Patricia Rengifo
Hamburg Reporter

This summer season will see a slew of workers at Waubonsie State Park and its WaShawtee addition.

On May 8 the State of Iowa will open bids for the extensive road project.

“This should have been in last year,” Park Manager Kevin Thorne explained. The first plan wasted too much of the Loess soil, he said.

“The first plan called for 10,000 cubic yards of waste. Instead of using that, we went back and the new plan is something much more manageable,” he said.

There will be two new roads built, and roads with slopes that are too steep will be closed.

First, a paved two-way road connection will be built from Waubonsie’s lower picnic area to the WaShawtee addition. This will pass through a ravine where the original entrance into Waubonsie was located, allowing park visitors to go from one area of the park to the other without having to get on the highway.

Another new road will connect the lower picnic area in Waubonsie to the future family cabins on “Ridge One.” The other will join the road on the end of the Waubonsie campground to the camper cabins on “Ridge Two.”

These two roads will terminate at the ridge tops and will not connect into the WaShawtee valley, as the current gravel roads do, because of the steep slope. All of these will be paved two-way roads.

A portion of the entrance road will be a two-way concrete surface. The remainder of the through road will be one way with upgraded rock surfacing. In addition, several new parking areas will be created.

A cabin renovation project will be let for bids in June; however, it will not be completed until next year. The family-style cabins will feature multiple rooms, a fireplace and indoor restroom facilities.

Currently two camping cabins are already renovated and ready for rental. Thorne said these cabins are slightly different from the others because there is no running water inside of the cabin. Campers can use nearby restroom facilities or walk to the nearby shower facility at the tent camping area of Waubonsie.

“These are the biggest camping cabins in the state,” Thorne said. “One sleeps 10 and one sleeps four.”

When the cabin project is complete, work will move on to Lane Lodge.

Work on the dining hall and pool are in the last portion of the plans and will depend on the funds available.

Thorne said once work starts, that portion of the park will be unavailable to the public and will not be reopened until halloween.

In 2006, the Iowa Natural Resource Commission allotted $400,000 for improvements at the park and $1,515,000 for the necessary road work.