The Iowa Department of Natural Resources is evicting park rangers from government-owned houses in 23 state parks because it doesn’t want to pay up to $1 million on repairs.
Critics of the plan say if park rangers no longer live in the parks they patrol, park users — more than 16 million people in 2020 — will have to wait longer for help if there’s a boat crash, medical emergency, power outage or a crime.
“It’s a slippery slope when you start depending on other agencies to cover your bases,” said Dave Sunne, who was a ranger and lived in Backbone State Park, near Dundee, for 24 years. “What do you do when the electricity goes out in the middle of the night and there’s no heat in the cabins? You can’t call the sheriff’s department for that. It is disheartening.”
There’s also the question of why the state does not want to invest in wildly popular state parks when there is a $1.24 billion general fund surplus, said Rep. Chuck Isenhart, D-Dubuque, who introduced House File 2255, which would allocate $20 million from the federal American Rescue Plan toward repairs and renovations of buildings in Iowa’s 71 state parks, forests and preserves. The bill, which sets aside $4 million of the total for ranger houses, was referred to the House Natural Resources Committee last week.
“We’ve been living off the sacrifices off previous generations for a while now and we haven’t been making investments in our infrastructure,” Isenhart said. “ Knowing we had these surplus resources, the right thing for the governor to do would be to say it’s OK to give me recommendations on ways to catch up.”
The Iowa DNR did an inventory of the 26 state park houses and determined it would cost $341,000 to get them up to code and another $556,000 for deferred maintenance, such as replacing windows, siding, roofs and heating and air conditioning systems. The agency estimates it would need another $100,000 a year for ongoing maintenance.
State Park Housing Inventory by Gazetteonline on Scribd
Some of the houses were constructed in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps, while others were there when the Iowa DNR acquired the parks.
The houses range in style and condition, but some of the maintenance issues noted by the agency include a pool that needs to be removed from the house at Viking Lake State Park, a “mice problem” at the house in Union Grove State Park, no insulation in the walls at the house at the Lake of Three Fires State Park and mold in the basement of the house at Green Valley State Park.
Lake Macbride State Park, near Solon, has two houses, one built in 1939 that needs $37,500 worth of work and another built in 1957 that needs $48,000 in repairs or updates.
Palisades-Kepler State Park, near Mount Vernon, has a house built in 1940 that needs $18,000 in repairs, the Iowa DNR reported.
A report the agency provided to The Gazette about its plan to ask park staff to move out of the parks says:
“There is no quantifiable customer service benefit from housing. DNR leadership engaged with staff throughout 2021 to reach this conclusion. Parks with and without housing are equivalently safe, supported, and maintained. Additionally, only one-third of Iowa’s state parks have housing. Maintenance is very expensive and competes with public amenities for funding. Therefore, DNR has decided to terminate housing.”
State Park Housing Report by Gazetteonline on Scribd
www.thegazette.com
Critics of the plan say if park rangers no longer live in the parks they patrol, park users — more than 16 million people in 2020 — will have to wait longer for help if there’s a boat crash, medical emergency, power outage or a crime.
“It’s a slippery slope when you start depending on other agencies to cover your bases,” said Dave Sunne, who was a ranger and lived in Backbone State Park, near Dundee, for 24 years. “What do you do when the electricity goes out in the middle of the night and there’s no heat in the cabins? You can’t call the sheriff’s department for that. It is disheartening.”
There’s also the question of why the state does not want to invest in wildly popular state parks when there is a $1.24 billion general fund surplus, said Rep. Chuck Isenhart, D-Dubuque, who introduced House File 2255, which would allocate $20 million from the federal American Rescue Plan toward repairs and renovations of buildings in Iowa’s 71 state parks, forests and preserves. The bill, which sets aside $4 million of the total for ranger houses, was referred to the House Natural Resources Committee last week.
“We’ve been living off the sacrifices off previous generations for a while now and we haven’t been making investments in our infrastructure,” Isenhart said. “ Knowing we had these surplus resources, the right thing for the governor to do would be to say it’s OK to give me recommendations on ways to catch up.”
The Iowa DNR did an inventory of the 26 state park houses and determined it would cost $341,000 to get them up to code and another $556,000 for deferred maintenance, such as replacing windows, siding, roofs and heating and air conditioning systems. The agency estimates it would need another $100,000 a year for ongoing maintenance.
State Park Housing Inventory by Gazetteonline on Scribd
Some of the houses were constructed in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps, while others were there when the Iowa DNR acquired the parks.
The houses range in style and condition, but some of the maintenance issues noted by the agency include a pool that needs to be removed from the house at Viking Lake State Park, a “mice problem” at the house in Union Grove State Park, no insulation in the walls at the house at the Lake of Three Fires State Park and mold in the basement of the house at Green Valley State Park.
Lake Macbride State Park, near Solon, has two houses, one built in 1939 that needs $37,500 worth of work and another built in 1957 that needs $48,000 in repairs or updates.
Palisades-Kepler State Park, near Mount Vernon, has a house built in 1940 that needs $18,000 in repairs, the Iowa DNR reported.
A report the agency provided to The Gazette about its plan to ask park staff to move out of the parks says:
“There is no quantifiable customer service benefit from housing. DNR leadership engaged with staff throughout 2021 to reach this conclusion. Parks with and without housing are equivalently safe, supported, and maintained. Additionally, only one-third of Iowa’s state parks have housing. Maintenance is very expensive and competes with public amenities for funding. Therefore, DNR has decided to terminate housing.”
State Park Housing Report by Gazetteonline on Scribd
Iowa DNR tells park rangers to move out
The Iowa Department of Natural Resources is evicting park rangers and other staff from state-owned houses in 23 state parks because the agency doesn’t want to pay up to $1 million on repairs.
www.thegazette.com
