Park board receives updates for ongoing issues

The Hill County Park Board heard updates on several issues at its monthly meeting Monday in the Hill County Courthouse.

There have been no developments regarding the folf course, and no new sponsors have been found, Beaver Creek Park Superintendent Chad Edgar said.

Assistant to the park superintendent Aubrey Williams presented the board with three reports of cabins in Beaver Creek Park that were deemed deficient. Based on the notes in the reports though she said there were a few more. Those cabins will need to be repaired by their owners by the next inspection, which Williams said would take place this coming spring.

She also gave an update on the status of the park’s website.

“We are hoping to have the website functional by mid-March, maybe the end of March,” Williams said.

“That’s awesome,” Park Board Chairman Steve Mariani said. “That will help you, that will help the park, it’ll fill it up.”

The website will allow people to make online reservations for park facilities.

Based on the current model being discussed, full refunds will be allowed up until two weeks before the first day of a reservation. After that, no refunds will be allowed.

Members of the board also discussed instituting some manner of refund-like policy in the event of a fire, flood or extreme weather making a given reservation impossible.

“We’ve been through every natural disaster there is out there,” said Park Superintendent Chad Edgar.

Williams also discussed how making reservations at the park directly through the website Campspot would work.

“If somebody reserves a campground with that option, they (Campspot) would take 10 percent of the transaction,” Williams said. “…it’s like Orbitz.”

The contract with Campspot is due to be reviewed by the Hill County Commission.

After discussion of the website was completed, a slight change in the schedule of the meeting was made. A representative from Region 6 of the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks’ Havre Office, whose name was not available this morning rose to make a request of the board. The organization, which usually meets for their regional meeting in Glasgow, requested use of Camp Kiwanis for Wednesday, June 17.

“We have Helena staff, there’s commissions, so we’re more centrally located in Havre. We would love to use Camp Kiwanis,” she said. “… Kiwanis is so beautiful.”

However, she said, the meeting would only be one day long and they wouldn’t need cabins. She said she was hoping the board would be willing to negotiate a lower price because of the meeting’s unique and limited needs.

The park usually charges a lump sum payment of $1,600 for a four-day reservation, but after some discussion a motion was made to charge FWP a sum of $600 for their stay, and the motion was unanimously approved. Region 6’s representative told the board that her organization would make a final decision at their next meeting March 10 and would get back to the board with an answer.

Edgar said a bid has been made for the highway cattle guard, as well as one for Alkali Springs. He also said he’s trying to figure out how to do the cattle guard cheaper by having the road department handle building the foundation, but the department was not able to provide a price by the time of the meeting.

Hill County Commissioner and Park Board Member Diane McLean announced that Shawn and Jack Nystrom have been named to the grazing committee.

Ron Hellman was scheduled to talk to the committee about delayed cattle turn-out to improve September camping, but he was not able to attend the meeting.

The board then turned to discussion of a kiosk being planned at the park’s entrance. Edgar said that he’d created a tentative design for the structure.

“We can retract it if we have to,” he said.

He said he plans to submit his design in the next meeting of the Finance and Planning Committee this month.

“I can definitely pull this off myself, building it out of logs and setting it on treated posts,” he said. “It’s fully within my range of capabilities as a carpenter.”

The board briefly discussed the prospect of Friends of Beaver Creek Park losing their custom license plates.

A new law sponsored by State Sen. Mary Cohenour, D-East Helena, requires the state to cancel specialty plates that had not been purchased by at least 400 people. The law took effect Jan. 1, but Cohenour requested the Motor Vehicle Division of the Montana Department of Justice extend the deadline.

Friends of Beaver Creek Park now have until July to reach the required sales. Based on the current numbers the organization would need to sell at least 203 more plates by that time, to reach the 400 threshold.

Edgar also gave a report on park usage.

“The park usage has been moderate. We’re seeing a lot more with the nice weather,” Edgar said, “whereas ice-fisherman are getting a lot of usage this year. Of course, the edges are melting off now.”

Cabin owner Bob Williams brought a potential issue about some dogs running on Beaver Creek Park to the board’s attention.

“There’s a dog pack out in the Bear Paws,” Williams said. “Out by my cabin.”

He said he has seen three of these dogs, a grey Rottweiler-like dog, a German shepherd-like dog, and a black Labrador retreiver, but he did not see the pack itself.