Citing a report detailing rotting columns and roof beams that do not meet code, the Palatine Park District says repairs at Palatine Stables will be necessary before this winter and is sticking to its $2.6 million estimate for the work.
One of the rotted interior posts of the Palatine Stables. The photo was part of the supplemental engineering study by Johnson Wilbur Adams Inc.
Courtesy of Johnson Wilbur Adams Inc.
The district posted the findings on its website on Friday. The post includes the results of a supplemental structural engineering study of the stables. It also reiterates that the district has no plans to sell the property. This can only be done by passing a resolution and gaining the approval of a majority of voters in an election.
County officials commissioned the study after strong backlash over the board’s decision to close the facility, which it has owned for nearly 40 years and is located near Northwest Highway and Dundee Road, by Nov. 30.
Recent park board meetings were overrun by parents and children urging the board to reconsider its decision and stressing the value of the lessons and other activities, especially for riders with special needs. They claimed the board’s original May 13 decision was rushed and made without adequate public notice. The board reaffirmed its decision on July 8.
Wheaton-based civil engineering firm Johnson Wilbur Adams Inc. visited the barns in June and July, examining the barn’s roofs and columns. The firm prepared the original study that the park board used to make its May 13 decision.
“In general, the roof structure of the barn areas of both barn buildings was found to be in acceptable structural condition,” Kent Adams, the firm’s managing director, wrote in a July 26 document to Park District Executive Director Ben Rea. However, Adams said the roof beams do not have the capacity to “support the minimum load and live load required by building codes for a barn structure.” The beams, he said, would need to be reinforced to support those loads.
Citing a report detailing rotting columns and substandard roof beams, the Palatine Park District expects Palatine Stables to require repairs as early as this winter. The agency is sticking to its estimate of $2.6 million in repair costs.
Courtesy of Johnson Wilbur Adams Inc.
As for “all accessible columns” of both the Upper and Lower Barns, “rot was observed at the bases of a significant number of columns.” Adams said 48% of the 83 columns of the Lower Barn and 55% of the 187 columns of the Upper Barn showed varying degrees of deterioration.
Adams said the rotted column bases need to be repaired “as soon as possible to prevent further damage to the barn structure over time.” He also said repairs to the interior columns and roof beams of the barn areas of both buildings need to be completed before the coming winter.
County officials insist that partial repairs would be inadvisable because of the risk of damaging the rehabilitation efforts if unrepaired supports fail.
The $2.6 million price tag includes replacing columns, repairing the roof structure, roof coatings, and code-compliant improvements such as fire alarms and sprinkler systems.
Proponents of the stables argue that the price is excessive. Michael Hoffman, a Barrington contractor, is confident that the repairs can be completed at a cost of less than $500,000.
He also disputes the district’s cost estimate for concrete.
Hoffman, whose teenage daughter rides at the barn, disputed the notion that all the repairs would have to be done at once. He said the lower barn, which is not in use, could be cleared out immediately and tackled again at a later date. Repairs to the rotted pillars in the upper barn, where all the horses are, could be done this year. The rest could be done at a later date.
Hoffman also believes the cost of demolishing and renovating the property could end up being more than the park district’s cost of repairs.
“I don’t understand what their goal is to tear down this thing that’s been there for (almost) 40 years,” he said. “It’s going to cost more than $2 million to do something new,” he said.
In a letter to Rea, Hoffman mentioned that at least ten volunteers between the ages of 8 and 14 work in the stable every day.
“Name me another park where young children and teenagers beg year after year to be part of this role. Maybe there are some, but knowing my own teenage daughter, I doubt it. There is just something very special about horses,” he wrote.
