NEW SURVEY OF NC CAMPERS SHOWS NC STATE PARKS MANAGEMENT NEEDS TO CHANGE!
KERR LAKE PARK WATCH, founded in 2010, is about three main things
1) Improving the parks & public facilities around Kerr Lake.
2) Protecting the natural resources for the future & and for future users
3) Promoting the parks to get better and increased usage & service for the visiting, touring, & camping public, building a larger constituency.
We don’t care which political party is in control. We really don’t care who is in charge, just someone we can work with and who will respond. We seek an open, transparent, honest interaction with the direct park leaders, and their bosses, whether they are in Raleigh, Richmond or Wilmington.
We are recognized and listed as a stakeholder in all things Kerr Lake by the US Army Corps of Engineers.
Like the public who uses the seven NC State Recreation Areas, we have seen in recent years a growing non-responsive, non-public involvement, dictatorial management style in both the local operations of the NC SRA’s and the Division of State Parks leadership.
Phone calls and emails are rarely answered, and if they are, they usually cite ambiguous rules, or are so fluffy with no real answers, that they are purely laughable.
Yes, we are zealous in our desire for more campsites, greater improvements, bathhouses that don’t cost nearly a million dollars, more and better electric sites. But campers and park users of Kimball Point, County Line, Bullocksville, Satterwhite Point, Nutbush, Hibernia and Henderson Point, are tired of the malarkey and empty promises. They are writing, they are calling and joining us the get answers and better response from NC State Parks. View the survey for yourself the response from over 100 concerned, taxpayers, voters and park users.
The Division of Parks & Recreation historically has been a “give us what you want agency, we won’t make waves agency.” And Kerr Lake on the North Carolina side has suffered because of that.
And what about the transient constituency? That’s you. You come to Kerr Lake, you complain about issues, then you go home and forget about it.
Well, not so fast! Park users and campers are complaining, and this time, some of them are putting their grievances in writing.
To that end, a few days ago, Kerr Lake Park Watch put up a simple, five question survey. With over 100 respondents in a 48-hour period, there is resounding documentation that NC SRA users want to see change from local SRA management all the way to the top of the Division of State Parks.
The game is afoot.