IL state parks falling into disrepair

MORRIS, Ill. (WLS) -- Illinois' state parks have been suffering from inattention for years, according to the Better Government Association, and a budget stalemate could lead to more disrepair.

The Illinois and Michigan Canal Trail (I & M Canal) in Grundy County winds 60 miles through quaint river towns from Rockdale to LaSalle. Bicyclists have long loved it, but sections of the trail are a mess where crushed limestone is covered with weeds and the trail stops dead at Nettle Creek aqueduct in Morris, Ill., where flooding led to its collapse.

According to a sign posted two years ago, the trail is temporarily closed.

"The bureaucracy of getting all these things fixed coupled with the tight budgets at the state means that we don't have our trail anymore," Ana Koval, Canal Corridor Association president, said.

Not only are long, winding bike rides lost, but also the tourist dollars bicyclists brought to the towns on the trail.

"It was kind of frustrating to hear it was closed for two years. I feel like they could do something about it to open it sooner," Sean Burke, bicyclist, said.

The I & M Canal Trail is but a snapshot of a much larger issue of maintenance deferred and money unavailable.

Throughout Illinois, state parks, including popular destinations like Starved Rock, are suffering from cutbacks in money and maintenance - rutted roads, peeling paint, empty playgrounds.

"We found it was far more expansive than maybe we realized," Better Government Association Investigator Katie Drews said.

Drews analyzed Department of Natural Resources documents and found so much maintenance - much of it routine - was put on the back burner for 10 years that it would cost more than $700 million to fix.

"I think the message that sends is the state doesn't care about its natural resources and once those assets are gone, you can't get them back," Drews said.

More than 100 DNR employees, a third of them conservation police, are scheduled to be laid off on September 30.

"Bad politicians. Bad politicians is what we've got," Chuck Burke, bicyclist, said.

For lovers of the I & M Canal Trail there is great frustration. Volunteers want to help, but all they're allowed to do is pick up trash.

"If the state is not going to be doing the funding on an ongoing basis, what else can be done?"

The DNR says it has managed with the money it has, and that without a balanced state budget it can't forecast what gets fixed, when or if at all.

There are no current plans to close state parks or limit hours, but at the end of September when those lay-offs take effect, the five branches of the state museum will close their doors.