Q-C residents fight for historic site budget
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By Thomas Geyer | Wednesday, July 16, 2008 |
Caleb Roe of Coal Valley, Ill., just got his Eagle Scout badge for repairing bird houses at Black Hawk State Historic Site in Rock Island.
“I worked for it down at Singing Bird Nature Center, fixing bird houses and installing bird feeders, things like that,” he said, proudly wearing the badge on his uniform and recalling many trips to the park as a Cub Scout and Boy Scout.
“We did a lot of hiking and had day camp,” Roe, 18, said.
Now, Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich is proposing to slash
$2.8 million from the state budget that pays for staff at state historic sites. It is part of a measure he is taking to cut $1.4 billion from the state’s budget.
If those cuts go through, while the Black Hawk State Historic Site will not close, the Nature Center will close along with the Hauberg Indian Museum, the CCC exhibit and the lodge except for weddings, said Janet Moline, chairwoman of Citizens to Preserve Black Hawk Park Foundation. There will not be enough staff to run them.
Roe was one of more than
175 people who attended an informational meeting Tuesday at the site’s Watch Tower Lodge during which Moline discussed the cuts and what they would mean.
Moline learned about the budget cuts Saturday.
That $2.8 million represents about half the budget for personnel at historic sites throughout the state, she said. She did not have a breakdown of how much of the cut would come from the Black Hawk site.
Everyone who walked into the Watch Tower Lodge signed a petition and letters to their representatives and senators. Moline also gave everyone an 800 telephone number to voice their disapproval with Blagojevich’s office.
Moline stressed that the site will not close. “Trails and grounds will be open, but without maintenance. The public bathrooms will close. There will be no grass mowed except by the lodge. The site is not closed; just the buildings, so we won’t host school groups, either.”
She added that the cuts also affect Albany Mounds, which is overseen by the Black Hawk Historic Site. Bishop Hill State Historic Site is another western Illinois site that would be impacted.
The goal is to keep the budget intact enough so that at least the site supervisor will keep his job, she said.
But that $2.8 million compared to the $1.4 billion Blagojevich is cutting shows “what a little blip we are in the state budget,” Moline said.
When she heard what was happening, Stephanie Crandall of Rock Island said she was “devastated.”
“It’s such a gem to have Mother Nature right in the middle of the city,” she said.
David VanLandegen of Rock Island said the site “is Rock Island in some sense. It was voted one of the seven wonders of Illinois.”
Illinois Rep. Pat Verschoore, D-Milan, said the Citizens to Preserve Black Hawk Park Foundation contacted him, asking him to do something about the budget cuts.
“They had given me some binders to give to the speaker,” he said. “But there isn’t much we can do because it’s up to the Senate and the Senate is not planning on coming back until November.”
Moline said she has solicited the help of the Tribal Coalition.
“We are standing on sacred ground,” Moline said. “In 1824, this meeting place was part of Saukenuk, capital of the Sauk Nation. Gov. Blagojevich may not have to care about children, but he does have to answer to Native Americans. This is about a people that are living today. The descendants of Black Hawk come here.
“We are the only state historic site to tell the true story of the historic Native American residents of Illinois,” she said. “If our staff is gone, we can’t tell the story.”
Thomas Geyer can be contacted at (563) 383-2328 or tgeyer@qctimes.com. Comment on this story at qctimes.com.
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