Lake County forest district, Round Lake reach agreement to finish portion of Millennium Trail
Bicycle riders and hikers using a new section of the Millennium Trail in the Round Lake area no longer will have to reverse course or use a makeshift path as two gaps are expected to be filled by early summer.
The Lake County Forest Preserve District can proceed plugging the holes of 600 and 1,300 feet after the forest board on Tuesday approved an agreement with the village regarding easements.
That work, scheduled from May 1 to July 1, would complete an existing two-mile trail from Litchfield Drive off Wilson Road, north and east to the Round Lake Area Park District’s disc golf facility on Fairfield Road.
“It’s about two miles of asphalt trail about 12 feet wide and including a 200-foot long timber bridge over Squaw Creek,” said Randall Seebach, land development manager for the forest district. “This will finish it up.”
About 20 miles of the Millennium Trail, a planned 35-mile system through central, western and northern Lake County to connect with other trails, has been completed.
The district spent several years acquiring easements including from the park district, ComEd and Baxter Healthcare Corp. for the Round Lake-area segment of the trail. The bulk of that segment was built last fall.
But a 1,300-foot portion on the west end through the Nature’s Cove subdivision and a 600-foot middle stretch through the north end of the Emerald Bay subdivision were skipped as the district and village debated easement issues.
In the first instance, both entities have an easement, but the village’s is underground and access to utilities and other details had to be worked out.
In the second, the village will provide the district with an easement north of Jade Lane in Emerald Bay. Under terms of the agreement, the district agrees not to object to future extensions of Springside and Catalina drives, which would cross the trail to the west.
The district also will pay the village a fair market value of $4,840 for the Emerald Bay easement and reimburse it up to $10,000 for engineering and legal fees involving the agreement. The Round Lake village board approved the measure last month.
But it wasn’t smooth going and took a few years to settle. At one point, the district posted signs at the gap telling trail users to contact the village regarding the unfinished sections.
“It’s worth the money to get this finished and on its way. It took too much of our time,” Commissioner Steven Mountsier said during a recent discussion. Mountsier chairs the forest board’s land preservation and acquisition committee.
At the time, some commissioners attributed the delay to personal politics involving a village dispute with Lake County on an unrelated matter. County board members also serve as forest preserve commissioners.
“Differences of opinion is the polite way to say it,” Round Lake Mayor Jim Dietz said Monday. “Through the process, I kept saying, ‘Separate the issues’. Some people can, some people can’t.” Working out the details of the agreement also took some time, he added.
In any case, the stage is set for completion of what Mountsier called an “important segment” of the Millennium Trail.
The district also is proceeding with an underpass at Wilson Road to connect the Round Lake segment to the Marl Flat Forest Preserve.