Leaders at the DeKalb Park District are hoping it will be par for the course to dredge the pond at Buena Vista Golf Course this fall.
But one DeKalb alderman said he’s fielded questions from some residents about why the park district was targeting one pond for improvements but not others.
DeKalb 7th Ward Alderman John Walker, who is a golfer, said he has fielded a few phone calls about the project, and he felt he needed to act on behalf of residents of his ward and their concerns.
“When I took this seat, I told the residents, I’m going to fight for the things that they believe in,” Walker said. “This is one thing that they believe in, and I’m going to fight for it.”
At a recent DeKalb Park Board of Commissioners meeting, officials enlisted Organic Sediment Removal Systems to dredge the pond at Buena Vista Golf Course for $126,825.
Walker said he supports the park district’s decision to dredge the pond at Buena Vista Golf Course.
“I’m definitely all for that pond over the golf course at Buena Vista getting maintenance,” Walker said. “I’m all for it.”
But Walker said he believes there are other park district-owned ponds that need to be cleaned up in town, as well.
He pointed specifically to the River Heights Golf Course pond on DeKalb’s south side.
When asked why the park district chose the pond at Buena Vista over River Heights, DeKalb Park District Executive Director Paul Zepezauer said it is because of its condition.
“The algae is so thick that it almost looks like you could walk across the pond on top of the algae,” Zepezauer said. “It’s just that thick and green. It comes from years and years of erosion, and then the nutrients basically allow that to grow. So, that’s why we’re dredging it so we can reset the pond to the original depth with the original bottom and then algae theoretically won’t have as many of those prostates to grow.”
Park district staff said there are no immediate plans to dredge any other park district-owned ponds.
Walker said he’s concerned that the park district has prioritized a pond at one of the town’s golf courses over others. He said he was told the pond decision was based on golfer traffic.
“Then, you could say this…the pond on South Malta Road gets a lot of traffic going back and forth through bicyclists, cars, walkers,” Walker said. “If the park district is going and cleaning those types of areas up, then I think if your argument is there’s a lot of traffic over there, it needs to be maintained better. I think that we can say that for a few other ponds in the City of DeKalb.”
The park district originally purchased Buena Vista Golf Course in 1980.
Zepezauer said the park district anticipates having a plan in place for 2027 to limit algae blooms in all district-owned ponds.
The park district executive said it can be challenging for officials to determine which projects to prioritize over others.
“It’s always when we’re setting our budgets for subsequent years we look at what the need is in each area,” Zepezauer said. “We definitely try to be as equitable as possible. We try to address as many things as we can as quickly as we can. In this particular situation, I think, we want to look at all of our ponds across all of our properties, but the one at Buena Vista is particularly bad right now.”
Park district staff have said the pond dredging at Buena Vista Golf Course is expected to start within the next six weeks.
Walker said he believed he had a productive dialogue with the park district after fielding feedback about the Buena Vista pond dredging from some of the constituents in his ward.
“It’s always good being good partners with some of the taxing bodies because they could definitely understand, know your argument, and know your constituents,” he said.