SOLON- The beach at Lake Macbride State Park will be closing daily at 6 p.m. until further notice.
The Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) announced last week the new hours would take effect Friday, June 19.
The reduced hours come in the wake of two large fights that occurred at the beach Monday, June 8, and Sunday, June 14.
According to DNR Public Information Officer Kevin Baskins, Sunday’s incident apparently started at about 6 p.m. between two men in the beach restroom. The altercation spilled out onto the grass outside where 15 to 20 people became involved.
Several people sustained injuries that required medical attention.
One arrest was made.
Humberto Dominguez-Gonzalez, 23, of Coralville, was charged with assault causing bodily injury and public consumption of alcohol, both misdemeanor offenses.
A complaint filed by the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office stated that witnesses identified Dominguez-Gonzalez as the primary aggressor in the fight. He was accused of punching a male victim in the eye and kicking him in the face as the victim lay on the ground. The victim sustained a split lip, chipped teeth and bruising around his eye, the statement said.
Dominguez-Gonzalez exhibited bloodshot eyes, unsteady balance and smelled of ingested alcohol, the report stated, and a post-arrest preliminary breath test registered a blood alcohol content of .089.
Baskins had little information regarding the June 8 brawl. He said law enforcement officers were called to the beach for a large fight involving dozens of people. Nine people were given trespass warnings and asked not to return to the beach in 2015.
“The concern that we have is that, over the years, we have had a lot of rowdy behavior at Lake Macbride,” Baskins said. “We think that alcohol has been a factor in at least some of them.”
He said similar problems are occurring at the Pleasant Creek Recreation Area near Palo in Linn County.
The DNR announced restricted beach hours for both parks Thursday, June 18.
The beaches will be open will be from 4 a.m. to 6 p.m. Lake Macbride’s beach was previously open until 10:30 p.m., the same as the rest of the park areas. The hours for the rest of the park areas will remain from 4 a.m. to 10:30 p.m., according to the DNR press release.
Currently, hard alcohol is prohibited in Iowa State Parks, although canned beer and low-alcohol wines are allowed. No glass is allowed in beach areas.
When the U.S. Corps of Engineers restricted all alcohol from its beach at the Coralville Reservoir in 2004, Lake Macbride became the only beach in Johnson County where alcohol in any form was permitted.
“We’ll see how this goes and if it addresses some of the concerns,” Baskins said.
In 2008, the Iowa Natural Resource Commission considered banning all alcohol on the Lake Macbride beach due to excessive bad behavior.
Baskins said reducing beach hours was the first step to address the current problem, and an alcohol ban was not officially being considered at present.
“I think at this point we want to see how the adjusted hours work first,” he said.
Todd Coffelt, chief of the DNR’s state parks bureau, said many of the problems with rowdy behavior at both beaches have occurred in the later hours of the day.
“We want people to have a chance to enjoy the wonderful beach we have at Macbride, but we also want to ensure a safe environment for the public,” Coffelt said. “We are hopeful that reducing the beach hours to exclude parts of the day where we have had problems in the past will make our park experience safer and more enjoyable for the public.”