Editor,
There has been some erroneous information making its way around the county concerning Camp Kidd, the Tucker County Parks and Recreation Commission, and the Big Mountain Run motorcycle rally, and we would like to take this opportunity to present the facts related to the issue.
The Big Mountain Run has been held at Camp Kidd for the past four years, and it has gotten larger each year. The first year was a small group and we looked forward to their return the second year. With each subsequent year, the event grew larger, and some issues related to the size of the group arose. We received complaints from some community members about the quantity of traffic, the noise in the wee hours of the morning, and the congested traffic on road to the camp. After last year’s event, we informed the organizers that we had decided to not rent them the camp for future events due to these concerns.
At our most recent meeting, several representatives from the organizers and representatives of the City of Parsons attended to discuss the possibility of the group once again being able to use Camp Kidd for the Big Mountain Run. After allowing them 45 minutes to provide their side of the issue, they asked us to send them a proposal and they would review it and contact us so that we could come to an agreement where both parties would be satisfied.
Our board discussed all aspects of the event, and after considering the amount of gas, water, sewage, and electric that was used after the last event, we decided to double the rental fee to cover the utilities used, and housekeeping services following the event. We also limited the attendance to 600 during the day, and 300 overnight camping. The group reported they had 600 during the day and 330 at night last year. We asked them to cut their overnight guests by 30 people. We asked that they not have camping on the side of the camp where the sewage drain field and a new building are. These all seemed to be reasonable requests, and we sent the proposal to the group so that the promised dialogue could occur. Instead, the BMR group did not get back in contact with us to discuss the proposal but chose to post a video on the group’s Facebook page stating that we had made it so they would not be able to return to Tucker County for this year’s event. The decisions we made were not made lightly. As of this writing, the group has still not contacted us to discuss the proposal.
They say that no good deed goes unpunished, so apparently, we were just given what some members of the community felt we had earned after all the time and effort our board members have donated to the county.
Sincerely,
Tucker County Parks and Recreation Commission