Lake Tschida camping spot to close

[Vollmer]

Lake Tschida camping spot to close

• LAUREN DONOVAN Bismarck Tribune
• 23 hrs ago

• PROVIDED

This camping area at Lake Tschida Koehler's Point will be walk-in only and the public boat ramp removed by the Bureau of Reclamation over an access dispute with a neighboring landowner.

A small but popular camping area and boat ramp on Lake Tschida will be closed except for walk-ins and the boat ramp removed as of May 28 because of a dispute with a neighboring property owner.​

The Bureau of Outdoor Reclamation, manager of the Heart Butte Dam reservoir, will close Koehler’s Point, located on the north side of the lake, because it’s unable to acquire a road easement leading to the public-use area.

BOR spokeswoman Patience Hurley said the point will be open to walk-in use only after the deadline unless the situation changes.

The issue came to a head when Corey Roth, who owns some of the land on the access road, set up fences and speed bumps that made access to the point unsafe, Hurley said.

Hurley said the BOR couldn’t continue to operate the site with unsafe road conditions and attempted to work with Roth, Grant County and Tri-Cities JDA, the lake recreation manager, but couldn’t reach a deal.

Roth said he did record a new public easement across his land to Koehler Point, one that provides a roadway between 18 and 33 feet wide, depending on the terrain.

“I’m square on my end. They (BOR) wanted it and they got it. If it’s not good enough, I don’t care. If they threaten to take away the boat ramp for the public, that’s in their court,” Roth said.

Hurley said the BOR requires a full 33-foot easement and was never allowed to review the easement before it was recorded at the Grant County Courthouse in April.

Roth operates a private Red Rock Resort and said his campers will have to use a different boat ramp access as a result.

Koehler’s Point consists of 10 primitive camping spots, a ramp and vault toilets. It’s managed by the Tri-Cities JDA, which has the recreation contract for camping and day use.

Mark Stelter, spokesman for the Tri-Cities group, said Koehler’s Point has cost more to manage than it generates in camping income, but he said it will be missed by people who enjoy the quiet and handy access to the lake.

Hurley said the BOR plans to conduct an environmental assessment and hold public meetings to determine best use for the area, which will temporarily be designated as walk-in only until a new use is designated. She said the BOR doesn’t have enough property to build an access road in because its property is partially edged by a slumping embankment.

“We don’t want that point closed — it’s a fantastic area. It’s in the best interest of the public that it not be closed,” Hurley said.

 

[dean nelson]

So does this guy have cause for this or is he just being a priq?

 

[Reprobait]

Another patriot taking on the big-bad federal government.

 

[PrairieGhost]

Roth operates a private Red Rock Resort

I would say that is the key. If they can't camp on BOR land they have to come to him. Same reason the landowners in Montana passed a law against corner hopping.

 

[gst]

Well the Federal BOR is so easy to work with and considers others concerns when implementing their policies concerning this lake.......................

http://www.cfact.org/2012/05/29/feds-evicting-mobile-homes-at-north-dakota-lake/

 

[fnznfwl]

Well the Federal BOR is so easy to work with and considers others concerns when implementing their policies concerning this lake.......................

http://www.cfact.org/2012/05/29/feds-evicting-mobile-homes-at-north-dakota-lake/

Should have known the biggest patriot of them all would chime in.

 

[Allen]

Well the Federal BOR is so easy to work with and considers others concerns when implementing their policies concerning this lake.......................

http://www.cfact.org/2012/05/29/feds-evicting-mobile-homes-at-north-dakota-lake/

The Bureau of Reclamation's biggest error at Tschida was allowing those mobile homes down in the flood pool in the first place. I don't think the downstream residents (to include Mandanites) were very excited about a 500 gallon propane tank trying to go down Heart Butte Dam's glory hole in 2009. What a fucking mess.

I am not a big fan of people gaining exclusive use of taxpayer owned property.

 

[dean nelson]

Well a guy can always come in with a boat. Hell maybe you could have perfect weather to see how well green plants burn with a nice ground hugging south wind just to say hellow.

 

[deleted]

Is anyone on here familiar with the campground being dealt with? I’m having trouble grasping how the business owner/landowner is being beat up when he is in fact granting an easement?? Is this a deal where access has always been across his land, but now the BOR wants to have the easement widened and filed? Seems like 18’ at the narrowest point to a primitive site should suffice, especiallyif it always has worked in the past?

 

[MarbleEyez]

Mr. Roth did not play by the rules with the entire situation. He tried the "my way or the highway" attitude, and look at where that got him. He has his "Red Rock Resort" on his private land, and the boat ramp is on the BOR land (which is a stones throw away). In order to access the BOR ramp you have to go through his land. He wanted to try and keep the boat ramp exclusively for his resorts benefit. Didn't maintain the road, added speed bumps, etc. to the stretch of road that went through his property to the Koelher point campground He's been nothing but a knot-head with the JDA and the BOR. The BOR got fed up with his antics and his "tone".

Both the JDA and the BOR tried to make amends to it. They held a meeting several weeks ago in which the BOR, JDA, Roth's & Roth's attorney was present. Everyone had agreed on the changes of the easement going through Roth's property. Everything was a good to go after that meeting. Then Roth's had their attorney, who was present at the meeting, draw up the easement and added things in their favor which the BOR did not agree to AT THE MEETING!!

So finally the BOR said piss on you, and now they will be pulling the entire thing. Which is very upsetting because once that dock is pulled it will never be going back in. They'll pull the dock, concrete slab, and everything else. I do not blame the BOR for their decision either. Being a jack-ass never gets you anywhere. Perfect example

 

[johnr]

I like seeing a bully get bullied.

 

[deleted]

I like seeing a bully get bullied.

Sometimes your the windshield.....sometimes your the bug. ;:;hijacked

 

[Vollmers]

DB

 

[Kurtr]

Mr. Roth did not play by the rules with the entire situation. He tried the "my way or the highway" attitude, and look at where that got him. He has his "Red Rock Resort" on his private land, and the boat ramp is on the BOR land (which is a stones throw away). In order to access the BOR ramp you have to go through his land. He wanted to try and keep the boat ramp exclusively for his resorts benefit. Didn't maintain the road, added speed bumps, etc. to the stretch of road that went through his property to the Koelher point campground He's been nothing but a knot-head with the JDA and the BOR. The BOR got fed up with his antics and his "tone".



Both the JDA and the BOR tried to make amends to it. They held a meeting several weeks ago in which the BOR, JDA, Roth's & Roth's attorney was present. Everyone had agreed on the changes of the easement going through Roth's property. Everything was a good to go after that meeting. Then Roth's had their attorney, who was present at the meeting, draw up the easement and added things in their favor which the BOR did not agree to AT THE MEETING!!

So finally the BOR said piss on you, and now they will be pulling the entire thing. Which is very upsetting because once that dock is pulled it will never be going back in. They'll pull the dock, concrete slab, and everything else. I do not blame the BOR for their decision either. Being a jack-ass never gets you anywhere. Perfect example

So what were the out of line requests by the guy that owns the said land to cross?

 

[gst]

Allen, did you read the article? Here is a portion.

"

May 29, 2012 by Bonner Cohen, Ph. D., Comments are off

• Tweet

For over half a century, picturesque Lake Tschida in southwestern North Dakota has been the destination of choice for residents of nearby communities to spend warm summer weekends with friends and family. In this semiarid part of the Northern Plains, where recreational lakes are few and far between, the reservoir has attracted cabins and mobile homes, whose owners lease lakefront parcels of land from the Bureau of Reclamation.

But if the bureau has its way, an arrangement that has worked well for decades will be cast aside, with the owners of all 114 mobile homes being told to pack up and get out by 2022. The bureau justifies its action by claiming that the mobile homes could be ripped from their moorings during a flood, posing a risk to the reservoir’s earthen dam and to areas down river. After a severe flood – the worst in 50 years — struck the area in 2009, the bureau, without consulting leaseholders, abruptly directed that all mobile homes be removed from the lake no later than 2010. Yet of 114 mobile homes on the lake, only 16 had water in them, and no homes became detached from their moorings.

The bureau’s draconian move came less than a year after it had advised owners of cabins and mobile homes that they could expand the structures on their parcels. Believing in the good faith of the bureau, many people, at considerable personal expense, added decks, sheds, and other improvements to their properties. “By issuing building permits for decks, septic systems, and other structures,” the Bismarck Tribune noted in a recent editorial, “the bureau has forfeited the ability to tell those with mobile homes parked in low-lying areas to simply clear out.”

Leaseholders at the lake have gone to extraordinary lengths to reach an accommodation with the bureau. They have offered to move their mobile homes to a higher elevation on their lots, and to remove the homes altogether over the winter months. The latter proposal would effectively eliminate whatever remote risk the mobile homes posed from floodwaters, because they would not be brought back to the lake until after the winter snow had melted. All of this has been to no avail. The only “compromise” the bureau has been willing to make is to allow the mobile homes to stay until 2022. After that, they must go. All the leaseholders have gotten is a stay of execution.

What’s more, the bureau’s claim that the mobile homes are situated in a so-called “flood pool” rests on shaky scientific ground. It is based on information dating to 1943, six years before the Heart Butte Dam was built, creating Lake Tschida.


“Frankly, the bureau probably isn’t the right landlord for the job,” the Bismarck Tribune says, “but it’s the landlord the Lake Tschida people have.” In truth, the federal government is never the right landlord. People leasing land from a federal agency will always be at the whim of bureaucrats with their own agendas. The controversy at Lake Tschida raises serious questions about how secure leaseholders are at other reservoirs around the country that are subject to the Bureau of Reclamation’s oversight.
COE, BOR, BLM, USFS...............peas in a pod.

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The Bureau of Reclamation's biggest error at Tschida was allowing those mobile homes down in the flood pool in the first place. I don't think the downstream residents (to include Mandanites) were very excited about a 500 gallon propane tank trying to go down Heart Butte Dam's glory hole in 2009. What a fucking mess.

I am not a big fan of people gaining exclusive use of taxpayer owned property.

likely not any more excited about that than Towner residents watching Minot propane tanks or Grand Forks watching Fargo propane tanks or Pierre residents and Bismarck/Mandan propane tanks..........................


The point here is highlighted in the article.

"
But if the bureau has its way, an arrangement that has worked well for decades will be cast aside" "the bureau, without consulting leaseholders, abruptly directed that all mobile homes be removed from the lake no later than 2010. "


So then the question is should we just assume that a Federal agency willing to act like this is not part of the problem and it is soley this one other fella ?

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Should have known the biggest patriot of them all would chime in.

easy there fella, your hate panties are showing.

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Mr. Roth did not play by the rules with the entire situation.

So what are the "rules" when one is considering an easement to allow the use of their lands?

So would the BOR telling people they can add improvements to their cabins and then tell them they have to move them "playing by the rules"?

 

[MarbleEyez]

So then the question is should we just assume that a Federal agency willing to act like this is not part of the problem and it is soley this one other fella ?

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easy there fella, your hate panties are showing.

- - - Updated - - -



So what are the "rules" when one is considering an easement to allow the use of their lands?

So would the BOR telling people they can add improvements to their cabins and then tell them they have to move them "playing by the rules"?

Lake Tschida's sole purpose was for Flood Control of the Heart river. They had no intentions of it becoming a major recreation destination. The Roth's did not want to give the BOR a lifetime easement for the road. They were going to make it a term easement. The Roth's have been uncooperative in the entire process. It's not like the BOR and Tri City JDA are asking for a lot. Red-Rocks customer base utilizes that boat dock more than anyone and Red Rock is the private cabin resort owned by the Roths.

The JDA was having an issue with it because Red Rock wanted the Grant County Sheriff's department to patrol the area, public camp ground Koehler's (sheriff's department has a contract with the JDA to patrol the managed camp grounds). The Sherriff's department said that they were not going to patrol Koehler's point anymore due to the road hazards going through Roth's property (Red Rock Resort). Roth's added speed bumps and the road was so narrow to where 2 campers could not pass each other. So the JDA said they were dropping Koehler's point from the patrol area of the sheriff's contract because the GC Sheriff's department were not willing to patrol due to the marginal road going through Roth's property.

So Roth's (Red Rock Resort owners) played hardball and were completely unprofessional with both the JDA and BOR in the beginning. So the BOR finally got fed up with it. BOR said this is how it is or you will not have a dock at the pure convenience of your privately owned camping resort and customers. Then Roth's realized that they "probably" should listen to the writing on the wall. They had the meeting, everyone was in 100% agreeance at the meeting, along with Roth's attorney, who was present. Then they go and draft an easement and file it at the court house, and it wasn't 100% what was agree upon!

It is upsetting to see them remove the ramp if that's what comes out of it. And I do not support the government having ultimate control, but that is the way it is. With that being said, if you are the Roth's why on earth would you ever smart off to the people who have ultimate control over the boat ramp that is utilized by your paying customer base? That's like telling the Police Officer to piss off the next time you get pulled over for speeding. Sometimes a person has to use their head and stop puffing their chest, because you will not win.

 

[sweeney]

The BOR or COE or whoever is in charge out there have been shitting on cabin owners and changing rules and lease agreements a lot in the last ten years.

 

[Wild and Free]

Between the scoria mud and algae I don't see the draw to that place. One can about run half way across the lake if quick and lite on ones feet its so thick with algae by the beginning of July......Yuck!!! Last time down there took me a full day to wash of 2 hours worth of boating in that scummy place.

To those that like it more power to ya, playing in water that's the consistency of pea soup ain't for me.

 

[sweeney]

It's the best way to get algae green fireline though

 

[Crankn]

IMO the BOR and the COE are always coming up with new situations to throw their weight around. Every time a new person gets in charge its usually someone who wants to score points for his career. They just go looking for things to force changes that aren't needed. Who cares if the road narrows here and there. It's been happening as long as I can remember. Particulary at Ashtabula and Jamestown Res.