Residents living near a portion of the Great Western Trail in Carol Stream are asking DuPage County to help clean up the trail after discovering makeshift shelters built just 25 feet off the trail path that are believed to be used by transients or by teenagers for illegal activities.

The concerns were bought forward this week after two small shacks were discovered along a portion of the trail property that runs parallel to homes on the 100 block of Lenox Court in Carol Stream. The trail buffer area runs parallel to the backyards of those homes.

Don Kirchenberg, chairman of the Friends of the Great Western Trail, said he was informed by a nearby resident earlier this week of the discovery, and is calling on the county to remove the illegal structures.

“These problems on the trails of illegal parties with underage drinking, legal age drunkenness and illegal camping now with permanent shelters being built has gone on for too long,” he said. “We have been promised action by DuPage County for several years. These problems have only gotten worse.”

The structures were discovered by Mike Clancy, a resident along the 100 block of Lenox Court, who said he originally saw them on New Year’s Day when he was sledding with his son in the backyard. At the time, he said he saw people who looked “homeless” living in one of the shacks.

His yard runs just along the trail buffer zone, and the shacks were found in the natural barrier about 25 feet from his property, he said.

“At first, I didn’t think too much about it,” Clancy said. “I asked my wife: Should we call police? Should we feed him?  We were a bit unsure on what to do.”

Clancy said he saw the person again several other times, and called the DuPage County Sheriff’s Department in February when the weather started getting very cold, telling police that someone had to come out and help this person with shelter.

“I haven’t seen anyone out there since then, so maybe the police did come out,” he said.

Now, almost two months later, the shacks and garbage still remain, and Clancy said he called Kirchenberg, a vocal area trail advocate, to tell him about it.

DuPage County Board member Grant Eckhoff, District 4, said April 9 he is aware of the problem, and the Sheriff’s Department was on site to look at the property. He said the county is working with ComEd, which he said owns the utility right-of-way on that stretch, to have the shacks removed and the area cleaned up.

Richard Dunn of Glen Ellyn, a Democrat running against incumbent District 4 board members Eckhoff and Debra Olson in the November election, agreed with Kirchenberg that the county needs to be more active in cleaning up illegal activity and dumping in the trails and forest preserves.

Dunn held a press conference near the site Tuesday.

“This is a potentially dangerous situation here having these shacks so close to the trail and nearby homes,” he said. “Whenever you have people living in makeshift housing, it could lead to a dangerous situation.”

Dunn said the sites are proof of inappropriate activity along the Great Western Trail.

“The shacks are an eyesore, a health/sanitation concern, and might pose a risk for passers-by and nearby residents,” he said.

Eckhoff said the board has been working to address some of those concerns, and said the county relies on residents to inform police when something is wrong on the trails and in forest preserves.

“Police do patrol those areas, and the county does work to try to keep them clean,” he said. “We have been responsive to residents on this issue.”

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