The Fairfield Bay City Council held their monthly work session on Monday, September 25th. On the agenda was a Campground update by Mayor Sikes. The City Council was blindsided by the mayor’s plan while several audience members in attendance already had knowledge of the Mayor’s wishes for the Campground. Mayor Sikes, the Resort Board and representatives from the Corp of Engineers met last Friday afternoon. According to Mayor Sikes, the Corp of Engineers will not, at this time, entertain a sublease with the Resort, but they will entertain a lease with the city for three years once they are in compliance. Mayor Sikes reported, “They want our plan of action. They’re giving us a letter of authority saying basically that, yes, they are promising to give us the lease on the campground, but we need to get in compliance first.”
According to Mayor Sikes the negotiations ended with an agreement that the Resort and the City would be willing to complete certain items to bring the Campground into compliance. City Council member Ruth Krotz reminded the Mayor, the agreement was contingent on the sublease going to the Resort. Mayor Sikes countered saying, “that’s right but the Corp of Engineers will not entertain a sublease with the Resort”. Krotz insisted that the Resort would not help if they did not get the sublease. Mayor Sikes addressed the room by saying, “we all said that we’re all one community, right? And this to help the community.”
Council member Ron Milligan was in agreement with Krotz, “They [the Resort] are not gonna do it if they do not get the sublease. The city does not have the equipment, personnel, and staff. I know we have talked about volunteers, but we have to have employees of the city to run campgrounds.” The city council opposes the city running the campgrounds, if it is not subleased by the city. “We know if we cannot lease it that means the campground will be closed off.” If the Corps closes the campground that would mean a gate would be at the end of the big parking lot, but not where the pavilion and the B campsites are. Mayor Sikes rebutted that there would be a gate at the top too. Milligan said “No, the top will be open where you can get to the Marina.You have to be able to get down to the boats. You can drive down the same road that you drive down right now. That goes to the Marina.” Mayor Sikes argued with Milligan that the side would be blocked off as well.
More of the debate can be seen on the Lake Area Weekly broadcast of the meeting.
Milligan ended the debate by saying, “we don’t want to see it closed, but we have to go along with it closing if we can’t get somebody to run it.” Mayor Sikes then introduced that she had a plan, “but you guys (City Council) haven’t heard it because you didn’t want to hear it.” According to the Mayor the Corp of Engineers has already pre-approved her plan. “We have several people in the audience that have been working very hard on a plan to not only come into compliance but to run the campgrounds so we don’t have to close the campgrounds. I think it’s gonna be devastating to the Marina and events down there if we don’t have the campground.”
Council Member Krotz reminded the mayor that “it wasn’t that we didn’t want to hear it, when we asked to see it, you [Mayor Sikes] said that you were still working on it and never gave us any details. So why don’t you tell us what your plan is?” Mayor Sikes stated she had a compliance plan which has to be submitted first “if that’s what you guys want me to do.” Krotz asked if that plan was based on the club doing 95% of the compliance. Mayor Sikes said, “No, the club doing nothing.” Krotz asked again for the plan. Mayor Sikes expressed that it would be nice if the Club would continue with their offer to work on the campground, but Krotz reminded her that was not likely to happen. Mayor Sikes asked if there was a representative from the club present but there was not one in attendance
Council member Milligan said, “before you go any farther on your plan and all that, I want it on record saying you were wrong when you said you had a plan and we had not heard it because we didn’t want to. That has been our main problem with this whole thing from the beginning. We don’t get the information when it comes out. If we’re supposed to be involved in this and making decisions we need to know as soon as the stuff comes out. Please don’t tell anybody anymore that we don’t want to know, we do want to know. That may have been misworded, but I just want to make it clear we did want to know.” Mayor Sikes refused to engage in the argument. After the comments made by Milligan, members of the audience began chanting for Milligan to resign and accusing him of an ethics violation.
Mayor Sikes stated, “we all are pretty upset about this because we want the campground. I think, for the most part we want the campground, so Ron, you know we have a plan, I had a plan that I had talked to the Corp about, that is the reason why when I got the notice all I was supposed to do was to let the sublessee know they had 60 days to come in compliance. They needed another 30 days. I gave them another 30 days. I had no idea that the Resort wouldn’t come into compliance with the time they needed to. When it became evident that they were not going to at that time, yes I did inform you all what was happening and as mayor that was my decision to do that. I gave the resort the time that was allowed. I even extended the time for them and when it became evident that wasn’t going to happen that they were not going to be back into compliance that’s when I started working on the plan and no, I didn’t have it ready then.”
The plan in question was asked about again by Council Member Doyle Scroggins Mayor Sikes stated that she was going to have a member of the audience help her with the plan. “I’m not going to run it on volunteers right now.” Council member Krotz expressed that they would need the plan to discuss how to come into compliance. Mayor Sikes stated, “I know it, Ruth, and I’m not an idiot. I know that I have to have a plan and I have to have a financial plan. I’ve been asking for the finances from the Resort for quite a while, for several months now, and now the Corp has asked for financials. It would be a lot easier for me to explain to you how I’m going to run the campground once we get back into compliance.”
When asked why members of the audience knew of the mayor’s plan before the council the mayor replied, “I had to start.” An audience member spoke up to say that he created it. Asking again why members of the audience knew before the board the mayor said, “I needed some helpers to help me.” Questioning the mayor on if the council was not considered her helpers she stated, “no they are not, they are not my volunteers. I contacted people. I contacted people in the community and asked if they would be able to help me. Donnie and I walked down to the campground to look at things. Donnie is a department head not a volunteer. Before I can present a plan to my city council or present a plan to the Corp. I need to get my plan together.”
The mayor’s plan to get the Campground in compliance, although not presented to the council, is volunteer based. “I’m working with, uh, Gina here on setting up volunteers. In fact, we’ve got a sign up list for every one of your board members to sign up to help out.” Mayor Sikes is aiming for an October 6th start at 9 o’clock in the morning. She plans to reach out to organizations for volunteers and advertisers. “We don’t have an official list yet, but I bet you we’ve got 30, 40 people already to show up with shovels, rakes, and power equipment to help us. If you want to see the plan, I’ve got it with me. I will share the details.” Council Member Patty Leitner expressed that she “would be interested in seeing part of what you’re talking about. We’ve seen nothing.” Mayor Sikes said, “I haven’t shared that in writing with anybody because you guys said we weren’t going to do it.” Leitner asked if she had it all, “why can’t we see it? Could we get copies?” An audience member said that they could forward it. Rosie Owen said she could make a copy however, at the time of this article a copy of the plan and copies of transmissions between the mayor and the Corps have not been received but are now public knowledge according to the city attorney.
Ending the meeting the mayor stated, “I think that this is a perfect opportunity for the Resort to continue to want to help the Campgrounds. They do have the equipment. We can get the volunteers, the donations, and the businesses to support. Why wouldn’t the resort help us? Ultimately if the Campground’s successful, it will help the Marina. When we have events now all events that happen at the Marina have to be approved by me, not by the city council, by the mayor. And why would I approve events down there if they’re not gonna support the campground?”
You can view the work session in its entirety on the Lake Area Weekly FaceBook page.