Pate Phillip Park

State needs to fund Pate Philip Park

How we as a society support families and provide opportunities for children to grow, learn and enjoy life are two of the most important issues facing all of us and our elected officials. Unfortunately, access to affordable family leisure activities often seems to fall victim to political concerns, leading to government waste of taxpayer funds. Failure to adequately fund and care for James “Pate” Philip State Park in Bartlett (formerly Tri-County State Park) is just one recent example of this serious problem, but it is one we now have the opportunity to use as a learning experience.

We need to support the new James “Pate” Philip State Park for two reasons.

First, the failure of the Illinois legislature to budget funding for this state park demonstrates an obvious problem with government waste. Illinois has provided significant funds for the park’s creation. Today, our elected state legislators choose to provide millions of dollars in direct and indirect subsidies to corporations through tax loopholes, but they do not provide a single dollar for the only state park in our region.

In fact, the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County already has been hard hit by the reduction of federal money, and now poor planning and budgeting by the state of Illinois is forcing the forest preserve district to consider further subsidizing this park with our local tax dollars.

Second, James “Pate” Philip State Park provides us an opportunity. By preserving open space and making available vital recreational activities, the park, if adequately funded, will continue to become an important destination for families in this part of northwestern DuPage, Kane and McHenry counties.

As a father of an 8-month-old daughter and someone concerned about the environment, I recognize personally the value of and need for access to affordable resources like James “Pate” Philip State Park.

Hopefully, our elected officials will come to understand that families and our environment must come first.

Rob Bisceglie

Vice-chair

Bloomingdale Township

Democrats

Roselle