The City’s Building Maintenance Supervisor developed a preliminary budget and operating plan for the Elawa Farm buildings. The Building Maintenance Section maintains eight City buildings: City Hall, Municipal Services Building, Public Safety Building, Fire Station #2, Telegraph Road Depot, Chicago and North Western Depot, The Everett Road rental properties and the exterior of Gorton Community Center. Since none of these buildings is comparable to the Elawa Farm complex, it was necessary to estimate and average costs for maintaining these other City buildings to establish a similarity. The supervisor used the same process he has used in the past when developing budget numbers for new buildings assigned to his section for maintenance.

Without knowing what the definite use of the building space will be, accurate operating costs cannot be determined. Therefore, only a range (high and low) of total operating costs can be provided at this time. Once it has been determined how the space will be restored and used, the assignment can be approached again and a more defined operating budget will result.

The table below gives a high and low cost range:

Following is a list of operational line items that is part of the preliminary operating budget for the Elawa Farm buildings:

Maintenance Worker II, for approximately 80 to 100 hours annually, including benefits, to accomplish minor repairs only.

Janitorial Supplies (paper products, hand soap, floor soap, furniture polish, window cleaner, mops, etc).

Minor Supplies and Equipment (electrical wire, light bulbs, conduit, plumbing fixtures, exhaust fan motors, drive belts, weather stripping, door and window hardware, paint, etc).

Janitorial Services (empty trash and recycling containers, sweep, vacuum, clean bathrooms, low and high dusting, carpet spot cleaning, window spot cleaning, etc).

Life Safety Services (minor repairs and annual certification for fire extinguishers, fire sprinklers, and fire alarm system).

Heating and Air Conditioning (preventive maintenance and service calls; major capital equipment replacements not included).

Miscellaneous Construction Services (masonry: loose brick repair and tuckpointing; carpentry: build shelves, repair windows or install partitions; carpet and tile; roofing: repair broken slate, repair gutters; plumbing: unclog drains, fix plumbing leaks; electrical: run new circuits, hang new fixtures, troubleshoot shorts; pest control).

Natural Gas, Electricity, Water and Sewer

An additional 10-15% of the annual operating cost should be allocated for a long-term capital improvement fund:

In the first few years after restoration, the buildings should not require major capital improvements. The long-term fund for these projects can grow until the money is needed.

The in-house team that studied the ongoing maintenance and operation of the formal production garden at Elawa Farm included the City Arborist, the Assistant Forestry Supervisor and a Grounds Maintenance Worker. Their plan uses City workers to do the gardening and grounds work. They estimate the labor of three employees would be needed. One full-time person assigned to the site year round and two seasonal workers, each employed 41 weeks per year, would be required:

These three employees would propagate garden plants in the greenhouse(s), prepare planting beds, sew garden seeds, set out annual plants, weed, water, fertilize, pinch, prune, stake, deadhead and harvest flowers and vegetables. They would perform all mowing, hedge trimming and tree maintenance in the garden and within the farm complex.

To save on travel time and to maximize efficiency, the Elawa Farm garden crew would be stationed on-site rather than be transported between the Municipal Services Building and the garden each day. They would require heated garage space equivalent to a 20’ x 24’ two (2) car garage, a bathroom with an emergency shower, a lunch/break area, a computer station, a telephone and parking spaces for three (3) private vehicles. These facilities could be shared with other Elawa Farm partners.

The crew would need to be equipped with a one-ton dump truck, a walk behind mower, a trim mower, a string trimmer, a leaf blower, a backpack blower, a rototiller and various hand gardening tools. Other vehicles and equipment would be borrowed from the Public Works Department as needed.

If the garage space and bathroom are provided when the farm buildings are renovated, the startup cost of all the other items will be approximately $65,000.

The annual cost of seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, flats, growing mix and other gardening supplies is estimated to be $7,500.

The total startup cost of an in-house maintenance program would be approximately $171,700. If the dump truck, equipment and tools are depreciated over an eight-year period, their estimated life expectancy, the total annual operating cost to maintain the Elawa Farm garden and grounds with in-house workers would be approximately $114,825.

Annual In-house Garden Maintenance Cost:

If the workload at the garden demands more time than the three person crew can devote to it, labor can be drawn from other City work crews. Likewise, if the workload is low, part or all of the Elawa Farm gardening crew could be temporarily reassigned to other horticultural duties around the City.

Two private landscape contractors were asked to prepare proposals for landscape maintenance services for a fully restored and replanted garden and grounds at the Elawa Farm complex. They were given the same basic assumptions and specifications for maintenance that the in-house team was given.

Both landscape companies proposed start-up and clean-up operations for early spring, once a week maintenance between May 1 and October 15 (which included replanting annuals each year), season ending operations between October 15 and November 30 and dormant pruning and greenhouse plant propagation during the winter months. In each of these proposals, the landscape crew would be on site one day per week during the growing season, bringing their own equipment, tools and supplies. They would not need to use Elawa Farm’s facilities except to store garden materials such as plant stakes and netting, etc. that are used year after year.

The annual contractual cost to operate the Elawa Farm garden, based upon these two proposals, would be approximately $85,000. In addition, supervision and contract administration by the City would cost $2,500 in salary and benefits. The total cost of this alternative will be $87,500.

Since funding for the restoration and ongoing operation of Elawa Farm will come primarily from private donations, the Executive Steering Committee is studying the possibility of forming a 501-c-3 entity. (The details of the Elawa Farm fund raising strategy and campaign are explained in another section of the Elawa Farm Business Plan.) The Lake Forest Foundation for Historic Preservation, The Gorton Foundation, The Ragdale Foundation and Marklet Square 2000 are all 501-c-3 entities.

501-c-3 status allows these foundations to function as conduits for donated funds while clearly defining the contributions as tax exempt for donors. Providing tax-exempt recognition for donations encourages the generosity of donors. Organized under 501-c-3 guidelines, the proposed Elawa Farm Foundation would be separate from Lake Forest’s municipal government that owns the property and buildings. This separation will encourage people to donate, since it is more appealing to contribute to a specific purpose foundation than to The City, to whom residents already pay taxes. Another benefit to 501-c-3 entities is the freedom to select among a wide range of investment vehicles. Investments are not limited to government securities. Finally, many grant programs, both government sponsored and privately funded, are available to foundations with 501-c-3 status.

The City Attorney feels it is not inappropriate for the Elawa Farm Executive Steering Committee, which, by virtue of appointment by the Mayor and City Council, is an “arm” of City government, to also form a 501-c-3 entity. In order to make improvements to City property, the new entity would need to enter into an agreement with The City of Lake Forest. The written agreement would define the entity’s responsibilities and authority. It would clearly lay out City Council’s role in approving changes and improvements to this City-owned property. The new foundation would need its own governing board, which could be composed of people drawn from the Executive Steering Committee, City staff and the public at large. The foundation would be responsible for the ongoing management of the Elawa Farm endowment.

An endowment would have to be established that could generate and annual income to cover operating expenses minus rental or space use fees. Annual operating expenses, at completion of all phases of restoration and when Elawa Farm is fully programmed, have been estimated in this report to be:

A fee structure for use of space in the restored Elawa Farm buildings has not been calculated since specific uses of space have not been determined.

Conservatively an endowment generating $213,650 per year in today’s dollars would pay the operating expense of Elawa Farm at no cost to the taxpayers of Lake Forest.

When restoration of Elawa Farm is completed, The Executive Steering Committee could become the Elawa Farm “Board of Supervisors”, which would function like the Ragdale Board of Supervisors. It would be responsible for ongoing governance, to include operating philosophy and guidelines, management of finances and endowments, coordination with City Council and City Staff and growth issues.

Insurance coverage under the City’s umbrella through IRMA is possible if it is included in the agreement between the Elawa Farm entity and The City. All activities, people working at and visiting Elawa Farm and the farm group buildings can be insured through The City, as they are at Gorton Community Center. The cost of this coverage would be borne by the privately endowed Elawa Farm operating fund.