A fighting chance for the ERC
By Mike Danahey mdanahey@stmedianetwork.com February 15, 2012 8:44PM
Ezequiel Huaracha, 12, of Streamwood trains with longtime boxing coach Tony Molinar on Monday night at the Eastside Recreation Center in Elgin. | Michael Smart~Sun-Times Media
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Updated: March 17, 2012 10:17AM
ELGIN — A state grant could mean boxing and other programs won’t just be cool-weather sports at the city’s Eastside Recreation Center.
According to Elgin Parks and Recreation Director Randy Reopelle, some major renovations are planned for the city-owned center, and that in turn will allow it to better serve the community.
The bustle in the facility at 1080 E. Chicago St. on a recent Monday evening offered evidence of the center’s most successful program and hinted at what those renovations will indeed mean.
Monday is one of three nights a week that 25 youths train in boxing classes at the ERC run by Tony Molinar. While the parks and rec offering is instruction only, Molinar pointed out some 12-year-old boys who have been doing well enough to take part in bigger events.
Raul Aniceto and Nathaniel Rodriguez of Elgin competed in a national tournament in Missouri held Super Bowl weekend. Another 12-year-old, Dominic Byerly, comes all the way from Rolling Meadows to the Elgin sessions, as there is nothing like them near where he lives.
And Molinar considers pint-sized pugilist Ezequiel Huaracha of Streamwood one of the best in his division across the country and good enough to take part in a Junior Olympics tournament this April in Nebraska.
Huaracha said he’s only been boxing for about 18 months.
“I saw it on TV and liked it. I like training hard. I run a lot and like to hit the mitts with a trainer,” Huaracha said.
The boy’s success led his father, Juan Huaracha, to join a group of other dads including Serafin Rodriguez and Aurelio Pena who put together a night of amateur boxing at Premier Banquets in unincorporated East Dundee. It drew a crowd of several hundred fans who saw 23 matches. Rodriguez even was able to get his bosses at Multifilm Packaging in Elgin to sponsor Ezequiel in the local bouts.
The fathers are so enthusiastic about their sons’ involvement with the boxing classes at the ERC that they are exploring ways to form some sort of independent traveling team.
More A/C needed
While the dads work to build boxing beyond and separate from what the city offers, the ERC boxing classes do go on most of the year. However, currently the facility only has air conditioning in smaller classroom areas, meaning it is busiest from November through April, recreation supervisor Mitch Lehman said. Because of the lack of air conditioning in other parts of the building, boxing and other programs draw fewer participants in the summer, he said.
In the hopes of making the facility one that could be more user-friendly in all seasons, Reopelle put together an application last year for an Illinois Park and Recreation Facility Construction grant.
In October, the city learned it was one of 22 local governments set to receive a share of the $50 million made available in funding. In Elgin’s case, this would amount to $1,758,600. The city council approved kicking in another $586,200, as the grant stipulated that recipients must match a portion of the award.
As state Rep. Keith Farnham, D-Elgin, noted, the grant was only available for specific types of projects for which the ERC improvements qualified. As such, center work will include upgrades to the HVAC system, electrical, plumbing, flooring and windows, plus put up new walls to allow for additional programming space.
Reopelle said work is set to begin in May and to be completed by late September or early October.
Lots of programs
Reopelle noted that the ERC offers indoor soccer, indoor batting tunnels, billiards, a 14,000-square-foot fitness center, after-school programming, preschool programming, a computer lab, summer camps, rentals, a free fishing equipment loan program, and a free bicycle loan program. It is the host site for the summertime free lunch program, for the River Works/River Woods drop-in gym program, and for Hanover Township free health screenings and flu shots.
The boxing classes are $35 per month for youths ages 6 to 13 and $65 for those 14 and older. To use the fitness room, the fee is $3 per day or $25 for a month.
The ERC has 10 part-time workers and, with city budget cuts, just two full-time staff — Lehman and office manager Alma Rodriguez. The facility lost a full-time position and had its budget trimmed $20,000 to $475,000 for 2012.
The building at one time was a marina, then a manufacturing plant before becoming a rec center in 1995, then a city parks and rec property in 2008. And it has overcome adversity in the process.
In February 2008, one day after the city shut down the facility for at-risk youth amid allegations one of its gang counselors was involved in a drug trafficking ring, the city took over its operation.
That move came after then-City Manager Olufemi Folarin ordered the facility closed in response to the arrest of 47-year-old Angel Vega, who was at the time was a city-employed gang intervention specialist. He was terminated from his post, as was program supervisor and God’s Gym co-founder Joel Perez.
Founded in 1984, God’s Gym was supposed to serve as an alternative for area youth who are involved or at risk of becoming involved with gangs or drugs. The non-profit organization moved into the Chicago Street facility in 1995, when the city started to provide funding for its operational costs.
It eventually evolved into the ERC with the city taking it over.
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