My family and I just returned from our annual camping trip to Peninsula State Park in Door County. It was a terrific trip! I always enjoy spending time with my family, exploring the area, and eating good food made over an open fire.
We have been camping in Door County for nearly 30 years. Our annual trip gives me a perfect opportunity to see the results of the investments we have made in our state parks and look forward to the future for how we can continue to improve them. I am proud to have led the effort in the legislature to reform the state parks system to make it self-sufficient and improve the user experience.
As I do most years, I met with Peninsula State Park Superintendent Eric Hyde to see how things are going at the park. This year, I was also able to meet with Wisconsin State Parks Director Steve Schmelzer, who happened to be visiting Peninsula State Park while I was there. We had a great meeting. We discussed the improvements being made around the park, park attendance and visitor data, all things camping, and more!
We spent much of our time talking about all of the improvements being done around the park and what will be completed in the future. Peninsula State Park has been able to replace park roads, replace campground bathrooms, and improve the overall infrastructure of the park. In the future, they plan to upgrade campground roads and bathrooms to improve the visitor experience.
All of this work is able to be done because of the work I have done in implementing private sector business practices to make our state parks system self-sufficient. Thanks to our reforms, there has recently been a large balance in the State Parks Account. The goal of an entirely user fee driven system is to improve the parks, not generate money for it to sit in the bank.
That is why we invested more than $33 million in our state parks and forests in the most recent state budget. We focused our investments on fixing, maintaining, and improving our state parks. The funds will be used across the State Parks system for everything from new fire rings and picnic tables to repaving roads to new toilet and shower buildings. We increased the number of electric campsites and invested in parks technology upgrades. We also gave additional flexibility to the DNR to increase the nonresident camping fee by an additional $10 per night.
In our conversation, we also discussed camping in the state parks. I continue to be concerned that even though many state park campgrounds may be listed as “sold out”, sites sit unoccupied on the nicest weekends of the year. This is especially a problem at the most popular state parks such as Peninsula State Park and Devil’s Lake State Park.
This happens because some people book a campsite for a week or multiple weeks at a time in order to secure the weekend that they actually want to camp. People do this because camping in Wisconsin State Parks is inexpensive and it is an easy way to “exploit” the system in order to ensure they are getting the best nights. Even though the state is still collecting revenue for these campsites, the campsites sit vacant. There are many people who would gladly use these campsites if given the opportunity.
Last session, I met with the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) numerous times and introduced legislation to try to address this issue, and others, in our state park campgrounds. I am pleased that the DNR is aware of the problem and is working administratively to do what they can to limit empty campsites. However, there is still more work to be done.
I plan to continue to study this issue, push the DNR, and explore legislation to continue to improve the state park camping experience. It is exciting to see the improvements in our state parks. We are making good progress, but there is more work to be done. I look forward to continuing this work in the future!
As always, if you need assistance with any state-related matters, please call our team at the State Capitol – 608-266-0703 – or email me – Sen.Marklein@legis.wisconsin.gov. My team is ready, and willing, to help navigate your state government, clear obstacles and receive your input.
— Sen. Howard Marklein represents Wisconsin’s 17th Senate District. He can be reached at 608-266-0703 or email Sen.Marklein@legis.wisconsin.gov.
Marklein briefs:
Sen. Marklein named “Friend of Family Medicine” by Wisconsin Academy of Family Physicians (WAFP)
On August 5, 2024 Sen. Howard Marklein was named a “Friend of Family Medicine” by the Wisconsin Academy of Family Physicians (WAFP) for his work to promote effective healthcare policy in the past legislative term.
WAFP praised Sen. Marklein’s support for expanding rural medical residency grants, work in the budget for increasing the Medicaid reimbursement rate for primary care clinicians, and authorship of a bill that legalized the selling of electricity for electric vehicles by private businesses.
Sen. Marklein Announces Second Round of Ag Road Improvement Program (ARIP) Grant Applications Open
Sen. Howard Marklein announced that the second round of applications for the Ag Road Improvement Program (ARIP) funding is now open.
$100 million is available in this round of funding to repair small, rural, class B, and weight-restricted roads that connect our farms to county and state highways.
“I was thrilled to see that the Towns of Fayette and Sylvester were announced as winners during the first round of applications. I hope to see even more winners come from southwestern Wisconsin to benefit our local farmers, producers, and small towns during the second round of funding,” Marklein said.
“The Ag Road Improvement Program makes a very important investment to help farmers efficiently move their goods to and from the farm. I encourage all farmers and producers in the 17th Senate District to coordinate with their local officials to take advantage of this fantastic program and submit an application.”
The ARIP program was established to invest $150 million in upgrading local, rural roads that link farmers to county and state highways. There were $50 million in awards available during the first round of funding, which was announced on July 24, 2024.
Information about project eligibility and application instructions can be found on the Wisconsin Department of Transportation website: https://wisconsindot.gov/Pages/doing-bus/local-gov/astnce-pgms/highway/arip.aspx. The deadline to apply is September 30, 2024.
