Leashes now the rule at Schweitzer dog run

In Schweitzer Woods Forest Preserve in Dundee Township, there's a 5-acre fenced-in dog run.

Emily Schweitzer, who deeded the land to the forest preserve before her death, had the run and an accompanying kennel built for the Irish setters she bred and pampered.

But starting this week, dog owners won't be able to take their dogs off their leashes in the popular area, a move that angered residents who have used it for years.

"This amenity already exists, and was given to us as a gift," said county board member Deborah Allen, an Elgin Republican. "You shouldn't take a gift and plow it into the ground."

The problem for the forest preserve district is an inconsistency in Schweitzer's paperwork deeding the property. A section states that dogs cannot be off-leash from April to September, a provision assumed added to protect birds in the area.

Members of the district board's executive committee affirmed a decision to post signs and enforce the new policy at a meeting Friday.

Schweitzer's attorney and family have said that provision was not supposed to apply to the fenced-in dog area, a section that was deeded to the forest preserve later, along with Schweitzer's house.

But it's still in the paperwork and leaves the county open to legal problems, said Forest Preserve board President John Hoscheit.

It's also a liability issue with people using the forest preserve land without any district regulations, such as required vaccinations for animals, he said.

The district's two off-leash areas for dogs -- in the Aurora West and Fox River Bluff preserves -- are both open areas and don't have fencing.

The district could ask a judge for a declaratory ruling on Schweitzer's intent, which uncontested would likely take at least four months and up to $10,000, officials said.

That route doesn't make sense when other property owned by the forest preserve district doesn't have any legal restrictions, said committee member Gerry Jones, an Aurora Democrat.

Committee member Jim Mitchell, a North Aurora Republican, added that things residents were doing at the run themselves -- like bringing in a truck full of mulch -- was a troublesome liability for the county.

"That needs to stop," he said.

Hoscheit said a dog park was needed in the northern part of the county, but that the district would be looking into where would be the best place for that would be.

That sounds silly to supporters of keeping the run open, who said the best place is the one that's already finished, and that building a new one would be costly anyway.

"They're not listening to their constituents, they're not listening to the lawyer who wrote the documents and didn't get paid for his clarification," said Jessica Frost, chairwoman of the Friends of Schweitzer Woods group.

The members of the group have used the park for five years and there have been no legal problems or complaints so far, she said.

She said the group's members will have to meet and decide what to do next.