The Wilmette Park Board continues to face vocal criticism from opponents of a fence at Gillson Beach, and residents continue to call for its removal at the board’s public meetings.
That criticism was clearly heard during the public comment period at the panel’s regular meeting on Monday, August 12, with most of the 16 speakers addressing the fence at some point during their remarks.
As previously reported by The recordThe Park District implemented new procedures for South Beach at the beginning of the season, converting it into a fee-paying beach with a designated swimming area and a picket dune fence surrounding the beach and delimiting access points.
Park district officials have repeatedly cited years of ongoing safety concerns for guests and park employees as the main reason for the change.
Since then, the park district board and staff have come under fire for the changes, with the fence being the main point of contention.
Patricia Smith said she was “very disappointed that nothing has been resolved in this situation.”
“Nobody has touched the fences, nobody has put up graffiti,” she said. “It’s a very controlled environment.”
Smith also complained that she noticed that the fee was still being charged at 6:30 p.m.
Paul McKinley questioned the existence of the fence and the panel’s reasoning, including concerns about alcohol consumption, “which have been around for over 100 years and have been well managed. I don’t know why these things can’t be managed more.”
Some speakers complained about the way lifeguards treated beachgoers, others questioned the legality of the fence on a public beach, and one said that if the beach belonged to the municipality, citizens could remove it themselves.
Anastasia Royal called on the board to resign and accused them of exercising “authoritarian control” over the beach. To express her opinion, she sang a modified version of the song “Maria” from the musical “The Sound of Music”.
“How do you keep the others out of the park if you could? How do you make us believe it’s for our own good?” sang Royal in one of her lyrics. “You act like there’s trouble to be had, and you slander us for the prairie grass that’s so expensive. And make us all think the beach is a violent neighborhood.”
She also sang about charging children $10 to swim in public waters and accused the board of ignoring its critics.
Royal concluded by saying, “How do you solve a problem like Gillson’s water and sand? How do you crush a moonbeam in your hand?”
While the board did not respond directly to public comments, Executive Director Steve Wilson’s report answered some frequently asked questions the park district had received, including one about what would happen to the fence.
Wilson said it will be removed “shortly after the 2024 swim season,” which is Labor Day weekend.
As for the future, Wilson said the park district will decide whether to restore the fence after analyzing feedback received over the summer.
“We will take all of that into consideration, we will consider the observations of staff in day-to-day operations, we will consider the input of the board and we will make decisions through the public meeting about what 2025 will look like,” Wilson said.
Addressing a public comment made earlier in the meeting, Wilson also said that anyone caught damaging the fence would likely face criminal charges.
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