We commend county commissioners and parks officials for making a very wise move in securing the right to operate the Clear Lake resort. We also commend the Santiam Fish and Game Association for allowing it to happen.
As we reported last week, the association, which has operated the facility on the lake’s shore for more than 80 years, decided earlier this year to give it up.
Association members, who have essentially volunteered for decades in the operation and maintenance of the store, cabins and docks at the lake, finally admitted they were getting too old and too few to keep it up to the standards they expected.
They could have sold the operation for a lot more to any number of eager buyers. A beautiful, peaceful, crystal-clear mountain lake open only to rowboats and filled with trout, 16 cabins – both rustic and modern, a store and a homey little restaurant make up a package that any vacation specialist would have a ball selling to city folks eager to get away from it all. Problem is, only rich city folks could probably have afforded it.
But, as association Secretary Tamara Hamilton told The New Era, it wasn’t about money.
It was about preserving Clear Lake for what it is and has been for decades – a nice, peaceful place that just about anyone can afford to visit. And that’s why the association decided that it wanted a public agency to take it over: To preserve it for the public.
What a refreshing attitude in a day when, increasingly, public access to much of the beauty of the outdoors is being cut off by gates and “No Trespassing” signs. Private ownership is a hallmark of the American Way, but these days it means you’d better have a good map or GPS system with you when you venture near the woods.
The timing of this deal wasn’t perfect for the county, which is already involved in improving and installing some other parks facilities and is planning a regional park on 175 acres it purchased last summer near the intersection of I-5 and Highway 34. We’re told parks officials have gotten a flurry of calls questioning the wisdom of laying out more money for another parks facility.
Anyone questioning this one isn’t thinking past the immediate. It would have been pure idiocy for the county to pass on Clear Lake. The resort has historical significance and puts a capstone on the parks system, most of which is clustered on the west end of the county.
It will pay for itself and it’s an excellent investment in the entire parks system of Linn County.