Across train tracks and through a guard gate, past a cramped golf course and over a creek, lie the 150 acres of waterfront campsites, pristine RVs, broken down campers and an occasional rusted tractor that make up Hide-A-Way Lakes campground.
Staff describe it as a beautiful, friendly place along the Fox River outside Yorkville, and one patron highlighted the sense of community.
But Kendall County documents paint a darker picture of the campground. They show hundreds of visits from sheriff’s deputies in the past five years and dozens of ordinance violations for issues such as accumulating junk and sewage disposal problems, according to documents recently obtained by The Beacon-News.
After an August hit-and-run death at Hide-A-Way Lakes, which the sheriff thinks was likely a homicide, the decades-old campground is facing renewed scrutiny from Kendall County leaders. The popular site has evaded past attempts to close it, which the owner characterizes as either due to new county officials coming in and misunderstanding his permit or to law enforcement and neighbors pursuing their own agendas. But for one public official, a past attempt to shut it down amounted to “public safety concerns,” documents show.
This is not the first time the campground has faced scrutiny. Over the years, Kendall County officials have raised concerns about safety, health and the possibility that some patrons are living there permanently in violation of the campground’s permit, documents show.
It was the site of a notorious murder in 1993 and was subject to investigation in 1996 after more than 100 people were arrested on suspicion of underage drinking during a spring party that brought teens from as far away as Lake County.
Matthew Prochaska, chairman of the Kendall County Planning, Building and Zoning Committee, would like to revoke the special use permit that allows the campground to operate — effectively shutting it down — but his previous attempt in 2017 when he served on a different committee revealed the county didn’t have the authority to do so. Instead, he said, he is now looking at changing regulations for campgrounds.
“There’s public health, safety and general welfare issues at risk here for not only the surrounding community, but all of Yorkville and the county,” he said.
But Tom Tanner, the owner, says he abides by the letter of the decades-old permit that allows him to operate.
“I agreed to this wording (in the permit) and that’s the wording they have to go by,” he said. “And if they don’t like it now, I can’t help that.”
A drive through Hide-A-Way Lakes revealed sections of open, grassy campsites and sections crammed full of trailers, some with golf carts or hammocks outside and one decorated with Halloween creatures. At one end of the camp, a children’s jungle gym lay in pieces on the ground along the banks of the river. In other places, pieces of campers or boats were pushed into the woods.
Head of security Gene Jirak said the campground runs a toy train and sets up a bouncy house and trampoline for children on weekends. It recently held a volleyball tournament, and hosts concerts.
Documents show the campground has held other events as well, including the fifth and sixth annual Jell-O wrestling contests in 2016 and 2017, advertised to include music, beer pong tables and a cash prize in the bracket-style wrestling competition.
Jirak said the park is the most lenient in the county in allowing patrons to have fun, but they’re also stern, requiring party- and concert-goers to follow rules. The campground has zero tolerance for domestic incidents or hard drugs, he said.
“It’s family-friendly,” Jirak said. “It’s just, we got a bad rap over the last 20 years, and (Tanner’s) been trying to clean it up.”
But the campground continues to worry county officials. For years, they have raised concerns that residents could be living permanently at Hide-A-Way Lakes. The campground’s permit allows patrons to stay no longer than four months.
In 2017, a county planning and zoning official wrote in an email that the school district knew of two families with a child each who was enrolled in school listing Hide-A-Way Lakes’ address as a permanent residence.
As recently as March 2019, a county health department official wrote in an email to a planning and zoning official of “the numerous amounts of residents of Hide Away that are now renting trailers and land on an annual rate from Tom, calling him the landlord as he is having folks sign leases which they can use to get state ID cards, using Hide Away as their place of residence since they have rental agreements stating so,” documents show.
Tanner said many campers live elsewhere and leave their trailers on site year-round, and he gives them a lease to stay for the year. They can show the lease to get license plates and, possibly, save on insurance rates, he said.
He said he makes each camper sign a list of rules, which includes one acknowledging they can’t make the campground their permanent residence and they can’t stay more than four months continuously. They can leave and come back, he said.
Law enforcement officials have also raised concerns about the campground. Since the beginning of 2014, Hide-A-Way Lakes had had more than 300 sheriff’s office calls for service, bringing deputies to the campground for reports of burglaries, assaults or domestic trouble, because of fires, to help residents or check on someone’s well-being, to serve warrants or to investigate deaths, among other reasons.
Kendall County Sheriff Dwight Baird said he couldn’t think of another business in the area served by the sheriff’s office that had a similar number of calls.
“We get called out there a lot. That taxes our resources that could be used other places, preventing crime from happening,” he said.
Two other, similar campgrounds in Kendall County generate a fraction of the number of calls for service that Hide-A-Way Lakes does, Baird said. He doesn’t know if they’re the same size, but he said one is fairly large.
Tanner said some of the activities that led to calls to the sheriff’s office are out of his control and the campground shouldn’t be held responsible. On top of that, the campground has many people at one address, so more calls should be expected. He accused the sheriff’s office of picking on him, using his campground as an excuse to request more money from the county.
“We’re as safe as any place and any home around here,” Tanner said.
In addition to the sheriff’s calls, the campground has faced fire department concerns and health code violations and complaints. An April 2017 annual inspection revealed more than 40 violations. They included septic tank issues, such as sewage on the ground on top of one septic tank, and accumulation of tires, garbage, abandoned vehicles and other items holding stagnant water, documents show.
Tanner addressed some of the issues quickly, but others lingered for several follow-up visits, documents show. By August, they were all addressed.
In July 2018, Tanner received a letter from the fire department reminding him past annual inspections had led to several concerns, including fire hazards like abandoned vehicles and issues with emergency access routes.
Tanner said he hired an engineer who verified the entrance bridge into the campground could hold the weight of fire trucks, and that the road had supported the trucks for decades.
More recently, in the spring and summer this year, the county health department received complaints of sewage on the ground and the campground being without water for weeks, documents show.
Tanner ultimately fixed the problems, the documents show. He did not immediately respond to requests to talk about the health concerns.
At a recent planning, building and zoning committee meeting, Tanner said his campground is beautiful.
“I think we’re the prettiest campground in the state,” he said, according to a recording of the meeting. “I wouldn’t trade it for any campground.”
Some people don’t like it, and neighbors across the river who don’t like looking at the trailers have been trying to shut him down for decades, he said. He offered to show any of the committee members around the campground.
“OK, there’s a few spots, a few things need to be cleaned up,” he said. “But 90 percent of it is beautiful.”
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