Park board to discuss cabin fees

The Hill County Park Board plans to look at the amounts charged for leasing cabin sites in Beaver Creek Park at its February meeting, with the intent to set the fees at its meeting the following month.

At the board's monthly meeting held this week, board Chair Steve Mariani said the issue could be fully explored over the next two meetings.

Mariani said the regulations on cabin leasing on the park have been updated and are being reviewed by the Hill County attorney's office. Part of the new draft is to keep the fees outside of the ordinance that sets the regulations, so the fees can be looked at without changing the county ordinance and the leases themselves.

Hill County Commissioner Kathy Bessette said that even if the rates are separate from the lease ordinance itself, discussion of the rates and proposals to change the rates still will need to be announced in advance to allow the public to comment.

Beaver Creek Park Superintendent Chad Edgar said that, although the number of park permits sold was down and the early part of the season was shut down due to flooding in the early spring and summer, the park still generated slightly more revenue than it did in 2010.

Edgar said the ranchers with cattle grazing on the park acted promptly at the end of the season, and all of the animals are off the park.

He said work to rechannel the creek where it flows through Lions Campground is complete. Edgar said he hopes a new design for the bridge — the bridge that had been across Beaver Creek at that campground had acted like a dam during the flooding in the last two years — can be devised and the new bridge erected at the campground.

Edgar said most of the money approved by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to repair flood damage from the last two years now is in.

He also said work on the chapel at Camp Kiwanis is mostly complete, and that he plans to work on landscaping and working on the road, including work to prevent damage from future flooding, next summer.

Edgar also reported that his assistant, Dana Pyette, is researching possible grants that could provide funds for creating new walking trails on the park.