By Kevin Haas
Rock River Current
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ROCKFORD — The Forest Preserves of Winnebago County is preparing to forge a new agreement with one of its biggest educational partners that will put the responsibility of employment on the nonprofit.
As it stands now, the small team that works at the nonprofit Severson Dells Nature Center, 8786 Montague Road, are employees of the Forest Preserves. The district wants to change that and plans to terminate its existing agreement with Severson and replace it with a new deal.
Those plans drew dozens of concerned Severson supporters to a Forest Preserves board meeting Wednesday night. More than 50 people filled the board room and overflowed into the hallway as trustees discussed ending the agreement.
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Key among their concerns was the timeline with which the board was considering ending the existing deal. The board had initially considered ending the agreement effective Jan. 8, but Severson felt that wasn’t nearly enough time to establish a new human resources structure, payroll system and determine the new employee benefits.
“There’s a lot of heavy lifting involved to essentially establish a new organization in 60 days,” said Chris Samuelson, chairman of the Severson board.
Board members ultimately voted 5-2 to end the deal effective March 19. Board president Jeff Tilly, who expressed concerns that it still wasn’t enough time, and board member Jerry Paulson, who disagreed with the approach, voted against.
Paulson said that although Severson has done a tremendous job of raising money and bringing in volunteers to run programs, nonprofits are at risk of folding from a variety of economic pressures.
“The only guarantee that we have of having an ongoing and stable environmental education program is for the staff to be employees of the district,” Paulson said during the meeting.
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Paulson, who wants staff to remain employees of the district, was cheered by Severson supporters after his comments.
“Every other conservation or forest preserve district in northern Illinois has its own education department, it’s own staff that are … public employees,” he said. “They do not rely on the generosity of donors and grants to have an education program in their district.”
The Forest Preserves and Severson entered their existing agreement on Feb. 14, 2012, and it automatically renews every three years effective May 1. The agreement is not up for renewal until May 1, 2024. However, that agreement was never presented to the Forest Preserve’s board of trustees for approval, Tilly noted.
“Although the nature and intent of the agreement primarily adheres to the nature and intent of the Forest Preserves … an agreement of this magnitude and significance needs to be properly implemented by creating an agreement executed and approved by the board of commissioners in an open and public setting,” he said during the meeting.
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He said the partnership with Severson continues to be of the “utmost importance,” and the district would offer financial assistance as employees transition from the district’s payroll to that of Severson. The district would also continue to contribute $35,000 a year toward maintaining the facility and property.
In the current agreement, the Forest Preserves employ Severson’s four workers, but Severson reimburses the cost with the exception of benefits. It creates confusion about who employees answer to, Tilly said.
“I hope that through this process we can have a stronger agreement, and really collaborate our educational programs for the community,” Tilly said.
“Education is in our mission statement. It’s crucial that we provide education on the natural environment for our citizens in Winnebago County,” Tilly said. “It’s very important to have the educational side of it, and Severson Dells does an amazing job.”
Samuelson said he was happy to see the timeline pushed back from January to March, but that’s likely still not enough time to get the needed employment infrastructure in place.
“It puts the organization in flux. There’s a lot of unknowns at this point,” Samuelson said. “We consider Severson Dells a gem of the Midwest, and we want to keep it that way.
“In order to be able to do that we need to be able to come to an amendable agreement to be the organization that we currently are.”
The district and Severson will now begin negotiating a new agreement in hopes of having it in place before March 19.
This article is by Kevin Haas. Email him at khaas@rockrivercurrent.com or follow him on Twitter at @KevinMHaas or Instagram @thekevinhaas.