Rec Center Dedication Honors Cathy Mahoney
Veteran board member spent 18 years working to improve and enhance Downers Grove Park District properties
The May 30 dedication of the Cathy Mahoney Recreation Center not only honored the dedication and leadership of a long-serving Downers Grove Park District commissioner, vice-president and president, it illuminated the continuing need for Cathy Mahoney’s brand of grit and vision in local government.
Mahoney, who served from 2005 to 2023, never lost her determination to not just steward park district lands, but also to improve and enhance them. First elected when the district was still reeling from a series of failed referendums, she offered a positive vision that didn’t rely on a tax-and-spend approach.
This ran counter to the close-fisted board leadership of the time, but Mahoney knew what to expect. She ran unsuccessfully for a seat in 2001, and was a faithful presence at Park Board meetings prior to her election. When the board decided in 2002 to build a recreation center, Mahoney got involved in the planning discussions.
By the time she was elected, she had learned how decisions were made and how board members thought. Once she joined the board, she quickly found an ally in Bob Gelwicks. Over the next 14 years, they would work together to convince their fellow members that, in addition to being fiscally responsible, they needed to meet the changing recreation needs of Downers Grove residents.
Knowing many of their initiatives would face opposition, Mahoney and Gelwicks discussed how to present information in a reasonable way. “We had to figure out how to accomplish something on a really divided board,” Mahoney said. “We didn’t want to both be arguing the same point. We tried to have facts, have our own words, and to present stuff the rest of the board couldn’t come back at us for.”
Constructing a convincing case required research, which was much harder to accomplish 18 years ago. “There was no internet, no video. I had to go to DuPage County to get documents from the courthouse. That’s what you had to do to get facts to present to people to support your position,” she said.
At the dedication ceremony, Gelwicks reminded the audience how they convinced their colleagues to support the installation of synthetic turf at Doerhoefer Park in 2006. At first no one could see the benefit since the grass field was used only a handful of days each year. “You can’t have property in a park district that is used only five or six days a year,” Mahoney said. “That’s stupid.”
But if you build it, they will come—and soon the turf field was in constant use by soccer and football teams and other groups. The initial synthetic turf lasted 12 years before it was replaced in 2018.
Other major projects followed. The Veterans Memorial Pavilion in Fishel Park was dedicated in 2012, replacing a 50-year-old eyesore and transforming the park into the centerpiece of downtown Downers Grove. At the time, some residents questioned why the Park Board was building a “Taj Mahal,” but the board’s focus was “we have these properties, why aren’t we using them?” Mahoney said. “We hadn’t been using Fishel Park for years. Everything costs money, but you pay for it over years.” The prairie-style bandshell design chosen by the residents was the least expensive option, she said. And the park now attracts 3,000 people a week to its summer concerts.
The board also approved streambank stabilization improvements in Lyman Woods that cost millions of dollars rather than opting for the cheaper-but-unsightly concrete culverts some board members preferred. The investment was worth it, not only to keep the park from being destroyed by runoff, but also to preserve its character as “Downers’ Last Grove.”
Another long-term project, the renovation of the 1846 Israel Blodgett house, was completed in 2022. The house sits companionably adjacent to the 1892 Blodgett house on the Downer Grove Museum campus.
But some of Mahoney’s favorite projects were the smaller ones. She was a vocal advocate for upgrading park playgrounds because, “I felt those had an immediate impact on neighborhoods, a local three- or four-block area.” Those projects cost $250,000 to $300,000 each, and in recent years, the park district would donate the old equipment to an organization that builds playgrounds in third world countries.
Mahoney said having supportive colleagues and residents who shared her priorities helped her stay resolute during her years on the board. “How do you explain when you know it’s the right thing to do, and the reasons not to do it don’t make sense?” she said. “I was told all along that I was too outspoken, but I felt people could decide on their own whether they liked it or not. I’m not going to stop doing what I think I should do.”
Looking at the Downers Grove Park District of today, and considering what it will be tomorrow, “this stuff doesn’t just happen on its own,” Mahoney said. “It didn’t get that way because it was easy, it got that way because someone wanted something and put in the effort to get it.”