We love our Crystal Lake Park District programs, staff, and sites, including our namesake lake. Crystal Lake was recently named one of the best in the Country for water quality and chemical conditions thanks to years of good stewardship of this precious resource by the Crystal Lake Park District and community partners, like the Lake Ecology Committee.

 

These assets that we love are under threat from the new Crystal Lake Park Board President (Frederick Tiesenga) and his voting block (Keith Nisenson, Richard Hickey, and Jason Heisler) and their Attorney, Eric Anderson, who have been prioritizing their personal interests during their short time on the park board. 

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Evidence of this assertion include:

• Use of taxpayer dollars and sticker fees to treat shoreline weeds on their private property. [Authorized at 6/5 Committee of the Whole Meeting]

• Hiring an attorney (and former Park Board Member & friend) at double the rate of the last attorney without proper documentation or request for proposal. [Authorized at 5/15/25 Meeting]

• Canceling the Park District’s relationship with the Lake Ecology Advisory Committee and replacing it with the private Shoreline Property Owners Association without so much as a single conversation with the Committee or the President of the SPOA [Authorized at 6/5 Committee of the Whole Meeting].

• Making it harder for Park Board Members to add to Meeting Agendas. [Authorized at 6/5 Committee of the Whole Meeting].

• Confusing or misleading agenda items. Example: Marking items as for discussion only, then voting on them. [6/5 Committee of the Whole Meeting Packet]

• Inadequate meeting space. Room is too small, overflow rooms had sound issues. [6/5 Meeting, 6/19 Meeting]

• Canceling the Park District's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Policy without any reasoning. [6/5 Committee of the Whole Meeting]

• Supporting a draft message from Fred Tiesenga to be included in the Park Board newsletter (starting on p. 146 of the agenda packet) that is advocating for less funding to the Park District using unaudited numbers.

• Reducing public voice by voting to cut Board meetings to once per month [7/21/25 regular board meeting].

• Allowing a presentation from Statisnostics, a company that is partially owned by Ed Tisenga, the Board President’s brother, without the President disclosing the connection to the company.