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CARETAKER COMMENTS Our Masonic Park has been in existence for over seventy-five years and some of our brothers may not have a full understanding of what it takes to keep the Park in operation, both financially and labor wise. Financially, the basic operating budget is over sixty thousand dollars per year. The following information given may provide a better understanding of some of the Parks annual operating expenses. Please note that the following figures are only rough estimates. Salaries $18,000, Utilities $20,000, Maintenance & Repair $10,000, Supplies $12,000. To these figures, we have to add the administrative costs of county property taxes, state business taxes and let's not forget the federal taxes and the costly insurance that we must have. All of these expenses combined sum up to over one hundred thousand dollars per year. These expenditures far exceed our income gathered from gate fees, reservations and donations, which amount to approximately $30,000 per year. The income that the Park receives from investments does not cover the gap and every year we are forced to dip into our principle. Labor wise, we have a similar situation. The caretakers are responsible for the care and maintenance of the entire Park. The following are just some of those responsibilities; If the power lines are down due to storms, the caretakers repair them, not the local PUD. If the roads are washed out, the caretakers repair them, not DOT. Our water system must be maintained to the standards of the health department, with samples submitted on a regular basis for evaluation. Any leaks or broken water lines to be replaced or improvements to be made are also repaired by the caretakers. These responsibilities are of course in addition to the regular maintenance of the Park, such as the cleaning and maintenance to each of the restrooms, mowing, tree trimming, brush cutting and maintenance of individual campsites. As you can see, this is truly a full time job and as I mentioned in the beginning, without the volunteers that have assisted us in all facets of the work that needed to be done we could not make it. With the assistance and hard work of you volunteers we have had shelters rebuilt, ditches dug, sites cleaned, trash hauled, wood cut, brush cut, culverts rebuilt and roads rebuilt. THANKS AGAIN! At this time, we have the new Caretakers' home on site. It should be ready by the first of the month and we are actively looking for a couple to fill the vacancy. Finally, we would like to remind you of the annual Open Air Degree to be held at the Park on August 1st at 9:00 a.m. MANAGERS
REPORT March for a change has been a rather
uneventful month so far. The heavy snow on the first weekend was
over 14 inches and for the first time since I have been at the park
when we made our initial drive thru there were no trees across any
of the roads, no power lines down, and the water system was
unaffected. On March 3rd Ed had rotator
cup surgery on his right shoulder, he is doing well but he is on
very limited duty for a while, he is improving daily and the hardest
part will be convincing him to take it slow and let it heal
correctly. I have been approached by another group a
spin off of SCA called the Empire of Medieval Pursuits (EMP) about
holding an event at the park on the Weekend of May
9th
They estimate between 50-100
people. My recommendation would be to let them reserve the big
kitchen and the four other shelters in the main area for that
weekend. The only other reservation we currently have for
that weekend is from Alpha Lodge for the Jobie
shelter. Finally I would like to propose that we
schedule our first woodcutting party for Saturday June
6th I think this will give us enough time to get the word
out and get us a good
turnout. February 2009
By: Fred Turner, Park Manager
As spring approaches and we are preparing for
another camping season I'd like
to take a moment to reflect on the damages we suffered during the fall and winter. The heavy rains of early November did severe damage to our road system washing out the roads at the head of the ponds and the high water of Canyon Creek back flowed to wash out the road to the Maple Grove area. The high water flow also over ran the weirs between the ponds.
MANAGERS REPORT
January 2009
By: Fred Turner, Park Manager
Park business matters edited out for this publication As usual the weather during December and January has created considerable damage to the park. The heavy snow during December broke down several trees and in turn took out several power lines. Our power and water systems were out of service from December 16th until January 9th. During this period we had extremely cold weather as low as three degrees above zero. Then the second round of floods hit.This past couple of weeks we have been able to remove the trees blocking the major roads and restore the power throughout the park. The water system is also operating again. The heavy flooding created a lake in the open air area and washed out the roads at both ends of the ponds, as well as the road around the swimming hole we have rebuilt the crossing at the head of the ponds and installed a second 24" culvert to assist in better water flow. The lower three culverts remained intact. However, the center one plugged with debris causing a whirlpool effect and washed out around the culverts. We should have this area repaired within the next week. The heavy snow also caused structural damage to our shop, the north portion where we store our mowers and other equipment collapsed due to the heavy wet load. The awning on the front of Ann's trailer was also a casualty.
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