Most primitive camping at Twin Forks ending

BEAR CREEK - The Bear Creek Town Council has taken action to restructure the purpose and use of the primitive campsites at Twin Forks Campgrounds after police have responded to a series of vandalism incidents and misuse of the campground bathhouse area.
Bear Creek Police Chief Eddie Collins approached Mayor Rob Taylor and town council members at their August 20, meeting about the issue.
“In recent seasons, we have noticed a rise in property damage, noise complaints, instances of loitering,” Collins spoke out. “The result of maintenance and enforcement costs far exceed the revenues these sites generate.
Collins recommended the council take action to change the primitive sites over to usage only by Boy Scouts, Cub Scouts, church groups or other organizations with a code of conduct that would take care of the sites and not abuse their privilege.
“I am not trying to say we don’t allow tent camping,” said Collins. “What I am saying is we need to restrict those to a regular, normal camp site.  This year alone, my officers have found people sleeping in the bathhouses, unplugging hand dryers and putting their phone chargers in, eating in the bathhouses because they don’t have electricity.”
Collins told the mayor and council that primitive campers have been not only sleeping and charging their phones in the bathhouses, but peeling paint off the walls and, “literally loitering in the bathhouse when they are supposed to be at the campsite,” he said.
“It has caused us a great concern,” Collins emphasized. 
Taylor added that these campers are taking mattresses into the bathhouse.
“About 90 percent of the complaints we have had are coming from the primitive area,” the mayor stated.
“We had numerous complaints that (campers) couldn’t go in there and take a shower because you have five girls sitting in the bathroom floor eating cheese and they left a whole lot of wrappers and stuff laying on the floor,” Taylor pointed out.
“Those are not children either. They are grown-ups,” Twin Forks Campgrounds Manager Melissa Taylor noted.
“Why would you want to go into the bathroom and sit and eat?” council member Eric Mills asked.
“For the lights,” Mayor Taylor responded.
“I would rather sit in the dark,” Mills responded. “I am not eating in the bathroom.”
“When they peeled the paint off the wall, that was it for me,” Collins stated.
“We’re not making enough money to fix what they are tearing up,” Collins added. “We are not generating enough to fix what they are damaging.”
Melissa stated she could not even walk in the bathhouse without having to step over a person sitting in the floor.
“Then I had an older lady that was trying to get in there and they wouldn’t move out of her way,” Melissa informed. “They are hooping and hollering in there, slamming doors.”
“It’s a nuisance to a lot of other campers,”  stressed Mayor Taylor. “It’s time to do something about it before it gets worse.
“I don’t want to lose a lot of our monthly folks because of something like that,” the mayor added. 
Collins added, “We love this campground.  We want people to come here.  We want people to have fun and do what’s right at the same time.
“This is a great park,” Collins continued. “It’s probably one of the cleanest I have ever seen. We work hard to maintain it.  We want everyone to come here.
“We have to make sure the rules are complied with.  I would say 98 percent of the people who come here (to the campsites) are great folks and they want to take care of it, too.
“Outside of this primitive area, we have had very little trouble at this campground,” Collins related.
Most of the sites rented at the campgrounds are utility sites, with currently only 10 sites set aside for primitive on-level areas in a wooded area which, according to Collins, are better sites than the location in the campground where they were previously.