Kenilworth Park Board clears up memorial fund spending

Months after the Kenilworth Park Board began facing criticism for how it managed a charitable fund, commissioners approved an amendment to the fund agreement that updates how to spend the dollars and sets forth an investment strategy to keep the fund growing.

The Kenilworth Park Board approved the amendment to the Marguerite L. Storch Memorial Garden Fund agreement at a special meeting on Feb. 27.

As previously reported by The Record, at the Park Board’s January meeting, residents criticized commissioners for using money from the Storch Fund to support recent capital projects.

The fund was founded in 1998 “for the purpose of beautifying the (Kenilworth) Park District properties,” according to the park district’s website, and some residents argued that using $500,000 for the overhaul of Townley Field and $300,000 for patio and walkway renovations at the assembly hall were inconsistent with the Storch Fund’s definition of beautification projects.

The amendment

Park Board President John Hart told The Record that the purpose of the amendment was to “clarify the (agreement) and bring it up to today’s standards for investments of these kinds of funds.”

Among the changes, the amendment changes beautification projects to now consist of “landscaping, horticulture, and capital improvement projects that align with the Park District’s mission,” according to the board packet.

Money from the Storch Fund, however, cannot be used for operational expenses or projects in the park district’s capital improvement plan or ADA transition plan.

The changes also establish the principal of the gift, or initial investment, as $1.125 million as of Dec. 1, 2024, which includes an annual adjustment for inflation based on the CPI.

The original restricted gift agreement stated that the original principal, $1 million, “shall be held in perpetuity,” and the district should spend the fund’s ordinary income, including interest and dividends.

“The amendment guarantees that the fund will grow at CPI each year,” Hart said. “And really what changed was that the original agreement only allowed interest and dividends to be spent. What this amendment allows is for the capital appreciation, or the growth in the account, to also be considered for use.”

The agreement also defines “income earned on the gift,” affirms that the Kenilworth Park District has sole discretion for determining beautification projects, and affirms all previous investments.

Additionally, as discussed at the January Park Board meeting, commissioners approved the establishment of an investment committee to oversee the Storch Fund.

“That investment committee will review the strategy of investing and identify funds that can be used for the garden clubs and park district over the next year,” Hart said, which he said ensures that there will always be growth.

It also creates a principal fund and a gains fund.

“If the principal fund does not grow at CPI, we’ll move monies from the gains fund back into the principal fund to make sure that it continues to grow at CPI,” he said. “We think that is a stronger guarantee that, going forward, that fund will grow and therefore be able to kick off more and more money for beautification in Kenilworth.”

In 2018, the park district changed its investment strategy for the Storch Fund after it fell below the gift level and “never found its way back up,” Hart said.

“If we had invested in the same way the fund offered, we would probably never have reached the goals of the funds, which were to grow the fund so that there would always be a continuous opportunity to invest the interest,” he said.

The Storch family’s role

According to Hart, after the January meeting, he asked that Johnathan Kiwala, the park district’s executive director, meet with the family of Marguerite L. Storch to have them help craft the amendments.

Hart said Storch’s family came to Kenilworth for an on-site visit to see renovations at Townley Field and the patio, improvements supported by the fund.

“And when we brought them in and showed them what we had done, they were extremely appreciative of the change in the investments as well as the work that had been done in the beautification of Kenilworth with the funding that the Storch Fund, in partial, went to,” he said, adding that they agreed to sign off on the amendment.

According to Hart, the Kenilworth Park District is in the process of reviewing requests for projects from local garden clubs, which he said the Storch Fund will support over the next year.

He also hopes that the amendments and investment committee will be positive changes going forward:

“We hope that this puts (the disagreements) behind us.”

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