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Lake County forest district adopts 10-year plan

Lake County Forest Preserve District commissioners on Tuesday adopted the agency's first 10-year capital improvement plan, a long list of projects officials hope to complete in the next decade.

Previous plans were approved as part of the annual budget process, and they looked only as far as five years into the future. The 10-year plan was developed to better ensure the district remains on solid financial ground for years to come.

"How can we really be sure that we're on a good footing? How can we really be sure that we've got the monies?" forest board President Ann Maine said before Tuesday's vote. "It really became clear that we need a long-term vision."

The formalized plan also lets officials review possible construction projects and other improvement efforts outside the annual springtime budgeting process.

The projects in the capital plan include habitat restoration efforts, trails, tree plantings and facility improvements, among others.

For example, environmental restoration efforts at the Ray Lake Forest Preserve near Wauconda are in the plan, at an estimated cost of $85,000. So is construction of a new educational classroom in the main barn at the Ryerson Conservation Area near Riverwoods, at a proposed cost of $175,000.

The plan also identifies projects that once were set to receive funding but have been shelved in money-saving moves.

They include $34,600 worth of work on the Des Plaines River Trail at the Wilmot Woods Forest Preserve near Libertyville, a planned $650,000 trail addition at the Heron Creek Forest Preserve near Lake Zurich, and construction of a wildlife observation area at the Spring Bluff Forest Preserve near Winthrop Harbor that would cost about $600,000.

Additionally, the plan reduces general funding for unspecified facility improvements, fencing, trail signs and benches districtwide.

In all, it calls for about $7 million in spending cuts from the previous capital plan. Concerns about declining property values and dwindling balances on voter-approved loans contributed to the search for the cuts, officials said.

"We are looking at the taxpayers' money as if it's our own," Commissioner Bonnie Thomson Carter said.

Projects that lost funding may be reconsidered if money surfaces.

"They're still on the list," said Ty Kovach, the district's executive director. "We just don't have dollars dedicated to them."

The board approved the plan with a 20-1 vote. Commissioner Brent Paxton was the lone dissenter.

After the meeting, Paxton said he didn't agree with how the projects were prioritized.

"I don't disagree with looking 10 years out," he said. "I think that's a good idea."

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