There are developments of two of the projects that I've been working on for years. The improvements that I single-handedly worked to obtain at Mill Creek Park in Buffalo Grove will be dedicated by Park District officials at a ceremony, this evening. From there, I go to the District 21 School Board meeting, where I will speak to the Board about seat belts on school busses.
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There used to be three playgrounds at the Washington Irving Public School in the Mill Creek subdivision of Buffalo Grove. When the number of children living in the district declined, the School District closed the school and sold the building to the Jewish Federation of Chicago to use as the northwest suburban Jewish Community Center. The three playgrounds were going to be given to the Park District. However, the JCC said that if they would be allowed to take title to the playground properties, the JCC would maintain all three playgrounds at their own expense while guaranteeing the residents of the community in perpetuity the same access that they had allows had to the playgrounds. The Village, the Park District and the School District took the deal and put the terms of the deal in the form of Village Ordinance 85-56.
About five years later, the JCC simply ignored the ordinance and bulldozed one of the playgrounds to expand their parking lot. Five years after that, figuring that nobody would remember the terms of the obscure ordinance, the JCC put up "Private Property, No Trespassing -- For JCC Use Only" signs at the entrance to the two remaining playgrounds. I immediately went the Village Manager to demand that the Village order the JCC to take down the signs and order the JCC to abide by the terms of the public-private partnership that was defined in Ordinance 85-56. When the Village Manager refused to require that the terms of the ordinance be complied with, I went to the Village Board. The President of the Village Board, however, was also the former President of the JCC Board of Directors. The Village President was more concerned about protecting his buddies at the JCC than in protecting the interests of residents of Mill Creek who were not Jewish, so he, too, stalled, delayed and refused to require the JCC to come into compliance with the law. Then, the JCC decided to expand the size of one of their illegally restricted playgrounds, but didn't have any space on their own property, so they extended the fences of that playground across the border of the adjacent Mill Creek Public Park, fenced a substantial portion of the usable open land from the park into their illegally restricted playground, and declared that that public parkland was also for JCC use only and off-limits to the public.
I complained to the Village about the theft of the public park land. When the Village again refused to do anything about it, I went, at 9:30 on a Monday morning, to that portion of my own public park that had been stolen by the JCC, sat down on the park bench and began to read a newspaper. Within minutes, the Buffalo Grove Police arrived, having been called by the JCC. They ordered me to leave because I was supposedly trespassing. I responded to them that I was sitting in a public park. I pointed out the clearing marked property line showing that the land was located on the park district side of the property line. Besides that, even if the land were to be construed as being part of the JCC's playground, Ordinance 85-56 established a public-private partnership that guaranteed public access, regardless of whose land it was.
The police left, but returned five minutes later, arrested me, put me in hand cuffs and took me to jail for trespassing to that portion of my own public park that the JCC had illegally stolen for their own illegitimate private use. I spent half a day in jail and a half a day in court, only to have the prosecutor suddenly decide that a citizen does not commit the crime of trespassing when he decides to uses a public park without first getting the permission of a politically-influential neighbor of the park. Meanwhile, the word certainly went out to the residents of the community that you may have the right to use your own public park, but if you do it without first getting permission from the most clout-heavy religious organization in town, you face arrest, jailing, court time and newspaper headlines in which you will be accused of being a criminal trespasser.
Eventually, the Park District got tired of seeing their patrons being denied access to the local recreation facilities that had been provided to the community and, in my case, arrested for making lawful use of the JCC playgrounds that were part of the public-private partnership ordinance, so the Park District, at my request, spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to build at Mill Creek Park a new playground facility and a basketball court, as well as rehabilitate a baseball field and an ice skating rink.
The work was completed just this week, and the re-dedication of Mill Creek Park will take place from 6:00 pm to 7:00 pm today. The park is located on the east side of Arlington Heights Road, one-half mile south of Dundee Road (Illinois Route 68). I will be there. I hope you will be there, too.
Afterwards, I will go to the District 21 School Board meeting to present additional information on the issue of seat belts on school busses. That meeting will take place at 7:30 pm, today, at the London Middle School / District 21 Administration Center, located on the south side of Dundee Road (IL Rte. 68), one-half mile east of Elmhurst Road (Illinois Route 83). I will be there. I hope you will be there, too.
Rob Sherman P. O. Box
7410
Buffalo Grove, IL 60089-7410
A post office box is used
because
the street address uses a curb mail box,
which is not secure.
Telephone: (847) 870-0700
Fax: (847) 870-1156
E-mail: rob followed by the at symbol followed by robsherman dot com