City Urges Army To Find, Remove Explosives At Lakeshore Preserve

HIGHLAND PARK, IL — Two months after the discovery of suspected unexploded ordnance at Openlands Lakeshore Preserve in Highland Park, the area remains closed to the public.

City officials have formally requested assistance from the military to ensure the safety of the privately owned forest preserve, located on the former site of the Fort Sheridan base.

The site was transferred to the Chicago-based nonprofit Openlands after the base closed in 1993 as part of the Base Realignment and Closure, or BRAC, Act.

"The City of Highland Park urges the Army BRAC Office and Navy to conduct a full, on-the-ground investigation and then remove any remaining unexploded ordnance at the Lakeshore Preserve," City Manager Ghida Neukirch said last week in an email to military officials. She said Thursday she has yet to receive a response.

Openlands representatives said multiple pieces of possibly explosive munitions were found on two occasions during the first week of April, including on Navy-owned property.

The bomb squad from the Waukegan Police Department detonated the suspected unexploded ordnance, and Openlands officials reported the incidents to the military.

On May 13, Army and Navy officials responded to the nonprofit with a joint letter concluding the discoveries were "anomalies that do not require further information by either department at this time."

A week later, a Navy spokesperson told Patch local authorities would need to go through a process called Defense Support of Civil Authorities if they needed additional help.

Then, on May 21, Highland Park Mayor Nancy Rotering sent a letter to the Navy. Lake County officials said they were unable to make the request on behalf of Openlands, she said.

Rotering requested the complete preliminary assessment recently conducted by the Army, the background document the BRAC office cited, and "an understanding of any other steps taken by the Army and Navy that may not be included in either the preliminary assessment or the statement (such as a walk-through of the site)."

Based on that information, "an understanding of the next steps the Navy can undertake would be determined," the mayor said.

Navy spokesperson Jon Sheppard confirmed the city's request for assistance.

"We are working on looking up the background documents that they have requested in the letter," Sheppard said.

On May 28, Robert Megquier, executive vice president of Openlands, told city and military officials that the nonprofit followed the Navy's advice to use bomb-sniffing dogs to investigate the preserve.

"On multiple occasions during the weeks of May 17 and 24, explosives-sniffing dogs walked on portions of Lakeshore Preserve and identified a new area of concern," Megquier said in an email.

"The area is steep, vegetated, and covered with loose soil. Because of these terrain conditions, none of the three teams of dogs and their handlers were able to pinpoint the location and nature of the item(s) causing the dogs’ change of behavior," he added.

Related:
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Megquier said staff from the security firm Openlands has hired to keep the public out of the preserve has reported repeated attempts to enter the property.

"Meanwhile, as warm weather arrives, vandalism to our protective fencing has increased," he said, "with clear evidence of people ignoring our ‘Do Not Enter’ signs and trespassing onto the property, including a staff observation of trespassing during the dog teams’ investigation."

The dogs' discovery halted plans to reopen the preserve for Memorial Day weekend.

Originally known as Camp Highwood, Fort Sheridan was founded in 1887 after wealthy Chicago businessmen, many of whom had nearby summer homes, purchased the land through the Commercial Club of Chicago and gifted it to the federal government to allow for the army to be deployed to quell unrest among workers.

During World War II, it served as a major training and administrative post, and during the Cold War it was the headquarters of the Nike surface-to-air missile system, which was designed to shoot down Soviet bombers.