Cross country course on former Settlers Hill in Geneva started with two men and a dream

GENEVA – The creation of a cross country course on a former landfill site happened when two guys drove past it 11 years ago and one said to the other, “Wouldn’t this be a good place to have a cross country course?”

That was Al Edgecomb speaking to former Elburn resident Skip Stolley.

Fast forward more than a decade and now the Northwestern Medicine Cross Country Course, located on the now shuttered Settlers Hill Landfill on Fabyan Parkway in Geneva, is a reality. It opened last summer.

Stolley had been Edgecomb’s cross country coach at Proviso West High School and both continued their love of the sport through their leadership in the Chicago Area Track & Field Organizing Committee.

Edgecomb, a retired college instructor is the current chairman, while Stolley, who was not available for an interview, was the former chairman.

A former Batavia resident, Edgecomb had coached cross country at St. Charles East from 2006-2008.

“We were just kind of joking about it, really,” Edgecomb said. “It was a large area with a parking lot. A lot of forest preserves are used for cross country running, but they don’t have parking for spectators.”

Then Kane County put out a request for proposals in October 2011, soliciting ideas for how to use the closed landfill.

Edgecomb called Geneva Mayor Kevin Burns.

“He said, ‘Have coffee with me and talk about taking a landfill and turning it into a cross country course,’” Burns said. “He and I and Skip had coffee at the Starbucks 11 years ago. And our next call went to Mike Donahue.”

Credit to Mike Donahue

Donahue, a Kane County Board member representing Geneva, died Dec. 12, 2019 of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a progressive neurodegenerative disease.

“Kevin turned us to Mike and one thing led to another. He was the key point main in making things happen,” Edgecomb said. “We first met with Kane County officials a month later in November. Kevin set it up for us to meet.”

At the groundbreaking for the cross country course on the former landfill site in April 2018, board member John Martin, R-Geneva, praised Donahue for pushing the project.

“Mike Donahue was the driving force [for the course] during his six years on the board,” Martin had said then. “Not only the hill, but the plan for this area that governs what we do was [because of] Mike’s sophistication and expertise … and professionals that brought us to this moment today. We can’t forget that.”

Edgecomb said the county received six ideas – most were not feasible because they needed a foundation – but a cross country track was possible.

The landfill closed in 2006 and was capped so water does not run through its pollutants and carry them to waterways, he said.

“Once it was capped, you could not dig holes or put in a bulldozer. You couldn’t put in more golf courses,” Edgecomb said. “The land is pretty steep. We were able to level certain areas by bringing in a lot of fill – 200,000 cubic yards of fill. That’s a football field 12 stories deep.”

Landfill to cross country course

Settlers Hill Landfill operated for 24 years as the primary waste disposal site for Kane, DuPage and western Cook counties, before closing in 2006. The decades that Kane County collected tipping fees from the landfill paid to create the cross country course, which cost about $3 million.

Northwestern Medicine paid $75,000 for a five-year naming rights contract. The money will be used to fund the maintenance of the course, officials said.

The course has an 80-meter-wide curved starting line and a 550 meter starting straightaway. It was designed for large high school and college meets, but is a venue for all ages and open to the public. It is NCAA certified and is scheduled for five high level high school and college meets this fall.

Hosting events, attracting visitors

Burns said the success of the course will have the benefit of having athletes and fans visit central Kane County.

“I believe the stage has been set – for not only elevating this sport and also attracting new fans, new sponsors – but a broader community to appreciate the purity of athletic competition,” Burns said.

The Chicago Area Track & Field Organizing Committee organizes all the cross country events. Spectators are asked to make a minimum donation of $3 per adult, $1 per high school student, and free for under 14. All donations go to support the maintenance of the course and fees are only collected on the days of competition.

Though cross country courses often use forest preserves, they are not designed for 4,000 or 5,000 people to park or to have them trample on vegetation, Edgecomb said.

“This is dedicated to cross country on a former garbage dump – they’re not too worried about it,” he said. “We hosted six events this fall and had a lot of people up there. We had over 4,000 spectators, 7,000 total through the season. The 2022 season, we’re looking at nine events we’re going to be hosting.”

One is the National Intercollegiate Running Club, which will use the course as its host venue for the 2022 Great Plains Regional, scheduled for Nov. 2.

“We are doing what we promised to do, which is develop a course that would bring in events and put on local events for the kids,” Edgecomb said. “I love watching the young ones run. Nobody’s pressuring them, they’re doing it because they love it.”

More information is available by visiting www.chicagotrack.org.