Illinois Beach State Park-area fire chiefs have once again made a plea for additional support to address water safety concerns along the beachfront, with Zion Fire Chief Justin Stried reading a statement into the record during Tuesday’s City Council meeting.

State Sen. Mary Edly-Allen, D-Libertyville, who represents the area, said funding has been set aside to provide that support, but is tangled up in state bureaucracy, although she has meetings scheduled with decision-makers on the issue.

Area fire departments, including Zion, Winthrop Harbor and Beach Park, say they’ve seen an increase in water-related calls since the completion of a $73 million beach restoration at Illinois Beach State Park. In June, the drowning of a 20-year-old reignited calls for federal or state financial assistance, which only got louder with the July drowning of a 14-year-old.

But those calls have repeatedly hit roadblocks. A recent Winthrop Harbor application for FEMA funding for a new rescue boat was denied despite a largely identical request from Highland Park being approved.

In the statement, Stried praised the efforts of the area’s state legislators, saying funding has been set aside by state Rep. Joyce Mason, D-Gurnee. However, “despite her continued and persistent outreach,” there has been no direction on how to access those funds.

Edly-Allen said she had also set aside funding for the departments — a combined $1 million between Mason and Edly-Allen — but she had hit similar obstacles. She expressed frustration over the stalled funding for an issue that she said has become her “number one priority.”

The governor’s office is aware of the departments’ concerns, Edly-Allen said, and she hopes her upcoming meetings clear the way for the release of the funding.

“Sometimes state bureaucracy makes it hard to move quickly, and we’re trying to untangle that and move things a little bit faster because this is necessary,” she said.

While she praised the beach’s restoration, which according to Illinois Department of Natural Resources data has prompted an increase in the number of visitors to the beachfront since its completion, Edly-Allen is critical of the lack of support for the area fire departments.

“This is a safety issue,” she said. “It’s life or death. We have people dying. It’s unacceptable there hasn’t been a solution to this problem.”

Area fire departments have used local fundraising to purchase equipment, as well as assigning crews to monitor the lakefront when staffing is available, Stried said, but it is not “sustainable or appropriate for our local taxpayers to bear the financial burden of safeguarding one of Illinois’ most visited natural assets.”

Illinois Beach State Park spans six miles and “ensuring the safety of this state-managed shoreline must be a shared responsibility,” he said.

Originally Published: August 7, 2025 at 1:20 PM CDT