Geneva says please stay out of Island Park

Just because the Fox River isn't pouring over its banks much anymore doesn't mean Island Park in Geneva is ready for picnickers, fishermen and joggers.

So park officials ask that you quit stepping around the barriers at the entrances and leave the park be.

The 11.5-acre park still was closed Thursday because of last week's flood. There's still standing water in areas, for one thing.

"We've got a cleanup job to do. We've just barely entered the facility," Geneva Park District Director Steve Persinger said. "Stay out."

Geese got into the picnic pavilion. It's not every day you see a dead fish in a flower bed. There's silt on the pedestrian/bicycle path and on plants in the garden beds. Garbage cans are overturned, pieces of lumber and trees are lying around, and the lawn is so muddy in places that your shoes go "suck, suck, suck" when you walk across the grass -- which was flattened by the water and silt.

River water still was lapping over the stone embankments in some spots Thursday afternoon. Debris was clogging the arches of the stone bridge on the south end, slowing the flow of water from a back channel into the river. Some picnic tables and benches still were standing in water. And there's water on the path as it crosses under State Street and into Old Mill Park.

Park officials are assessing damage and hope to start cleaning the park today.

If there were any doubts about the decision made last Friday to cancel the folk music festival held there every Labor Day, they're gone now.

"It's mud. It's mud and water," Persinger said.