Governor's budget cuts reach beyond closure of state parks
By Tim Mitchell
Sunday September 14, 2008
Robin Scholz
This pin worn by Dave Lareau, head of Operation Homefront, promotes a call to save Weldon Springs State Park in Clinton from its impending closure, as that would also mean the de facto closure of the Veteran's Point memorial inside, which his group helped get placed there.
CLINTON – Every day, dozens of area residents and out-of-town visitors head to Boondocks II restaurant at Weldon Springs State Park near Clinton for meals of hand-cut ribeyes, Boonburger cheeseburgers and sizzling biscuits and gravy.
On Fridays, the waterfront restaurant draws large crowds to sample breaded-walleye dinners.
But restaurant owner Kayla Wilson-Koons says she'll have to close the popular eatery by Nov. 1, the date Gov. Rod Blagojevich has set to close the state park.
"I don't want to close, but the governor is giving me no choice," said Wilson-Koons, who employs 14 people at Boondocks II. "It's like a nightmare when you invest your life into a business only to have somebody pull it out from under you."
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