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Audubon Celebrates $750k Grant for Turf Field From Illinois EPA

By Patty Wetli | October 27, 2014 9:51am
 Audubon Elementary received a $750,000 grant from the Illinois EPA that will pay for a new turf field.
Audubon Elementary received a $750,000 grant from the Illinois EPA that will pay for a new turf field.
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DNAinfo/Patty Wetli

ROSCOE VILLAGE — Thanks to a $750,000 grant from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, Audubon Elementary's "Field of Dreams" is now a reality.

The grant, announced by Gov. Pat Quinn at a celebration held on Saturday, will fund a new artificial turf field at the school, which will simultaneously manage stormwater while providing the community with a safe play surface.

"No more broken bones," said Ald. Ameya Pawar (47th), referencing the school's previous asphalt playground.

"This project is good for Roscoe Village, it's good for the city and it's good for Illinois," said Audubon Principal Ken Fitzner.

Patty Wetli says the playground was unlikely without grant help:

The turf field, which will replace a paved parking lot, represents Phase 2 of a project. Phase 1 included construction of a new $350,000 playground at the school, which is nearly complete, and was paid for largely with aldermanic menu funds.

"When we heard the second phase would cost $750,000, we knew that would be a tough hurdle to get over," said Karen Lee, a board member of Friends of Audubon, the school's fundraising arm.

Though Friends of Audubon raised $270,000 in 2013, the most in the organization's history, those funds are earmarked for the school's art and music programs, and also help pay for intervention specialist staff positions.

"Many told us to give up" on the Field of Dreams, said Lolita Sereleas, president of Friends of Audubon. "They said it was too daunting. We found ways."

The Illinois EPA annually awards $5 million in green infrastructure grants aimed at reducing flooding. In 2013, Ravenswood Elementary received the $750,000 grant to fund a project similar to Audubon's.

"Both schools found a creative way to get a playground via stormwater," said Pawar.

Audubon parent Darren Olson, a civil engineer, helped write the grant.

"The school is so strong on the inside," Olson said of Audubon's Blue Ribbon status. "We wanted to replicate that on the outside."

The turf field, which will be available for use by all residents of Roscoe Village, is "going to be sustainable, it's going to be green and that's all going to happen with children playing on it," he said.

"Transformative" is how a number of parents described the planned field.

"People pick up their kids and leave" after school, said Audubon dad Istvan Walker, who's helping to develop a plan for Phase 3 of the outdoor campus renovation, which will reimagine Audubon's north face.

"My neighbors' kids go to Bell, and when turf went in there, it became a community gathering place," he said. "It becomes a park."

From the perspective of the Illinois EPA, projects like Audubon's serve multiple purposes, according to the agency's director Lisa Bonnett.

Swapping out impervious asphalt for permeable turf, which draws water to a retention area underground, reduces the amount of stormwater and pollutants entering the city's sewer system.

"It can really remove hundreds of thousands of gallons" of stormwater Bonnett said, referring to the field planned at Audubon, 3500 N. Hoyne Ave.

"Not only do you get improved infrastructure, you get a learning opportunity," she added.

Construction of the field can spark the development of curriculum on water resources, ecology and the environment, she said.

"It's the best expenditure," Bonnett said. "For today's students, environmental protection won't be a luxury, it will be an expectation."

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