Good news for the Park District of Forest Park. Once again, it has won a major grant from the state’s Open Space Land Acquisition and Development fund. OSLAD grants are a critical support from Springfield for local park districts looking to actively invest in their parks.
In recent years, the park district has won three of these matching grants. Those funds were invested in the remaking of the long-ignored pocket parks, specifically Remembrance Park on Randolph and Rieger Park on Circle Avenue.
The incoming OSLAD grant will pay a major portion of a $1.5 million upgrade at the main park on Harrison Street. The heavily used artificial turf on the soccer field will be replaced, likely this fall. Parents have expressed some concern that the field is unsafe because the aging turf is degrading. The park district has agreed that the turf field is near the end of its useful life, but testing shows it’s safe for another season.
The playground at the park will get an upgrade too. Park officials promise residents will be invited, maybe as early as next month, to offer ideas and critiques of what the playground and other accoutrements required by the state’s cash infusion will require.
Our small-but-mighty park district is showing the way on investing in the limited space it has. The improvements made are thoughtful, inclusive and well spread across the village.
Community policing and the DOJ
Our community’s sincere thanks to the federal Department of Justice for a $375,000 grant to support the hiring of additional police officers. That money, spread over three years, will help Forest Park finally get to its full staff of 38 officers.
The village is required to provide a 25% match, or about $95,000, over those years. That will still leave a funding hole even though the cash-strapped village already budgets for full-staffing levels.
Given the generally despicable actions and inactions of the DOJ under President Donald Trump, we’re hoping no one tells him that this funding is earmarked for building community partnerships and increasing capacity for community policing. Those are decidedly not the priorities of this failing administration.
But we’ll take the cash.
