The Park Forest Aqua Center, the last remaining iconic structure in the village will not open this year.

Over the years, the slow drip of time has eroded the life expectancy of the four-pool complex. Massive water leaks affect all the pools, including the daily loss of 20,000 gallons from only one of the pools.

Last week, Recreation and Parks Director Kevin Adam presented two options to village trustees. The first would turn the existing footprint of the complex into a four-lane lap pool, an adjacent zero-depth pool and a splash pad. The estimated cost for overhaul would be about $8 million.

The village can cover only $5 million of that cost. One can assume residents would possibly be on the hook for the rest of the money.

That quickly brings us to a second and less daunting financial burden.

Option Two — the plan recommended by Adams — would fix significant leaks in all the pools and turn the West Pool into a new splash pad with new fencing and a new deck. Estimated cost would be about $3.5 million with the money coming from a terminated debt service payment. Village Finance Director Mark Pries says this would not become an additional tax burden for residents.

Under this plan, new pool liners and gutters in the remaining pools would stem the tide of leaks. Trims and pool markings would be replaced in the remaining three pools.

Work would also include renovation, repairs and updates to the pump house and the slide. Adams said this plan’s less costly renovations would serve for the time and allow the village to phase in more changes “should grant funding become available.”

The next step, Adams said, would be to get an OK from the Illinois Department of Public Health. If officials there see the upgrades as a major alteration, they might ask for additional changes to bring up to code. That, Adams said, could “influence” how the money will be spent.

Membership in the aqua center has yo-yoed in recent years. When the pools reopened after COVID-19 in 2021, more than 1,200 people bought yearly memberships. That declined to 646 in 2024.

The pool complex opened in 1954 and was financed by bond sales to residents and yearly memberships. The adult pool was opened in 1961 and, with the addition of the West Pool in 1964, the aqua center became the largest outdoor swimming facility in the state.

In1974, it was taken over by the YMCA. Village officials considered such a move at the time and finally took ownership in 1983 when the YMCA threatened to close the facility.

The aqua center is the last vestige of what was the beating heart of the village when Park Forest, now in its 76th year, was once a commercial center of the suburbs south of Chicago.

There was a time when the community could boast about the Park Forest Plaza with Marshall Field’s, Sears and Goldblatt’s department stores attracting shoppers near and far. Field’s and Goldblatt’s no longer exist and at last report there are five Sears stores left.

The last remnants of the plaza were gone shortly before the turn of the century as Main Street, from orchard Drive to Western Avenue, cut through the heart of what was left of the shopping area..

There was a time when the symbol of the community was a monolithic, 37-foot high clock tower that stood in the center of the plaza. The clocks stopped working about a decade before it was torn down in 1987.

There also was a time when more than 99% of residents in the young community voted to build a high school on Sauk Trail dedicated to teaching the village’s youth. In 2019, the District 227 Board voted 4-3 to close the building. They said the building was too old and the students were too few.

Today only the aqua center remains.

Jerry Shnay is a freelance columnist for the Daily Southtown.