Starke County Park Board Considers Splitting Up Bass Lake Beach and Campground Operations

Posted on December 14, 2017
Author Michael Gallenberger, WKVI

Potential changes to the Bass Lake Beach and campground’s operations were discussed by the Starke County Park Board Tuesday. Operator Callahan Development, LLC plans to extend its lease with the county through April of 2028. But the company said it’s willing to consider turning over the less profitable areas of the facility back to the county, while it would continue to run the campground and pier slots.

The challenge, according to Starke County Attorney Marty Lucas, is coming up with an arrangement that benefits everyone. “I mean, the benefit to Callahan is that they get rid of managing parts of the operation that they’re not really that interested because they’re not profitable,” Lucas explained. “The benefit for the public is that the public wants to have a beach and a park there that’s a little more freely accessible ,and Callahan gets the benefit that maybe that makes the rentals there more valuable, right? Because it’s a more appealing property.”

Lucas felt that by running the beach itself, Starke County could open up the facility to potential grant funding, and also attract some volunteers. “If you had a situation where the park board was operating the beach portion, I think that volunteerism would be easier to get than it is if Callahan’s running it,” he said. “I mean most people don’t want to volunteer to help out – they might love McDonald’s, right? McDonald’s may be a great place to get a sandwich, but they don’t go volunteer for McDonald’s because it’s a private operation. So the idea is to kind of balance those things.”

Meanwhile, local resident Rick Anderson suggested seeing if someone may be interested in leasing the beach house separately and operating food service there, then using the responses to work out some sort of arrangement with Callahan. Park board members liked the general idea.

As a next step, the park board wants to seek input from the public on the idea of separate entities operating the beach house, food service, or the beach itself. But board members decided to run the idea by Callahan, before issuing any request for proposals.