Missouri State Parks personnel gathered at the Emory Melton Inn on June 6 to update the public on an extensive list of projects completed, plus those still in progress, at Roaring River State Park.
Assistant Park Manager Forrest Brumm said completed projects include the renovation of the Honeymoon Cabin, the removal of the swimming pool, the installation of new playground equipment near the CCC shelter, the installation of electric vehicle (EV) chargers and repairs to roofs of existing structures throughout the park.
Installed by park staff, the new playground equipment was a gift from the Cassville Community Foundation with a grant of $35,000.
Six EV chargers – four slow and two fast – have been installed in the parking lot of the Emory Melton Inn and Conference Center.
A continuing project, Interim Park Superintendent Mike Busekrus said, is improvements to Campground 3, where full hook-ups are being installed.
“If the weather holds, we’ll be pouring new concrete soon,” he said.
Busekrus indicated that the project is on schedule, and, if all goes well, should be completed this year.
Campground 2 is also scheduled for upcoming improvements.
“We want to raise a few of the sites up in that campground to improve the drainage,” Busekrus said.
In other drainage matters, Ozarks Regional Deputy Director Carl Bonnell said wastewater improvements in the park are ongoing.
“We want to use ARPA funds — designated for infrastructure — for improvements to lift stations and wastewater management while the funds are still available,” Bonnell said.
Bonnell said that window of opportunity will be closing soon.
In other waste matters, a recycling program will soon be deployed to handle the park’s aluminum waste. The program will include a first-of-its-kind baler, plus a trailer to haul recyclables to their destination. That destination is, as of yet, undecided.
“The money generated from aluminum sales will go back into the recycling program,” said Carrie Byron, park ranger. who took credit for procuring the $18k recycling grant from Southwest Missouri Solid Waste District N.
Byron recently stepped into the ranger position from her previous role as assistant park manager.
Longtime park administrative specialist, Elise Buchman, who died unexpectedly on June 4, 2023, was also instrumental in securing the recycling grant.
The new aluminum recycling equipment will besituatedinCampground 1, and is expected to be deployed soon.
Another welcome addition to the park is the installation of state-of-theart storm sirens, which will give both audible and visual warnings. The sirens are the result of a grant written by Barry County Emergency Management director, David Compton.
Another order of business, the rerouting of the Fire Tower Trail, will change the course of the popular hiking trail so that the head will be near the equestrian area and no longer cross F Highway.
“With so many electric vehicles on the road now, the highway crossing is becoming more dangerous,” Busekrus said. “EVS are quieter, and hikers sometimes can’t hear them coming around the corner before they step into the road.”
In other updates, Ecologist Murphy Kendoll announced that a 620acre prescribed burn had been completed, as well as 8.6 acres of glade restoration.
Both Bonnell and Busekrus offered high praise to the Americorps, crews who have been helping with those projects.
“Those guys are hard-hitting,” Bonnell said. “They helped us with work we couldn’t do on our own.”
“The Americorps program is sort of a replacement for the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) that did so much work in the park during the 1930s,” Busekrus said. “Roaring River hosted two different categories of Americorps crews: a group of ten 18-24-yearolds who worked for 13 weeks, and two groups of five 20-30-year-olds, who worked for ten days each.”
Another asset to Roaring River State Park is its new partnership with Arc of The Ozarks. The collaboration, coordinated by Exeter Public Schools Instructor Lisa Duncan – who calls it her “dream job” — offers area high school students the opportunity to participate in park projects. The students were instrumental in helping with storm clean-up, Bonnell said.
For families who register for the popular, outdoor-skills-focused Wonders of Wildlife school, hosted annually by Roaring River State Park in October, Bonnell announced that scholarships for campsites at the park are now available through the Eric Lee Hahn Memorial Scholarship Endowment.
KISS Rebreathers Diver Eric Lee Hahn lost his life on Oct. 14, 2022, at age 27, in Roaring River Spring Cave. As a member of the KISS team, Hahn and his fellow divers made monthly, weekend explorations of the cave for research purposes from May 2021 through October 2022. The Eric Lee Hahn Memorial Scholarship was established by his parents, Gordon and Linda Hahn, of Charlottesville, Va.
“Eric grew up with a passion to learn about anything and everything, including outdoor adventure and exploration,” Linda Hahn said.
Hahn would have turned 29 on July 3.
Donations to the scholarship fundcanbemadeat: https://cfozarks.fcsuite. com/erp/donate/create/ fund?funit_id=10702.
For others who would like to memorialize a loved one, Amanda Cope, state park employee, said memorial picnic tables are available for $1,500, and memorial grills for $500, each sponsorship renewable in 10 years.
Work is also planned for Roaring River Hatchery, where leaking dissolved oxygen lines were costing the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) about $200 a day in lost oxygen, hatchery manager Brad Farwell estimates.
“The underground copper lines have been in place since 2008,” Farwell said.
As a temporary fix, the oxygen lines have been placed above ground, until new replacement poly lines (similar to gas lines) will be placed underground.
“We plan to install them within the next three months at a cost of about $250,000,” Farwell said.
