Staff writer
With Labor Day on the horizon, recreation area workers are gearing up for one of the busiest weekends of their summer season.
“It’s gonna be full out here, or probably pretty close to it,” Marion Reservoir office administrator Torey Hett said.
Campsites at Marion Reservoir will be full, and with a new expansion recently opened at Cottonwood Point, there will be more spaces available.
The Marion County Lake will also receive a heavy influx of traffic, with people staying at homes and cabins they reserve for weekend use. For the second consecutive year, the United Steelworkers will put on a band and a fireworks show Saturday.
Steve Hudson, who works at the lake office, said the steelworkers’ involvement takes the planning load off the shoulders of the lake officers, and they don’t incur any extra workload.
“There’s no added pressure for us,” Hudson said. “We seem to get by with what we have.”
Hudson added that the sheriff may make rounds more often at the lake, and the wildlife and game officer will check in.
Other than the gatekeepers at the campsites, who will work longer shifts, not much changes at the reservoir either.
“We’ll have the park rangers on staff out here, we’ll have the maintenance crew scheduled, but other than that, it’s pretty typical staffing,” Hett said.
For recreation workers, Labor Day weekend is like any other weekend, only busier.
The celebration in Florence, planned at several meetings over the course of the year, takes the burden off most recreational sites to provide entertainment.
“We don’t want to conflict with the celebration in Florence,” Hudson said. “We don’t want to get involved in that political game.”