EastSide Centre — A Testament To The
Benefits Of Intergovernmental Cooperation
By RICHARD M. JOSEPH
Can a central Illinois community of less than 23,000
inhabitants construct a new 102 acre public recreation
center which includes a football stadium, an all weather
track, an aquatic center, an indoor recreation center,
ball fields, soccer fields, a two acre paddle boat and
fishing lagoon and hiking trails? The answer is yes! It is
known as EastSide Centre and its existence is a testament to what can be accomplished when local governmental entities cooperate with one another.
EastSide Centre is a state of the art recreation center
located on a former gravel pit in East Peoria and created through the cooperation of the City of East Peoria,
the Fon du Lac Park District, East Peoria Community
High School District No. 309, East Peoria Grade School
District No. 86, the East Peoria Mass Transit District
and Fondulac Township. The park, completion of
which is anticipated during the fall of 1996, is designed
for enjoyment by all age groups and provides recreational opportunities for entire families at one safe, central location.
The Components
One of the primary components of EastSide Centre
is a unique family aquatic center featuring a "Lazy
River" (an 860 foot current driven encirclement of the
aquatic center for rafting and inner tubing), a Treehouse (a forty foot tall interactive water play system
which, each few minutes, cascades a thousand gallons
of water down onto patrons) and a 250 foot super water
slide. The family aquatic center also includes more
traditional elements such as a toddler's zero depth pool
and a lap pool for competitive swimming, lap swimming and lessons.
The indoor recreation center is a 53,000 square foot
indoor sports complex and athletic facility including a
fully equipped exercise room, a running/walking track,
basketball courts, soccer facilities, batting cages, a concession area and a gaming arcade.
EastSide Centre also includes a 4,000 seat stadium
with a lighted and irrigated football/soccer field and
track and field facilities. The stadium was designed
primarily for structured sporting events of East Peoria
Community High School District No. 309.
The center also contains four regulation lighted
soccer fields, and ten lighted baseball and softball fields
(for use by the community youth sports organizations
for hosting tournaments, and for unstructured play);
two open play areas with playground equipment (located in close proximity to ball fields for enjoyment of
family members while structured games are being
played); and a two acre lagoon offering fishing and
paddle boating.
The Need and the Benefit
EastSide Centre was developed in response to the
individual needs of the various governmental bodies
and their shared desire to be responsive to the needs of
the community as a whole. In 1993, the Fon du Lac
District found it necessary to close its old fashioned lap
pool due to deterioration and obsolescence. East Peoria
Community High School lacked a track and its football
stadium was over sixty years old with extremely limited
parking and poor accessibility. Additionally, the Comprehensive Plan of the City of East Peoria, completed in
1994, clearly identified a need for more and varied
recreational opportunities for both structured events,
such as soccer leagues and ball leagues, and for non-structured events.
Without assistance or an increase in tax revenues, the
governmental bodies found it impractical, if not impossible, to individually construct the facilities needed to
serve their constituents. Together, however, the governmental entities recognized that each could compliment the other to achieve mutually beneficial goals of
serving the varied needs of their constituents. Moreover, since each of the governmental entities have
boundaries which are, in large respect, coterminous,
each recognized that cooperation would not only result
in better individual facilities, but that cooperation
would lessen the overall cost for the taxpayers. For
example, the aquatic center, the football stadium and
the indoor sports complex all share the same locker
facilities located in the indoor Recreation Center, thereby eliminating the need for identical triplicate facilities.
Since the locker facilities are used by the aquatic facility, the football stadium and the indoor sports complex
in different seasons or primarily at different times, the
sharing of such locker facility results in a lower net cost
with no diminution in services,
Richard M. Joseph is a partner in the law firm of Miller, Hall & Triggs,
in Peoria, and concentrates his law practice in the areas of governmental law and finance. He is the attorney for EastSide Centre, Inc.,
attorney for the Fon du Lac Park District, Assistant City Attorney for
the City of East Peoria and Assistant School Board Attorney for East
Peoria Community High School District No. 309.
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April 1996 / Illinois Municipal Review / Page 13
Another example of the benefits of the intergovernmental cooperation is the shared parking. The
Aquatic Center, the football stadium and organized
youth soccer, baseball and softball all need significant
amounts of parking — but not always at the same time.
Moreover, combining the various elements in one
location creates a synergistic effect where, at one location, there are recreational opportunities for entire families and individuals of all ages. For instance, a family
would be able to come to EastSide Centre and a daughter play organized softball, a toddler and mother enjoy
the Aquatic Center, and the father exercise in the Recreation Center — all at the same time and in one safe,
convenient location. No longer must siblings sit idly by
while one family member is playing in an organized
ballgame — they can now swim, paddle boat, play
basketball, or enjoy any one of a number of other opportunities offered at EastSide.
The end result of the cooperation of the local governmental bodies is better and varied services and facilities at a lesser cost to the taxpayers.
The Structure
Given the size of the undertaking and the number of
governmental entities involved, the structure of EastSide Centre needed to be quite formal. Nevertheless,
EastSide Centre has, as its basis, the Illinois Governmental Cooperation Act. The Act authorizes (and encourages) state and local governing bodies to cooperate
in the performance of their responsibilities by contract
and other agreements. During the later part of 1994, the
four governmental bodies of the City of East Peoria, the
Fon du Lac Park District, East Peoria Community High
School District No. 309 and East Peoria Grade School
District No. 86 entered into an Intergovernmental
Cooperation Agreement approving the formation of
EastSide Centre, Inc. and establishing bylaws regarding the governing of the organization.
EastSide Centre, Inc. was then organized as a not-for-profit corporation for the purpose of designing,
constructing and maintaining EastSide Centre. In order
to ensure that the corporation remained responsive to
the needs of the public, the corporation's only members
are the governmental bodies. Moreover, the City, the
Park District and the two school districts each hold one
seat on the eleven member Board of Directors. The
remaining seven seats were filled by the four governmental bodies agreeing on community members who
would bring various experiences and expertise to the
corporation and thus round out the Board of Directors.
Finally, EastSide Centre, Inc., once incorporated,
sought and obtained an advance ruling as a 501(c)(3)
corporation; thus resulting in beneficial tax treatment
and the ability to seek tax deductible donations.
The Financing
The total estimated value of EastSide Centre, once
constructed, is expected to exceed twelve million dollars.
The various individual components of EastSide
Centre were financed in a number of different ways
with a strong emphasis on volunteerism and limiting the
use of tax dollars. To achieve its primary objective of
constructing a water park, the Fon du Lac Park District
leased ground from EastSide Centre, Inc. for $1.00 per
year for 99 years and refunded its outstanding debt to
obtain $1.5 million of the $1.7 million necessary to construct the aquatic facility. The refunding was structured
so as not to increase the Park District's tax rate. An
additional $200,000 was obtained through a grant from
the Illinois Department of Natural Resources.
To finance the stadium, East Peoria Community
High School District No. 309 and EastSide Centre, Inc.
cooperated in the issuance of General Obligation Limited Tax School Building Certificates Of Participation.
By prearrangement, the Certificates of Participation
were then sold to local banks thus generating $2.27
million. The Certificates of Participation will be retired
by EastSide Centre, Inc. through annual rental receipts
paid by the high school pursuant to a 90-year lease
between EastSide Centre, Inc., as lessor of the stadium,
and the high school, as lessee.
The City of East Peoria, through an Installment
Purchase Agreement, acquired title to the land from
EastSide Centre, Inc., and pledged 20% of its gaming tax
revenues (East Peoria is host to a riverboat casino) over
the next ten years to provide the $4.5 million needed for
the completion of the necessary infrastructure improvements and the Recreation Center.
EastSide Centre is also the recipient of a tremendous amount of community support in terms of volunteer labor and donations of materials and money. The
cooperation of the governmental bodies rippled
through the community prompting an outpouring of
volunteerism from organized labor, the business community and citizens in general. For instance, the Operating Engineers Local 649, through its upgrade pro-
Page 14 / Illinois Municipal Review / April 1996
gram and the volunteer efforts of many of its members,
contributed greatly by shaping the once gravel pit into a
site capable of development as a recreation facility.
Architects' estimates as to the value of the donations of
labor for site preparation exceeds $500,000. Individuals, in the hundreds, volunteered to lay drain tiles and
watermains, to move rocks and to seed fields. Store
owners and civic clubs volunteered food and provided
lunches on volunteer days and businesses and individuals continue to donate materials as well as cash ranging
in amounts from $1.00 to $25,000. In fact, the high
school anticipates that through significant volunteer efforts, the final cost of the stadium will be several
hundred thousand dollars less than the architect's estimated cost of $2.27 million.
The Result
EastSide Centre did not happen overnight or by
chance. It took time, hard work, creativity, bold leadership and first and foremost, cooperation. The needs of
each of the governmental bodies, combined with the
substantial benefits to be achieved for the citizens of the
community and an aggressive "can do attitude", permitted each governmental body to see beyond the "turf
battles" so prevailing in many communities. The result
is EastSide Centre, a facility which will serve the recreational needs of a growing, prosperous and caring
community well into the twenty-first century. •
April 1996 / Illinois Municipal Review / Page 15
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