The Flagg-Rochelle Community Park District Board of Commissioners on June 15 heard an update on Spring Lake Pool.
Park District Risk Superintendent Brent Boardman said the pool opened May 30 “without any issues” and Recreation Superintendent Maureen Stevens said the season is off to a “tremendous” start with “strong participation across the board.”
Pool pass sales through June 15 surpassed numbers for all of last summer. A total of 353 pool passes have been sold so far this summer after 309 were sold in all of 2025. Through June 10, visits to the pool have nearly tripled last year’s numbers by that date, increasing from 791 to more than 2,200 visits.
All available private rental dates for the pool this summer have already been booked, Stevens said.
“I’d like to say a big thank you to our staff,” Stevens said. “It’s a large undertaking to get Spring Lake up and running. Preseason training included multiple orientations and several days of lifeguard and facility training. Our new and returning staff have worked exceptionally well together and our maintenance team did an outstanding job of preparing the facility for opening day.”
Swim team enrollment has increased from 25 swimmers last summer to 38 this summer, Stevens said.
Tennis
The board heard public comments during the meeting from members of the Rochelle Tennis Club who expressed concerns about the shape and future of the tennis courts at Helms Park.
“It’s been disappointing to me the way the park district has failed to maintain the tennis courts,” RTC Member Sandy Tilton said. “It’s wonderful as a community to have all of the facilities we have. It’s important to me that the park district maintain what we have and what we as taxpayers have paid for.”
Software
The board unanimously approved the $26,170 purchase of ACTIVENet registration software during the meeting.
The park district has been utilizing RecTrack since 2007. The change was made to make registration software more user friendly for online users and due to ease of selling memberships online.
The $26,170 expenditure is for the first year and start-up costs of ACTIVENet. Stevens said the change will yield over $10,000 in savings in the following years, including on credit card fees.
Overlay
The board unanimously approved a $40,895 low bid from Royer Asphalt Paving for an overlay parking lot project at Cooper Park. The park district received five bids for the work.
Park District Executive Director Jackee Ohlinger said that the work will take place in late August or early September and is expected to last 25 years once complete.
VFW shelter
Boardman said a new shelter for VFW Park was delivered on June 5 and will be installed as soon as possible after arrangements are made with contractors.
Last month, the board approved a bid for concrete work for the installation. The new shelter cost $25,865 and will be similar in size to the previous shelter.
“We hope to get it up as soon as possible so we can start renting it out again,” Boardman said. “It’s a pretty popular shelter and park to be rented out.”