Our State Park Bureaucracy
I’m going up to Stanwoodopolis tonight to listen to our state park folks tell us commoners why they closed down the Cama Beach cabins half a year ago and what their plans for this park’s future are. A lot of folks volunteered time and money for this park and I’m betting they’re coming with questions and pitchforks. The Wooden Boat Foundation closed down its operation there and the ranger, Jeff Wheeler, was unceremoniously booted out too. Jeff was much beloved by us islanders, a hands-on, all around good guy. Maybe tonight they’ll tell us why he was sacked. But I doubt it.
In 1949 we islanders built Camano State Park, about 1000 people who showed up with tractors and dozers, shovels and saws, all volunteers who cleared the road and set up the beginnings of our only state park. Cama Beach was donated by the Hamalaanens and Worthingtons, some 600 acres or more along with the old resort cabins and the boat house. Once again volunteers helped repair the cabins, open up and manage the store, clear trails, make quilts for every cabin, drive the shuttles, a lot of those jobs state parks claims not to have the money for.
So for months state parks has kept mum about why they closed the park. Rumors flew. Indian bones, broken septic, damaged seawall, fire suppression breakdown in the boathouse. Guess they didn’t figure we needed any solid explanations. Now they have this meeting, basically to explain to us peasants why they won’t be reopening our park but of course to get ‘public input’. I suspect they will get plenty of public input tonight. Then they’ll go back to Olympia and do what they wanted in the first place. Always nice to see volunteerism rewarded….
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Tags: Cama Beach Closure, State Parks Commission, Volunteerism Wasted