From having to fish them out of bushes to sending boats to rescue a swimmer in misery — solely to find a downed Mylar balloon, not a human — the detritus of balloon launches on the lakefront and in metropolis parks is severe sufficient to warrant a ban on them, a minimum of on metropolis properties, employees instructed the town’s Parks and Recreation Board Thursday.
Board members agreed, and unanimously accredited authorizing parks employees to work with Evanston’s authorized division to draft an ordinance to that impact. The ensuing proposal would then head to City Council’s referrals and human companies committees for their critiques earlier than any eventual council determination.
The metropolis doesn’t at the moment have any laws governing balloon releases, Lakefront Manager Tim Carter stated throughout a presentation to the board once they met on the Levy Senior Center. The proposal wouldn’t ban all balloons, he stated. People may nonetheless have balloons at their picnics or different celebrations, he stated, however they must be tied down.
“We’re not saying ‘no’ to balloons in the parks,” he stated. “You can have your balloons at your celebration … you just have to weigh them down”
Nor would the proposed ordinance ban balloon releases anyplace apart from public property in Evanston, Carter stated. People would nonetheless have the ability to let balloons into the air on their very own properties or these not municipally owned.
Balloon launches are sometimes executed as a part of memorials for individuals who have died. On two events final summer season, greater than 25 balloons had been despatched into the air, Carter stated, and through the identical time span, employees had to answer experiences of three unidentified objects within the water.
“It becomes problematic when our lakefront staff or our sailing staff have to fish (reflective) Mylar balloons out of the lake, because even with binoculars, we can’t see if that’s a person in a life jacket, or a Mylar balloon,” Carter instructed the board.
In his report he stated when that circumstance forces lakefront employees or hearth division personnel to take a ship out to verify, they find yourself losing time with a purpose to choose up a collapsed balloon.
Balloons can get tangled in electrical traces and boat propellers, Carter added. He quoted figures launched in 2019 by the Alliance for the Great Lakes, indicating that greater than 18,000 balloons or balloon items had been discovered on Great Lakes shores over a two-12 months interval.
Downed balloons are additionally a menace to birds and different wildlife, once they get tangled in balloon strings or ribbons, in accordance with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Animals additionally eat balloon items, which may block their digestive methods, inflicting them to starve to dying.