First and foremost - let me preface this by saying that I am a competitve swimmer that is on one of the most successful teams in Illinois Swimming, that being FMC Aquatic, as well as a high-performing high school team, that being Naperville Central. I know how beneficial a good aquatic facility is, and having the privilege of practicing and competing at one daily is something I do not take for granted.

Naperville is home to over 150,000 residents and one of the largest summer recreational swim conferences in the United States. In addition, we're one of the best places to live in the United States. One thing that we lack, however, is a proper indoor aquatic facility. In 2024, the Naperville Park District released an indoor space needs assessment yet again, this time obtaining 72% favorability for a multi-use public space with a pool, with 48% of a random sample believing the same.

From a competitive swim training viewpoint, Naperville is home to the Maverick Swim Club, one of the largest swim clubs under Illinois Swimming, a local swim committee (LSC) falling under the jurisdiction of USA Swimming. The Maverick Swim Club currently practices out of the following local facilities: Metea Valley High School (Aurora), Naperville Central High School (Naperville), Naperville North High School (Naperville), North Central College (Naperville), Hobson West (Naperville), and Central Park of Lisle (Lisle). A singular common factor between these facilities is prevalent: none of them are specifically designed to host large-scale meets or to host a massive swim club like MAVS - they're meant for smaller meets and physical education classes.

Other people are less into the competition and more into aquatics in general, and I get that. There are aquatic facilities in the local area, such as the Vaughan Aquatic Center in Aurora, Illinois, with a leisure pool, a competition pool, and a waterpark that I've competed at a handful of times. In addition, I've been up to Wisconsin to compete at the Pleasant Prarie RecPlex in their Aqua Arena, which comprises similar amenities. The latter provides similar amenities to what the public wants - a multi-need facility with a pool.

A similar assessment was conducted in 2018, although it never came to fruition. The park district currently has not acted upon this most recent assessment, but my hope with this petition was to show how important aquatics is to the Naperville community.

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please direct them to contact.connory123@gmail.com. In addition, if you want to get updates on the status of this petition, please fill out this form so I can share out updates.