Dunleavy administration fails to take responsibility for closing key Fairbanks campground
One of the clearest failures of state and city governments in Fairbanks this summer—and one of the easiest to correct—can be found along the east side of University Avenue at the Chena River State Recreation Site.
With 60 campsites, 29 acres, 30 picnic sites, picnic shelters and more, it’s one of the best parks and campgrounds in Alaska. Or it should be.
The campground has been “closed permanently” by the Dunleavy administration, along with the rehabbed boat ramp, which features an immaculate parking lot because there is no traffic.
The fault for abandoning the site rests with Gov. Mike Dunleavy, legislators who didn’t question his budget plan and city and borough officials who failed to call out this mismanagement.
The News-Miner, the Chamber of Commerce, Explore Alaska and the Fairbanks Economic Development Corp. should be raising hell about this.
A big part of the problem is the tiny parks staff and the refusal by Dunleavy and legislators to put a priority on services such as campgrounds, waysides, roadside outhouses, etc.
Every candidate for governor and the state Legislature should be asked about reopening the Chena River site and preserving the state investment in a facility that should serve thousands of residents and tourists every summer. This is too important for the community to lose.
The site includes new facilities and a newly paved boat launch, all inaccessible to the public because the Dunleavy administration says it can’t manage the property with the staffing level it has assigned to parks in the Fairbanks area.
In addition to the new boat launch, there is a burned log building at the rec site, evidence of the vandalism problem the state says is beyond its ability to deal with.
KUAC-FM reported on the closure in early June, with Ian Thomas, regional park superintendent, saying the lack of staff and funding makes it impossible to open the site and that crime is a persistent problem.
The site is within the city limits of Fairbanks, meaning Fairbanks City Police are responsible for the area.
Thomas told KUAC the state doesn’t think there is a “way forward” with state management. “There’s not much we can do,” Thomas told the Daily News-Miner.
That’s not good enough. There is a way forward. It requires leadership from the state, city and borough.
There are a few signs of people at the campground. I saw one tent there Thursday, as well as a few shopping carts and piles of trash. The campground is in good condition overall and the state is collecting nothing from the $30-a-night campsites at a place the visitor sign calls an “RV camper’s dream.”
Closing the campground makes me wonder if the state’s master plan is to turn the property into some other use, allowing it to fall into disrepair and then claiming that another use is justified because the site is in disrepair.
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The burned management building at the Chena River State Recreation Site in Fairbanks. The Dunleavy administration has closed the site permanently. I think this building was for the “park host.”
The University Avenue boat launch, now inaccessible to the public, has also been closed by the Dunleavy administration. The parking lot is immaculate because there is no traffic.
The campsites are empty at the Chena River Recreation Site and the state is not collecting $30 a night.