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Isn’t it beautiful? Now stay away, please · Illinois Valley - Shaw Local

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  Written by Tom Collins. This article is being read by an automated
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  voice, brought to you by Everlit. Eager to see Clark's Falls, which
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  soon will officially belong to Utica, village officials have a message. Please
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  stay away. It just isn't safe. Utica Police Chief James Mandujano said,
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  Friday he and his officers are ready to ticket anybody who yields
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  to temptation and goes into the new area for a hike or
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  a selfie. Police aren't to trying to mean there, afraid somebody will
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  get hurt. There's really no path down there and there no safe
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  way to get there, Mandijano said. You basically have to go through
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  the woods to
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  get there, and there are no railings. There's a lot of work
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  that needs to be done before that can be opened up. Villages
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  officials are trying to get in front of injuries because last week's
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  announcement that the fifty acre site is being acquired from Covia, formerly
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  Unimen Corp, took most people by storm and will invariably stoke curiosity.
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  There was definitely a surprise factor to this, which is what I
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  think we were all looking and hoping for, Mayor David Stewart said.
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  When you have something this big, you want to make sure there's
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  a wow factor in the unveiling of then.
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  Announcement. Stewart managed to keep the acquisition a secret even though the
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  village engaged in active talks with Covia back in late 2025. More
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  casual talks took place well before then. Stewart explained that the village
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  had a long standing interest in acquiring they property and kept an
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  open line of communication with Covia for the past several years. At
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  the beginning of this year, Stuart said Covia did reach back out
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  to the village, and after they had some internal discussions, they were
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  willing to donate the property to the village Now everyone wants to
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  know when Clark's Falls will be open to the public. Answer. Stuart
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  doesn't know yet, but it's going to be a while. In a
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  press release issued September 10th, when the Utica Village Board voted unanimously
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  to approve the land transfer from Covia, Stewart emphasized the village would
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  need to extensively study the property. They must discuss at length how
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  best to make it accessible to the public. That's not going to
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  be an overnight process. Moreover, paths and trails won't be easy to
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  identify because it had been private property. Before Uniman, the last owner
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  was Alice Fredericks. She let the Boy Scouts camp and invited first
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  responders to train there, but at no time was there unlimited public
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  access or designated trails. That in turn means first responders will have
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  difficulty accessing Clark's Falls when an injury occurs. Utica Fire Chief Ben
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  Brown estimated it's a seventy five foot drop. A technically challenging rescue,
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  he said, will exhaust precious minutes needed to aid the fallen. I
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  haven't been out there in a number of years, but there are
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  no hand railings or stairs down like at Starved Rock, Brown said.
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  We'll have very limited access to that location. It's great that the
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  village is taking it on, but there's going to be a lot
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  of work to be done before the village opens it.