Open house on Beaver Lodge levy set for Sept. 4

Beaver Creek Park’s Beaver Lodge will be holding an open house from 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 4, for people interested in learning about a three-mill levy that will be on this year’s general election ballot, one that will pay for the structure’s replacement.

The Hill County Park Board was initially planning to pay for major renovations and upgrades at the current lodge, which has seen significant deterioration over the years, but after being denied a grant that would have paid for much of these upgrades and the revelation that the project would be much more expensive than anticipated, they opted instead to try to replace it.

Board member Ursula Brese, also a member of Friends of Beaver Creek Park, an organization that raises money to pay for various projects on the park, including the lodge upgrades, said when it became clear how much the project would actually cost it became evident to her that the current lodge was becoming something of a money hole.

”I look at it as an old car, that nickels and dimes the county to death,” Brese said.

The levy in question would last for 15 years and be for three mills, costing county residents the equivalent of $4.05 per year on a property worth $100,000.

Hill County Commissioner Diane McLean said this morning that she expects that if the project is completed sooner than 15 years, the levy would end.

Brese said that, in the last month, she’s only had one person respond negatively to the idea of the levy, so she is confident that it will pass, but she said people looking for more information on the levy, the state of the lodge or anything else about the project should come to the open house to learn more, and see first hand the issues they are talking about at the lodge.

“I’m thinking positive,” she said.

Brese’s organization, for most of the past year fundraising for the lodge, initially hoped to offset the cost of the repairs and upgrades as much as possible, but since the Hill County Commission approved the levy to go on the ballot they’ve been considering a realignment of the use of the funds.

As for the current lodge, local architect Becki Miller of 3 Point Architects, who worked on designs for the lodge upgrade before the shift toward replacing it, said in a writeup about the structure’s condition the lodge was constructed back in 1975, and was a great addition to the Kiwanis Camp as it allowed for a large meeting and dining area.

Unfortunately, the document says, the logs used to construct the wall are inadequate to support the load from the roof beams, thus causing movement in the log walls.

The long-term design solution was to reduce the load on the walls by adding columns under each end of the roof beams, which would require putting in new concrete footings under each column and securing the new columns to the existing beams, the document says.

It adds that there are other issues at the lodge as well, including rotten logs due to moisture and cracks between the logs due to the aforementioned movement.

As for possible improvements to the new lodge, Brese said she’s talked with Edgar who wants the new structure to be insulated so it can be used all year round, which will help pay back the cost of replacing the structure to the county, which he believes can be done with a new lodge.