The future of a proposed agreement for Dominican University’s women’s softball team to use a field at River Forest’s Keystone Park is cloudy after the River Forest Park Board declined last week to take any action on the issue.
The deal, in which Dominican would pay $20,000 a year to use a ballfield at Keystone Park for its women’s softball team for a couple months in the spring, faced vocal public opposition.
Perhaps tellingly the board did not schedule any further discussion of the agreement, declining to book a Committee of the Whole meeting to address the subject.
“There’s really no rush for this to happen,” said board member Dennis Healy.
Park Board President Mike Grant said he wants to gather more input on the proposed agreement before considering further action.
“I would like to reach out to the community,” Grant said.
Park Board member Carl Bade said he was not satisfied with the response from the park district’s law firm, Ancel Glink, which was asked to render a legal opinion addressing whether letting a Catholic university post signage at the field would raise any significant church-state constitutional issues.
Speaking after the meeting, Grant made clear that no action on the proposed agreement would be taken in the near future.
“I don’t think there will be any kind of agreement anytime soon,” Grant said.
Grant also said the agreement would not be approved unless the concerns expressed by River Forest residents are addressed. He doubted the agreement would be approved in time for Dominican to use the field in 2026.
“That would be up to the board and if that’s going to happen we would need to move pretty quickly,” Grant said. “I don’t think that that’s going to be doable at this point.”
A vote on the agreement was on a Park Board agenda in early December, but members took no action after 15 River Forest residents made public comments opposing the agreement. Approximately 50 people attended the December 9 meeting and no one made a public comment in favor of the agreement. At the Jan. 13 meeting four people spoke against the agreement and no one spoke in favor of it.
One of the concerns of those opposed to the deal is that allowing the Dominican softball team to use the field, which would be upgraded to synthetic turf, would limit access to the field by River Forest Little League softball and baseball teams and cause scheduling issues.
“I just don’t think it is in the best interest of the children here,” said Mark Catrambone in his public comment at the Jan. 13 park board meeting.
Dan Kirschner, who lives near Keystone Park, raised concerns about traffic and congestion when Dominican plays home games.
“It’s not about baseball, it’s about the quiet enjoyment of our public land,” Kirschner said.
A group of River Forest residents have formed what they are calling the Keystone Park Advisory Council. They say that they want to work with the Park District to provide input and resolve the issue. They have requested the use of the Park District’s Depot meeting room to have an initial meeting in February. Grant said the new Advisory Council wouldn’t be a formal part of the Park Board’s deliberations.
“They won’t be part of the Park District because they are not a created committee, subcommittee, search committee or whatever for the Park District or a consultancy, just by its format, to do work for the Park District,” Grant said. “That’s the board’s responsibility to take care of these things. We will listen to anyone. We have two forms to do that: one is through public comment at each board meeting and the other is to submit documents for communication to the board into the Park District office.”
Dominican, which currently rents practice space for its softball team at Triton College and plays its home softball games at the Parkway Bank Sports Complex in Rosemont, is taking a wait and see approach.
“Nothing has been decided yet, but obviously I think we’re going to look into all of our options,” said Christina Lukas, the head softball coach and assistant director of athletics at Dominican.
Bob Skolnik is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
