SALEM, Mo. (AP) - On the day that Echo Bluff State Park opened last month, Christal Ard stood at the entrance of the full-service restaurant inside the new stone-and-timber lodge, wearing a trim uniform and greeting guests who wanted to look at the menu for the first time.
The park - Missouri’s 88th - offers other amenities, too, including a 20-room lodge, nine cabins and 62 campsites with hook-ups.
In fact, Echo Bluff is the first Missouri state park ever to debut with overnight accommodations and the first new lodge at any Missouri state park in a quarter century, according to state officials.
“We have parks that are primitive campsites,” Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon told The Joplin Globe (https://bit.ly/2b90W1i ). “We want to provide opportunities for families that might not appreciate those sites but might enjoy natural beauty in something like this.”
And all of that - the lodge and restaurant and the fact that the park will be open year-round - is crucial for Ard.
As a resident of the nearby community of Eminence in Shannon County, she said she has seen seasonal jobs come and go; Echo Bluff provides a stable job that she said will help support her family, which includes seven kids.
“(The park) provides a beautiful place for people to come and enjoy, plus it employs me for this job,” Ard said. “It’s not easy finding a job. There are a lot of closed-down businesses during the winter time because we are a tourist town.”
“I wanted to be done” bouncing from job to job, Ard said.
Nixon, in a speech on July 30 dedicating the newest park, said locals such as Ard are among those who are reaping the benefits following the state’s acquisition of 476 acres along Sinking Creek, a tributary of the Current River, which is part of Ozark National Scenic Riverways.
Echo Bluff includes what was once known as Camp Zoe, a summer camp that attracted thousands of children beginning 85 years ago. It later became the home of an event known as Schwagstock, a set of outdoor Grateful Dead-inspired music festivals. The land was confiscated by the federal government after owner Jimmy Tebeau was convicted for “maintaining a drug-involved premises” and sentenced to 30 months in federal prison.
The seizure paved the way for the site’s acquisition in an open bid by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, which oversees the state park system. The state bought the original 330 acres for $640,000 and later acquired adjoining land.
In all, the state invested $52 million in the park, including the land, according to DNR.
Proponents of the parks point out that the money spent to build them is returned many times over through tourism. According the DNR, the state park system attracts more than 19 million visitors annually, and a 2012 economic impact study estimated that total annual expenditures of state park visitors the previous year were $778 million. The overall economic impact of the parks is estimated at more than $1 billion in sales as well as providing a $307 million in wages. The study also concluded that state parks and historic sites support 14,535 jobs.
That economic argument is one park supporters will be pushing in the coming months, as Missourians are asked to renew a one-tenth of 1 percent parks and soils tax. That vote will be on the ballot in November.
The sales tax, which was created by constitutional amendment, was first approved in 1984, then again in 1988, 1996 and 2006, and now it is up for a 10-year renewal. In 2006, 71 percent of voters endorsed it.
Last fiscal year (July 1, 2015, to June 30, 2016), the tax pulled in $92 million. Half of that is dedicated to Missouri state parks; the other half goes to soil and water conservation. The tax is what keeps Missouri parks free of entry fees, and it is used for operating budgets. It makes up 75 percent of the budget for state parks and historic sites.
Though 19.2 million people visited Missouri State Parks in 2015, support for DNR hasn’t been unanimous. When the land in Shannon County was acquired by the state for Echo Bluff State Park, some residents pushed back, including Dale Counts, a Shannon County commissioner whose district includes the park. He said people in the area - him included - were not happy with the agency.
“I’m not hip on someone coming in and taking your property,” Counts said, expressing opposition to the way the legal process played out, making a philosophical argument that government agencies shouldn’t be confiscating private property.
Shannon County is already home to tens of thousands of federally owned acres as part of either the Mark Twain National Forest or Ozark National Scenic Riverways, part of the National Park Service. It also is home to tens of thousands of acres of land owned and managed by the Missouri Department of Conservation.
Some of the money for the new state park came from the sales tax; some came from a settlement the state reached with Ameren UE, a St. Louis-based energy company, after the dam at its Taum Sauk reservoir ruptured nearly a decade ago; and some came from an appropriation that lawmakers made a couple years ago out of general revenue for capital improvement projects.
Echo Bluff wasn’t DNR’s only recent controversial purchase, either. The state also used lead mining (ASARCO) settlement money to buy up 2,500 acres last fall in nearby Oregon County for a future state park.
Legislators this spring tried to force the state to sell back the land, with bills filed by Republican state Rep. Rob Ross. Ross did not return telephone calls. The legislation did not address Echo Bluff State Park in Shannon County, which was already under construction. Republican state Rep. Jeff Pogue, who represents the area where Echo Bluff is located, also has been a critic, but he also did not respond to the Globe’s requests for comment.
The legislators’ complaints included that the acquisitions for both new parks took place “under a shroud of secrecy” and that the state already has a backlog of park and historic site projects awaiting funding.
Oregon County commissioners also came out strongly against the park in their area, saying it would reduce property taxes, which fund area schools. However, state law allows counties to be compensated with payments in lieu of taxes for five years while the park builds a following.
Oregon County, like Shannon County, also has large tracts of federal land. Critics also argued that the proposed Oregon County park is nowhere near the area that was damaged by the lead mining in Southeast Missouri and that the money from the ASARCO settlement should have been spent in the victimized area.
However, Sarah Parker Pauley, DNR director, told lawmakers that the state could not only spend the money to restore damaged areas but also could buy and protect land elsewhere to offset damages done in that lead belt.
The legislation that would have forced DNR to sell back the land along the Eleven Point River ultimately failed, though condemnation of DNR rang in hearing rooms and Capitol chambers this spring. There was concern that some of this criticism would undermine support for the tax when it came up for a vote in the fall.
But other lawmakers have remained strong supporters of the tax, including Republican state Sen. Doug Libla, who represents Shannon and adjacent counties.
Libla said the counties he represents are among the poorest in the state, and he welcomes any economic development or investment. Libla said the dissenters in the Legislature aren’t opposed to the park system but rather the process.
“They were upset because they felt like they weren’t given an opportunity to weigh in,” Libla said. “They feel like state parks are important but you never know what the underlying reasons are.”
Pauley also noted in an interview with the Globe that once parks are built, local residents, who have begun experiencing economic growth and employment, usually are happy with the investment.
“I’ve heard the grumbles growing quieter and quieter,” Pauley said.
Counts, the Shannon County commissioner, was one of those residents. While staring at the intricate woodwork ceiling of the new lodge, he said the park has exceeded all of his expectations.
“I wasn’t on board to start with it, but now we are making the best of it,” Counts said.
He said he also understands the economic impact parks have on nearby communities and noted that he knew of one trucking company in Eminence that got its start hauling loads for the new park. He also said that while he knows the sales tax is necessary for the parks, there are people in his district who won’t warm to its renewal.
“People will just say, ’We ain’t voting for no tax,’” Counts said.
Gary Fakes, a Webster Groves resident who was staying at his own cabin at nearby Current River State Park for the summer, said he views the park tax differently.
“I’m not a big tax guy, but I like the way they have it segregated,” Fakes said, referring to it being a dedicated tax. “I feel like you have the money going where it’s supposed to go. I would support it as long as it doesn’t go to the general revenue fund and gets siphoned off.”
But Republican state Sen. David Sater, holds the opposite view, saying he wished legislators had more control of how the tax money is spent. However, he said he will still vote for the tax come November.
Roaring River State Park near Cassville is one of the most popular parks in the state system, drawing more than a half million visitors a year, and Sater noted that the income and tourism the park generates are good for the economy.
During the dedication at Echo Bluff, Nixon also addressed the question of the backlog at existing park and historic states, which the Missouri Parks Association, an advocacy organization that supports the parks, recently put at $400 million.
Nixon said the state is not just investing in new parks but also in existing ones. He added that he has put $69 million through general revenue and bond issues into upgrading parks since taking office in 2009.
That includes $1.3 million spent last winter to renovate the old WPA/CCC lodge that was built during the Great Depression at Roaring River State Park, said Kerry Hays, natural resources manager. The lodge reopened this spring. The park also will start working on replacing a bathhouse in the campgrounds in September.
According to Bill Bryan, director of state parks, future plans for Big Sugar Creek State Park near Pineville call for acquisition of additional creek frontage for the development of canoe rentals, picnic shelters and potential campgrounds, which will increase park usage and demand for more services, although more than half of the 2,000-acre park will be managed as a state “wild area” to remain undeveloped.
Back in Eminence, Ard said she will vote for the tax, even though she runs her family on a tight budget. Her husband was recently injured while cutting wood. A tree fell on his side, cracking four ribs and four vertebrae and causing internal bleeding.
Ard said she would have had to pick up the work that hurt her husband to make ends meet. The job at the park offered her a safe way out. She said the money she would spend because of the tax is worth keeping the parks open.
“I absolutely love it here,” Ard said. “It’s an amazing place, and everyone here is amazing to work with,” Ard said.
“(My husband) is trying to get on here, too,” Ard said.
“On April 9, 1917, the state park fund was officially created (in Missouri), using revenue from the fish and game department. With the fund established, the fish and game department became responsible for the parks once they were acquired.
“In 1923, the state acquired the historic Arrow Rock Tavern, and 1924, the first state park tracts were secured. On Oct. 17, 1924, Big Spring State Park became the first Missouri state park. That park, Alley Spring State Park and Round Spring State Park later were recognized as being nationally significant and became part of the National Park Service’s Ozark National Scenic Riverways.”
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Information from: The Joplin (Mo.) Globe, https://www.joplinglobe.com
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