Residents of Beach Park told the village board at a regular meeting that traffic, speeding and parking connected to the Waukegan sports complex and seasonal events are creating persistent safety hazards on Beach Road and nearby residential streets. Numerous speakers urged the board to work with Waukegan and Lake County and to deploy short- and long-term measures to reduce volume and speed.

The concerns ranged from near-miss collisions and unauthorized parking to emergency-vehicle access problems. “We had people over, and we had several close calls, of children almost getting hit,” resident Alan Anderson said. “We had more than 80 cars a day on average down our road at more than 50 miles an hour and more than 400 cars a day down our road that are over speed,” he said, describing older speed-study data his group had previously gathered.

Jordan Hasky, a longtime resident who described prior experience seeking roadway solutions from the village, said temporary measures such as speed trailers only partly help and urged the board to pursue overtime patrols, rerouting talks with Waukegan and other engineering fixes before someone is harmed. “The fact that nothing has been done until somebody gets hit or killed is a problem,” Hasky said.

Josh Hecker, who identified himself as a supervisor at a local law-enforcement organization, described a recent ambulance delay tied to congestion on Beach Road. “An ambulance was attempting to get westbound on Beach Road from Green Bay Road into the sports complex, and we heard that siren for over 10 minutes trying to get down that road because they could not access their own sports complex,” Hecker said. He called on Waukegan to build a dedicated access road and on the board to coordinate with agencies to preserve emergency access.

Several speakers proposed specific steps the village could take. Anderson suggested installing permanent residential parking permits on affected streets to narrow clear sight lines and slow traffic, adding tow-enforced signage, and placing permanent speed-calming features. “If we were able to park, first of all, we can’t park anything on the street anyway, which is a problem. If we were able to permit…parking by permit only…then people would be towed,” he said. Victor Romero and other residents described ongoing litter and property damage from event traffic.

Board and staff comments: At the start of the meeting Trustee Cittick thanked staff for their event work and reported the village issued about 10 citations and placed barricades at problem locations during recent events; he said most visitors complied with directions once engaged by staff. A village staff member (identified in the transcript as Mr. Rainey) described deployments of signage and staff adjustments for future events.

No formal board action on rerouting traffic, new parking permits or speed-bump installations was recorded in the meeting minutes or motions. Several speakers pressed the board to pursue intergovernmental solutions with Waukegan and Lake County, and asked the village to deploy its own speed-collection sign and consider speed bumps or parking-by-permit enforcement. The board agreed to set up follow-up discussions with staff to explore resident requests and to identify which agencies would need to act.

The public comment included one positive note about event management: Michael Bookde, representing a neighborhood group, praised village staff and volunteers for improvements at the air show, saying changes reduced earlier problems and reporting “that first day, absolutely no problems.”

Residents asked the board to provide specific next steps, including (1) whether the village speed trailer can be deployed to Beach Road and whether it will collect shareable data; (2) whether the village will seek additional sheriff’s-department overtime patrols; (3) whether the village will negotiate a reroute or new access with Waukegan; and (4) whether the village can modify signage to allow residential parking permits with tow enforcement. Board members said staff would follow up to clarify the village’s options and points of contact with Waukegan and Lake County.