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Anyone that has visited the Earle May Boat Basin over the last few months will have noticed extensive earthworks and brush clearing, as the city undertook a significant effort to refurbish and redesign the basin’s campground. Now, after months of work and just in time for Memorial Day, the campground has reopened for use.

John Parker, parks and grounds manager for the city, spoke about the project with the Post-Searchlight. One of the most noticeable changes to the campground is how open it has become, after extensive brush clearing. “Before, it was very, very wooded, really thick, you couldn’t see from one campsite to the next,” Parker said. “We’ve opened it all up. It’s still a woods-style campground, like a state park would be, but now it’s a lot more open, you can see other campers, people walking down the trail. It’s a Lott more open and friendly.”

In addition to clearing the brush, the city installed several new camping sites, bringing the number up from 8 to 12, and enlarging all of them. The electrical hook-ups have also been upgraded, from 30 amps to 50. Aside from the individual camp sites, the campground also featured a bathroom, which has since been completely renovated. “We completely remodeled the bathroom, inside and out, new paint, new roof, new partitioning in the middle, new toilets and showers.”

“Our biggest goal was to try to get it open before Memorial Day,” he continued, “we were hoping to get it open before then, but just happenstance, things happen.”

There are still renovations being done around the campground and on the neighboring nature trail. According to Parker, these areas will be set aside for part of the disc golf course being put in place. The city even has plans to install water fountains along the nature trail; these will even include water bowls for dog walkers.

Parker looks forward to the public putting the new facilities to use, saying, “I hope everybody enjoys it, I really do. It’s been an undertaking since we first started it, but once we got it hewed out and cleaned out, it was worth it.”