By Joshua Bassett
After a heavy amount of activity for the annual “spring fling” event and mud left on the road by vehicles, the Mettawee Off Road Extreme Park is closed until further notice.
Owner Ralph Jameson said he fully intends to re-open the park and run the “spring fling” event again next year, but has closed the park until he can make some changes.
“We’re very concerned about mud on the roads and safety,” said Jameson.
Jameson detailed those changes, saying that he intends to install a fence all around the entrance side of the park and a ticket booth at both entrances.
This will serve to let drivers and other people who enter the park know that they have to clean their vehicles before they leave, which will lower the amount of mud that gets on the road.
“We plan to prevent people from getting mud on the road and stop people from going back on the road if they have been drinking,” Jameson said.
There was an accident Sunday afternoon involving a teen drinking and driving. Jameson said he spoke to a few people who said that people at the park tried to get the teen to not go back on the road, but were unsuccessful.
“They only thing we sell here is soda, water and food,” Jameson said, adding that if people come in with beer or alcohol, they didn’t buy it at the park and must have brought it in themselves.
According to Jameson, a vehicle ran over the spout which supplies the water, lowering the water pressure and making it difficult to wash vehicles. One of his changes he plans is fixing the station where vehicles are cleaned.
He said he plans to change the 12-foot by 80-foot cleaning station by adding a wall of sprayers and “footers”, along with personnel to make sure that the vehicles are cleaned. There will also be a small reservoir that will cycle the used water so that it is the same water cleaning the vehicles every time instead of always using fresh water.
Jameson said that there was not much mud on the roads after the event and that he went out with his own sweeper over the weekend of April 24-26.
Matt Hicks, Granville town supervisor, said that he did not know the exact amount of mud left on the road but said that it was enough that a resident of Whitehall called the village of Whitehall DPW. A county crew came out to clean up the road.
Jameson said he was out there at 10 a.m. the same morning trying to help clean up the road, which still does have slight discoloration from mud. He said he helped them clean up and that he “went all the way down past Washburn Road after [the] county crew left.”
Local residents have also complained about the park being noisy and Jameson said that there is a quiet hour in place agreed upon with the town, beginning at 9 p.m. When asked how it was enforced, Jameson said there was really no way of enforcing it, but the majority of people were very good about following it.
Local resident Jennifer Powell who lives near the park and others have started a petition to get more regulations in the town of Granville.
“It’s an issue of safety and an issue of noise,” Powell said.
Powell said that she has small children and is concerned for their safety after seeing a few vehicles drive by her house at high speeds and that she can hear the noise from the park at her home.
There were also reports of people blocking the road with traffic and Jameson said that only three cars really blocked the road by parking well over the white line on the side of the road and were towed away.
Jameson said he has 141 campsites which are registered with New York State and that he has 60 hours a year of camping time which starts the minute the state Department of Environmental Conservation shows up and lasts until they leave. He added that he’s not using that as an excuse to not comply with the town. Jameson said that they only occupied about 65 campsites for the weekend and did not use all of the 60 hours and there is no other camping at the park throughout the year other than at “spring fling.” He said that the park supplies running water and wash water.
Jameson also feels that the town is personally targeting him for being the only public campground in the area, and Hicks said it would apply to any public campground in the area if new ones were to open.
Jameson said the town wants to charge him $200 per campsite, which Hicks said is a one-time fee and Jameson would only have to keep up with laws regarding water, septic and parking.
The town of Granville has local laws and article 2.0-3 defines what is considered a public campground in the town:
“Any parcel of land where two or more recreational cabins, tent sites, shelters, Travel Trailer sites or other accommodations of a design or character suitable for recreational living on a seasonal or other transient basis have been developed and provided for fee to the general public or for recreational, educational, fraternal, religious, social or business related use of a business or organization.”
Jameson said that he does not feel he should have to pay the fee because he only has camping on his property once a year.
“It doesn’t matter if it’s one event a year or 200 a year,” said Hicks adding, “We find that fee to be reasonable.”