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thePeorian.com
“People see me coming,” she
added, laughing and noting her
persistence also has helped the
district achieve $55 million in
grants since she’s been in charge.
Noble admits she struggled
with the decision to apply for the
executive director’s position be-
cause there weren’t many women
in that field at the time. “I was
anxious about it. I knew if I got
the job I would have to do it bet-
ter than anybody else because I
was a woman and because of my
time on the Park Board, which
would just put that much more of
a microscope on me. Things were
tough at the time, too; the district
had some problems. But I went
for it and I have no regrets,” she
said.
She is proud that the Park Dis-
trict now is financially stable. She
also is proud that it has grown in
what it offers the public in pro-
grams and facilities, including the
vast improvements to the Peoria
Zoo through the years. But she is
quick to credit her staff.
“I have a very open manage-
ment style and my staff knows
they can come to me with their
ideas and how we can work
together to make them happen.
And we work very well together
as a team here. I believe you try
to lure people to work for you
who are smarter than you. I
have,” she said, again laughing.
“When your people are really
good, you just let them go and do
their jobs. They’ll ask for help if
they need it,” she said.
Noble said she also is proud
that her staff cares so much for
the organization and the commu-
nity. When the last recession hit,
she witnessed great examples of
that, she said.
“When the economy went sour
our people came to the table,
managers and unions, and agreed
to such things as freezing their
wages so we could avoid layoffs
or closing facilities or ending
programs. Our people really care
and I see it every day,” she said.
Noble said there have been
many accomplishments in the last
20 years of which she is proud,
“but it’s hard to pinpoint just a
few because all have different
reasons for making me proud.”
Pressed to name some anyway,
she mentioned the campaign
to improve the zoo, including
creation of the
Africa!
exhibit,
and the work that still continues
there. That includes the new zoo
entrance now under construction.
Another she mentioned is the
Rock Island Trail, something
she has been working on since
1974. “That’s probably the project
I’ve been most persistent about.
Certainly it’s the one I’ve worked
longest on. I think some people
would have given up long before
this, but I believed in it that
much,” she said.
A project she is working on
now is the plans brought by the
Junior League of Peoria for the
Power of Play, the children’s mu-
seum and playhouse. The park
district is helping to pull the proj-
ect together. “We believe we can
pull this whole thing together.
All the dominos have to fall just
right, but they will,” she said.
Tentative plans are for the
children’s museum/playhouse to
locate in the Glen Oak Park Pa-
vilion, where Park District offices
now are located. Those offices
would relocate to what is now
Lakeview Museum after the new
Riverfront Museum is completed.
Continued on page 28
Nominees
Dustin Martin, a PGA golf professional and instructor, gives putting lessons
to 7-year-old Weston Walker at the Golf Learning Center on Radnor Road.
Getting the learning center built is one of the accomplishments of Bonnie
Noble in her tenure of executive director of the Peoria Park District.