SALIX, Iowa (KCAU) — After being closed for two months of construction, a Siouxland park is open again.
More than half of Bigelow Park’s 29 campsites are operational for the summer and more improvements are coming soon. The campground has been redesigned with larger campsites as well as working water and sewage.
A park employee told KCAU campers came to Bigelow Park as early as 8 a.m. to enjoy the outdoors.
Jason Mercer comes to the park to fish at Brown’s Lake. He said he is thankful for the new amenities.
“It’s always good, especially for families,” he said. “I mean families don’t want to come to a park that’s not kept up, so it means a lot.”
Enjoying the park is not possible if the road to get there is unsafe.
Dan Heissel is the director of the Woodbury County Conservation Board. He said implementing a new concrete road throughout the park was crucial and the county has more upgrades planned later this year.
“Not only is the campground close to completion, we’re getting closer to our beach house and the beach,” Heissel said. “That, unfortunately, is going to eek on into the summer because of the supply issue. We’ve got stuff that we can’t get to finish the building.”
Heissel said some problems are out of the county’s control. The water level at brown’s lake is less than three inches away from its shallowest depth in recorded history. Heissel said low water is a frustrating dilemma for lakes throughout Siouxland.
“You got Blue Lake to the south. You’ve got Spirit Lake, up at the lakes is down,” he said. “It’s the groundwater level. Until we get back into a normal cycle of rain, there’s nothing we can do to help this lake get any higher.”
Heissel said Brown’s Lake dropped by three inches last week and the 600-acre lake would need will millions of gallons of water to get the water level back to normal.