Starved Rock lifer is now site superintendent

You name it, he did it. There’s no job at Starved Rock State Park that Monty Bernardoni hasn’t done.

The rural Tonica native started as a seasonal worker at Starved Rock when he still was in high school. Then he was a night watchman. Then a site technician. Then a ranger. In 2023, he was made assistant site superintendent.

One might suppose this Starved Rock lifer would have jumped at the chance to oversee Starved Rock when the previous site superintendent left for another job. But no. Bernardoni said he had to sleep on it a few nights.

“I had to put some thought into it because I know how many challenges there are for the park,” said Bernardoni, who turns 55 this month. “I’ve got 30-plus years in and had to really think about whether I want to take that next step.”

Kerry Novak, a former site superintendent, helped nudge Bernardoni off the fence.

“I told him, ‘Are you crazy? Stop fooling around and put in for it,’” Novak said. “I knew he could handle it and he was ideal for it. He has intimate knowledge of Starved Rock.”

Alvin Harper, Bernardoni’s immediate predecessor, said Bernardoni “was always a great resource to me in trouble shooting issues.”

“Monty displays a calm but firm management style,” Harper said. “His long tenure at the park has exposed him to a lot of situations. This experience will suit him well in his new role.”

Novak acknowledged Bernardoni is a “very modest” man, not one to call attention to himself, but he knows the park and can work with its quirks and limitations.

Bernardoni finally yielded and became site superintendent, effective April 16. He might be the sole site superintendent to have worked only at Starved Rock over a long career with the Department of Natural Resources.

It was a lifelong love of the outdoors that drew Bernardoni to Starved Rock. He hunted, fished and gardened as a child and took a summer job at 16 even though he was two weeks short of getting his driver’s license. There was no “a-ha” moment when he decided to make a career at Starved Rock, though certainly the job suited him.

“I got a little taste of being outside all the time and I enjoy working with the public as well,” Bernardoni said. “Most of the people who we meet are great.”

He came on full-time in 1991 and took a night job providing security, not least because he had a family to support. Shawn was his high-school sweetheart – they met when he was a senior, she a sophomore – and they welcomed two daughters, now grown.

Hoping to transition to daytime work, Bernardoni earned a commercial driver’s license and became a site technician, providing maintenance across the park. Bernardoni held that post until he became a ranger – a post where Novak said he really shined.

“I could immediately see his leadership skills,” Novak recalled.

Bernardoni hesitates to lay out objectives for Starved Rock because those decisions are dictated by Springfield and funded by the Illinois General Assembly. Nevertheless, he does hope to create a trail that complies with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

“We really don’t have anything out here with an ADA-compliant trail, but it’s probably more of a long-term project,” he said. “Short-term, I’d like to see a new sidewalk and access to our seawall and our visitors center.”

Bernardoni also hopes to provide more pedestrian walkways around the parking area to ensure safe entry into the visitor center and park. He’d like to see boat docks reinstalled for local fishermen. Many of the structures require improvements such as new roofs.

Priority No. 1, however, is trail upkeep at a time when social media have ballooned visits to Starved Rock and at Matthiessen State Park, which also is under his purview.

Starved Rock has drawn at least 2 million visitors in each of the past 16 years (save for 2023) and average yearly attendance soared from 1.9 million to 2.4 million between the 2000s and the 2010s. Crowding sent visitors searching for alternatives and Matthiessen State Park, once a hidden gem, has likewise exploded in popularity.

Novak said the state has funds in the pipeline for Starved Rock and, in Bernardoni, the perfect candidate to oversee the improvements. Bernardoni, for his part, said he’s banking on his team to help him with such hurdles.

“I rely on a great, great staff,” Bernardoni said. “Everybody has been really helpful and seems to have my back.”