Hill County Park Board discusses cattle, fire ban and new vehicle

The Hill County Park Board held its monthly meeting Monday to discuss park usage and other issues about Beaver Creek Park including the ongoing fire ban and what to do with extra funds.

Beaver Creek Park Superintendent Chad Edgar said, due to a busy summer, he found the park had an extra $30,000 that they could use to add something to the budget.

Edgar made a request to the board to use that extra money to purchase a new truck for the park so employees can respond to more than one situation at a time, or respond to situations that may require more than one vehicle.

He said this is a practical use of the money and one that will help increase safety and efficiency in the park.

“I would like to have an extra patrol truck, eventually with a radio in it, if we ever needed it for emergency purposes like with the fires,” he said. “ … It makes sense to have two vehicles.”

Edgar said a lot of the equipment in the park is getting old and he thinks this new vehicle is a reasonable request.

“Honestly, I don’t think it’s too much to ask for a new vehicle every now and then,” he said.

Edgar said he would work to make sure the cost stays as low as possible, but the funds they have should be enough to get a reliable vehicle.

His request was approved unanimously.

A member of the audience who did not identify themselves, raised concerns that the vehicle was too expensive, and that two people should not be patrolling because it would necessitate another full-time employee.

“Utilize what you’ve got,” they said.

Edgar said they wouldn’t necessarily need a new employee for the vehicle to be useful and another patroller would be of use to the park’s operation.

Edgar also provided an update on park usage and said it has slowed a bit due to the campfire ban.

He said Labor Day saw an uptick in people using the park, but usage was moderate for a holiday weekend. However, he said it has remained a busy summer overall and many people are still camping.

Edgar said conditions in the park are getting better as it relates to fires, but the park is still very dry.

Hill County Commissioner Diane McLean said the commission will be discussing the campfire ban during their upcoming fire call and asked for Edgar’s opinion on the matter.

Edgar, and multiple members of the board, said they highly recommend that the ban stay in place.

Edgar also said the park, as of Sept. 8, is hosting 1,848 pairs of cattle and the park has put up all of its signs warning people to be careful and reduce their speed along the road to avoid hitting them.

He also said most of the salt licks have been put out for the cattle, though some of the ones planned for more remote areas of the park still need to be installed.

After the meeting Edgar confirmed that a group of cattle got on the park the weekend before they were meant to after fence near the border of the park was compromised due to a fallen tree, but they were removed shortly after.

“Fences aren’t bulletproof,” he said.

Edgar said employees of the park are also finishing up their ash clean up while the campfire ban is ongoing.

He said there was a fire on the park near Rotary Pond recently, but it was knocked down within 30 minutes and extinguished shortly afterwards. He said the circumstances of the fire are suspicious as there were many items indicative of human activity on the site of the fire, but he can’t say with any certainty what the cause was.

Edgar also provided an update on the system the park recently put in place to try to address people not following the rules and leaving campsites for more than 48 hours by leaving stickers on campers to indicate that the place had been checked.

The idea is that if the sticker is still there after 48 hours, the site had been left for longer than that by its occupants.

Edgar said the system appears to be working very well so far. He said keeping a record of the stickers does involve more work, but it hasn’t overloaded him.

He also provided an update on the frisbee golf baskets being installed on the park.

Edgar said the insert pipes for the baskets have been installed, and they were able to put up the baskets for Labor Day, albeit with no scheduled tee off times.

“They look great, they look brand new,” he said. “ … It’s a great amenity for the park”

He said by spring they’ll be a fully integrated part of the park, but for now they’ve been taken down so the cattle don’t damage them.

Edgar also briefly discussed the cross fence that the grazing committee has proposed putting up in the park to prevent overgrazing of certain areas by cattle and consequently avoiding environmental damage.

The fence has been a matter of concern on the part of cabin owners in the park and at the board’s last meeting it was decided the Grazing Committee would look at alternate locations for the fence.

Edgar said the committee would be meeting next month to talk about the issue but didn’t have any updates at the moment.

Audience member Lou Hagener said he’d looked at three possible alternate locations on his own time that the committee could use as a jumping off point for the discussion.

The board also discussed data collection being done on five Hill County Conservation Districts in the park, and Hagener provided general observations on them as well.

“We have a really wide range of effects that have occurred up there from the fire, from the herbicide treatments and from surface disturbance activities,” he said. “Some places the aspens are doing really well, other places not so well.”

Edgar’s assitant, Aubrey Williams, said presentation of this data should be made in November so the totality of the data, some of which will still be being collected at the end of October, can be observed in a meeting separate from the monthly meeting.

Hagener also suggested that the board consider trying to find a larger venue for meetings in the winter months, as the Timmons Room in the Hill County Courthouse, where such meeting are normally held, is somewhat small, especially when members of the public are trying to attend in larger numbers.

Board Chair Tony Reum said the board would take that idea under advisement and consider the matter further.