Volunteers will decide fate of cross-country facility at Settler's Hill

If the final analysis shows a proposed cross-country facility at the old Settler's Hill landfill in Geneva wouldn't make dollars, then the plan doesn't make sense, according to at least one Kane County Forest Preserve District commissioner.

Work is continuing behind the scenes to bring a team of volunteers together with the forest preserve district staff to bring the facility to life. One of the big obstacles remaining is not the cross-country activities. It's what happens at the site when there are no planned events.

The current thinking about the cross-country facility envisions it as a "hybrid project," according to district Commissioner John Martin. Fall, which is cross-country season, and warm months when running events like 5K fundraisers are common will be the busy months for the facility. But the rest of the year the facility will exist mainly as a forest preserve. For the Chicago Area Track and Field Organizing Committee volunteer group that wants to operate the cross-country facility, the question is where and when do their duties start and end.

Representatives from the organizing committee could not be immediately reached Tuesday. Martin said there is no reason to believe the cross-country facility won't become a reality eventually.

"I'm very conservative on how I look at this stuff," Martin said. "I don't want to get either positive or negative. Right now there is an exchange of memos and spreadsheets. The numbers are not haywire."

Forest preserve district officials were not ready to share details of how far apart they are with the volunteer group on the financials of the project. A financial feasibility study initially showed the facility would operate at a deficit of between $50,000 and $146,000 each of its first 10 years of existence. And, even modified projections factoring in the use of a volunteer group to run the operations showed there would still be a deficit of about $33,000 each of the first three years and a modest profit of up to $14,000 thereafter.

The key to closing the gap may be the ability of the volunteer group to attract event sponsors. Operating the facility in the black, or at least a break-even number is the only way the project will get the support of Commissioner Kurt Kojzarek. He is the chairman of the county board's Development Committee, which is handling most of the legwork on the project.

"If that volunteer group doesn't work out, then that project is not going to work out," Kojzarek said. "I don't see anyone else coming into play. And we're not going to do this without having volunteer people run it. Everyone knows my way of thinking. If it's going to lose money, we're not going to do it."

Kojzarek said he feels no deadline pressure to make a decision on the facility.

"If it takes another two years, so be it," he said.