Bass Lake Beach Gazebo Repaired, Planning Continues for Other Improvements

Posted on November 17, 2016
Author Michael Gallenberger, WKVI

Upgrades are continuing at the Bass Lake Beach and Campground. Assistant Manager Larry Clarich told the Starke County Park Board Tuesday that repairs to the gazebo are basically complete.

He said that the roof is on and the structure is secure, but painting still needs to be done. Clarich also reported that water at the beach and campground will be shut off for the season on Sunday.

However, just because the facility is closing for the season doesn’t mean that planning for improvements should stop, according to park board member Debbie Mix. “There’s a lot of issues there and if we don’t talk about those issues, they’re not going to be addressed,” she said. “Once we say something needs to get fixed, they have 30 days to address it. If we just wait until it opens up again, we’ve lost all those months and I don’t want to see that happen. We’ve been here almost two years now.”

Clarich says he does have a list of improvements he’d like to make at the beach and campground. “Maybe my suggestions of the things that I want to do don’t coincide with things that you guys want to do,” he said. “But it all comes down to money and time, regardless of how things get done, but there are things that I’d like to do over the winter. One of the biggest downfalls is over the winter we have no water down there because the place wasn’t designed to have water. It was designed as a summer campground and beach.”

To discuss those improvements, Clarich invited the park board to conduct a walk-through of the Bass Lake Beach and Campground. Board members requested that County Building Inspector Terry Stephenson also be present.

Tuesday’s discussion of the beach and campground came in response to a letter sent to the park board by a group of residents. It calls on the board not to renew the current operator’s lease of the facility and goes on to suggest ways the county could fund improvements, according to Mix. But board member Rosemary Rose pointed out that while some people think the county should get out of the lease, others appear to be happy with the improvements being made at the site.