Glencoe Park District says its caught up on IMRF payments

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Updated: March 11, 2012 8:10AM

The Glencoe Park District, having taken a small temporary break in paying off a sudden debt as its state pension fund consortium took a dive along with the economy, has now caught up.

“It’s a good feeling, now that it’s all been paid,” Carol Mensinger, district finance director, said last week.

It also prompts good feelings because the $54,000 payment now saves $$27,000 in future interest that would have accrued over the next 20 years.

Here’s what happened: In 2008, the stock market crashed and so did the fortunes of many member governments of the Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund, which invests their money for pension payments. Instead of making money that year, pension-paying investments tanked about 25 percent.

According to the payment formula, the district was responsible for making up 26 percent of the downturn. But the IMRF said the districts could just hike their payments 10 percent, and make it up later.

That’s what a lot of them did. Glencoe, for two years, Mensinger said.

“We took it because at that point of time we were just finishing up the financing of the (expanded Takiff) community center.”

Employees, who pay 14 percent of IMRF costs, just saw it come out of their checks.

The IMRF fund was back in the black in 2009 and 2010, and, it appeared at the end of last year, in 2011, too.