Oak Harbor’s RV park on Beeskma Drive is closing for about two and half years, likely beginning in late April.
City Engineer Joe Stowell said the park will be completely dismantled in order to become a dumping site for an estimated 40,000 cubic yards of dirt to be removed from the location of the future sewage treatment plant on the northern edge of Windjammer Park.
After years of work, city officials expect to break ground this spring on the giant and costly treatment plant.
The good news for RVers, however, is that Staysail RV Park will likely be rebuilt bigger and better after the sewer plant is completed, Mayor Scott Dudley said.
“I want to see what we can do to expand it,” he said. “It’s an important money maker for the general fund.”
But some people have concerns. Councilman Jim Campbell and his wife have traveled the entire lower 48 in their RV. He pointed out that the seaside RV park is very popular and some people come every summer. He worries that it will be difficult to lure people back after the RV park reopens.
In addition, the park is home to several people, including Navy personnel, who live in RVs.
Rebecca Letendre said she lives in an RV at the park with her husband, Robert Letendre, who’s active duty Navy. She said she’s disappointed that they’ll have to leave.
“It’s nice,” she said. “It’s quiet and everything is in walking distance.”
Still, Campbell said the antiquated electrical system — and to some extent the sewage system — needs to be updated, which will likely happen when the park is rebuilt.
“There is a small silver lining,” he said.
Financial benefits of closing the park are persuasive. Stowell said the city looked into hauling the dirt from the treatment plant project to the city shop on the north end of the city; they estimated that piling the dirt in the RV park, which is adjacent to the project, would save an estimated $1.6 million.
Much of the dirt will be trucked back to the treatment plant site to raise it above the floodplain, Stowell said.
Stowell said that the RV park generates about $129,000 a year in gross revenues for the city’s general fund. Since that money won’t be coming in for 30 months, the sewage treatment plant project will compensate the general fund for the loss of $322,000. Most if not all of that money will come from the city’s ratepayer-funded sewage utility fund.
The future of the RV park is not cut in stone, but that it definitely needs upgrades, Stowell said.
City Administrator Larry Cort is working on a master plan which will help define the future of Windjammer Park and the RV park.
“This could be a catalyst for change,” Stowell said.
Dudley said he’s committed to not only rebuilding the park at its current site, but also in expanding and improving it. Currently there are 56 full hook-up sites for RVs and 23 tent sites.
Beyond the closing of the RV park, there will be times during construction when access to Windjammer Park will be limited, Stowell said.
The city will make every effort to minimize the disruptions, but the main access from City Beach Street will be closed at times, he said.
