Naperville Park District

The Naperville Park District, is an independent, special taxing district, providing parks and recreation to its residents. The Naperville Park District serves a population of more than 140,000 residents. Its boundaries are mostly coterminus with the incorporated limits of the City of Naperville, Illinois, however there are small deviations including the northern section of the White Eagle subdivision which lies within the City of Aurora's boundaries.

Parks

The Naperville Park District owns and/or operates 139 parks totaling over 2,500 acres (10 km²).

Programs

The Naperville Park District serves approximately 60,000 participants each year through more than 900 recreational, arts and environmental programs and events for all ages.

Governance

The Naperville Park District is governed by a seven-member Board of Commissioners, elected at-large by Naperville voters. As of the 2007 election, Commissioners will begin serving four-year terms. Board meetings are conducted on the second Thursday of every month at 7:00 p.m. "Matters from the Public" is a permanent agenda item that allows the public to comment on park district programs and operations.

Park district

A park district is a form of local special-purpose district for providing public parks and recreation in or near its geographic boundaries. Some park districts also own or maintain related cultural facilities such as monuments, zoos, sports venues, music venues, or museums.

Park districts are prevalent in the United States. State statutes often have a general law to provide for park districts' creation, dissolution, geographic borders, and annexation; the selection of governing boards, often referred to as park boards; and the criteria for levying property taxes on behalf of the district. Park districts sometimes obtain additional revenue by charging admission fees for some venues and through donations or voluntary memberships in a similar way to not-for-profit organizations; in addition, sometimes a park district is assisted by a private not-for-profit organization set up specifically for the purpose of assisting the local public park system.

Park district jurisdiction over public recreation is usually not exclusive; other local government bodies may also have their own parks. Local government bodies besides park districts also own museums and public event venues such as arenas; in some places the main public museums are instead part of the local library district or a separate museum district. State parks and national parks, and other related state and national areas, are controlled at the level of government that created them, rather than by any local park district.

District

A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning entire regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions of municipalities, school district, or political district.

By country

 Afghanistan

In Afghanistan, a district (Persian / Pashto: ولسوالۍ‎ Wuleswali) is a subdivision of a province. There are almost 400 districts in the country.

 Australia

Electoral districts are used in state elections. Districts were also used in several states as cadastral units for land titles. Some were used as squatting districts. New South Wales had several different types of districts used in the 21st century.

Austria

In Austria, a district (Bezirk) is an administrative division normally encompassing several municipalities, roughly equivalent to the Landkreis in Germany. The administrative office of a district, the Bezirkshauptmannschaft, is headed by a Bezirkshauptmann. It is in charge of the administration of all matters of federal and state administrative law and subject to orders from the higher instances, usually the Landeshauptmann (governor) in matters of federal law and the Landesregierung (state government) in state law. While there are matters of administrative law the municipalities themselves are in charge of, or where there are special bodies, the district is the basic unit of general administration in Austria. Officials on the district level are not elected, but appointed by the state government. There are also independent cities in Austria. They are called Statutarstadt in Austrian administrative law. These urban districts do have the same tasks as a normal district.

Naperville, Illinois

Naperville is a suburb of Chicago, located in DuPage and Will counties in the State of Illinois. Naperville was voted the second-best place to live in the United States by Money magazine in 2006. It was rated 1st on the list of best cities for early retirement in 2013 by Kiplinger. In a 2010 study, Naperville was named the wealthiest city in the Midwest and eleventh in the nation with a population over 75,000. It was ranked among the nation's safest cities by USAToday. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 141,853, which was estimated to have increased to 144,864 by July 2013. It is the fifth-largest city in Illinois, after Chicago, Aurora, Rockford, and Joliet. Approximately 95,000 Napervillians live on the DuPage County side, while about 50,000 reside on the Will County side.

History

In July 1831, Joseph Naper arrived at the west bank of the DuPage River with his family and friends to found what would be known as Naper's Settlement. Among those original settlers were Naper's wife Almeda Landon, his brother John with wife Betsy Goff, his sister Amy with husband John Murray, and his mother Sarah. Their arrival followed a nearly two-month voyage across three Great Lakes in the Naper brothers' schooner, the Telegraph. Also on that journey were several families who remained in the still raw settlement that would become Chicago, including that of Dexter Graves who is memorialized in Graceland Cemetery by the well-known Lorado Taft statue "Eternal Silence" (also known as "the Dexter Graves Monument").

Park

A park is an area of natural, semi-natural, or planted space set aside for human enjoyment and recreation or for the protection of wildlife or natural habitats. It may consist of grassy areas, rocks, soil, and trees, but may also contain buildings and other artifacts such as monuments, fountains or playground structures. In North America, many parks have fields for playing sports such as soccer, baseball and football, and paved areas for games such as basketball. Many parks have trails for walking, biking and other activities. Some parks are built adjacent to bodies of water or watercourses, and these parks may comprise a beach or boat dock area. Often, the smallest parks are in urban areas, where a park may take up only a city block or less. Urban parks often have benches for sitting and they may contain picnic tables and barbecue grills. Parks have differing rules regarding whether dogs can be brought into the park: some parks prohibit dogs; some parks allow them with restrictions (e.g., use of a leash); and some parks, which may be called "dog parks," permit dogs to run off-leash.