South Dakota Takes Heat for Campground Upgrades

South Dakota State Park officials are busily building upgrades into the popular Custer State Park. Included in the remodel--pumping electricity to 300 RV campsites, and construction of new "camping cabins" for the non-RV set. But the state is taking plenty of flack for their trouble: Local RV park owners are squealing that their businesses will be hurt by what they perceive as a horning in on their turf.

In an article published in the Rapid City Journal, local KOA manager Josh Daiss complained, "The value of our campgrounds will essentially go down if we're losing business to the state." Daiss and other area park owners are lobbying to get a reduction in their property taxes to compensate for what they project will be losses in customer revenues.

But members of the public are skeptical. In a reader’s response section, a majority of those writing in say the private park owners are calamity howlers. One wrote, "For these private campground owners that claim to be hurt by this, have they looked at their own campgrounds? Who wants to camp there where every slot is right on top of each other and you can't have a campfire in most...plus you pay an outrageous fee to camp in that!"

Another writes, "To the private-owner whiners-get over it! I'm truly sick of your whining and complaining and your always standing in the way of any improvements at all to publicly-owned facilities. You are the ones always banging the drums for and championing the free market, well, let it work in this case! If people like what you have to offer,they'll stay at your facilities and if they don't, whose fault is that? No one forces people to stay at Custer State Park facilities, they make that choice themselves."

Whether you view this as progress or regression, either way, its an ongoing story. Check out the whole story in the Rapid City Journal.