By Robert Lucke
Park board members gave Superintendent Bernie Golie and his crew permission to start constructing off-creek springs in the park to keep cattle more on the mountains and less on the creek.
At their July meeting, there was an explanation from Golie as to the merits and costs of the project.
"We have been visiting about putting some springs in ourselves," Golie said. "Behind the camp (Camp Kiwanis), we thought about going up with pipe from a well we have there to put a tank in and there is a good spring on the hill west of the old Eagles campground that we could start with."
Golie told the board that digging out springs would cost in the neighborhood of $1,000 for materials. In the ,case of the water behind Camp Kiwanis the cost would be $2,500 to $3,000.
"Is there money to do that?" asked board chairman Steve Mariani.
"We have some money. About $7,000 in next year's budget to do things like this," Golie said.
"That is a very pro-active thing to do," Mariani said. "Maybe if we put in some money, we will get a lot more back. I heard those guys (Montana Department of Transportation) say that at at least two meetings."
"Whether we got any money back or not, it would be a big benefit to the park itself," Golie said.
Hill County Commissioner Kathy Bessette reported on a conversation she had relative to Beaver Creek Park.
"An individual was in our office. He has been thinking about making the park more convenient. In the future he thought it would be a good idea to number all the sites and charge a fee for each night," Bessette said. "For instance, if I wanted a place to stay maybe I could rent site No. 32 for five days starting July 3."
"We have all the individual sites numbered now," Golie said. "I think that 86 or 87 is the last site right up at the reservation fence."
"Maybe we could start by just trying 10 or so for a year and see how it goes," Mariani said.
"The trouble is you would end up with a whole park reserved," park board secretary Donna Golie said.
"If everyone had a site reserved, it might cut down on the vandalism," Bessette said.
The park board heard a report from Superintendent Golie that most people who got letters to fix or repair their cabins were doing that.
