Good we dont need another golf course.........

The LCFPD Board should be ashamed of themselves. And you're right; Ed, if they back down on the golf course, what next? It's not a matter of whether or not anyone is in favor or against the development, the issue is more important - stand by your commitrment. The LCFPD prides itself in its programs and facitlities for the country residents. When did the Fort move out of Lake County?
BTW - I don't play golf, but understand the importance of a contract and honoring it.

i'd like to know if the JPC still exists in any form and whether or not there will be a hearing on the issue and who is going to testify. i have my own set of problems with the county about them breaking the law by not doing anything about weeds which the state has made them responsible for.

I agree. If the LCFPD cannot fulfill their obligations on this valuable property that they got for free than they should offer to give the property back.

The LCFPD made a commitment. If they cannot own up to it, they should make restitution to all those in the Town of Fort Sheridan development who bought their house with the idea that they were moving into a golf course community. NO Way should the deed restriction be removed and the property turned over to LCFPD. Shame on you LCFPD. If LCFPD had the $10 million to buy the property 15 years ago, they could have put in a nice golf course since the property was turned over to them for free. If the deed restriction is removed it should be sold to LCFPD for 15 million.

PS. I live in Highwood, don't play golf, and don't own in the Town of FT Sheridan development.

Another dishonesty has been the false requirement that a golf course be profitable. If that were indeed a valid requirement for LCFPD projects, there wouldn't be any!

Oh please!!! What a bunch of political posturing!!!

It's election time people, and the liars kick the lying into high gear.

The liars know that when they decided in their infinite wisdom to bulldoze the existing course, that committed the taxpayers (YOU AND ME) to this collasal waste of resources. This was a legal contract they are renegging on!!!

Absolutely no honor or integrity on the Lake County board.....except for possibly Mr. Paxton who at least has the fortitude to admit the County made a commitment to do this and isn't trying to pass the buck on to the Army.

The Army, if it has any honor, will tell the sc*mbags who want to renege to leave the Army out of their politics.

While we're being forthcoming, what makes anyone think those at the helm of the Lake County FP had good intentions with this deal? Let's look at the simple facts.

The LCFP President Bonnie Carter and lapdogs on the FP board voted to bulldoze the existing course, fully knowing a course was to always run with the land. The LCFP advertised promise after promise they would rebuild it. There was no misunderstanding.

But no feasible plan with dedicated funding was ever planned. No feasible plan.

So without a feasible plan to rebuild, how did the politicians expect to keep their advertised commitment? I think it's foolish to assume our county board members had good intentions with this deal. The facts show they didn't have any methods to keep their commitments.

That's malintent. It's bad leadership.

(btw I too have no personal stake in any golf course at Ft. Sheridan. I'm just a taxpaying citizen tired of the political BS from our county "leaders". )

A deal is a deal. I hope the fed reclaims the property and sues the district for breach of contract.

My name is Anthony Soler and I am the only candidate for Lake County Board District 13 that believes in keeping promises and honoring legally binding agreements. The proposal to build a 9-hole golf course proves that the Board didn’t even bother to look at the Deed Restriction, which specifies for an 18-hole golf course. Lake County received 250+ acres of prime Lake Front property valued at well over 50 million dollars for free and are now dangerously close to giving it back.

True to Lake County form, the politicians at the helm are trying to turn a legal issue into a political issue with layers of spin......and some are stupid enough to buy into it. The Lake County liars play into this stupidity. Some voters even vote these idiotic multi-term incumbents who created this mess back into Office just because they now posture and play these games. And calling them idiotic is being nice. For the leaders are either best-case dumb as box of rocks (assuming they had good intentions), or worst-case are malintended crooks who never had a plan to actually honor their commitment when they bulldozed the existing course.

Look at the Bulldozer's trackrecord: Lies and deceit are the tools of the former Lake County FP President. www.thelocalview.info

I seem to recall that when the LCFPD had their 50th anniversary a few years back, they patted themselves on the back for their vision in protecting and acquiring open lands in Lake County. What a great move in acquiring the Fort property at no cost to the taxpayers!
It seems that Chicago/Cook County politics has found its way north. I find it ironic that this discussion is happening as a former IL governor begins his sentence in federal prison. I've never understood why people in power feel they're above the law and the contract under discussion is a legal document..

Is there any wonder the board is trying this tactic. They only have to look to their northern neighbors for precident! Look at the lake forest city leadership convenienty side stepping or changing their own rules so they can tear down Old Main at Barat College, yet vigirously enforcing those same ordinances on private homes with their tax paying residents.
Look at the LAke Forest District 67 superintendent Griffth, caught lying to the public about the sexting scandal!
What is justice today? Well it appears Justice is proportionate to your ability to afford it! The US Government should step in and retake this property!

Ed:
You can always play golf at the Country Club as they need the rounds and you will be helping reduce the deficit spending on the course.
We have been over this several times. We both know that the LCFPD played their winning hand beautifully, seeking private bids knowing that nobody in their right mind would fund this money losing venture. They begged the world of business to come forward and make your golf course happen. Ultimately, those intelligent people decided to buy Apple (AAPL) and equities instead. The world has changed and a new golf course is not needed, wanted or economically viable unless you want government to spend your monies on another wasteful pork belly project.
Now that there are no bids, they will go to the Army and say, "we tried." There is no guarantee the Army no stranger to bureaucracy themselves, will agree to let them off the hook, but we can have hope for a beautiful open land area that serves the many instead of the few.
This actually could be good government for the people, a concept seldom seen the last several years.

Ed:

Appreciate your informative views and your involvement in our community. I also liked your title on this piece! However, I respectfully disagree on this one.

Best

I understand your view although cannot subscribe to it. Look at the time this originally took place.....how many years ago...let's see, before smartphones, Ipads, hybryd cars and as one could see from a world map of that day, countries that were not even countries, I can agree the deal should have been done then. However, for whatever reason, we now move forward to today's world without "the" golf course and to insist that it would be good goverance to fullfill this ancient arcane idea is like saying that our government should buy Commodore 64's rather than todays technology. The world and economics my friend have changed and in todays world good goverance is to use the land to the best use of the general public either in it's entirety or in segmentation. Again, the elephant in the room is the US Army which could easily deny their request and we are back to square one.

Forest,
Agreed on back to square one if, more like when, the Army denies the county officials' request to join in on the renegging......which is simply just another stall tactic to the very real commitment. I also (personally) agree it was never in the best interests of the LC taxpayers to build a new golf course, that is until the rocket scientists bulldozed the existing course committing the taxpayers.

Moreover, this proposal or whatever you want to call it to the Army is by no coincidence coming right before an election. What a better way to garner votes from uninformed voters than to paint yourself as someone "against wasting money on a golf course"?!!!

It's bad government, and the politicians, including those multi termers who bulldozed the former course, are still lying to and misinforming the voting constituency.....just to get themselves reelected. They won't stop lying to the constituency, and that's again by their choice.

This is a great opportunity for the Constitution. A golf course is no more than terrible use of a rifle range. I bet the NRA, ISRA, GOA, SAF and a lot of individuals would be far more willing to contribute to the building a mid distance rifle range and short range hand gun ranges in place of the deliberately detroyed existing golf course. We need more ranges to maintain our citizenship anyway.

Someone said that there are enough golf courses in the area. But Lake and McHenry County do not have, and are in dire need of a decent rifle and pistol range for the thousands of hunters and sport shooters residing in these counties. I believe the basic facilities are there from when the Army had the Fort Sheridan reservation. It could be run by a non-for-profit corporation using trained and certified range volunteers and charging reasonable fees to pay for maintenance, as is already being done in Bristol, Eagle, and Racine, WI, which are unreasonable driving distances away. All are very professionally run with NO safety issues. The same easily could be done at Fort Sheridan.
But, of course, the short-sighted and afraid-of-guns people will immediately shout it down, as most good ideas are.

To both Johns regarding their posts about a gun range at the Fort:
You may not be aware that a number of years ago the City of HP held some nine years of hearings with the residents about what to do about "our" deer herd. Too many folks were concerned about personal and propery incidents involving licensed sharp shooters twho would be hired to cull (read kill) some of the deer. To my knowledge, I've never heard of any incidents in other communities due to culling deer using shooters firing down from trees where deer bait has been placed at the bottom of the tree and stones cleared to reduce the likelihood of richochets..
Guns are not a popular subject in our fair city.
However, I have a friend who is the past president of an Isaak Walton League of America conservation group with a beautiful 53-are facility in a populated suburb of Washington, DC. They shoot skeet and have a gun range. Have you check with any local IWLA chapters for a gun range?

I too personally would love a gun range added to Lake County including at Ft. Sheridan. But that's a personal want.

I think the point here is the deed when it was legally transacted clearly required a golf course to run with the land. It's not about what I or others want. It's about what the deed called for when people bought their properties in the area and the legal commitment of the property owner when the mental midgets bulldozed the existing course.

Let's put it this way. If the deed had originally called for a gun range and some had bought in the area for that purpose, then the county officials renegged on that commitment asking for the Army to after-the-fact remove that deed restriction simply because those who had destroyed the existing range no longer wanted to pay for it, people would literally be up-in-arms. And they'd be right.

Ah - I agree with the Johns - a nice gun range for all the Lake County residents to use - there is a range going in at crystal lake with a $250 membership fee, imagine 1000 members at Ft Sheridan for the same price - $250,000 a year and you can even have the membership maintain the course, and the membership would provide the range officers - so Lake Co could pick up an additional $250,000 plus a year for basically nothing - toss in a nice archery range and I am sure another 100,000 or so could be garnered - but with 10% of the County owned by LCFPD there just does not seem to be enough space for a small gun range or archery range. Time to vote out the anti-gun board members and get some pro-gun activity going here, so that not only do the joggers and walkers get their access but everyone else that pays for it gets theirs as well.

BTW - was it mentioned that LCFPD got the land for free - all that was required was the golf course and the cemetary - so easy that no on could muck it up - but it just reaffirms my faith in politics as the board managed to muck it up big time (most likely intentionally!) - Bulldozer BTC at the helm.
Time to VOTE - take a look at each and every board member that voted to renege on the deed and Vote Them OUT!!
Also I hope the Army takes back the land and resells it to someone else under the same obligation - Lake Co does not deserve the land.