Emergency Repairs At Forest Park Beach, Fiscal Plan Approved

LAKE FOREST, IL — Aldermen got an update on the financial impact of the coronavirus on the city's budget Monday before approving a revised budget and capital plan for the fiscal year that began May 1. At a remotely conducted meeting, the Lake Forest City Council also approved funding for emergency repairs to Forest Park Beach, which is set to open Saturday after the mayor ordered it closed to the public due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Finance Director Elizabeth Holleb told aldermen that 87 percent of the sources of revenue for the city's general fund were not expected to be hit by the virus. Other funds set to see reduced income include the parks, capital and golf funds.

"We are seeing unprecedented impacts on economies from local to global and don't really know at this point the full extent of those impacts or the duration of them," Holleb said.

On the bright side, the city has adequate liquidity, enough fund reserves, and the property tax funding for its fiscal year that began this month is locked in based on property values from December.

"That property tax level is confirmed and will stay the same," she said. "So there will not be any property tax impacts to the city's Fiscal Year 2021 budget."

Nonetheless, the finance director explained, the city faces significant lost revenue, an uncertain path forward and the as-yet-unknown effect of the pandemic the state of Illinois' finances.

"Because they were already poor, so the COVID-19 impact was expected to impact them significantly," Holleb said. "So we don't know how that will affect the city."

The city has been saving money by leaving 17 positions vacant, plus unfilled part-time summer positions, Holleb said. City finance staff have also been keeping close tabs on COVID-related spending to maximize reimbursements, she said.

The city decided to decline funding allocated to emergency medical service providers from the Health and Human Services Department approved through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, also known as the CARES Act.

"The Fire Department and the Finance Department did significant review and analysis on this and the city ended up declining the revenue due to the restrictions," Holleb said." We felt that more revenue shortfall would occur by taking the funds than not, so we ended up returning that money and declining that amount." Holleb said the federal government placed restrictions on billing for emergency medical services that would have prevented the city from recovering as much as of its costs as it currently does.

The city's budget has been updated to reflect the lost revenue, with a $1 million surplus from last year set aside for COVID-19 costs and changes to transfers from the general fund. The current budget anticipates summer parks department programs will remain canceled, but staff costs will remain on the books.

Mayor George Pandaleon commended city employees and contractors who worked to conduct repairs on Forest Park Beach, which he said would be reopened to the public by the end of the week.

"The beach, we hope, will be ready." Pandaleon said. "There may be some different protocols that we have to follow because of lingering lockdown rules and things, but we'll just have to roll with that."

Workers from the city's parks and public works department teamed up on the repairs, while two local contractors — DiTomasso Excavating and John Keno & Company — worked a pair of 12-hour days to regrade sand, public works director Michael Thomas told aldermen.

Thomas said crews had been down to the beach five times to repair damage caused by storms in January and April, as well as record-high water levels in Lake Michigan.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reported last week that the lake has risen 2 inches over the past month and 7 inches over the past year. It now stands between 2 and 3 inches above the monthly record, and the Corps forecast it to rise another 2 inches over the next month.

The emergency funding request amounts to $142,000, including $60,000 in contingency funding that may not be needed, Thomas explained. The largest component cost was the $32,000 price tag to remove exposed groins that were covered by sand when the beach was redesigned more than three decades ago, he said.

Ald. Melanie Rummel, 2nd Ward, said she supported the repairs but suggested the city consider forming a committee to explore the potential redesign of the beach area.

"We need to recognize that there is a new normal down at the beach. This is the second year in a row now where we've had really catastrophic repairs that we've had to do down there," she said, noting she expected the lake to rise another 6 inches. "I'll vote for this, this time, but I'm hoping in subsequent years we have looked at the new normal, figured out ways to redesign portions of the beach so that we're not constantly repairing it and removing sand. Perhaps the days of a grass turf area down there so close to the beach are over. Perhaps some of these walkways need to be moved back permanently."

Ald. Jim Preschlack, 3rd Ward, advised caution before pursuing a possible redesign, recalling concerns from 15 years earlier about Lake Michigan water levels being too low.

"Mother Nature is in charge. I think we should be smart," Preschlack said. "But, you know, capital is really scarce, so I think we need to take a cost-benefit view on short-term fixes versus long-term redesign in the face of not really knowing what the future will hold, and other needs in our community — stormwater and roads and bridges and ravines and libraries — there's a lot going on."

Thomas assured aldermen that city staff and contractors would have the beach ready to reopen by the weekend.

"We can tell you with confidence that we will be there Friday night, and turn it over to Sally [Swarthout, director of parks and recreation] Saturday morning for the residents to enjoy," he said.

Forest Park Beach has been closed to the public since April 9, after Pandaleon said too many people were gathering there and it would be dangerous to the city's public safety personnel to attend to them.

"Potentially exposing them to this virus through unnecessary and inherently close contact with people who are misbehaving at the beach is a poor risk to take," the mayor said at the time.