Alex Paul
Terry Watkins, working with Linn County Parks crew members, were making quick work last week punching roads into the new Riverbend Campground near Cascadia.
Watkins was cutting roadways to grade with an excavater and a dozer, loading Linn county trucks with spoils.
“We’ll be nearly done by the end of the month and six weeks till we’re finished with pit run and three-quarter minus rock over the top,” said supervisor Richard Frick. “Eventually, the roads and probably all of the trails, will be asphalted.”
Frick said there is approximately 8,000 feet of roadway in the new campground expected to open next summer.
Brian Carroll, Linn County Parks director, said the first phase of the campground will include 45 spurs but the plan is to increase that number to 90 in three to four years.
The first phase will include a restroom and a shower/restroom, plus two vault toilets.
There will also be one large picnic shelter.
“We hope to eventually add some smaller shelters so group camping units can cluster together,” Carroll said.
The replanted site was donated to Linn County Parks by the Northwest Area Foundation (Hill Family interests) some four to five years ago. The new trees are growing well and are six to seven feet tall.
As soon as bids are received for the roadway rocking portion of the project, Frick said it will be layed down.
“There won’t be any camping this year because we still have a lot of work to do and it’s right during our busiest time of the year anyway,” Frick said. “We still need to finish the roads, run the utilities and build restrooms and shelter houses.”
Although the Linn County Parks crew has completed several restrooms throughout the county system, time factors may result in that portion of the project being let to bid.
Total cost of the Riverbend project is estimated at $1.8 million with grants covering $650,000 of that.
“We will be going after more grant money as the project moves forward,” Brian Carroll said. “We’re a cash poor county in terms of the parks, but we have talented staff and we can use their work as a match for the grant money applications.”