MICHIGAN CITY, Ind. (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- The City Council in Michigan City has extended the mayor's coronavirus beach and lakefront park closure through mid-September, as alderman questioned why he’s bothering since people are going to the beaches anyway.
Council members Paul Przybylinski and his brother Don Przybylinski voted against a resolution to extend the beach closure order, noting people are going anyway and there are no consequences.
"I guess you can close these beaches, you can't write nobody a civil penalty, because there is nothing on the books," Paul Przybylinski said. “To me, it’s like an exercise in futility. That’s what this is coming down to.
"We have had people going to the beach, and they can still go to the beach, even if there is signage put up, because there is not an ordinance in place to give them a civil penalty."
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His brother Don Przybylinski, also a council member, noted on a recent day he saw 500-600 people at the beach, along a stretch of a dozen blocks of residential lakefront.
"I counted the people on the beach, and I guarantee you there was close to 550-600 people," Don Przybylinski said. “The only way this is going to stop, and this is going to mean anything, is to have guards at every bus stop,” he said, and the city can’t afford that.
"People are going down there, throwing the sign in the garbage, throwing the wooden barricades off to the side, and they are just walking up and down the beach."
Barriers blocking access to the city's main public beach are keeping people out, but at a dozen other access points along a 13-block residential stretch people are just pushing barriers aside.
Paul Przybylinski suggested putting up chain-link fencing at the bus stops to block people from using the paths.
Mayor Duane Parry said there could be a problem with private property, and the city doesn’t have the staffing to put up the fencing anyway.
He also cited staffing as the reason why he is choosing to not reopen the city's main beach and lakefront park.
“The COVID numbers are a factor, but they’re not the bottom line,” Parry said.
College students who worked the gate at Washington Park, have returned to school, and citizens haven’t come forward to replace them, as would happen in a normal year, Parry said.
“If I can find the people, I will open the beach,” he said.
The zoo has reopened, but admission is by appointment only to enforce social distancing.