South Cook News

City of Palos Heights Recreation Committee met Aug. 12

Here are the minutes provided by the committee:

CALL TO ORDER

Chairman Key called the regular meeting of the Recreation Committee to order at 7:10 p.m. at the Palos Heights City Hall, 7607 W. College Drive. In attendance were Chairman Key, Alderman Begley and Alderman Basso. Also present were Director of Parks and Recreation Matt Fairbanks and recording secretary Morgan Pukula.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES

Chairman Key motioned to approve the minutes of the June 10, 2025 meeting, seconded by Alderman Begley. On a voice vote, the motion passed unanimously.

PUBLIC COMMENT

None.

LAKE KATHERINE REPORT

Chairman Key gave the Lake Katherine report:

• Gareth was unable to attend the committee meeting because of a ‘Discover Lake Katherine’ event for potential partners to learn about Lake Katherine.

• Archery day’s program was at full capacity.

• Palos Islamic Center work day including volunteering and working on creating small terraced garden behind the waterfall.

• The foraged floral arrangement program had 15 people sign up.

• The University of Illinois celebration of 50 years included tours at Lake Katherine.

• A green team meeting was held. Social media one Earth film festival and upcoming events were discussed.

• Eagle scouts installed bee boxes around the lake. They are not hives but boxes that encourage native bees to be less solitary.

• The solstice morning kayak tour was held on June 20th. 17 kayakers came out at 5:45am on the longest day of the year.

• The sunrise kayak tour had 11 people join us to watch the sunrise.

• Staff have been attending the Farmers Market events

• Our fishing day had 40 people attend

• Overnight campout had 6 families in attendance for nature programming and had an overnight campout in the children’s forest.

• Sunset sonata had 50 people attend, where they listened to classical music at sunset.

• We hosted a volunteer BBQ to thank them for their hard work.

• During the extreme heat advisories, the kayak rentals were closed.

Education:

○ We had 9 field trips on animal groups, stem and wetlands. We had 1 Little Explorers class on trees, a summer explorers program on pigeons, nature hours at Palos Heights Public Library, summer camp started and there were 6 animal reading buddies classes.

○ Nature tots had 2 sessions on bubbles and 1 session on camping, the Merit badge registration opens on August 23rd.

○ Upcoming events: Monarch celebration and Makers Market are on September 20th and 21st, fishing day is September 6th and the kayak tour is September 3rd.

PARKS AND RECREATION REPORT

Director of Parks and Recreation Matt Fairbanks gave the Parks and Recreation report:

• Recreation Update: In July, we hosted the ‘Best Week Ever’ during the 4th of July week. On Monday, June 30th, we handed out bomb popsicles at all the parks for National Bomb Pop. On Tuesday, July 1st, we had a family trivia night, on July 2nd, we hosted a Beach Bash Party at the pool from 1pm – 3pm. On July 3rd, we host the Independence celebration; in the morning between 10am – 1pm, there were inflatables and activities for the kids. We sold 211 wristbands for the kid’s activities. Later in the day, there was a DJ, a live band, and a beer tent, that concluded with the fireworks show. There were approximately 2,500-3,000 people in attendance at Memorial Park. July 4th was the annual Independence Day parade. Matt thanked the Case family for organizing the parade and again for a great event. There were 53 entries in the parade and the weather held up for us.

Summer camp session 3 started on July 21st and ended on August 8th. During their session, they attended the pool, went to the Lincoln Park Zoo and had an all camp party with a foam party. The teen camp attended the pool, the Raging Waves water park, Lincoln Park Zoo, and walked to lunch every Friday. Kiddie camp attended the pool, and went to the Oak Lawn Museum for their field trips.

Twinkles Camp started on July 1st and ran through July 24th where they performed their performance. Twinkles is for grad preschool – 1st grade. Sparks started July 2nd, and concluded July 30th and performed at the end of their camp as well; sparks is 2nd grade – 4th grade.

Youth athletics enrollment was lower due to the summer time, but one program that did stand out was the Chicago White Sox camp that ran from July 21st – 24th. Coaches ran it very well, and the parents gave positive feedback. Tee ball began July 21st. They practice once a week and have games on Saturday and there are 42 participants enrolled. The 4-5 year olds league practices on Tuesdays and play games on Thursdays with 66 participants.

And finally, the coach pitch league practice once a week, with games on Saturdays and there are 44 participants enrolled.

There have been a couple weather rescheduled concerts. Zydeco Voodoo was rescheduled to August 7th, and this Thursday, The Chicago Experience is performing. The last concert of the year was a rescheduled one as well, and it will be Nashville Electric on August 21st.

• Pool/Splash Pad Update: The pool has been constantly busy. This summer has been hot and humid, and we’ve only had to close the pool due to weather 6 times. Staff continues to hear how great the pool improvements and additions are. The pool is scheduled to close for the season on September 1st. This Thursday, we will begin reducing hours at the pool as well: Monday-Friday 4pm-7pm, Saturday and Sunday 12pm-7pm. To date, we have reached our budget numbers for this season. Our overall pool budget is currently at 103.5% of what we budgeted. We have made $417,000.00 at the pool when we budgeted for $403,000.00.

Parent/Tot swim lessons had 33 swimmers, our beginner level had 103 participants and the intermediate level had 144 swimmers enrolled.

We had 9 pool deck rentals in July, which right on our average for the month.

The splash pad opened Memorial Day weekend and has constantly been busy. The splash pad was open Monday-Friday 10am-7pm and Saturdays and Sundays 9am-5pm. The splash pad will remain open until the end of September unless the weather takes a turn for the worse or better.

• Worth Park District IGA: The Worth Park District director agreed to partially fund the Independence Day activities because for the past couple years, Worth has been sharing our fireworks show, etc. Our agreement would include the sports and the 4th of July celebration. The Worth team would like to come to a committee meeting to introduce themselves.

Alderman Basso mentioned installing a new fence around the pool so kids cannot scale it and damage the property. It was discussed that if there is another grant or money available, it would be the first thing to address.

NEW BUSINESS

a) Chairman Key motioned to approve payment #11 to Simpson Construction in the amount of $96,477.60 for work completed on the Pool Improvement Project, seconded by Alderman Begley. On a voice vote, the motion passed unanimously. This is the final payment for the project.

b) Chairman Key motioned to approve a new copier and printer service for the Recreation Department including toner and servicing for $175.00 for 60 months for machines and approximately $35.00 for 60 months for printing cost, seconded by Alderman Begley. On a voice vote, the motion passed unanimously.

Alderman Basso requested pianos in the parks for a music feature. Matt stated that he was attending a conference in the near future and will see if there is a vendor who makes outdoor pianos.

OLD BUSINESS

None.

ADJOURNMENT

There being no further business, Chairman Key moved to adjourn the meeting, seconded by Alderman Begley. All in favor.

Meeting adjourned at 7:31 p.m.

https://palosheights.org/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_09092025-1244