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Will Singing Hills be silenced? Barn’s future uncertain

Lake County Forest Preserve board considers cost of preserving landmark

A distinct yellow barn on Fish Lake Road just north of Gilmer Road near Volo will remain for the foreseeable future as Lake County Forest Preserve commissioners consider the costs of preserving the local landmark.

Standing alone on the open landscape, the barn at the entrance of the Singing Hills Forest Preserve is hard to miss. It’s at an important hub on the Millennium Trail.

But the building is damaged and in need of extensive repairs, which presents a pickle for the cash-strapped district. The sentiment among commissioners is to preserve it, but not at all costs.

“It’s twisted off its foundation. It’s leaning to the east and south,” explained Mike Tully, director of operations and public safety for the district.

Rebuilding the barn would cost about $650,000, Tully told the district’s finance committee on Thursday. But chances of that happening appear remote.

Stabilizing the building to keep it from falling down was previously estimated to cost $100,000 to $150,000, Tully said. More recent informal estimates from builders ranged from $210,000 to $300,000, he said.

The barn apparently is not in imminent danger of collapsing, as the shifting occurred several years ago and it recently has withstood several storms.

But it was on the list of several agricultural buildings and structures for which Tully was seeking direction. While the others were slated for demolition, the future of the Singing Hills barn presents a unique circumstance because of its high visibility and cost.

“It’s a landmark. People in the community know what it is,” said Commissioner Bonnie Thomson Carter of Ingleside, who is not on the committee but attended the meeting.

“They see it. It means something to them.”

Still, she said, $100,000 is too much to spend on the barn in light of the district’s lean financial condition.

“Can we leave it?” she asked. She said that fencing it off to “see what happens over time,” could be an option.

Tully said the district was told by experts in a different case that it should not leave a barn of questionable structural integrity standing because of potential risk to the public.

Commissioners debated whether a fence would defeat the purpose of preserving the view of the barn. Another question was what type of fence would be needed.

“How big is the risk if no one is going near it?” asked committee member Pat Carey of Grayslake. She said there is beauty in old farm buildings and one idea would be to include it in a pool of capital projects.

Board member Aaron Lawlor of Vernon Hills said preservation was part of the district’s mission but anything more than $50,000 for the Singing Hills barn would be “out of the question.”

Commissioner Steve Carlson, of Gurnee, who is not on the committee but attended the meeting, said the district should do what it takes.

“One of the missions of this board is to preserve the culture of this county,” he said. “That’s a prime example of what we should be saving.”

The committee decided to solicit the advice of the Park District Risk Management Association to determine what would be needed to leave the building standing but minimize the risk to the public.

“It is a recognizable landmark,” said Tom Hahn, executive director. “I don’t think we can afford total rehab, but I think we can afford some type of stabilization.”

The forest district acquired the original 541-acre Singing Hills Farm in 1997. The name, which dates from 1942, may have been coined because of the large number of songbirds on the land, although an old cowboy song may also have been an influence.

Old barns get closer look in Lake County