Trustees advance Kennedy Park fundraising and planning; AED purchase deferred

Trustees discussed next steps for Kennedy Park’s renovation and capital campaign during a lengthy update that covered grant applications, a revised fundraising “ask,” volunteer and marketing plans and outreach to potential donors and state officials. The board also considered whether to buy a weatherized, monitored outdoor automated external defibrillator (AED) for the park and deferred that purchase pending further review and grant research.

The discussion matters because Kennedy Park is the central piece of the village’s multi‑phase parks effort and trustees and volunteer organizers are actively seeking outside funding to reduce the local funding burden and to make the facility a tournament‑style destination that they say could drive hotel and local business revenue.

Trustee and staff updates focused on fundraising strategy after two recent foundation rejections. A staff member identified as Jamie said two foundations — Impact 100 and the Davis Foundation — provided feedback that the board’s original $14.5 million ask felt too large for a single grant and recommended breaking the project into smaller, phased requests. “We would have the funds for this field that we are almost done with the engineering for and would go…