Gurnee mayor chilly on golf ball complaint

Gurnee Mayor Kristina Kovarik provided a blunt reply to a man who voiced fears for his family's safety because of errant shots that land at his house off a hole at Bittersweet Golf Club.

"I don't understand why you would have bought on a golf course," Kovarik told Nick Kowalewski, who asked for the village board's help Monday evening.

An offer to work with Kowalewski later came from Samuel M. Ekstein, who's been a court-appointed receiver in charge of Bittersweet's finances since the course fell into foreclosure last year.

Open since 1996, Bittersweet became a target of complaints about stray golf balls after custom homes were built for the Aberdare Estates subdivision along 13 of the course's 18 holes.

In 2007, one resident brought about 100 golf balls to a village board meeting so officials could see how players on hole No. 2 had problems finding the fairway. Hole No. 5 was a focus of resident gripes in 2002.

At Monday night's Gurnee village board session, the par-4, 413-yard fifth hole was back in the spotlight. Kowalewski said the problem, in part, is golfers who fail when trying to carry about 150 yards of wetlands on the hole.

Kowalewski said he's had eight broken windows since moving next to Bittersweet in 2002, and he asked the elected officials to help him. He said there always is a chance his children will be killed by a ball if they are in the back yard.

"I've been struck in the head with a golf ball and almost killed," Kowalewski said. "My son was recently hit with a golf ball last year."

Kovarik responded that Bittersweet is a private business and village government can't enact a local law to control bad golfers. She noted the golf course was built before the houses.

Ekstein then stepped forward during public-comment time to say he's willing to meet with Kowalewski and get his suggestions on where trees or bushes can be planted to block wayward shots from the fifth hole.

"I have a limited budget that I can spend on this," said Ekstein, who runs a Chicago-based asset management company.

Kowalewski said he was told last September the course would install additional plantings, but they never did. Kovarik said the only way golf balls would not land on Kowalewski's property is if Bittersweet closed.

Although Gurnee owns the 240 acres the course sits on near Almond Road and Grand Avenue, a private company was running the operation when a bank initiated foreclosure action in Lake County circuit court last year.