- November 17, 2024
-
-
Loading
Loading
The RV campsites at Bull Creek Campground have gotten more expensive — a measure designed in part to break the monopoly of a group of campers who book the park solid each winter — but the county is willing to offer a slight compromise.
Prices for campsites at Bull Creek jumped in January when the county eliminated monthly rates that had been $280 per month June-November and $540 per month December-May, while keeping weekly rates that are much higher for the equivalent amount of time: $150/week June-November ($600 for a four-week stay), and $220/week December-May ($880 for a four-week stay).
But the County Commission at a Monday, March 2 workshop voiced its approval of a plan devised by staff to offer campers a “preferred monthly rate” of $660, booked through staff and offered for one month only.
The reasons for the rate change, and new measures designed to prevent long-term camping, aren’t exclusively financial: Despite a roughly 40% annual occupancy rate, General Services Director Heidi Petito said, the campground has broken even or made money every year. But county staff worry that long-term campers — in particular, out-of-staters who come in for crappie-fishing season in January and book the park’s 25 RV spots solid for several months — prevent other tourists and residents from enjoying the park.
“You’ve got a group of 25 people that effectively shut out everyone else,” she said.
Bull Creek tends to be sleepy except in the winter months, when lines of boat-hauling trucks and SUVs delivering fanatic crappie fishermen to the campground’s boat launch can stretch more than half a mile down County Road 2006.
“We have essentially four months to make the most revenue,” County Administrator Craig Coffey said.
But the campers booking for that time frame have tended to choose the lower monthly rates — taking up space that might otherwise go to short-term campers paying more on the weekly rates — stay for several months in a row, and go to extreme measures to ensure they get their spot.
“Typically what happens is on Jan. 1” — when reservations for the following January open — “We’ve got people that have camped out at our office from 6 a.m., and you’ve got a particular individual that notifies her group of core friends and literally they push the cars out of the parking lot without starting the cars because they don’t want to alarm the other campers that they’re leaving to get in line,” Petito said. “They hand out numbers to one-another so that the RV spots are already take before we even show up at the office.”
The revised rates, Petito said, were devised after comparison with neighboring sites and would prevent long-term campers from monopolizing the park while ensuring that it continues to cover its $70,000 annual operating cost. Commissioner George Hanns suggested the county look at acquiring more land for camping.
The county cut 25 camping spots from the formerly 50-spot park during renovations after it bought the site in 2007 for $1.8 million.
