06/05/2026
*Information Overload Post*
Good morning!
Our post this morning is a reach out in hopes to gain interest and community involvement.
We know that as community members you see the changes, you hear the talk, you're asked to donate money, but you just don't know how or why things work the way they do.
Maybe you're proud to see the changes, maybe confused how business is conducted, maybe not pleased at all on how things are going.
In a world where the easiest thing we can do is communicate, we lack more communication and transparency than any generation before us.
Let us shine some light...
The Wolf Lake Community Center and Park, at this time, is composed of 3 board members. At best we have 4 to 6 in attendance at meetings.
THREE!
We are decision making and using our best judgement for the betterment of an entire community.
This is not an exclusive membership! We welcome anyone who lives within the community to join us.
As a non-for-profit organization, we strive to sustain the organization in many ways. We maintain and support two properties, one being the Wolf Lake Community Center and the second being the Wolf Lake Park.
The Wolf Lake Community Center currently houses the Shawnee Valley Water District office. As well as the “central hub” of our community if you will. When you call the number listed on our page you are actually reaching the SVW District office as we don’t have an official or an employee for the community center and park. This is a perk of teamwork, Karen who works at the SVW district directs your calls or needs to the board members as she sees fit.
Rental of our community building maintains itself for the most part. Electricity, general maintenance and some updating is all in our realm of financial spending on an annual basis.
In the last few years, we were able to receive an upgrade to handicap accessible doors and an asphalt drive courtesy of grants that allowed those updates with minimal out of pocket expense.
Currently we are making decisions on siding for the community building. We have received the 2026 Rural Development Grant in the amount of $4000.00 from the Illinois Farm Bureau and our Local Farm Bureau agency. That $4000.00 is project specific to new siding. Understand that we will have to designate additional funding for that project to move forward. Several decisions will be made on this at the upcoming meeting due to the deadline to report progress.
Once the project is complete, we plan to also discuss a celebration for the 50th anniversary of the community center. What better way than to see progress and us moving forward?
The Wolf Lake Park is being utilized daily by community members and visitors. Those from outside our community are buzzing about the support and involvement they see when they visit the park for ball games or social events. And how lucky are we to have so many kids in our little community to be able to have TWO ball teams?
Our summer expenses for the park are more substantial with the upkeep of mowing, park renovations, and restroom accessibility. Our little concession stand does offset that some. BUT we love to see our park thriving and kids utilizing it. Don’t you agree?
We are continuing focus on updating play equipment. We have recently discarded several broken pieces and there is a lot to be desired for our little park. The financial undertaking of park renovations, for the space we have available can be a $20,000.00 - $40,000.00 dollar project. That is new equipment, new and safer borders and just general maintenance that needs to be done. It can’t and won’t happen overnight, we plan to work in phases, find better resources if possible. Choosing quality over quantity. Possible grant funds to help. This is where we need help, maybe you have better ideas that we can use moving forward.
We have established approx. $2500.00 to the project.
Our 4th of July plans and sponsorships are going to focus on park renovations and equipment as well and will be calculated after the event.
It is just taking some time to build it up so we can commit to purchasing a phase.
Is it a good time to remind you that there are T-H-R-E-E to SIX people attending meetings for these decisions. Decisions that can't or won't be taken lightly.
Is anyone interested in good old-fashioned barn raising? Really though, our community is full of good hard working people. We have RESOURCES that most communities don’t have access to. We ask for endless amounts of money when in reality what we need are more ideas, more help, more resources so that we don’t have to necessarily hire out the work. Show our kids what the meaning of community really is, let them make the memories of "remember when”. Get back to the basics of camaraderie and laughter and maybe a potluck. Show our forefathers that we still have it, and we won’t let it turn to "Do you remember what it used to be?".
COME TO THE MEETING, we need you, we want you, we need more voices and ideas instead of small talk.
Let's move forward together.
