City of Morris cites public process as reason for rejection of donation

The Morris City Council and the City of Morris have rejected Arthur Hornsby’s offer of a $30,000 donation to fix what he believes are safety concerns at Goodwill Park, 700 E Chapin St.

Mayor Chris Brown said the City of Morris has a process it started back in 2021 when it created the city’s parks plan.

“We’ve had over 20 public meetings and focus groups and surveys, and we listened to a lot of people before making decisions on what to put in the park,” Brown said. “This would just surpass and undermine the process if we took a donation with strings attached on what to fix.”

These public meetings and focus groups included meeting with families, schools, organizations like the Lions and Kiwanis Clubs, and Illinois Valley Industries. The City of Morris used this input to design the park suited to their needs. Making so many changes to meet the requirements for a donation, Brown said, would circumvent a process that went to the public years ago.

Brown and Parks & Annexation Chairman Sarah Mettille thanked Hornsby and his wife, Kathleen in a letter sent Thursday, Sept. 5, but they feel accepting Hornsby’s terms for the donation would set the wrong precedent moving forward.

“To accept your offer would only open the door for others to think they can simply write a check and gain influence over projects within the City of Morris,” Brown and Mettille’s letter reads. “Our goal as a city is to make sure that all voices are heard and all concerns and needs are considered on a level playing field. This was the driving force behind our development of the City of Morris Parks Master Plan which was adopted in 2022. It was to make sure that all of our residents could participate and tell us what was most important to them.”

Hornsby presented the Morris City Council with a letter on Monday, Aug. 5 offering to donate $30,000 for improvements that include a sidewalk from the public restroom to the Chapin Street entrance and a new basketball court north of the restrooms. Hornsby would also like to see an open ditch used for drainage filled in and replaced with perforated drain pipes designed to be installed two-to-three feet below the surface. He said in his letter that it would allow water to enter the drainage tile and flow into a storm sewer.

Brown and Mettille’s letter continued.

“With that said, we are excited about the future of Morris parks, and we understand that not all parks will be able to satisfy all needs,” Brown and Mettille said. “As we continue to plan for the future and renovate parks, we hope to address as many resident requests and concerns as possible. To be fair and equitable as we move forward is very important for all the voices across our community.”

Brown and Mettille said in the letter that the Hornsbys can make a donation to the City of Morris Parks Fund if they’d like. The Park Fund is set up through the Community Foundation of Grundy County, and it’s where the city puts donations to its parks for use on future upgrades.

“We set up an account for parks donations with the Community Foundation of Grundy County and since then, we’ve received over $130,000 in donations with no strings attached,” Brown said. “We’re talking about a park that’s on less than half of an acre. Once you pull things out of those parks, there are certain standards and rules that you have to follow, and the park is completely ADA-compliant now.”

Brown said Morris is undergoing a transformation with the changes in the area, and it’s unlikely the voters will ever approve of creating a parks district because it would create another taxing body. He said the parks plan, and in turn the renovations at Goodwill Park, is the city investing dollars back into the community to improve the quality of life.

“I appreciate the thoughtfulness, and I know how much Art and his family care about this park,” Brown said. “I just don’t think that’s the way of going about doing it. I think you’d have an uproar of some unhappy people if we accepted it.”

Brown said he personally has received positive feedback on the parks, and he said the city has more outlets now than it ever had for information to get out to the public on meetings. This includes the city’s website, morrisil.org, where residents can access the City of Morris newsletter and the More to Morris podcast.