Confronted with vociferous opposition from a crowd of more than 50 people, the River Forest Park Board decided to defer action on a proposed deal with Dominican University that would give the Dominican women’s softball team exclusive use of an upgraded Little League field at certain times during the spring.
Under the draft agreement, which would take effect in 2026, Dominican would pay the River Forest Park District $20,000 a year in rent for a three year period in exchange for priority use of Ballfield 2 in Keystone Park during the college softball season, from Feb. 1 until mid-May. The agreement could be renewed annually.
The Dominican women’s softball team would use Keystone Ballfield 2 as its practice field and for its home games. Currently the Dominican softball team practices at Triton College and plays home games at the Parkway Bank Sports Complex in Rosemont, where the Chicago Bandits played, because there is no softball field on Dominican’s River Forest campus.
A number of upgrades would be made to the ballfield to bring it up to college standards. Synthetic turf would be installed in the infield, foul poles attached to the outfield fence, new dugouts would be built and the existing bleachers would be moved. According to the draft agreement the cost of these upgrades would not exceed $460,000 and would be paid for by the River Forest Park District.
The proposal generated vocal opposition from 15 River Forest residents at the Dec. 9 meeting.
“A private institution is trying to gain priority access to Field 2,” said resident Tom Ford. “There is a line between a public and private entity. I find it disappointing that the village whose public parks are taxpayer funded would consider making a deal with an entity that as a religious institution pays no taxes whatsoever. Let us as the taxpayers pay for our own upgrades to the park.”
Resident Joe Shaker pointed to an online petition opposing the deal with Dominican that had been signed by 847 people as of Dec. 15.
“Hundreds of River Forest residents believe this deal has not been well thought out and clearly defined,” Shaker said.
Some opposed to the deal are concerned about the provision in the draft agreement that would allow Dominican to put up Dominican Women’s Softball logo pads on the backstop and windscreens at the field during the softball season.
River Forest resident David Glawe, who said that he was the highest ranking openly gay person in the federal government when he was appointed Undersecretary for Intelligence for the Department of Homeland Security in 2017, said that the Catholic church in River Forest would not allow him to take communion because he was a married gay man. He said that for the Park District to partner with a Catholic university and allow Dominican to display its logo on public property would be hurtful.
“It’s a real problem for the LGBTQ community,” Glawe said.
Others wondered if having a Dominican logo on the field would raise separation of church and state issues and perhaps expose the Park District to a lawsuit.
“I see no reason when you’re balancing those things to give up even an inch of space in exchange for money to a private religious organization,” said Jean Buckley, an attorney. “I think it’s wrong.”
Park Board member Dan Roche asked if the Park District’s attorneys had specifically researched and opined on the legalities of the logo issue and was told that they had not.
That was enough for Roche and Carl Bade to put the brakes on voting on the agreement that night.
“I don’t think we need to move forward at all until we get a legal opinion on signage,” Bade said.
Roche also wanted a traffic study to be done before voting on the agreement.
Greg White, the head of River Forest Youth Baseball-Softball was miffed because he felt that he and his organization was not adequately consulted about the agreement.
“I would appreciate a seat at the table,” White said during the meeting.
Mike Grant, the president of the Park Board and a close friend of White’s, said that he was dismayed at how members of the Park Board had been attacked on social media.
“It’s a shame that people get bashed for volunteer work,” Grant said.
Roche agreed that the criticism had been over the top.
“Everyone who’s on social media needs to step back,” Roche said. “Pick up the phone and call us. Let’s not do a drive-by with all caps on Facebook.”
If the draft agreement is approved, the Dominican softball team would have priority or exclusive use, at certain times, of Keystone Field 2 from Feb. 1 to May 15. On weekdays the Dominican softball team would use the field for practices from perhaps as early as 12:30 p.m. until no later than 4:00 p.m. though most practices would probably be between 2 and 4 p.m.
Grant said that the Dominican’s use of the field for weekday practices should not cause a problem because kids are in school during most of the time that the softball team would be practicing, noting that youth sports practices and games almost never start before 4 p.m.
“No one uses that field when the women’s team wants to practice,” Grant said.
The Dominican softball team would also use the field for games on some Saturdays and Sundays during the spring softball season for a maximum of seven home doubleheaders. Saturday doubleheaders, probably no more than three per season, would create the most conflict with use by the youth league.
Dominican athletic director John Planek spoke at the meeting and said that Dominican is willing to work with the park district to minimize conflicts.
“We don’t want to displace anybody,” Planek said.
Despite the charged atmosphere at the meeting Grant, who at times appeared emotional during the meeting, said that he was encouraged by it. He was surprised by the vehement opposition to the proposed agreement that developed over the past few weeks.
“I would have done things different if I knew that this was going to happen,” Grant said. “It caught me by surprise but then again this is a good thing. We had a different kind of exchange, but I’m glad that we did because it gave us the opportunity to hear people.”
Grant said the Park Board, like many local governmental bodies, must improve its communication with the community.
“We need to get better at communication, to seek ways to get better at getting the word out and make it easier for anyone to get information about what’s going on,” Grant said. “We’ve heard this loud and clear.”
Grant said the board will likely convene a committee of the whole meeting in January to further discuss the issue.
“It’s going to involve bringing more people to the table and I don’t see the value of moving ahead if we don’t have buy-in from everyone that ought to be at the table,” Grant said.
Bob Skolnik is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
