Community rumblings over changes at Billie Limacher Bicentennial Park surfaced Monday at City Hall.

Three people at a Joliet City Council workshop meeting questioned changes imposed at the park in what is expected to be a prelude to a larger turnout on Tuesday.

Lori Carmine, park manager since 2016, has been placed on administrative leave, according to sources connected to the park.

City officials have refused to comment on Carmine’s job status and provided no more insight at the council meeting.

“We do not comment on personnel matters, and we will not do so tonight,” City Manager Beth Beatty said at the Monday meeting, signaling concern that Carmine’s future would be a topic before the public comment section of the meeting started.

Beatty said she knew people at the meeting were going to raise questions about Bicentennial Park.

Three people did.

One of them commented directly about Carmine.

“The citizens will not sit by and let you push out Lori or any of her staff members,” Mary Beth Gannon said.

Carmine, in addition to ushering in new events and programs since becoming park manager, has been involved in the park theater since she was a child and has been a major figure in the Joliet theater and arts community.

“Keep Lori where she is,” Gannon said. “We won’t let her be a fall guy for anyone else’s shenanigans.”

A city spokeswoman commenting on the situation last week said outside lawyers have been brought in to investigate what were described as “significant operational deviations.”

No specifics were provided. And Beatty did not provide any Monday other than to say that the city was committed to continuing the park’s role as a significant center of cultural activity.

Nicole LeRoy, an Elwood resident active with theater activities at the park, said people were looking for more answers.

“We don’t know what changes are being made,” LeRoy said. “We have a lot of questions. We’d like a public statement about the changes.”

LeRoy also encouraged city officials to hold a public forum where people could ask questions about the future of the park and its theater.

One concern is that the park’s place as a hub for community theater would end and be replaced with a policy that would make the indoor theater at the park available for rentals only.

Public confusion over the future of Bicentennial Park comes just a few months after the city hired Ann Sylvester in late July for the newly created position of director of cultural affairs and special events.

Sylvester, who previously worked for the city of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, is primarily tasked with expanding cultural activity in Joliet.

But the Bicentennial Park theater community appears concerned about losing a piece of city culture that has existed for decades amid unknown plans for changes.

“If there is any question of Bicentennial Park traditions, please let them continue,” Bertina Anderson told the council.