Rules revisions proposed for Beaver Creek Park

The Hill County Park Board Monday night went through a list of proposed changes to the rules and regulations at Beaver Creek Park and plans to post the draft for public comment, once revisions are incorporated.

Beaver Creek Park Superintendent Chad Edgar said in previous meetings he wanted to update the park’s rules and regulations.

The board agreed to put the draft of rules, once revised with the decisions made during Monday’s monthly meeting of the board, out for public comment and to have them reviewed by the Hill County attorney.

Once the board approves the rules, they will have to be okayed by the Hill County Commission as an update to county ordinances.

Board member Robbie Lucke said the board could take its time in reviewing and approving the draft of proposed changes. They would not be able to implement the changes until next year anyway, he said.

The board tentatively agreed to post the rules for comment and have them reviewed by the attorney and start the process to approve the changes, possibly at or after its August meeting.

Many of the changes are rewording and clarifying existing rules. For example, Edgar said during the May meeting of the board that having a list of items that are prohibited created confusion.

The existing rules gives a list under the heading “The following are prohibited.” Edgar, and board members, said in May that people using the park might think items on the list are allowed if they don’t read the rules closely.

Each item in the draft of the proposed rules lists what is prohibited and what is allowed.

One of the new items would require that people only camp in existing, established sites. Edgar said he wanted a discussion of this — the board could rule that people could drop a campsite wherever they wished — but he suggested that allowing camping in existing sites only could benefit the park.

Another lengthy discussion was on the use of pallets for firewood.

Edgar said law enforcement officers have told him that, in other campgrounds, burning of pallets is prohibited.

He said cleaning up after people who throw entire pallets in a firepit can be difficult, especially with nails scattered around the campsite and in the firepit.

Audience members said the problem could extend beyond pallets, with other firewood also potentially containing nails. Lions Club member Tony Dolphay said the problem is not so much with the use of pallets — pallets can be broken down and the nails pulled — as people not being careful in what they burn and how they prepare it for burning.

The board agreed that a rule could state that whole pallets and wood with nails in it could not be burned in the park.

Lou Hagener and others at the meeting raised several concerns about wording of proposed rules.

Hagener said about a rule that prohibited hill climbing with motorized vehicles and all offroad driving, except for ATVs and snowmobiles during approved times in the winter, could be interpreted to prohibit haying, which local ranchers pay the park to do during the summer. The wording of a rule to prohibit cutting live or standing dead trees could be interpreted to prohibit mowing lawns at cabins, Hagener said.

Dolphay also raised concerns about the wording of a rule prohibiting commercial grazing of livestock except during the park’s leased grazing season.

The last new rule in the draft of proposed changes would create a 15 mph speed limit on all non-posted access roads, with state and county roads having posted speed limits.