Aurora golf course closed, but banquet facility remains open
When news reports circulate about the city of Aurora closing Fox Valley Country Club golf course for good, it creates some anxiety for Bob Wehrle.
Wehrle owns Fox Valley Country Club Events, the banquet facility on the Route 25 property taken up mostly by the golf course. The city owns and operates the golf course and leases the banquet center.
The course closing strikes a nerve with Wehrle because his banquet center remains open and isn't going anywhere anytime soon. His lease with the city of Aurora goes through 2038 and no one has said a word to him about a change in plans for the property or his business, even though it has been clear for some time the city wants to clean its hands of the golf course operation.
Wehrle says he has right of first refusal on the lease, meaning he can always say thanks, but no thanks, to any change that affects his business.
So it makes sense that Wehrle called us a couple of weeks ago when I wrote about the golf course's final days, even though it remains unclear what the city has in mind for that property.
"I had brides calling here worried about us closing, and we are not closing," Wehrle said.
Any deal related to the golf course would likely take a few years to come together, and may not affect him anyway, so Wehrle is not concerned about events he has booked - some already into 2017 - being canceled.
"As far as I'm concerned, it's business as usual," Wehrle said of the banquet facility he has pumped more than $1 million into since taking over 11 years ago. Wehrle, who has been in the events business most of his life, also owns Piper Banquets on Butterfield Road.
He's been down the path of uncertainty about a building in the past. A site he previously operated on the North Shore was earmarked for a change, but Wehrle kept the business open an extra nine months to accommodate brides who had booked events.
"I never let one customer down when I experienced this before, and I wouldn't do it now," Wehrle said. "But this is different, because there is nothing happening to our facility now."
Still, if a bride-to-be hears the golf course is closing, it's too easy to think the banquet center is going down for the count as well.
"It's hard enough to do business when you do everything right," Wehrle said. "But when something like this comes along, it causes some worry."
Turkey's effect on wallet
The Kane County Farm Bureau tells us the cost of a Thanksgiving dinner for 10 people last year was $49.41, which means this year it is likely to be at least a few dollars more than $50.
That's still not too bad for 10 people, but it is fairly striking when one personal finance website informed me that the cost of feasting on turkey and the trimmings with family and friends has increased by 71.2 percent since 1986. And that's with a few years in which the costs went down because of deflation.
Turkey easy on wallet
Many families and individuals in the Tri-Cities don't have the money or nice homes in which to create and serve an awesome Thanksgiving meal. But not to worry.
Plenty of organizations and churches have long provided free Thanksgiving dinners for area residents. The Geneva United Methodist Church will offer a turkey dinner Tuesday at its monthly free Tuesday Community Supper event, and Lazarus House in St. Charles has traditionally offered a community meal on Thanksgiving Day, this year taking place from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Tri-Cities Salvation Army building on Seventh Street.
Aliano's Ristorante in Batavia is offering a free Thanksgiving Day dinner from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. for senior citizens and veterans.
And, of course, the Geneva American Legion Post 75 will hold its annual turkey raffle on Nov. 21. Information is available at the post at (630) 232-2171.
Welcome that bridge
My first journalism outpost in the late 1970s was in Elburn, working out of an office on Main Street right across from what was then Anderson's grocery store.
Other than meeting many nice people, many of whom I still run into on occasion, one thing about working in Elburn stood out: Waiting for trains to pass through town if you happened to be on Main Street at the time.
Residents and visitors will have an option to avoid that wait, with the completion of the Anderson Road extension project, including a bridge to get over those tracks.
Village President Dave Anderson talked about the need for such an option decades ago when he was managing the grocery store and serving his community on the school board. Every time we sat down to talk, his optimism for an extended Anderson Road for future generations would come up. And not because it carries the same name, but because he knew his village needed it badly.
In fact, Anderson Road is not named after Dave or his family. It's named after distant cousins Gunnar and Steen Anderson, of two different families, whom both lived north of the village and needed a name for the gravel road that got them into town.
dheun@sbcglobal.net