The Crystal Lake park board has backtracked on its plan to exit an agreement with Lakewood and Crystal Lake over lake ecology management after municipal leaders criticized the move.

The park board voted to remove the district from the intergovernmental Lake Ecology Agreement with Lakewood and Crystal Lake during the June 5 meeting that was filled with multiple swift decisions that caused public outcry after a new board majority took over.

Both municipalities also raised objections to the move, which they said was made without consulting them.

But now the park board has reconsidered the move, and in a 5-2 vote Monday, it decided to stay in the current agreement.

The original intergovernmental agreement went into effect in 2023 and put in place a tiered system of boat sticker fees based on horsepower, with an increase of almost 600% for the largest vessels.

The agreement spelled out that the boat sticker revenue would go toward the costs associated with management of the lake, including weed harvesting, lake ecology consulting, and chemical treatments used on milfoil and other invasive weed species.

The agreement also streamlined purchases so residents could collect gate keys and boat stickers in one place rather than dividing the sales between the park district and the city.

In August, the park district created a new document that seemingly mirrored the previous agreement but was referred to as a “contract.” Park board President Frederick Tiesenga said the distinction is the park district would act as an “agent, not as a governing peer of Crystal Lake and Lakewood.”

The new contract, called the Lake Usage Fees Agency Agreement for Collection and Grant of Ecology Funds, laid out identical boat decal fees based on horsepower. Under that proposed arrangement, the park district still would sell boat-launch access keys and decals, and the revenue still would be used for lake safety and ecology uses.

The retreat from that proposal was at the request of Commissioner Cathy Cagle, who noted the park district had until Nov. 1 to notify municipalities about terminating the agreement.

Park district attorney Eric Anderson said the district already had given notice, and the Nov. 1 is “somewhat irrelevant.” But park board members did have until the end of the year – when the existing agreement expires – to change their minds, Crystal Lake Park District Executive Director Jason Herbster said.

Commissioner Jason Heisler tried to table the decision, but that did not pass. Heisler and Tiesenga were the “no” votes against reentering the original agreement.

Tiesenga likened the discussion to “watching politics happen right now” and speculated that Lakewood’s criticism is coming from bad blood with the park district after it ousted its former attorney, Scott Puma, who also is Lakewood’s attorney. The park district board replaced Puma with Anderson, a former board member.

Metal detectors and a heightened police presence continued at Monday’s meeting. The security measures were first introduced last month by Tiesenga because of his concerns with feeling “uncomfortable” after previous hostile meetings that included yelling, personal jabs and booing from the public.