Batavia Illinois – The 5th Ward

Consent Agenda & Correspondence

This segment of the meeting served to swiftly handle routine administrative approvals and review recent communications from local partners and state representatives.

• The Board of Commissioners unanimously approved the consent agenda, which included previous meeting minutes, paid expenditures, and investment summaries.
• The district acknowledged thank-you notes from the local public library and the United Way for facility usage and event sponsorships.
• The Executive Director noted correspondence regarding an error in member initiative funding from a state senator’s office, though they expressed hope that the financial commitment will ultimately be honored in the state budget.

Financial Audit & Equipment Updates

The purpose of this topic was to inform the board of the district’s financial health following the annual audit and to provide a brief status update on incoming capital equipment.

• The Director of Finance reported that the independent auditor issued an unmodified, clean opinion for the 2025 financial audit.
• The audit did not identify any significant deficiencies, material weaknesses, or matters requiring corrective action.
• A Park District Official announced the arrival of new equipment and noted that a new garbage truck is expected to arrive in a couple of months.

Intern Presentations, Projects & Workplace Culture

This extensive portion of the agenda was dedicated to showcasing the contributions of summer interns across various departments, acknowledging staff milestones, and celebrating the district’s recent workplace excellence awards.

• Historical Photo Digitization and “Catalog It” Integration: The Collections Interns spent the summer scanning and digitizing the Depot Museum’s historical photos to update metadata, standardize the collection, and produce high-quality images. These photos—including highly requested street scenes and images of historical streetcars—will be uploaded to a new website called “Catalog It” to make the district’s 37,000-object archive more accessible to the public and streamline future inquiry requests.
• Callahan Center Display Case: The Museum Education Intern curated and set up a massive display case on the west side of the Callahan Center to showcase new artifacts that the Depot Museum accessioned over the past year.
• Museum Research and Walking Tour: The Museum Education Intern researched and drafted administrative reports focused on analyzing potential future visitors and gathering feedback, while museum staff and interns are concurrently developing a historical walking tour for the downtown area.
• Girls Softball Press Release: The Recreation Intern was tasked with writing a dedicated press release for the Girls Softball program, completing the project under the close mentorship and guidance of the district’s late Editor-in-Chief.
• Popsicles in the Park & Volunteer Dinner: The District Interns spent several months collaborating and planning the logistics for the upcoming Popsicles in the Park community event. Additionally, the Recreation Intern helped plan the logistics and coordinate the food for a volunteer appreciation dinner hosted in the Skyloft facility.
• National Parks and Recreation Month Campaign: As part of their standard curriculum, marketing interns are required to draft district-wide emails, write press releases, and create social media posts. This summer, the interns expanded on this project by independently creating videos and slideshows for social media to celebrate National Parks and Recreation Month.
• Culture Awards & Memorial: The Executive Director announced that the recent employee engagement survey yielded a record 125 responses, resulting in the district earning several culture excellence awards for work-life flexibility, innovation, and leadership. The Board of Commissioners and staff also held a heartfelt tribute for a recently deceased staff member, sharing plans to plant a memorial lilac bush and institute a weekly staff appreciation day in her honor.

Windmill City Festival & Community Projects

Discussions on this topic aimed to review the financial and community impact of recent large-scale events and to update the board on ongoing community engagement initiatives.

• The recent city festival experienced record-breaking sales, with the beer garden grossing over $60,000, representing a 26% increase from the prior year.
• Ten percent of the festival’s specific nightly beverage proceeds will be donated to the local Rotary Club and the firefighters union, respectively.
• Windmill City Festival Signage Overhaul: A Marketing Staff Member and the broader marketing department completely rebranded the signage for the festival. This involved collaborating with the trades department to create designated, festival-only signage to streamline future installations, improve how information is displayed to attendees, and establish a better inventory tracking system to prevent excess spending.
• Peace Out Batavia Community Mural: The Executive Director celebrated the launch of a community mural project featuring 52 aluminum panels being painted by local non-profit and volunteer groups inside the Callahan Community Center using a paint-by-number system. Each panel requires a preliminary base coat and a second coat, with a Marketing Staff Member completing the touch-up work to ensure the project remains entirely volunteer-based.
• The Executive Director also celebrated the successful dedication of a new pedestrian ramp alongside the mural initiative.

Grant Approvals, Budget Amendments & Park Development

The board reviewed these financial agenda items to officially accept state grant funding and authorize the necessary accounting mechanisms to allocate revenue across the district’s various funds.

• Local Park Development: The Board of Commissioners unanimously approved Resolution 321 authorizing an OSLAD grant program related to the development of a local park. This approval was a necessary formality to officially start the design process so the district can allocate funds for it in the following year’s budget.
• A budget amendment was passed to officially recognize $2.8 million in park grant revenue received earlier in the year.
• The amendment successfully authorized inter-fund transfers to restore reserves in the corporate and recreation funds that were originally utilized to back the project.

Employee Benefits Policy (First Reading)

District leadership presented this policy update to evaluate and expand current employee and commissioner benefits, ensuring the district remains competitive and responsive to feedback from the employee engagement survey.

• Proposed policy changes would replace the current $1,000 annual limit on in-house programming with unlimited access for employees, commissioners, and eligible dependents.
• The policy simplifies discounts for contractual programming to a flat 30%, explicitly requiring the employee to cover the contractor’s fee to prevent the district from losing money.
• To ensure fiscal responsibility, these benefits will be reviewed annually by district leadership to monitor financial impact and evaluate potential amenity additions.

Purchasing Card Services Agreement

The objective of this agenda item was to transition the district to a new financial service provider for employee purchasing cards, prioritizing better financial returns and updated security parameters.

• The Board of Commissioners approved a commercial card service agreement with a new bank, ending a nearly two-decade relationship with the previous consortium.
• The transition secures a better annual rebate for the district and provides the finance department with an opportunity to reset cardholder spending limits and internal control policies.

Executive Session

The public meeting concluded with a motion to handle sensitive property matters outside of the public forum.

• The Board of Commissioners voted to enter an executive session specifically to discuss land acquisition and the selling price for a sale lease.

Author: Jim Fahrenbach