Barrington Hills Park District commissioners held a special meeting yesterday afternoon to discuss Cook County’s plans for Horizon Farms with county representatives as it relates to the park district. According to the agenda, the purpose of the meeting was an “interview” with district officials concerning Horizon Farms.
Unfortunately, we do not check the BHPD website daily, so we could not inform readers of this open meeting. We can only hope the district will provide more information to residents, particularly those bordering or near Horizon Farms, on what transpired and share any updated plans for the property in the near future.
A copy of the agenda that was covered can be downloaded here.
When Horizon opens to the public sometime next year we’ll have little need for a riding center anymore. I say give it back to the Riding Club and Fox River Valley Pony Club. The only reason we’re paying taxes for it now is those two clubs were a year behind in paying property taxes in the 1960’s, so they “donated’ the riding center to the village to get out of paying any future property taxes.
The Riding Center’s own website says it is open to all. Since there is no staff to monitor who uses it; non-residents of Barrington Hills are free to ride there. What other community has a park district facility, other than outdoor ball fields or tennis courts, that is available to anyone at no charge? This is a potential source of income for the Village. Why are we wasting it? In addition, the Riding Center’s website lists twenty-five people who are approved to train riders and horses there. These people get to use our park district facility as a place of business for a fee of less that $60 per year. We pay more than that in taxes for the park district. This is just plain wrong. I suggest the Riding Center and its operations be brought in line with other park districts’ special facilities, e.g. golf courses or fitness centers. People should be paying to use the Riding Center. Instruction should be provided by employees or contractors. If running an operation such as this sounds too complex for the Barrington Hills Park District to manage, then I agree with “Me”, give it back to the original owners or find a buyer for the property.
I understand the meeting was set up for a select group from the RCBH membership. Judy Freeman announced at a Barrington Area Conservation Trust function last night that the Forest Preserve District agreed to ten fox hunts per year at Horizon during the meeting. Too bad residents along Brinker, Otis and Sutton couldn’t weigh in.
Apparently as president of the BACT she believes private, member only local fox hunts are critical to the overall plan for Cook County Forest Preserves and land conservation since she made mention of it even though Horizon is protected. Wonder how that will play in other towns funding taxes for the Cook Forest Preserves such as Bridgeview and Richton Park? Not good I suspect.
Puck
Puck – it is quite apparent that Zoning Board of Appeals Chairman Judy Freemen views the Village of Barrington Hills as the exclusive property of her “Equestrian” friends, not only by her questionable actions during the Commercial Boarding hearings, but in her role as President of the Barrington Area Conservation Trust as well. Conflicted? Wonder what’s up her sleeve for the October 20th ZBA meeting? One never knows until the latest time when the agenda can be posted, no later than 48 hours before the meeting..
Just noticed on the Barrington Area Conservation Trust website, “The mission of Barrington Area Conservation Trust is to preserve open lands, natural resources, equestrian character, and scenic beauty for the Barrington communities.” The “equestrian character” is a recent addition to their mission statement – arrived with Judy Freeman being elected President of the group.. It is news to many of us that the Barrington Communities have an “equestrian character” to preserve.” The text should be amended to include “at the expense of non-equestrians”. How foolish this must appear to those living in the real world, rather than the world of make-believe that some are galloping around in!