Glen Ellyn residents want access to park

Residents near Manor Woods in Glen Ellyn have issued village officials a challenge: Stop neglecting what used to be a beautiful property and start rehabilitating it.

Step 1? Fix it up enough to remove the "No Trespassing" signs scattered throughout the park's walking trail.

"It's very frustrating for me as a homeowner to see what has happened to it," longtime resident Martin Johnson told village officials at a recent meeting. "This has to be taken care of. It's potentially a jewel for the village."

The heavily wooded area, which sits west of Main Street and north of Roosevelt Road along Brandon Avenue, is one of several parcels of park land owned by the village.

Village Manager Steve Jones said the resources are just not there to maintain the roughly six-year-old trail as it has been in the past.

"Every option costs money," he said. "It competes with a lot of other, more core services than recreation."

The signs were installed early last year after village officials said dying tree branches falling to the ground created a hazard for walkers on the trail. The search is on now for solutions to the problem, with board members directing Public Works Director Joe Caracci to seek trail-clearing programs in the area that might work for the village.

The village is also looking at splitting the trail in the 17-acre forest into five segments and clearing one segment per year.

Village President Mark Pfefferman said Caracci will soon seek bids for that work and officials will then try to find between $2,500 to $3,000 to get something done before the end of this year. Along with Panfish Park to the southeast and Lambert Lake to the southwest, Manor Woods is one of three large tracts of natural space the village owns. Pfefferman said ideally, the maintenance costs on the spaces would be included in the village's annual budget.

Volunteers and village personnel helped lay the trail in about 2004.

"It was very nice but since then, nothing has happened," Pfefferman said. "The village should be responsible for maintaining its own land."

Naturally, Johnson agrees. After dealing with the signs for more than a year, Johnson said it's time for the village to be a good neighbor.

"If I owned it, and posted 'No trespassing' signs because of safety, you would be coming to me demanding action," he said. "I'm upset with the village for the neglect of this piece of property. It's your responsibility, you own it."