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At close of business hours tomorrow, several state parks and historic sites around Illinois will be shut due to the state's deep $2 billion budget hole. This irks us to no end. The closure hits 18 sites in all and they are:
- Castle Rock State Park, Oregon
- Lowden State Park, Oregon
- Illini State Park, Marseilles
- Hidden Springs State Forrest, Strasburg
- Moraine View State Park, Leroy
- Weldon Springs State Park, Clinton
- Wolf Creek State Park, Windsor
- Dana-Thomas House, Springfield
- Lincoln log cabin near Charleston
- Fort de Chartres, Randolph County
- Vandalia statehouse (Saturday is last day; not open Sundays)
- State center at Bishop Hill, Henry County
- Carl Sandburg birthplace, Galesburg
- Cahokia courthouse
- Hauberg Indian Museum, Rock Island County, (part of the Black Hawk State Historic Site) but the adjacent natural area will stay open.
- Jubilee College, near Peoria
- Apple River Fort, Elizabeth
- Fort Kaskaskia, Randolph County
- Pierre Menard home, Randolph County
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This is sad and disappointing. These parks provide great opportunities for low-cost family recreation and school field trips. Now these facilities that we have invested money in preserving will just go to waste and slowly decay. I am sure that the State could have found some much more reasonable places to make these cuts. It becomes more frustrating everyday to live with our government's bizarre priorities and choices.
Wonderful. I assume no attempts were made to reach out to private firms to keep these locations open? A Frank Lloyd Wright home and a Lincoln site could easily be leased to any number of museum management/attraction firms.
All of these are outside Cook County of course, so to Blago and his cronies they might as well be in Iowa.
I cannot wait until this criminal governor gets his perp-walk.
That is a shame.
Here in California, we're much more in the hole--$28 billion--and while it was proposed last January to close 48 parks and lifeguard staffing at 16 beaches, it hasn't happened yet as far as I know.
~Zach at LAist
"I assume no attempts were made to reach out to private firms to keep these locations open?"
I don't know if I'd want private firms operating/owning historic sites and such. Sure it would keep them open, but they could probably charge whatever they wanted which could have adverse effects. I just don't think this sites further deepened the hole enough to close them down. Flying a jet to and from Springfield certainly runs up a higher bill than that.
My argument with the private firms stems mainly from it not only being out of state hands, but also knowing a lot of people in Indiana that have major gripes about the Indiana Toll Road being privatized. That is a screwjob that will last the next 97 years.
I just hope these sites were not in such a fragile condition that when Blago's out, and when the next governor comes in to re-open them, the damage will not already have been done.
The bright side is the Chief Blackhawk monument can be seen from across the river.
Cahokia Courthouse has an amazing history... hate to see it fall into disrepair. It's 215 years old!
these parks are what make Illinois interesting and provides people with a look at our state history. And isn't the Lincoln Bi-Centennial coming up? Does it make sense to shut down the park in Charleston with that in mind? Blago blows.
Unbelievable! I cannot believe they are closing both parks in Oregon, IL. I have frequented these parks many times over the last 20+ years. They are located right on the Rock River.
Lowden has an amazing 50 ft. tall statue known as the Black Hawk Statue or The Eternal Indian. Castle Rock has some of the most beautiful hiking trails in the area.
It is upsetting when our natural resources are always the first to suffer in hard times.
@Von Erich:
The Tollroads are a wholly seperate (and god-awful) issue. Leasing some of these sites isn't nearly as complicated, or lucrative. There are a number of very reputable companies who do parks/historic site management and don't gouge visitors or turn the place into disneyland.
What's lacking is effort on the part of the state to find a solution. Meanwhile Blago and the Madigans fight over the scraps in the budget while Governor Haircut give free CTA rides to the left-handed nuns of the Dominican Order.
A government so incompetent, it can't even keep a PARK open.