Lake County Gazette

State Rep. Tom Weber (R-Lake Villa) is taking steps to make sure he knows all there is to know about House Bill 4165.

“I want to clarify a few things,” Weber said during a Jan. 26 House Human Services Committee hearing about the measure that creates the Lake Michigan Equipment Act. “I had my office contact Rep. (Kelly) Cassidy’s (D-Chicago) office yesterday. So, as a representative who represents thousands of private pier owners I want to verify, is this a mandate for private piers?”

After getting assurances from Cassidy, the bill’s sponsor, about it only applying to public Lake Michigan properties and not smaller lakes across the area, Weber still had questions.

“I understand, but I’m looking at the precedent this would set,” he said. “I understand I don’t represent any of the Lake Michigan properties.”

First introduced by Cassidy last October, HB 4165 passed by a 14-0 vote and is effective six-months after becoming a law if it passes both the House and Senate. The bill “provides that the owner of a pier or drop-off on Lake Michigan shall install public rescue equipment, including, at a minimum, ring life buoys, on each of the owner's piers and drop-offs along the Lake Michigan coast.”

The measure also establishes that public rescue equipment shall also be installed in all high-incident drowning areas on an owner's property, including requirements for ring life buoys.

It also provides that each unit of local government owning a pier or drop-off on Lake Michigan shall track and report to the Department of Public Health, in a form prescribed by the department, Lake Michigan lakefront drownings, both fatal and non-fatal drownings, near the unit's piers and drop-offs.