Cat Tales and Other Truths: It takes a village and then some

No one is happier than Jeff about the Katherine Legge Memorial Park Disc Golf Course. No one. Not the disc golf enthusiasts who put in a collective 500 hours or more in the sweltering heat, Jeff included. Not Kevin Dvorak, the eagle scout who used troop manpower to install poles in concrete. Not even Gina Hassett, the director of Hinsdale Parks and Recreation, who gave the project her blessing and support ten years after it was eliminated from the 2001 Hinsdale Park Facilities ten-year master plan.

Nick was 15, Katie was 11 when Jeff went to the initial master plan meeting in January 2001 to propose a disc golf at Katherine Legge, the first anyone heard of such an idea. Later that year, when the course was in jeopardy and on the verge of being eliminated from the master plan, our family set up a couple baskets at the Hinsdale Fall Festival and asked residents to sign a petition in support of the project. Jeff attended many village meetings, submitted a design and proposal and a final letter of disappointment in February 2002 when disc golf was removed, not just from year one, but from the plan altogether. He called Katherine Legge "our largest underutilized parkland asset", a truth echoed many times by many residents over the years.

The completion of the KLM course is a joy for many - in true "if you build it, they will come" fashion. We saw a group of four teens out the first night after the baskets were in. But for Jeff, it is the culmination of a ten-year vision for Hinsdale. I only wish it was completed when our kids were here to play with him.