_{Thumbnail photo courtesy of Del Norte County}

Florence Keller Regional Park is one of a handful of local spots ideal for teaching kids how to build a shelter in the wilderness, Ron Cole says.

For 25 years, Gateway Education of the Wild Rivers Coast, has used the 26-acre park with its redwood grove as an outdoor classroom to teach youngsters how to identify plants, move quietly through their environment and build the intuitive skills needed for survival, the organization’s board president said.

“All of these things are pretty quiet activities,” Cole told Redwood Voice Community News after appearing before the Del Norte County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday. “Even the games that they do to practice those skills — the kids are moving as silently as they can because they don’t want to be caught — (so) the concerns about noise really weren’t justified.”

Three members of the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved a renewed memorandum of understanding with Gateway Education enabling the organization to continue to use three campsites and the former ropes course at Florence Keller for its Summer Day Camp program through 2031.

County supervisors also rejected a competing MOU Building Maintenance and Parks Director Allen Winogradov submitted that would have restricted Summer Camp activities to the parks’ day-use area where he says they are more suited.

Winogradov said he has received noise complaints from visitors who were at the park during Gateway Education’s Summer Day Camp program. People have also complained about traffic congestion, though he was unable to furnish written proof when District 2 Supervisor Valerie Starkey asked for it.

“The campsites he uses each time are in an area that’s very congested,” Winogradov said of Gateway Education. “Almost every time we’ve had a complaint regarding parking and we’ve had to go out and say, ‘Hey, you can’t be parking your cars here. You got to move your cars.’ I’ve had campers who have come to me and asked me, ‘Can I get my money back? I just don’t want to be here anymore.’ I think he runs a great program, don’t get me wrong, but I think the place for it is in the dedicated day-use areas.”

Board Chairman Joey Borges voted against the MOU Gateway Education submitted to the county.

“I would prefer to see the county MOU where we have our building director-parks director telling us what he needs to make this safe for everyone,” he said.

Borges’s motion died due to lack of a second.

District 5 Supervisor Dean Wilson was absent.

Del Norte County Risk Manager Whitney Pincombe also raised concerns that because Gateway Education is “running a business on our property” a system for inspecting the safety of the area his organization uses is needed as is sufficient insurance.

“The reason the insurance requirements are so important that we revise them is if there were some sort of a catastrophic injury and then some nuclear verdict, a $1 million or a $2 million insurance policy is not going to cover the cost that would be owed to that claimant and then we would be looked at to cover the difference,” she said. “That’s a risk we would really need to consider when we’re allowing people to run these survival camps on our property.”

During her motion to approve the MOU Gateway Education drafted, one that was in place since 2021, Starkey said it should be modified to include the new requirements concerning insurance.

Pincombe said that would be doable.

Gateway Education charges $475 for its Summer Day Camp. According to Cole, the program is five days long and since kids need to understand that survival skills can be applied anywhere, each day is spent at a different location.

Cole said he reserves three campsites for three days, spending a total of about $180 “so we can have them for seven hours on Monday.” Three vans pick the children up at the Del Norte County Library and ferry them to Florence Keller at about 8:30 a.m. They’re at the park until about 4 p.m. before they’re taken back to the library, Cole said.

According to Cole, there are about 18 children in the Summer Day Camp. They are divided into three groups of six, each with three counselors. There’s also a cook that accompanies the youngsters to the park. Cole said the children eat lunch at the picnic tables at the campsites.

“We have a very strong pack it in, pack it out policy,” he said, adding that there are up to five vehicles including the three vans. “But when you’re making food from scratch and everything, there’s no processed food, no packaged art pieces and not much trash. Everything fits into a bread bag.”

According to the county’s website, renting the small picnic area costs $60 per day while renting the large picnic area is $120 per day. 

Another county park, Ruby Van Deventer along North Bank Road is also a venue for Gateway Education’s Summer Day Camp. Because it’s alongside the Smith River, the environment is very different from Florence Keller.

“It allows some other activities that can be done,” Cole said. “For example, when we do tracking exercises… you have the whole river area over there. You can turn over rocks, you can make a trail through different kinds of ecosystems and each year we change the location so the kids never know what to expect if they come back.”

During Tuesday’s meeting, Winogradov said he has had to issue refunds “probably dozens of times” and the only time he receives complaints about congestion are during the Summer Camp program.

Starkey asked Winogradov if he asked Gateway Education representatives to move their vehicles to which he answered in the affirmative.

The parks director said that the MOU Gateway Education had with the county until it expired in September didn’t explicitly forbid use of the campsites. There are also signs throughout the campground prohibiting picnicking in the camping areas, though Winogradov said they were put in place before he worked for the county.

Starkey noted that campers often hold family reunions with a lot of people taking up three campsites. 

“Outside of the liability that Whitney (Pincombe) was talking about earlier which is not insurmountable, I would think, I just don’t see why the need to insert in your version ‘individual campsites are not to be used for day camps,’” Starkey said. “I don’t really understand what the big problem is. You brought up parking, that’s not insurmountable either. I see there is obviously conflict here, but I’m not understanding why somebody couldn’t rent three campsites and use them during the day.”

Following the meeting, Cole said he didn’t understand why Winogradov was so insistent that Gateway Education use the day-use areas, which is closer to the highway and is “counter to what we’re trying to do, which is get the kids in nature.”