The Iowa Department of Natural Resources is considering a plan to ban beer-drinking on the state beaches around the great lakes and Lake MacBride State Park near Iowa City. State parks bureau chief, Kevin Szcodronski, brought the issue up for discussion with the Natural Resources Commission Tuesday.
Szcodronski says it has elevated into a problem where legal drinkers come in and drink excessively. He says they take over in what he says is like “football game tailgate parties.” Szcodronski says they’ve tried for a couple of years to get things under control with more enforcement.
He says they write tickets for underage drinking and for glass on the beach. Szcodronski says things start out in the afternoon with people coming in with coolers of beer and the crowds build and the drinking continues and things elevate, making it tough for one park ranger to control. Szcodronski says one of the problems is the young drinkers have been funneled to these two areas.
Szcodronski says the reason they are having trouble around the great lakes is that all the city and county parks around the state parks have banned drinking on their beaches, and the Corps of Engineers has banned drinking at Corallville Lake, pushing drinkers to Lake MacBride. Szcodronski says they’ll continue discussing the issue to determine if they will move forward.
He says the next step would be to send out a notice of intended action and hold public hearings and meetings to decide if they want to change the rule. The Natural Resources Commission would have to approve the change once it made it through the hearing process.