Donations continue to come in for the proposed Aledo Aquatic Center. Mayor Chris Hagloch and Aledo Park District President Tanner Dunn discuss how you can be a part of this project. They joined WRMJ’s Terry James on Focus.
Good morning and welcome to Focus. Terry James hanging out with Tanner Dunn. Tanner, what is your title?
I would be the Park District President. You do pretty much everything around town though that anybody asks you. I try to at least.
Very good. He’s getting citizen of the year, Mayor. Mayor, can we get him the key to the city? We can find a way for sure.
Mayor Chris Hagloch is here with us today. You got to pull that mic a little closer with you. All right.
This is our… Yeah, it’s our Mayor on the Air segment today and we want to give a little time to the Aquatic Center because we’re getting excited that fundraising effort is underway. But Tanner, we need folks to come through with that 100-gallon challenge.
We do, yes. We are on the homestretch, we would like to think. We’re roughly sitting about probably 75% of total funds raised. We got a couple million left to get to that final 7.25 is what we’re targeting.
But we got to rally around the community now, like you said. So right now there’s only about three feet of water in that pool. Yeah.
Okay. Three foot, we need to get to maybe 10. All right.
Hey, I think that’s a good goal. I like how you guys have done this too because if you want to donate to this project, you don’t have to write a huge check up front. You can space it out over time.
You can, yeah. It can be one, two, three, five, whatever is the most flexible and works for you or your family. Like you said, it’s nice to look at the community.
We’ve got a big portion of it raised, like I said, about five and a half million of it. So we’re off to a really good start. But to see the finish line, to get this project to the final phase, we are kind of turning back and looking to the community for that last little push.
And I’ve had at least one person ask me, say, well, I’m not going to swim in the pool. Why should I care about the pool? And Mayor, I want you to respond to this as well. But the one thing that I told her was it’s a quality of life issue to have this new aquatic center.
It’s another family friendly activity that we now have available in Aledo, Illinois. Did I just take the words right out of your mouth, Mayor? Oh, you’re so good at speaking. I’ll tell you.
Yeah. No, absolutely. I mean, stop and think about the pool that we were using the last 80 years.
Okay. Built in 1938. It’s not handicap accessible.
It doesn’t have the amenities that today’s pools have. And to upgrade that pool would be an immense cost. And I don’t think we can afford to do that.
So it made more sense to look at a brand new aquatic center. So we’re going to have all the amenities you’re going to need for years to come. We’re going to schedule maintenance on this.
We’re going to keep it up to code. We’re going to keep everything flowing so it can become something that our kids and grandkids can be thinking about years to come. And that’s who we really should be thinking about are the youth in our community, people who come here with kids.
You don’t have to drive 30, 40 minutes to a big town for an aquatic center. We can have one, excuse me, we can have one right here in Aledo. Yeah, I mean, absolutely.
That’s the goal. I mean, as you drive around and you see a lot of smaller communities, they’re not thriving. But when you come to Aledo, we want that to change.
Our downtown has been growing. We’d like to see our school district grow. And to help grow that you got to attract families.
And this is just a piece to attract younger families, hopefully, and bring them into our district. All right, so let’s make a plan. Everybody, we’re going to join the 100 gallon challenge.
How do people sign up for that today? Today, you can stop in the city hall, you can grab a form, fill it out, choose form of payment, and you can set it up on a plan that suits you best. Are those security doors at city hall for me? I feel like you have to get through a few of them to get to the mayor. But so you just stop by and you set that up and you let you let the folks know, hey, I can pay this much a year to make it to the total amount.
Yep, exactly. As easy as that. Very easy.
And go ahead, man. We also need to remind folks, you know, this 2 million that we need to finish this project, if it doesn’t happen, is a project not going to happen? I can’t say yes or no. But it’s going to be one of those difficult decisions of what items are we going to eliminate or to have to take out of this project so we can make it happen.
And we want to keep building this community and keep adding things. And that’s what we can do through this. So Tanner Dunn, thanks so much for coming in to talk about this.
Mayor, if you don’t mind, I’m going to skip five questions with you today. And we’re going to pick on Tanner just because we can. How about that? All right.
I have a folded piece of paper right here. Let’s bring it up. I did research on you, Tanner Dunn, on you, Tanner Dunn.
That’s scary. Here’s your first question. Easiest one.
How many feet between baseball bases? You’re a pro. Ninety. No.
Yes. It’s 90 feet. The host is not necessarily the smartest one here.
Good job, Tanner. You got that one right. OK, now the mayor, you can you can use a phone a friend if you need for this one.
In which year did they start building Northside Park? Was it A, 1977, B, 1982, C, 1934? This was when the mayor was roller skating at the opera house, too. We’re going with B. You got it. Nineteen eighty two.
Did the mayor help you out with that? He might have. Make him work a little. All right.
An obscure event now to ask you about. In 1977, children were invited to the bicycle blank at RMA Park in Aledo. Is it bicycle race, ride or rodeo? I’m going to go with rodeo.
You got it. Yes. Rodeo events included trick riding at an obstacle course back when you didn’t have to wear helmets.
I mean, I’m glad he’s here because I would have got that one wrong. When in doubt, see out. Next time we’re going to let the mayor call you.
OK. OK, so you’re a farmer. Yep.
You’re around corn and beans all day. So you should know this one right off. How many kernels of corn in a bushel on average? I have three choices for you.
Two hundred thousand, fifty three, five hundred and one or ninety thousand. Got to go with 90. You got it.
All right. Four for four. Mayor, he’s putting you to shame.
I got to start bringing a friend. In the 2011 Mercer County baseball season, there were three players who were called the senior all conference trio. Mayor, you have to answer this one.
Oh, brother. I wasn’t in that one. In the all conference trio was Jacob Harrison, Austin Skiles and.
No, not Tanner. Tanner Dunn. That’s right.
Do you remember this? Honestly, I actually don’t. Were you awake during these games? I was average. Mercer County Golden Eagle, former Mercer County Golden Eagle, Tanner Dunn, Mayor Chris Hagloch.
Seriously, we want folks to get signed up for the 100 Gallon Challenge. Let’s support improvements and economic development in our town, which is amazing. Thank you both for coming in today.
And this has been Focus.