Public Act 93-0651
SB526 Enrolled LRB093 07340 JAM 07502 b
AN ACT concerning zoos.
Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
represented in the General Assembly:
Section 5. The Forest Preserve Zoological Parks Act is
amended by changing Section 1 as follows:
(70 ILCS 835/1) (from Ch. 96 1/2, par. 6801)
Sec. 1. The corporate authorities of forest preserve
districts, containing a population of 140,000 or more located
in counties of less than 3,000,000 inhabitants, having the
control or supervision of any forest preserves, may erect and
maintain within such forest preserves, under the control or
supervision of such corporate authorities, edifices to be
used for the collection and display of animals as customary
in zoological parks, and may collect and display such
animals, or permit the directors or trustees of any
zoological society devoted to the purposes aforesaid to erect
and maintain a zoological park and to collect and display
zoological collections within any forest preserve now or
hereafter under the control or supervision of such forest
preserve district, out of funds belonging to such zoological
society, or to contract with the directors or trustees of any
zoological society on such terms and conditions as may to
such corporate authorities seem best, relative to the
erection, operation and maintenance of a zoological park and
the collection and display of such animals within such forest
preserve, out of the tax hereinafter in this Act provided.
This Act applies to any forest preserve district that
maintains a zoological park that was established under this
Act prior to 1964, regardless of whether the population
requirements continue to be met.
Such a forest preserve district, or the directors or
trustees of such zoological society when so authorized by the
forest preserve district, may (a) police the property of the
zoological park, (b) employ, establish, maintain and equip a
security force for fire and police protection of the
zoological park and (c) provide that the personnel of the
security force shall perform other tasks relating to the
maintenance and operation of the zoological park. Members of
the security force shall be conservators of the peace with
all the powers of policemen in cities and of sheriffs, other
than to serve or execute civil processes, but such powers may
be exercised only within the area comprising the zoological
park when required to protect the zoological park's property
and interests, its personnel and persons using the facilities
or at the specific request of appropriate federal, State or
local law enforcement officials.
Such forest preserve district may charge, or permit such
zoological society to charge, an admission fee. The proceeds
of such admission fee shall be devoted exclusively to the
operation and maintenance of such zoological park and the
collections therein. All such zoological parks shall be open
to the public without charge (i) a total number of days, to
be scheduled at any time during the calendar year, equivalent
to at least one day for each 7 days the zoological park is
open during the calendar year for at least one day each week
and (ii) to the children in actual attendance upon any of the
schools in the State at all times. The managing authority of
the zoological park may limit the number of school groups
that may attend the zoo on any given day and may establish
other rules and regulations that reasonably ensure public
safety, accessibility, and convenience, including without
limitation standards of conduct and supervision. , except
that Charges may be made at any time for special services and
for admission to special facilities within any zoological
park for the education, entertainment or convenience of
visitors.
(Source: P.A. 91-817, eff. 6-13-00; 92-548, eff. 6-24-02.)