By Robert Lucke
Hill County Park Board Members voted to take over a cabin site with improvements in Beaver Creek Park because the site owner failed to comply with lease regulations for the last three years.
At the regular November Park Board meeting the Park superintendent wanted to know if he should continue working with the lessee, give him time to sell the cabin or go with an eviction letter to the County Attorney had sent.
"This has been going on for a couple of years now," Park Board Chairman John Goebel said. "He has not been doing anything before and he won't do anything now."
The Park Board voted to take over the lease and sell the cabin while not providing a lease to a new owner until the site was up to Park Board standards.
In a new lease sent to all cabin owners, a part of it is causing concern with many cabin owners. The lease states that mowing of a site should be contained within site boundaries.
"Several comments about mowing outside of fences have been made to our office," Hill County Commissioner Doug Kaercher said. "People want to know how much they can mow outside of their lots. Maybe it has to be common sense."
"There is one fellow out by me who mows an acre," Goebel declared. "But we have no other problem that I know of. Maybe those with questions, we can tell them to mow their parking lots within reason."
"People are concerned," Park Superintendent Bernie Golie added. "They want to know what they can mow."
"Let's let it ride and see how things go," Goebel said.
Few comments have been made to Park Board members concerning a proposed change in boat motor size at Beaver Creek Reservoir.
"Few comments have been made on the ten horsepower or no wake ruling," Goebel said. "Some people think that if boaters get out far enough in the bay and back in, they should have no problems. Fish, Wildlife and Parks want no wake because they think it is easier to enforce. I don't know if we want to give them any more consideration or not."
"My neighbor has a fifteen horsepower motor on his boat and does not think there would be any more problems out there with bigger boats or motors out there," board member Steve Mariani said.
A group from Havre wants to hold a kids' trapper camp next summer at a Beaver Creek cabin Commissioner Kaercher told the board.
"Maybe they should check with the boy scouts," Goebel responded. "For a bunch of kids like that, the Scout Camp would be a good place for them."
There are now a thousand head of cattle on the park according to Superintendent Golie.
"It is an interesting policy of salt," Kaercher said. "How did that come about?"
Kaercher was referring to the fact that Beaver Creek Park pays for the salt consumed by area cattle during the four month grazing season.
For 1999 the cost of that salt will be $1345.00 or more, according to Golie.
"We decided if we put the salt out ourselves we can control the cattle better. We were concerned that if ranchers did it, the salt would not be where we wanted it to be," Golie declared.
"It is a management decision," board member Dean Hanson added. "It used to be that we put salt out for two months but when we raised the (grazing) price, we put it out all four months."
The next regular Park Board meeting will be Dec. 6 at 7 p.m. in the new jail court room.
