Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
The grass is frosted, the trails are stiff, the signs are cold. But activity continues at County Parks and for its board of directors.
In a meeting Dec. 8 at the Public Service building in Colfax, the board convened for their final meeting of 2011.
Items on the agenda included exploration of a new Kamiak Butte Trail, a five-year comprehensive parks plan and a budget update.
The afternoon meeting started with directors gathering at a table in the Public Service Building kitchen.
Ranger Todd Heitstuman of Kamiak Butte reported on a letter received from a woman complaining about rock cairns, which are small stacks of rocks used as markers, deemed less intrusive than signs.
The letter noted that the cairns had glue showing. ‘Couldn’t they have found a better color,’ was one of the comments. The color happened to be as natural to the rocks as could be, said Heitstuman. Discussion followed about why the cairns were glued and Heitstuman reported that some rock cairns appeared to be torn down by visitors while others built more on their own.
“It started a rock cairn war on Kamiak Butte,” he said.
The cairns were built last summer to mark a diverted trail. Since the complaint, the glued cairns were dismantled and re-stacked without glue. Heitstuman has then re-stacked the new rock cairns twice, as they’ve been tipped over. The most recent time, the rocks were scattered as if deliberately.
County Parks Director Tim Myers noted that the word “wilderness” comes from the Norse words for “Place of the Wild Beast,” before addressing the next item on the agenda.
He said that the county balanced its budget and the Parks’ operating total of $206,000 hasn’t changed.
“There was a time in the last few months where it didn’t look very good,” Myers said.
The new Kamiak Trail, which is in the preliminary planning stage, was discussed next.
Myers said it needs to be at park standards if advertised as a county park trail.
The trail is slated to cover about two miles, on the north side of the butte, which would connect to the existing trail system.
“Two-thirds of it is basically done,” said board member Doug Flansburg, referring to mapping the route. Included in what remains to be done is to decide where the trail’s switchbacks will be. Once the final route is decided, the construction phase will include removing brush, grubbing – taking out the roots of brush on the trail – and installing water bars to resist erosion.
The next step was to set a time for available board members to walk the area. They decided on a slot for Monday. The trail’s construction is expected to be more than a year away.
“We’re going to have to make a lot of cairns for this new trail,” said Steve Ullrich with a smile, the board’s secretary.
As for the County Parks’ comprehensive plan for the next five years, Myers talked about ways to conduct a survey. Since cell phones have cut into the reliability of phone number listings, Myers said they can use county tax records to get names and addresses. However, these records would not include renters.
The board wants to get a random sample of somewhere around a thousand residents as survey respondents.
A second part of the survey would be an in-park questionnaire.
“Do we need more bathrooms, more trash receptacles, more benches?” said Myers of the survey’s aim.
“More rock cairns,” said Chairman Dan Leonard.
Myers concluded that they would like to have the survey complete by next spring.
Ranger Dave Mahan then gave a report from Klemgard and Wawawai parks. He reported on leaf pickup with volunteers and Boy Scouts, service work on vehicles and his planning work with the Army Corps of Engineers for the past year and for next year. Wawawai is on land leased from the Corps.
Mahan also noted that Inland Power and Light came out to Klemgard Park and removed a dead locust tree which Mahan cut it into firewood. The tree was the fourth one removed at the park this year. In November 2010, branches torn from the trees damaged the caretaker’s residence.
Heitstuman reported on pruning at Kamiak. He has just acquired a plow-mount for the Dodge truck.
“I’m ready to plow snow,” he said.
County Parks Program Coordinator Janel Goebel reported that calls were coming in for shelter reservations for next year’s parks season. However, reservations are not taken until the first week of January.
The parks remain open through the winter.
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
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