Park Board looks to revisit Beaver Creek cabin fences

After a Beaver Creek Park cabin owner said the Hill County Park Board seems to be sending conflicting messages, the board reached consensus on reviewing its cabin fence policy on the park.

Jack Mattingley said Monday that, after the board said dogs must be on leashes unless they were in a fenced area, he put up a string of wire fence inside the rail fence at his cabin, to make certain his dogs could not get out of his cabin’s yard.

Then he was told he was violating the fence policy, which prohibits wire fences, Mattingley said.

He showed the board photos of several cabins on the park with a variety of fences, including some snow fences and wire fences.

Mattingley said the question is, if the board wants dogs fenced in, how can he do that if he is not allowed to put up additional fence?

Board member Robbie Lucke said he has noticed a lot of wire on cabin fences on the park, and it is so prevalent that maybe the board should rethink the fencing policy.

“Maybe what were doing is trying to micromanage when we don’t need to be micromanaging,” Lucke said.

If fences fit the rustic nature of the cabins they are around, and is in good taste, maybe they should be allowed, he said.

Lucke suggested the board look at fences when doing its fall cabin inspections, tentatively set for Oct. 9, and rewrite the fencing rule over the winter if it needs to be rewritten.

“If they are trying to keep their dogs in, that’s a good thing,” he said.

Board chair Steve Mariani agreed.

“We need to assess what we’ve got,” he said.