Lincolnwood residents are going to have to wait longer to get updated tennis, basketball and volleyball courts, as well as a walking path, at Proesel Park because the village was not awarded a $600,000 state grant. Village officials are pinning the blame on a consulting firm they hired for failing to submit deed documents.
JSD Professional Services, the Wisconsin-based consultant, agreed to lower its $6,000 fee to $4,500 in response to complaints from Village President Jesal Patel and Trustee Craig Klatzco that the firm should have known Lincolnwood needed to submit a property deed for Proesel Park as part of its 2023 application.
The Illinois Department of Natural Resources rejected the village’s application because it did not contain the deed, said Karen Hawk, director of parks and recreation for the village. Hawk said 2023 is the first year the state required an actual deed for such applications.
Kelly Kloepping, marketing and business development director for JSD, said by email that Illinois rejected 84 of the 195 applications submitted for an Open Space Lands Acquisition and Development grant last year.
“JSD is certainly disappointed with the outcome of this grant, as we take pride in the fact that we have written over 100 grants for countless municipalities and park districts, and can only count on one hand the number of grants that were not awarded,” Kloepping said.
She said JSD “worked diligently” to gather the necessary information for the application.
“We were saddened to learn this document did not satisfy IDNR’s requirements this year, as this exact document had already been submitted for an award-winning OSLAD grant previously,” Kloepping said.
Hawk blamed the error on a change in the application process. Lincolnwood was not required to submit an actual deed with its successful application for the same type of grant for Proesel Park in 1998, she said.
“This is the first year it was done through a digital online system,” Hawk said. “IDNR stated that 90% of failed applicants were due to the deed requirement. It was nothing to do with our consultant or anything, just in general.”
Lincolnwood is seeking the $600,000 grant to build a universally accessible playground and renovate the pedestrian path, tennis courts, basketball courts, sand volleyball courts and inline skate park at Proesel. If it receives the grant, the village would be required to match the $600,000.
JSD charged Lincolnwood $10,600 to submit the first application, Hawk said. The firm submitted a proposal to resubmit the application with any necessary updating for $6,000, she said.
That fee would include $1,775 to conduct a deed search, Hawk said. Proesel Park comprises 23 separate parcels of land, she said.
If JSD is unable to locate a deed, the IDNR suggested Lincolnwood submit another attorney’s opinion of title and title insurance for the second application, Hawk said. She said she was not certain what those would cost.
Patel said JSD should have known a deed was required as part of the application process.
“They’re consultants,” Patel said. “I don’t care if it was the first year (of digitalization). That’s their responsibility. That’s what we’re paying them for.”
Klatzco said JSD should not charge the village, if the company is going to apply again on Lincolnwood’s behalf.
“IDNR did not come up with these things in secret,” Klatzco said. “It was clear in the application packet that you need to submit a deed, so the consultant messed up.”
Hawk said difficulty finding a title for public park property is not unusual.
“This is a common occurrence with park proposals,” she said. “I know of other park districts who have dealt with the same thing. Land is donated or purchased and there is no deed they can locate.”
