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The district has an annual budget of nearly $400 million, and so far this year it’s awarded $35.4 million in contracts for office supplies, garbage disposal, and all sorts of other odds and ends, from refrigerators to trophies. But the two biggest contracts, and four of the top ten, went to firms that provide landscaping services and supplies, according to district records.
The four landscaping contracts awarded by the district this year are worth a total of $6.9 million. Even if not all of the contract payments are made this year, that’s a serious investment when held up next to other Park District expenditures. This year the park district budgeted $7.2 million for capital construction, $5.6 million for the Lincoln Park Zoo, and $860,094 for programming at beaches and pools citywide. It awarded less than $2 million in contracts for fitness and sports equipment, the biggest category of awards that go directly to recreation.
