The Starke County Park Board has fired the manager of the Bass Lake Beach and Campground. The park board voted unanimously Tuesday to terminate the employment of Larry Clarich and give him until the end of the month to move out of the campground.
Board members felt that he had failed to perform up to the standards outlined in his contract. “Why do we pay somebody that is not responsive to the campers?” Kathy Norem asked the rest of the board. “He’s not doing the things that he’s supposed to be doing. I mean, that was a problem before.”
“I agree with that,” added Board Member Rik Ritzler, “and I’ve had to go over a couple times and he’s not been around.”
Clarich had already been stripped of his money handling duties, following a dispute over whether certain campground revenues belonged to the county or the former lessee. A number of campers in attendance Tuesday said Clarich hasn’t been doing much lately, and they’re increasingly having to pitch in themselves. The park board hopes to hire a park superintendent to oversee the entire Starke County park system – and eventually hire a paid staff – at its next regular meeting on September 14.
But that leaves the part-time gate attendants as the only staff going into the Labor Day holiday. Any emergencies would likely have to be handled by individual park board members.
Meanwhile, board members tabled a decision about whether campground users will continue to be allowed to leave their campers on-site during the off-season, but not without a heated debate with the campers lasting over an hour.
“You guys haven’t done anything you said you were going to do so far,” one campground user said. “Nothing. Not one thing has been done. Nothing.”
“Well, you should probably go somewhere else to camp, then,” Norem replied. “If you’re so disappointed and unhappy, you really need to go somewhere else.”
While many members agreed it isn’t practical to force everyone to move their campers every year, Norem worried that leaving them in place could jeopardize the board’s ability to get Land and Water Conservation Fund grants, a major source of project funding for park boards.
County Attorney Marty Lucas stressed that the campground users don’t own their sites. “That property was acquired by the county from the State of Indiana, and the State of Indiana acquired that property with funds from the Land and Water Conservation Fund,” Lucas explained, “and one of the requirements of the Land and Water Conservation Fund is that it be for public outdoor recreation, and it’s against the rules to privatize spaces within a Land and Water Conservation area. Now, that being said, I will say that it does happen to some extent, so this isn’t unprecedented that there’s some degree of this sort of thing.”
But board members also felt that if campers are allowed to be stored during the winter, there should be an additional fee beyond the seasonal charge. The idea of raising the seasonal charge wasn’t out of the question, either. In any case, board members hoped that the future park superintendent will be able to help guide the dialogue.
