Elmhurst Park District to start cooking on kitchen renovations at rec center

Get ready to sharpen your culinary skills Elmhurst Park District’s Kies Recreation Center, 155 E. St. Charles Road, is getting ready for several updates in 2024, including the renovation of its 1970s era kitchen.

Demo work at the facility will begin the first week of December. The kitchen will be updated to an ADA-accessible teaching kitchen providing recreational and instructional opportunities while also supporting senior luncheon programs.

The park district is also looking forward to updating the facility’s gymnasium flooring. The room is often used for programming, and the new surface will be more accessible and safer for participants. Partial funding for the project is coming from a $250,000 grant from the State of Illinois, which was awarded to the park district in June.

Kies Recreation Center received some updates after it was acquired in 2019, primarily to bring the building up to code and to remodel restrooms for ADA compliance. Updates to the kitchen and gymnasium will make these spaces more functional and provide a chance to expand adult and senior programming options. Adult continuing education and fitness and wellness programming were two of the top three programming priorities in the Vision 2020 Plan based on community feedback.

Work at Kies Recreation Center is expected to take place in early winter and be completed by spring. The facility will remain open through construction. For more information on programming at Kies Recreation Center, visit epd.org.

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