The Heritage Park community center in Arlington Heights is cutting its hours, saving thousands of dollars in a staffing reshuffle but at the cost of consistent building hours for the public, officials said.
The Arlington Heights Park District in October announced the facility at 506 W. Victoria Lane would no longer have consistent building hours and instead will only be staffed and open when there are scheduled events and activities already being held on site, such as its popular preschool programs or when it acts as a polling location for the November election.
This means the community center and its amenities, such as the bathrooms, will not be open to the public on a regular basis.
Anita Pacheco, the park district’s spokeswoman, said the primary reason the building hours were cut was because the registrar who manned the desk was no longer needed. She said programming remains the same.
“It was viewed as an opportunity to reduce costs,” she said. “We’re not making the change because we’ve seen any decline in registration numbers.”
Eliminating the part-time registrar position and other staffing hours at the Heritage Park community center will save the park district $51,000 annually in direct salary costs, she said.
More Top Picks Showers Camps
It was done in response to the decline in walk-up traffic, Pacheco said. Over 90 percent of people who register for park district programs do so online in the Heritage Park neighborhood, so the registrar wasn’t needed anymore.
“I can only guesstimate or conclude that more and more people are just possibly text savvy and feel comfortable registering online,” Pacheco said.
The cut was made by moving the previous Heritage registration staffer to another park district position that became open through attrition. The previous Heritage Park supervisor has now moved to the Camelot Park community center, which opened recently after a yearlong renovation project.
No layoffs occurred, Pacheco said.
Going forward, residents who want to visit the Heritage Park community center should call ahead to ensure the building is open. The park itself is open from dawn to dusk.
Those seeking to register in-person can do so at the Pioneer Park community center, 500 S. Fernandez Ave. Officials said a secure drop box has also been set up near the main entrance at the Heritage community center for those who want to register by paper.
Other questions or assistance can be directed to the two other nearby park district locations, including the Administration Center at 410 N. Arlington Heights Road, and Recreation Park’s community center, 500 E. Miner St.
“Overall as a district, we’re always looking for ways to streamline our operations and be as cost effective and productive as possible,” Pacheco said.