than three feet above average.
Why So High?
High Lake Michigan water levels are attributed to higher levels of precipitation in the last year – 2019 had the highest precipitation recorded in over 125 years. According to the National Weather Service, we are also experiencing a warmer winter than anticipated; as a result, lake levels will remain high. Warmer winters contribute to higher lake levels.
The warmer than average temperatures in December led to more significant runoff due to snowpack melting, especially on lakes Superior, Michigan, and Huron, leading to more water supply. Warm air also causes less evaporation off the lakes’ surface, which leads to more water in the system. Because the temperatures are higher, ice dams can’t form along shorelines protecting beaches and shoreline structures from damaging high wave action and severe erosion during winter storms.
High lake levels cause storms and the wave action associated with them to be even more damaging to shorelines. High water levels allow waves to come up higher onshore escalating beach erosion. According to the USACE, this sets the stage for coastal impacts and damages in 2020, similar to, or worse than, what was experienced last year.
The New Normal, or Not?
Lake Michigan water levels have been tracked as far back as 1918 and indicate an average 20-year trend between water level lows and water level highs. However, in 2013, Lake Michigan dropped to the lowest level ever. Now, seven years later, the lake’s water level is expected to be at record-breaking highs. Are changing climate conditions feeding rapid shifts in lake levels? It is anybody’s guess if these erratic water levels are the “new normal.”
What is the Park District Doing to Protect our Public Lakefront Properties?
The Park District of Highland Park is taking a pro-active approach to protect our lakefront assets from the effects of the high-water conditions and continue providing safe beach access to the thousands of children, adults, and families that use them each year for recreation and leisure.
The Park District’s quick action to implement the emergency sand nourishment project earlier this fall at Rosewood Beach served its purpose protecting Rosewood’s parking lot, boardwalk, and structures from the devastating damage the November 11, 2019, and January 11, 2020, storms could have caused. The Park District is also working on options to make structural changes to Rosewood Beach that would protect the beach in the long term. The options under consideration include:
Underwater Weirs – placed at the opening of the coves to break intense wave action from reaching the shore.
Reducing the Gap Width of the Breakwaters – to break more waves from reaching the shore.
Back of Beach Revetment – providing a steel barrier along the boardwalk to protect the back of beach structures and parking lot.
High lake levels accompanied by intense storms over the past few years, especially this past winter, have caused damage to the breakwater wall/barge located at the Park Avenue Boating Facility. The Park District of Highland Park has been working with our engineering consultant on monitoring the condition of the barge/breakwater in past years. The significant damage that was sustained last winter was unanticipated and worse than previous winters.
To seek feasible options that provide long-term access to boating activities at Park Avenue Boating Facility, the Park District has formed a Park Avenue Working Group. The Group consists of Park District Staff and Board, City of Highland Park Staff and Council, North Shore Yacht Club Members, and resident boaters. Consistent with the Park District’s Mission and Board-approved policies, the Park Avenue Working Group is working with our coastal engineer to seek fiscally responsible site improvements that provide long term access to boating activities at Park Avenue Boating Facility.The Park Avenue Working Group’s objectives are to:
Gain a clear understanding of the current lake conditions, the proposed concepts for the barge/breakwater repair or replacement, and the risks associated with activities and shoreline protection at Park Avenue.
Explore fiscally responsible funding options to support site improvements.
Evaluate site improvement options and determine priorities based on feasibility.
Provide a recommendation to the Park Board on proposed site improvements and funding options.
Through ongoing lakefront planning, the Park District is also looking at the big picture by developing a Beach Management Plan for completion in 2021. The plan will address the increasing complexity of managing lakefront parks, and the need to protect the beaches for recreational use and natural habitat. To support the project, the Park District has been awarded grant funding through the Illinois Department of Natural Resources Coastal Management Program. The total project cost is $35,000, half of which is reimbursable by the grant. The Park District’s match is budgeted in the 2020 Capital Plan.
To develop the plan, the Park District will work will engineers at SmithGroup. Engineers will evaluate existing conditions to develop management recommendations and strategies for Moraine Beach, Millard Beach, Park Avenue Boating Facility, and Rosewood Beach. Each location is unique and will be addressed separately to develop specific actions that are customized to local conditions. The focus of the proposed plan is to develop practical, implementable, and quantifiable strategies to address sources of water quality degradation, habitat creation and protection, universal public access, and long-term resilience honoring the Park District’s mission and vision of environmental stewardship and appreciation of the natural world.
Intense storms over the weekend battered community beaches along the north shore. High winds and powerful waves combined with near record-high lake levels exacerbated the already significant beach and shoreline erosion sustained in the past several months. According to the United States Army Corps of Engineers, Lake Michigan is 16 inches above 2019 lake levels, 37 inches above the monthly average, and two inches above the record high for January.
Preemptive measures by the Park District of Highland Park minimized the damage and protected our resident’s safety from the dangerous weekend storm. Most of the damage at the Park District’s four lakefront properties was limited to debris washing ashore in the powerful waves.
At 4 pm on Friday, January 10, the Park District closed pedestrian and vehicular access to Rosewood Beach, Millard Beach, and Moraine Park based on predictions of 40- to 50-mile per hour wind gusts and extensive flooding along the lakefront. The City of Highland Park also closed Park Avenue Beach access.
Earlier last week, Park District crews moved the Park Avenue Boating Facility wooden hut further inland in anticipation of the winter storm. The hut sits typically on a small deck at the boat launch shoreline. The deck was washed away in the storm.
At Rosewood Beach, sand brought in this past October to protect structures along the Nature and Swimming Coves served its purpose. Rosewood’s parking lot, boardwalk, and other structures were not affected by the storm.
This week, our Parks staff is focusing on the cleanup following the storm, including clearing debris, including tree limbs, logs, and timbers in the north parking lot at Park Avenue Boating Facility. A fallen tree at the north end of Millard Beach was removed. Park District staff will continue removing debris at Rosewood Beach. Washed up logs, timbers, deck wood, and patio chair cushions have been removed thus far. Once the cleanup at Rosewood is completed and if waves stay calm, our Parks staff will return to Park Ave. to clean debris on the south beach near the Yacht Club.
The Park District of Highland Park Board of Commissioners adopted the 2020 budget of approximately $30.6 million at the December 12, 2019 meeting. The 2020 Budget reflects a continuation of the Park District’s commitment to maintain quality parks and facilities, continued efforts towards the completion of phase one of the Park District’s comprehensive master plan, as well as the Park District’s fiscal philosophy of successfully striking a balance between exceeding our community’s expectations with respect to programs and facilities while operating in a fiscally responsible manner.
In preparation for the 2020 budget approval, the Park District reviewed the proposed budget at three public meetings including the Park Board Finance Committee meeting on October 25, 2019; the Park Board Workshop meeting on November 5, 2019; and a budget public hearing that preceded the Board meeting on December 12, 2019. The 2020 Budget has been available for public review for the past 30 days at West Ridge Center, Recreation Center of Highland Park, the Highland Park Public Library and on the Park District website. The adopted budget will be published and available on the Park District website in December 2019.
Highlights of the 2020 budget are:
Operating surplus of $3.7 million
The District developed a five-year Capital Plan (GreenPrint 2024 capital improvement, capital repair and replacement, and facility and park maintenance) through 2025 that totals $31 million.
Issuance of $7.1 million in general obligation debt in 2020 to support the District’s five-year Capital Plan.
Improved revenues in camp and a greater focus on adult programming.
“It is our goal to continue providing valuable programs and services to Highland Park residents that enrich community life through, accountable, ethical, and sustainable operational and long-term planning efforts,” said Brian Romes, executive director of the Park District of Highland Park. “In the coming year, the Park District will continue aligning our GreenPrint 2024 Comprehensive Master Plan, five-year Capital Plan, 2016‐2020 Strategic Plan, and the 2020 Budget to ensure we continue exceeding resident and customers’ expectations by delivering extraordinary experiences within our parks and facilities.”
The Park District continues to maintain Moody’s Investor’s Service Aaa bond rating, based on its healthy reserve levels, favorable debt profile, and conservative revenue assumptions.
