Howard Mohr Community Center will host this year’s summer camp at Grant-White, the elementary school that closed at the start of the 2022 school year because of declines in enrollment.
The summer camp, which starts June 3, will relocate because participating children won’t have access to the community center’s playground, which was closed to them near the start of the year because the reservoir underneath it is deteriorating.
The million-gallon reservoir holds a majority of the village’s potable water. Last year, the village hired contractor J.V. Henik to survey the severity of the reservoir, which is nearing the end of its estimated 75-year lifespan.
When J.V. Henik released its study around the start of the new year, they recommended “there [should] be no live load on the top slab henceforward until repairs are made.” The study also reported that reinforcement joints underneath the playground had rusted away, and parts of the six-inch concrete slab holding it up were worn through, showing the asphalt above it.
It was around then that the village started looking for alternative locations for the community center’s summer school so that participating kids had the opportunity to regularly play outside.
Village Administrator Rachell Entler said the village asked School District 91 about using one of its buildings, and they suggested Grant-White, which is used for some all-school programming.
Karen Dylewski, director of Howard Mohr Community Center, said she was in the loop regarding this relocation, since she attends bimonthly village council meetings, where conversations about the reservoir, and the lot above it, have been ongoing over the past few years.
“That’s our playground area, so the kids need that, in the summer especially,” Dylewski said.
During summer camps, when the community center hosts children ages five through 12 from 6:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., access to an outside play area becomes increasingly important.
Although children attending the community center for before- and after-school care haven’t had access to the playground during the past couple of months — and likely won’t next school year either — Dylewski said this doesn’t affect programming as much because the children are only there for a few hours in the morning or afternoon, and much of their time is spent having a snack and doing homework.
Holding summer camp at Grant-White allows the community center access to a few classrooms, the gym and playground. Dylewski said that the community center has held summer camp, which they’ve offered since the early 1990s, at Grant-White in the past.
“We used to do it all the time there. It was just a bigger setting and easier because there’s a lot going on here,” Dylewski said of the community center, though she wasn’t the director then and isn’t certain of the reason.
The future of Grant-White is still unclear. By the fall, before- and after-school care will return to the community center while the village decides whether to rehab the Jackson Boulevard water reservoir or demolish it and build a new one.
Entler said the village does not yet have a timeline for when they will make this decision.
Renovating the reservoir would cost around $3 million and extend its life another 25 years. A new reservoir would likely take the form of two above-ground, million-gallon reservoirs, since, even with the 350,000-gallon Hannah Avenue reservoir, the village is around 700,000 gallons short of the EPA-recommended amount of stored water.
New reservoirs would last around 75 years but cost $10 million, and would take three years to construct. Suggested locations include the Altenheim and the CTA Blue Line parking lot.