Grand Isle State Pak
 

Letter: Grand Isle park deplorable
June 17, 2013
3 COMMENTS
My husband and I went camping with other relatives and friends at Grand Isle State Park from June 5-10. Never, in all the years that we have been going there, was I so very ashamed to have to tell people from out of state that yes, this actually was a state park. It was in deplorable condition.

First, when you pull in, there is a temporary building in the check-in lane. This means that people who have already checked in must still wait in line to get into the park. According to employees, their actual building was damaged during Hurricane Isaac and has not been repaired yet. Then, the computer the woman was working with literally took 10 minutes to change screens. Since she must go to two or three screens to complete the check-in process, it is no wonder that they can get up to 10 or more people waiting in line to check in.

Second, when we finally get in, it looks like the grass has not been cut in over a month. We were not able to use our picnic table because my husband has a bad back and it was too heavy for us to move and the grass was literally up above the benches. The bushes between our site and our friend’s site, were so full of weeds, including poison ivy, it was ridiculous. Friday morning, someone came by and cut the grass around the outdoor shower but nowhere else!

Third, the garbage was unbelievable. Every garbage can in the park was overflowing, and there was trash all over the ground. The dumpster by the bathhouse had garbage stacked up over 5 feet high.

Fourth, the showers were disgusting. I understand this is a beach and you can expect sand to get everywhere, but there was actually two inches of water all over the floor because evidently the drains are stopped up. We used both shower houses, and they are both in this condition.

Fifth, there is a fishing lagoon with a pier and a place to clean your fish so people do not clean them at their campsite. Well, there are two boards missing from the pier and instead of replacing them, there has been a barrier put up and all electricity cut off so you cannot use the pier or the fish-cleaning station. I guess you could use the fish-cleaning area during the daylight if you use a regular knife, but most people use an electric one.

Finally, after so many complaints, some campers knew someone in the streets department there and contacted that person. That person got the mayor to come out and look at the condition of the park Monday afternoon. Well evidently, someone in the park heard about the visit, because they had someone come out and pick up all the trash. Too little too late.

Unfortunately, you have lost visitors that regularly visited this park and others, just to support our state tourism. Well, I have had it and will not only take my business elsewhere, but tell everyone I know to not bother going to this park.

Carolyn Schexnayder

retired purchaser

Geismar

^^^letter to editor in the Baton Rouge Morning Advocate yesterday 6/17/13

Ouch

That's pretty much spot on too. You would think the things that actually generate money would be kept up.

Sad but true, State Parks are very much underfunded but if you look at the budget for the state, we aren't doing that well.

As far as the 'weeds' go, most of that is native vegetation that is there to reduce dune erosion. There is an effort to get people along the levees to stop mowing so much and let the native vegetation take over. If you look on the levees in places that are not mowed, there are wildflowers, native grasses, etc all over which all have deep root systems to keep the sand right there unlike St Augustine or Bermudagrass:)

Grand Isle is one of THE biggest areas for migratory songbirds to both stopover during migration and also breeding birds. The Migratory Bird Festival is held there every year and a big deal for the local economy, so birds are kinda the driving force behind these decisions. Poison ivy is actually a very good wildlife plant. The seeds are eaten by birds and deer eat it up as well (no deer on Grand Isle, but anyway)

My buddy took some pics of deer on Panama City Beach. I didn't think they would live that close to the Gulf.

As far as poison ivy that's great that it's good for the animals but it shouldn't be in the common areas where the camp grounds.

The grass they are talking about is in the camping area, on the north side of the levee, it should be cut. The grass on the Levees should be left alone.

Gotcha:)

Probably just underfunded/understaffed like all our state agencies. Also not a whole lot of people that live on Grand Isle that need a job weedeating or picking up trash when they can make much more on a rig or on a boat instead of getting minimum wage:confused: Don't think anyone from Leeville or Golden Meadow would make that drive for that little of money either.

I stayed at Fountainbleu State Park last year in Mandeville and the year before that I stayed at Chicot State Park in Ville Platte... I found that both of these were reasonably well maintained and I had a good enough experience at both to want to go back. Fountainbleu was pretty nice with the beach and the splash pad for the kids... Going to Grand Isle in 4 weeks but we are staying at my company's camp. We will probably go check out the State Park.

Palmetto Island is good too. Cabins are great and have a good size screened porch, and you can pull your boat up to the cabin. RV sites are good size with tons of trees/shade, got a splash pad and good boat launch too along with canoe rentals and paddle loops that take you through a few lagoons - fun to paddle with the kids and spot wild hogs.

I rode through the state park yesterday and it definitely needs some major upkeep. It was not a park I would bring children to in the state its in now

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Yep, Bogue ****to, Lake Claiborne, Caney Lake, and most all of our state parks are very nice

They still haven't fixed the pier? Myself and a friend were thinkinging of doing a little primitive camping/shore fishing trip soon. Have they made any efforts at improvement, since alerting the Mayor? Not that he has any authority over a state park, anyway.

The fishing pier is silted in anyways. Its about 3 feet deep off the end.

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We go to Chicot every summer but I have to say that it was not as clean as it usually is. The bathrooms were not cleaned and the trash cans weren't taken care of daily like before. It wasn't too bad though.