State parks cuts felt beyond Sauk Valley

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While many campers and hikers are mourning the likely loss of prized area state parks, a determined few downstate are trying to organize to fight for their parks to stay open. Last week, the governor's office announced the layoff of 325 state workers resulting in, among other cuts, the closure of 11 state parks, slated for Nov. 1. Those closures include Lowden and Castle Rock state parks in Ogle County and the Hennepin Canal Parkway, which striates through Whiteside, Bureau and Henry counties. The governor's office has defended the move as a means toward eliminating the $1.4 billion deficit in the state's budget. The announcement has spurred residents across Illinois into action, resulting in protests against the closings at Channahon State Park in Will County, along with at least one other protest last week supporting Kickapoo State Park in eastern-central Illinois. The parks' beauty and amenities may differ, but the sentiments supporting them are same: a memorial loss for families, a recreational loss for outdoorsmen and a financial loss for local municipalities who could miss out on spending travelers. Following a protest his office organized to preserve Channahon Parkway State Park this week, Village President Joe Cook said he'll keep fighting the closures through November. About 350 people gathered for the rally, Cook said, but he hopes to stage something bigger soon along with letter and phone campaigns aimed at the governor's office and state legislators. Cook said he spoke this week with representatives from the cities of Marseilles and Morris and Grundy County to help coordinate those efforts on a larger scale. "So we think there's a little bit of strength in numbers that we hope gets heard in Springfield," Cook said. Like the Sauk Valley, the village of Channahon has spent much time and money marketing itself as a recreation-friendly area, where several golf courses, field houses, swimming pools and forest preserves are accessible. Channahon Parkway State Park is the "focal point" of that reputation, he said, which has a lucrative payoff through local economic activity that now is in jeopardy. "People travel from literally all over northern Illinois to come use the trial to hike and run," Cook said. "Those are people that come to our businesses, go to restaurants, buy gas, utilize our facilities and recognize what Channahon is all about." Citing the loss of tax dollars that activity creates, Cook said it seems likely the state would lose money by closing the parks, not save it. Cook also said that for most newcomers to the community, Channahon State Park was their first experience in the city and the main reason they came. Those types of benefits should outweigh the price of maintaining the park, which Cook said annually costs about $80,000. "So it's not a huge amount," he said. "This park doesn't have a go-cart track in it. It doesn't have a [water] park in it or anything like that. It truly is a nature-oriented, very rural area, and the maintenance of it seems reasonable." He also said the park is constantly in use with camping, picnicking, fishing, hiking and even field trips for schools. "Any day you go out there on the weekend, the parking lots are full," he said. Cook hopes that multi-purpose popularity of Channahon and similar parks propels legislators to spare it from closure. "No mater how you come about closing these parks, I think there's some knee-jerk reactions [in the decision making process,] and we want them to take another hard look at it," he said. Those are the same sentiments expressed farther south, where one of Kickapoo State Park's regular summer activities took a political turn last week. The park has live music every Friday in the summer, but one attendee noticed that even when the music stopped, something unusual happened. "This was a big crowd but nobody left," said Tod Satterthwaite, who works as an operator at Kickapoo Landing, the headquarters of the park's canoe and kayak trips. "Everybody wanted to know why the park was going to close. ... Where can we go? Who do we call? What can we do?" In anticipation of those questions, residents distributed handouts about contacting state legislators and the governor. So far, Satterthwaite said the grassroots campaign mostly has been limited to local gatherings, petitions and letter writing, as well as some online communities like several "Save Kickapoo State Park" Facebook groups. "So a variety of people are doing whatever they can," he said. "It doesn't have a real central administration at this time, but it's just bubbling up everywhere." Satterthwaite said the Illinois Department of Natural Resources cut staffing at Kickapoo in half over the last 3 years. Considering that the park draws about 1.4 million visitors each year, Satterthwaite said it seemed strange that park would close while the less-traveled, neighboring Harry "Babe" Woodyard and Middle Fork Fish and Wildlife areas remain open. With certain positions at the park paid up to 75 percent with federal dollars, Satterthwaite said, the expected cuts at Kickapoo seem minor. "So the state savings is relatively small and you lose a full-time employee," Satterthwaite said. "Some of the things [legislators have] done don't seem well thought out at all."