Legendary Kane County leader Phil Elfstrom dies

The name of Philip Elfstrom's publishing company was misspelled in an earlier version of this article. It was Bader Publishing.

Phil Elfstrom was a brilliant man who knew what would be best for Kane County as suburban sprawl moved in.

Or he was a dictator, amassing undue power and steamrolling over others' objections to his plans for his fiefdom.

Or maybe all of the above, and more.

Elfstrom, a legendary Kane County leader, died Sunday night at 89.

"He really was a man who made a difference in Kane County," said Batavia Mayor Jeff Schielke, a longtime friend.

Accomplishments

Do you enjoy a bike ride on the Fox River Trail? Thank Elfstrom.

Been to a Kane County Cougars baseball game at the stadium in Geneva once named after him? Golfed at Settler's Hill? Driven over the Fabyan Parkway bridge? Served on a jury at the Kane County Judicial Center in St. Charles? Those are Elfstrom accomplishments.

Elfstrom, a Republican, served on the Kane County Board from 1969 to 1992. At the time, board members selected the chairman and president. He was chairman of the county board from 1970 to 1982 and president of the forest preserve district from 1982 to 1990.

Elfstrom championed preserving public access to the Fox River. The son of a railroad manager, he pushed to convert former railroad right of way into the internationally known Fox River Trail.

"It was really Phil's aggressive push that got that done. He was a strong personality and very passionate about the causes he pursued. And the forest preserve district was No. 1 on his list," said current commissioner John Hoscheit, a former commission president.

History

Elfstrom, who grew up in Libertyville and Wheaton, moved to Batavia in 1958. He owned the Bader Publishing Co., maker of greeting cards, selling it in 1982. He also began buying downtown buildings in Batavia.

He championed the effort to save a historic railroad depot, which became a museum for the Batavia Historical Society. He was also involved in the effort to build the Riverwalk in downtown Batavia.

He was named Batavia's Citizen of the Year in 1982, and in 1998 he was honored by the Preservation Partners of the Fox Valley.

"He definitely was a man of action and wanted to bring improvements to his world," Schielke said. "He always fought very firmly for what he believed in."

Politics

Elfstrom also served as the county's solid-waste coordinator and chairman of the Public Buildings Commission.

Some people questioned his having so much power, especially when he arranged for the landfill's operator to donate several million dollars to the forest district to turn it in to a recreation spot once it closed.

Elfstrom was instrumental in getting a minor league ballclub to move to Kane County in 1991. It was the first minor league club in the Chicago area and is the only one affiliated with a Major League Baseball team.

"He really was a visionary. He began the process for people to focus on the importance of the forest preserves and how they could benefit the community," Hoscheit said. "He was, literally, a trail blazer in establishing the bike trail system. ... Really, what we've been doing over the last 20 years is just a continuation of what he started."

Hoscheit said people questioned whether the baseball deal would be economically feasible. Naysayers wondered if the original stadium, seating 2,500 people, would be filled. It now seats 14,000 and is a "substantial" source of nontax money for the forest district, he said.

Detractors said there was usually little discussion by the time things came up for a vote and accused him of arranging deals in secret. A friend, former state Rep. Robert Casey, told a newspaper reporter Elfstrom was "the autocrat at the breakfast table."

"That's probably a good description and one he would not argue with," Schielke said.

"He's like a king. No one else has any power besides him," Democratic Kane County Board member Arlene Shoemaker once said.

In the late 1980s, the forest preserve district decided to buy a 300-foot-wide swath of riverside that ran through the backyards of 26 properties in St. Charles Township. The incensed owners organized and pushed back, including enlisting the help of then-Gov. James Thompson.

That led to a referendum in which Kane County voters decided the board chairman should be elected by them, not picked by county board members.

And he lost a battle to build another landfill, in western Kane.

Elfstrom decided not to run for board chairman and also gave up his forest preserve district presidency.

"I had become a lightning rod. People are voting against things just because I support them," he told the Chicago Tribune in a 1990 article.

He stepped out of the limelight, then served on the Batavia park board from 2005 to 2008. But he kept up with what was happening, Schielke said. A few months ago, he told Schielke he thought the county should start mining the trash in Settler's Hill for an incineration facility and reflected on the money the western landfill would have put in the county's hands.

"I always thought his thinking was about 20 years ahead of the world," Schielke said.

• Daily Herald staff writer James Fuller contributed to this story.

Funeral info for Phil Elfstrom

Funeral arrangements for former Kane County Board Chairman Phil Elfstrom are being handled by <a href="http://www.mossfuneral.com/obituaries/details/1987/">Moss Family Funeral Homes</a>, 209 S. Batavia Ave., Batavia.

Visitation: 2 to 5 p.m. Sunday and 10 to 11 a.m. Monday

Service: 11 a.m. Monday at the funeral home

Burial: West Side Cemetery, Batavia

Memorial gifts: Covenant Care Hospice Foundation, 3755 E. Main St. Suite 165, St. Charles, 60174