Community keeps parks open

BIG LAKE -- Big Lake's state parks were among nine in the Mat-Su area slated to close this summer due to budget cuts. Neighbors had a different idea.

Instead of letting the parks on Big Lake's north and south shore and at Rocky Lake be locked up and abandoned to graffiti and garbage, a group of Big Lake residents, headed up by Patty Acton, have spent the summer maintaining the facilities and, along the way, building a sense of community.

"We want everyone to know -- the parks in Big Lake are open," Acton said.

Acton lives less than a 10-minute drive from the northshore park, and she and her family have long enjoyed Jet Skiing and boating on the lake.

"We went down one evening and put our boat in the water," Acton said. "When we came back late … everybody had left the park, and it was a mess."

Acton said she and her husband realized that June night that summer solstice and Fourth of July were just around the corner, and the park would only deteriorate further during the summer.

"We needed to do something," Acton said. She talked to her employer, Big Lake Food Mart, to see if they could donate some garbage bags, and so began a community-wide effort that now includes hanging baskets donated by a local greenhouse, garbage pickup donated by Valley Refuse and garbage bags, toilet paper, gas for volunteer vehicles and money given by dozens of individuals and local businesses. Neighbors mow and weedwhack the parks and provide free firewood, and the Big Lake Chamber of Commerce recently had the toilets pumped.

And visitors and campers seem to agree -- the efforts are succeeding.

"I think they're doing a really good job," said David Dennis, an Anchorage resident who was camping at the northshore campground earlier this week with his family. "And it's a big job, just to keep the garbage picked up and the bathrooms going. And there's free firewood."

Even on a rainy weekday morning, several tent camps and numerous RVs occupied the park. Hanging baskets hung from the eves of the outhouses, not a single piece of garbage was spotted outside of the refuse containers overflowing with bags, and a sign read "Welcome campers."

And the coffee was hot at Acton's camp.

"We practically live down there," Acton said. "It's become a little social center of Big Lake." Her family has set up a camp in one of the pavilions with pots and pans hanging from the posts, a few tables and chairs gathered around the campfire and tents on the nearby grass. She said there's always food and coffee on, and at times on weekend evenings the temporary camp gathers dozens of Big Lake residents and visitors from around the world. Children and teen-agers play at the water's edge while the adults talk around the campfire.

"This has been really cool -- we've all got teen-agers and everyone of them has been under our thumbs this entire summer," Acton said. Between cleaning the parks during the day and camping out at night, Acton said a family atmosphere has developed.

Acton and the other volunteers are careful to not label themselves as the campground hosts because of liability concerns, but she said they are simply there if someone needs something or if some garbage needs to be picked up.

In the evenings, Acton sometimes gets the children from around the park, including out-of-town campers, to help with garbage duty via a four-wheeler and trailer. When none of the locals can be on hand to keep an eye on the place, Acton said they talk to some of the campers and ask them to be in charge. If people are getting out of hand, ask them to cool it. If it seems like a dangerous situation, call 911. So far, it's worked, Acton said. Campers even go around the park and water the hanging flower baskets.

"This is our park, and we have to police it ourselves," she said.

It is possible funding could come through for the state parks in the Big Lake area and around the Valley during the next budget cycle, but Acton doesn't necessarily see this summer's efforts as a temporary fix.

"It's just been a really good thing," she said. "I'd like to see this happen for the long run."

Acton said she cannot even imagine what the parks would look like if they had remained abandoned, but instead this summer they have become an example of the power of community and family.

Acton described one longtime Big Lake camper standing on the shore one weekend when the Jet Skis and motorboats were crowded in and the beach was overflowing with people. He turned to Acton and said, "Patty -- look at this. This is the happiest place in Alaska today."

Acton recalled someone telling her the other day that she deserves an award for spearheading the project.

"This is my reward, right here, every night," she said as she stood next to the campfire with a cup of coffee in her hands. "What else could I want?"

While Acton may be satisfied with the outcome, parks officials say they are still hoping the parks will be funded sometime in the future. Incoming Mat-Su Superintendent Dennis Heikes said he does not want to diminish the community's efforts, and he said similar cooperation has taken place in the Lake Louise area.

"That's fine … but that's not everything in terms of managing these parks," Heikes said. He said there would eventually be long-term maintenance issues that the community might not have the resources to address. There are currently no user fees for the parks to help offset those costs.

But Acton seems confident the community enthusiasm is only building and whatever hurdles come along they will find some way to clear them.

"I think I could call people in the area and get the supplies and get it done through donations," Acton said.

Acton admits the concept might not work for parks in more remote areas that lack the community resources, and those parks are just as important, she said. But here in the Big Lake area, she said, she thinks what they're doing is working just fine.

"We've had the best summer of our lives," she said.