City Council should hand over Country Club to Park District

After the City Council worked with the Park District for decades on providing quality amenities for the citizens of Highland Park things have polarized between the City and Park District. Government efficiency is not only consolidation of operations and efficiency of services for the residents, it is also about cooperation and melding of ideas between governmental entities. Trust and being on the same team is important. Lets work together people....


The City Council worked with the Park District on buying lands and building facilities like the Aqua Park, Driving Range, and the new recreation center.

In 1993 we originally bought the Highland Park Country Club (HPCC) because a large housing development had been proposed that would have devastated the flood plain and open space. Current Council people have wrongly professed the City bought it to save the golf course. The purchase was never about saving a golf course and in fact the City of Highland Park should not be in the golf and banquet business. The Council had operated the golf course to use net revenue to offset part of the bond payments.  The Park District would have purchased the HPCC but were prohibited from borrowing money due to "Tax Cap". Since the City was "home rule" we had the authority to save this property for open space. The cost was 10 million for the HPCC purchase and the 20 year bonds (about 700k/year in debt service) were fully paid in January of 2013.

Through the years we had identified 100k-300k for repayment of debt service from this enterprise HPCC fund. As the golf business tanked after the turn of the century this debt service repayment pretty much evaporated as the business continued to shrink. When the Park District needed to build a new recreation center the HPCC site was chosen because the commitment to hand it over. The HPCC would be turned over to the Park District upon repayment of bonds by the City or sooner if they would take over a portion of the debt service (100k-300k) on the 20 year bonds. At the time of the recreation center construction the Park District decided to wait until 2013 for taking over the operations but moved forward with us spending about 12 million on a new recreation center based on the fact the property would be under their control in 2013.

Several years ago the Mayor and I sat down with the Park District to discuss the transfer with a brand new Park Board and after a few meetings things seemed like they were on track. At that time we also talked about transitioning the City's Senior and Youth services to the Park District along with the HPCC transfer. More available parking for seniors and the concept of multigenerational programming under one roof seemed like a great way to enhance the Youth and Senior programming.

Upon leaving the City Council for the County Board I recall the Park District telling us they needed to work on a master plan vision before moving forward. We had talked about a decision point to decide which golf course (Sunset or HPCC) they were going to keep open and would survey the business and residents to help facilitate a recommendation.

I believe in early 2014 a decision was made to close the HPCC and resume the transition discussion with the City. The City's position of demanding the HPCC and Banquet facilities stay open was prompted by the Mayor and Councilman Tony Blumberg. To me this demand is totally out of left field, unreasonable, and without merit. This demand immediately short circuited the discussion and trust between the parties making it impossible for the Park District to proceed with their plan to consolidate golf play and liberating this open space for a more passive and environmentally friendly use of the Highland Park Country Club.

The recent article in the Triblocal reporting the huge losses in 2013 are just the tip of the iceberg of losses to be incurred if the City of Highland Park continues operations of the HPCC. Renovations and maintenance of the Golf Course and Facilities will require 100's of thousands in the next several years along with the operations being in direct competition with the Park District's Sunset Golf Course.

The City of Highland Park should not have done a 180 degree policy change, demanding the HPCC golf and banquet facilities stay open and driving intergovernmental cooperation into the ground. Instead, they should come to their senses and work out an agreement with the Park District and remove themselves out of these operations. Allow the Park District to do their job we elected them to do for the citizens of Highland Park.

Greg Totter wrote an article in the Triblocal you should read.....