Community Corner
Forest Preserves Extend Parking Closures Memorial Day Weekend
Forest Preserves of Cook County extends weekend parking closures at preserves and encourages people to say home to limit COVID-19 spread.
COOK COUNTY, IL — If you were planning a picnic or bash with your extended family and friends in the Forest Preserves of Cook County over the Memorial Day holiday — stay home. Cook County officials are encouraging patrons and visitors to get acquainted with nature in their back yards instead of traipsing off to the woods to limit the spread of coronavirus.
Picnics or cookouts, group sports and gatherings with people outside your household are prohibited at all forest preserves sites, and physical distancing must be observed at all times.
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“Memorial Day is a time when we pay tribute to those who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our country. As an unofficial start to summer, the holiday is always one of our busiest weekends in the Forest Preserves,” said Arnold Randall, the general superintendent of the forest preserves. “This year, that’s not a safe way to celebrate. We hope that ... our patrons will find other creative ways to honor the fallen and to be with family.”
In mid-March, forest preserve events were canceled when the virus first revealed itself in Illinois. On April 24, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle ordered parking lots closed on weekends at the county’s six busiest forest preserves to discourage large numbers of people from flocking to preserves as an escape from the state’s stay-at-home order.
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Since then, the preserve parking lots have been closed Friday through Sunday until May 30, including Busse Woods in Elk Grove Village; Maple Lake and Saganashkee Slough in the Palos Preserves near Willow Springs; Catherine Chevalier Woods and LaBagh Woods in Chicago; and Bunker Hill in Niles.
Weekend parking lot closures have been extended this weekend through Memorial Day, which this year falls on Monday, May 25. In addition, two preserves have been added to the list of six sites that currently have weekend parking bans to limit the size of crowds, including Dan Ryan Woods and Schiller Woods.
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