Clean up day prepares Hooper Park for busy summer, additional improvements

Hooper Park officially opened for the season Saturday, as a crew of about 15 volunteers spent the day raking,hauling pine needles, cleaning, sprucing up the campsites and helping plant trees.

Improvements at the park got underway recently, with additional projects slated for later this summer.

With COVID-19 restrictions being lifted around the country, the park is already seeing quite bit of use. The new skatepark is busy and Little League teams began playing for the first time in more than a decade.They are expecting to see a further uptick in visitors and events throughout the summer.

"We expect to be real busy this year," Lincoln Park Board President Nyle Howsmon said. "If you want to rent that pavilion, you better get your name in to me. There are quite a few people renting it already."

Improvements at the park got underway last week with the extension of water and power lines from the new restroom south, across the campground road, to campsite 18, the new camp host site.

Howsmon said they moved the host site to a spot among the trees at the suggestion of returning camp host Richard Flor, who explained the original site saw very little shade throughout the summer.

The extension also allowed Howsmon to install another portable water spigot near the road to allow visitors to fill the water tanks on the campers without either blocking the main road in front of the restrooms or pulling into the handicapped parking space to fill up.

The Lewis and Clark County Commission had previously declared May 15 as Arbor Day in Lincoln, and several members of county staff were on hand to plant the new trees.

Ann McCauley, the county grant coordinator, pulled together $1500 for the new trees using a $300 Arbor Day Foundation grant and additional $1200 provided by the Montana Department of Natural Resources. She oversaw the planting, ensuring the small oak trees were properly planted and staked for the best chance of survival, with help from Assistant Public Works Director Audra Zacherl, County Finance Coordinator Misty Edwards, Lincoln Park Board member Victor Johnson and Flor.

"They're slow growing and they'll be really big, majestic trees," McCauley said.

Johnson said the trees were chosen because they are native to Montana, are drought resistant and have a good chance at survival, if they're well-watered for a couple years, and if the deer can be kept away from them.

After the Pine Beetle infestation in the late 2000's killed many of the Ponderosa and Lodgepole pines in Hooper Park, several areas were left open, which should provide ample space for the new trees as they grow.

"They will eventually get 80-feet high and 80-feet in width," Johnson said "They all have a nice empty hole they can fill in, without duking it out with the Ponderosas."

In an interesting footnote, McCauley said Karen Chadwick of Chadwicks Nursery, where the county got the oak trees, told her that in her college days she had lived for a time in the historic Matt King House, which is now being reconstructed just west of Lincoln School.

The area around the skatepark should see the most notable changes this year. Lewis and Clark County recently received a grant of up to $8000 from the American Academy of Dermatology to construct a shade structure near the skatepark this summer.

McCauley said the exact location of the permanent 9-foot by 12-foot structure hasn't been determined yet, but she expects it to be on the south side of the skatepark.

"It's going to give people the opportunity to have a place to hang out and relax out of the sun," she said.

This year the AAD awarded grants for shade structures to 20 schools and non-profits around the country to help protect kids and adolescents from the sun.

The area around the skate park should see additional improvements later this year as the county moves ahead with plans to slightly relocate the west entrance to Hooper Park to provide room for a new parking area.

Since the skatepark opened, parking has been an issue, with visitors parking along 9th street, along the entrance road to the park or in the area between the two roads. The situation has caused concerns about access to the park by campers and damage to the roadsides along 9th street.

"We met with the Road and Bridge Supervisor Kevin Horne and he gave the park board some direction on re-aligning that west side road, moving it further south and making that whole triangle a parking area," Edwards said.

She said visitors will come in on the new road and either make a left-hand turn into the skatepark parking area or head right into the park.

Edwards said the new road won't be a hard 90 degree turn off 9th, but will enter at an angle that RVs and large trailers will be able to negotiate.

They hope to have it finished by the end of the summer. "The problem is finding the materials to do it, and the contractor to do it, because it's kind of a busy time of year." She said the park board will get in touch with two local contractors to bid on the project.

The cost of the project will come out of the county parks budget.

Howsmon also commented that they are looking for at least one more person to fill a seat on the park board.