Finally got a reservation at Champoeg state park here in Oregon. Two loops in this park. B loop open year round. A loop closed 10/31 to march. I am told drainage field for dump station & sewer is in need of repairs so NO dump at that facility. I see 3 rigs camping in closed A loop including one camp host. I see several rigs hooked up to sewer right next to signs saying not to. I am told by camp host it is a lack of funding of new dump drain field that caused dump station closure. In part due to toilot chemicals killing off the old enzymes. The reserve america site shows A loop as closed. The stats show A loop could be generating weekend revenue if it were not closed. What am I missing here? I ended up beinging two tanks of gray/black water home to dump somewhere today. Place state referred me to was backed up big time.

I love state parks but have to remember they aren't profit motivated so if they miss out on a few bucks, no big deal?

A loop is the original loop and deep in trees. High winds could bring down all sorts of unwanted stuff. Close it in the winter to prevent RV damage. B loop is in the open, thus little chance of tree damage. There is a limited number of host sites, so if the park has some over winter hosts they put them where there is an open host site.

Call, email and write to Oregon State Parks. It does no good to tell us.

Problem is that many public campgrounds, even popular ones, operate at a loss. Closing them saves money.

Hi guys. First the reason for ALL CAPS is so I can more easily find my post as I am legally blind. Secone, I have written OSP and only got automated response. Someone said OSP is a not for profit. I agree. However, they are telling me no money to rebuild drain fields. They are turning away money by not officially opening A loop. Only open to some. How does that work? No one adressed the folks hooking up to sewer. Appears they are playing favorites. What am I missing here/

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bpounds
Nomad
Dec 17, 2018
Oasisbob wrote:
Finally got a reservation at Champoeg state park here in Oregon. Two loops in this park. B loop open year round. A loop closed 10/31 to march. I am told drainage field for dump station & sewer is in need of repairs so NO dump at that facility. I see 3 rigs camping in closed A loop including one camp host. I see several rigs hooked up to sewer right next to signs saying not to. I am told by camp host it is a lack of funding of new dump drain field that caused dump station closure. In part due to toilot chemicals killing off the old enzymes. The reserve america site shows A loop as closed. The stats show A loop could be generating weekend revenue if it were not closed. What am I missing here? I ended up beinging two tanks of gray/black water home to dump somewhere today. Place state referred me to was backed up big time.

I see this all the time. Forest Service campgrounds with no hookups, but I get there and the host is hooked up to water and sewer. Hey Man! That ain't fair, dude!

If you stop and think about it a little, letting the host and perhaps a couple of other employees use the sewer is a lot different than opening up the entire loop to customers. They said it needs maintenance or repair, but that doesn't mean it cannot handle a handful of rigs. As far as the lack of maintenance, that's just government at work, doing what they do best, as little as possible using as much resource as they can justify.
rhagfo
Explorer III
Dec 08, 2018
Oasisbob wrote:
This is inter4esting and educational. It was my understanding Oregon state parks were funded by lottery dollars as well as camping fee's? If it is funded exclusively by camping fee's seems it would be prudent to keep parks open longer in the season. Perhaps open earlier. The stats from camp site occupancy would prove this point. Yet they close, or partly close, end of October. Seems the bottom line here is OSP will do what they want to do, bending the rules for some.

OPRD has three major funding sources, User Fees, Lottery dollars, and 60% of RV registration fees. The OPRD budget is public record and easily found on their WEB site.

This is a Link to the current budget, there is a pie chart of revenue sources on page 81.
Oasisbob
Explorer
Dec 07, 2018
This is inter4esting and educational. It was my understanding Oregon state parks were funded by lottery dollars as well as camping fee's? If it is funded exclusively by camping fee's seems it would be prudent to keep parks open longer in the season. Perhaps open earlier. The stats from camp site occupancy would prove this point. Yet they close, or partly close, end of October. Seems the bottom line here is OSP will do what they want to do, bending the rules for some.
time2roll
Nomad
Dec 05, 2018
With no superfund of tax money everyone has to wait for the fees to accumulate. Just hoping the rest can keep working until this is repaired. Probably a stack of improvements and needed maintenance already on the wait list.

So just find an alternative place to dump. RV holding tanks are made for this. Make an extra donation to the parks while you are there visiting. Seems like we have lost our sense of community participation to help make things right. Instead we just blast away how the government is run so poorly and needs to take care of us like money is infinite.
rhagfo
Explorer III
Dec 05, 2018
ktmrfs wrote:
Oasisbob wrote:
If this was a private park I would just write a review and move on. This park is funded by our tax dollars and needs to be run more responsively. I have wrote OSP and as of today no human response. Perhaps a local news station would run a story? Any suggestions?

I am sure as an Oregonian you know the Park system receives no tax money and it is supported by user fees, Oregon Lottery profits, donations and volunteers. champoeg is no exception.

Our son works for state parks and agrees, the campgrounds are fully supported by user fees etc. and they recieve no state tax dollars. One reason the fees are higher than in some other states.

The three main sources of revenue for OPRD are user fees, lottery dollars, and 60% of RV registration fees.
shelbyfv
Explorer
Dec 05, 2018
Oasisbob wrote:
I have wrote OSP and as of today no human response. Perhaps a local news station would run a story? Any suggestions?
I suggest you get a better understanding of the funding before you go on TV.
ktmrfs
Explorer II
Dec 05, 2018
Oasisbob wrote:
If this was a private park I would just write a review and move on. This park is funded by our tax dollars and needs to be run more responsively. I have wrote OSP and as of today no human response. Perhaps a local news station would run a story? Any suggestions?

I am sure as an Oregonian you know the Park system receives no tax money and it is supported by user fees, Oregon Lottery profits, donations and volunteers. champoeg is no exception.

Our son works for state parks and agrees, the campgrounds are fully supported by user fees etc. and they recieve no state tax dollars. One reason the fees are higher than in some other states.
Oasisbob
Explorer
Dec 05, 2018
If this was a private park I would just write a review and move on. This park is funded by our tax dollars and needs to be run more responsively. I have wrote OSP and as of today no human response. Perhaps a local news station would run a story? Any suggestions?
rhagfo
Explorer III
Dec 04, 2018
RedRollingRoadblock wrote:
I hosted there in Nov. and Dec a few years ago, so policies may have changed.

When I was there A loop was opened up on as needed. If reservations were getting close to full they would open it up. Some spots might be closed for maintenance, flooded sites or other issues. They would encourage campers to move into B loop after it cleared out but they didn't force the issue if the camper wanted to stay in that spot.

There was two hosts in each loop with FHU and 10 or so FHU in B loop.

Since the ranger booth is only open limited hours during the winter and there is no spaces in B Loop open simply ask the on duty host and they can contact a ranger and likely let you into A. While I was there I made the executive decision a couple of times to let a camper into A, contacted the ranger and was told to open the loop up.

I don't think anyone was out to inconvenience you by not having the dump station open.

I am sure as an Oregonian you know the Park system receives no tax money and it is supported by user fees, Oregon Lottery profits, donations and volunteers. I'm sure that the dump station will be repaired soon but those things take time. It could be a large problem if the drain field is shot

Oasisbob, I will ask you once again to post your question to THIS LINK.

If you went to the park last weekend 11/30 to 12/2 that is also when Park Host change out, so the park could have incoming host and host that have not left yet.

Please also understand that as Wa8yxm posted while the drain field may be failing, it could still be able to support a couple host.

DW and I host at a closed park during the winter, we have a full hookup, but all that we dump is held in a large storage tank before treatment until they start up the onsite treatment system in March.

In addition as RedRollingRoadblock pointed out OPRD is not supported by the general fund, they have a fairly stable budget, but also a lot of parks. Replacing a sewage system for a park the size of Champoeg is a bit costly and takes a bit to get all the permits.

Russ
Mountain_Mama
Explorer
Dec 04, 2018
We stayed at a COE Park over Thanksgiving that showed the other section closed but we saw several campers in that area so we ask the gate attendant about it. He said with it being Thanksgivng the reserved section was full so they allowed camping in that area. Didn't ask but we presumed it was just like a "walk up" section. On recreation.gov it showed closed and one couldn’t make reservations. The dump in our section wasn’t working so we had to use the one in the "closed"section.

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