Old homestead becomes a public gathering place

More than six years ago, Fremont Township residents responding to a survey said they wanted open space and active recreation areas.

"That's what this is," Supervisor Pete Tekampe told an admittedly partisan crowd during Tuesday's dedication of Behm Homestead Park.

Filling the seats beneath a tent erected for the occasion and spilling around the edges were scores of descendants of the original Behm family, which dates its farming roots to the area near Peterson Road and Route 60 to the 1840s.

"We get together for a Behm reunion every two or three years and now we have a place," joked Edna Behm Smyth of Third Lake.

The Behm family at one time owned land in the area literally farther than the eye could see, part of a tradition in which every son of a farmer had to have his own place.

While their farm holdings have been sold off, including for the nearby Saddlebrook Farms subdivision, this particular homestead at Peterson Road just east of Route 60 will be memorialized in name.

The township parcel also carries a deed restriction.

"It can't be anything but a park," said Tekampe, who has led the effort to acquire the property and build the athletic facility.

Facilities include soccer/football, lacrosse, softball and baseball fields, two playgrounds, a shuffleboard court, and a walking path with exercise stations.

A township crew installed an entry gate Wednesday, a requirement to secure an occupancy permit from Lake County. The facility is not yet open to the general public, but is expected to be ready in five or six weeks. Two football fields should be ready for Mundelein Junior Football League play by late July.

The park does not have lights and only daytime activities are allowed.

Tekampe said permitting issues and other aspects of the project took much longer than expected. The groundbreaking was in March 2008.

The township paid $1.2 million for the 28-acre farm and $1.9 million for construction. It received more than $600,000 from the state toward the land purchase, and expects another $400,000 upon opening.

The rest, said Tekampe, who has been supervisor for 16 years, has been set aside by the township.

"We had a long term agenda," he said. "There's no mortgage. Nothing. No tax increase."

The park had its critics, including Robert Freese, who ran against Tekampe for supervisor in April but was defeated handily. Freese questioned the location of the park and Tekampe's relationship with the Behm family. He also contended the second grant was in jeopardy because of state finances.

Tekampe dismissed those charges. He said the idea was to work in tandem with Lake County, which plans a $10.8 million project to relocate Peterson Road to the southeast to create a new intersection with Route 60.

A cul-de-sac at the park entrance is part of that, but construction of the project has been delayed until spring 2010 pending right-of-way acquisition.