Behm Park construction set for spring
It's been several years in the process but construction of an outdoor sports complex along Peterson Road in Fremont Township is set to begin this spring.
The final detail was the approval this week by the township board of a $1.9 million bid to Lake County Grading Company of Libertyville to build the facility east of Route 60.
Behm Homestead P ark will feature soccer/football, football, lacrosse, softball and baseball fields, two playgrounds, a shuffleboard court, horseshoe pit and a walking path with exercise stations on the north side of Peterson immediately east of the Saddlebrook Farms subdivision. A parking lot for 200 vehicles also is part of the project.
Lake County Grading was chosen from among 11 bids. Construction should be complete by Aug. 1, although the facilities won't be open until fall 2009 to allow the grass to take root.
It will be the second and largest of the township's recreational facilities. It also operates a lighted baseball field at Ivanhoe Community Club Park on Route 83 to the southeast, which is used by the Mundelein Little League.
Township officials began looking for land for a park in 2002. About three years ago, it announced the purchase of more than 28 acres along Peterson for $1.2 million.
The construction bid process was delayed as the township waited for a state Open Space Lands Acquisition and Development grant. The township was awarded about $602,000 toward the purchase of the land and $400,000 toward its development.
There also were issues with Peterson Road, which is planned to eventually be realigned in that area.
"To do it and open it now we would have had to make improvements on a road that will be vacated," said Township Supervisor Peter Tekampe.
The Behm family members were the original farmers, settling the area in the late 1840s, Tekampe said.
Some of the property was sold off in the 1930s to the Stewart family, which owned Quaker Oats, he added.
Saddlebrook was developed in the early 1990s on a portion of the original Behm homestead.