GENEVA – Residents could ride bicycles on a new path and enjoy the wetlands of Prairie Green Preserve by the end of the year.
The city’s proposed budget earmarks money to match a $150,000 grant for projects at the site, which is more than 500 acres northwest of Peck and Keslinger roads.
The money, which includes $100,000 of reserve funds, would complete the first phase of the project and open the preserve to the public.
“It’s been an objective since the referendum passed in 1997,” City Administrator Phil Page said.
The $300,000 total would pay for an entrance and parking lot at Prairie View Drive, plus a bike path that would start at the entrance and loop south around an area of restored prairie, Page said.
The Illinois Department of Natural Resources grant has received preliminary approval, and Page said he hoped that the final word would come by this summer.
A second phase of the project would include work on storm drainage, plus more prairie restoration and wetland improvements, Page said. That phase could use money from a proposed a sales-tax increase. The April 17 sales-tax referendum asks residents whether the city should increase the sales tax by 0.5 percent to 7 percent, which would generate about $2 million for capital projects including Prairie Green Preserve.
The Geneva City Council is scheduled to vote on the proposed budget April 16 after a public hearing that night. The proposed budget lists revenues of about $84.8 million and expenses of about $91.9 million. The city would use reserve funding to pay for a new water treatment facility, a commuter parking deck, and the Prairie Green Preserve, which accounts for the difference between revenues and expenses, according to city information.
Weigh in
Residents can give their input on Geneva’s proposed budget at a public hearing scheduled for 6:30 p.m. April 16 at City Hall, 109 James St., Geneva.