Volunteers and agencies pitch in to keep Lake Zurich park programs going after barn fire

Nov. 11--More than 100 people and more than 40 agencies have stepped up to keep Lake Zurich park programs running after a fire gutted the Paulus Park Barn on Nov. 2.

The Park and Recreation Department was able to move its preschool and Lunch Bunch programs to St. Peter United Church of Christ and its indoor farmers market to Ela Township Community Center, Recreation Director Bonnie Caputo said.

"The community really came out to support us," Caputo said. "A couple of organizations and individuals initiated and facilitated a supply and equipment drive for us. You should have seen the amount of donations we got. We would have not been able to run preschool without the help."

The department received a new dollhouse, train table, toy kitchen, colored pencils, plastic bags, teaching supplies and other items, she said.

The donations will allow the department to continue fall programs normally presented at the barn, Caputo said. The department also appears to have enough supplies for winter and spring programming there, and is developing a formal plan to offer summer day camp out of the barn, she said.

"We will run it on our grounds with our team somehow," Caputo said of summer camp. "I hope to have the details out to the community in the next couple of weeks in time for registration at the end of the month."

As of Monday, the department was still conducting a formal accounting of the damage and losses at the 1,200-square-foot building, she said.

"It's uninhabitable due to fire damage, coupled with smoke and water damage," Caputo said. "It's probably going to be a loss of all the equipment."

The Fire Department received a report that the barn, 200 S. Rand Road, was on fire at about 8:25 p.m. on Nov. 2, Fire Chief John Malcolm said.

Firefighters arrived within five minutes and began dousing the fire within four minutes, Malcolm said.

"There was heavy fire showing from the front of the building," he said. "The first arriving crew did a good job of getting water on the fire quickly."

Firefighters got the fire under control within 30 minutes , Malcolm said.

No injuries were reported, he said. The building was vacant at the time, Malcolm said.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation, he said Monday .

"We don't have a damage estimate at this point," Malcolm said. "They're still working through it with insurance."

Although the Recreation Department was able to find alternate locations for all of the programming at the barn, it likely will not find suitable alternate sites for all of the people and organizations who planned to rent the barn for events, Caputo said.

Ela Township and Cedar Lake Assisted Living and Memory Care will be able to host a few of the events, but the majority will have to find new locations, she said.

Caputo declined to provide of list of all of the donors of equipment and supplies because private individuals are among them, Caputo said.

The donors included local teachers and residents who previously used the space or programming there, she said.

Lake Zurich plans to provide updates on the barn and programming on its website, Caputo said.

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