A Cook County Forest Preserve committee Tuesday recommended that the contract of a stable operator in Morton Grove be canceled and that golfers be required to wear shirts at the district`s 10 golf courses and three driving ranges.
Commissioner Robert Gooley (R-Homewood), chairman of the Recreation Committee, said after a closed session that the committee recommended cancelation of the contract of Jim Hart to manage the Forest Grove Stables at Golf and Harms Roads and voted to spend $431,000 to renovate the facility.
The renovations would include improvements to the riding ring and landscaping, as well as paving of an adjacent gravel parking lot and improvements to the sewer, water and electrical systems. Bids will be sought from several prospective stable operators when Hart`s contract ends on Oct. 31, Gooley said.
The county board will consider the recommendations in September.
Gooley said the committed voted 5-0 to terminate Hart`s contract because Hart ”did nothing to enhance the property,” such as repairing horse stalls and a fence and painting the structure.
”He also couldn`t get along with horse owners and riding instructors, which caused more than half of the horse stalls to be empty,” Gooley said.
”He also was a month behind in his rent and at one time was four months in arrears.”
Hart denied that he was behind on rent payments and said the forest preserve violated the contract by not repairing faulty plumbing in the stable. The termination agreement, in which both sides released each other from damages, calls for return to Hart of a $21,860 security deposit and cancellation of the final 12 months of the 4-year contract, $424,000 contract under which Hart rented the facility from the county, Gooley said.
Gooley said a forest preserve investigation did not turn up evidence that Hart was underfeeding horses or permitting unsafe conditions, as 60 signers of a petition had charged in June.
”It was a hostile takeover attempt,” Hart said. ”The people who wrote the petition wanted me out of the way so they could take over the contract. If they want the bills, they can have it. I`ll never enter into any licensing agreement with the government again. I`ve taken a substantial loss on this.” The requirement that golfers wear shirts came after the committee received ”numerous complaints” that some of the patrons of the courses and driving ranges were ”bare-chested,” Gooley said. The committee voted to make bare-chested golfers subject to fines of up to $500 for disorderly conduct, effective Sept. 13.
Meanwhile, the County Board`s Administration Committee disclosed that President Richard Phelan`s staff is studying the congestion in the Daley Center lower level parking lot, which has about 98 priority parking places.
