By Paul Hammel
Nebraska Examiner
LINCOLN — A small, southwest Nebraska county wants to answer the call in hopes of saving two mobile home encampments threatened with removal at Swanson and Red Willow Reservoirs.
Hitchcock County Board Chairman Paul Nichols of Culbertson said Tuesday that his county stands ready to take over management of the two lakes from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. The goal would be to forestall the Bureau’s order to remove the 181 trailers along the two reservoirs by November 2024.
Nichols said the hundreds of weekend residents who use the lakeside trailers provide a vital economic boost for the small towns in his county, located west of McCook. To remove the mobile homes, which have sat along the lake for 50 years, would be a blow, he said.
“The biggest thing is, I don’t want our communities to dry up and blow away,” Nichols said.
The commissioner’s comments come just as three members of Nebraska’s congressional delegation issued a press release Tuesday pledging to help save the lakeside trailer parks, if a local entity can be found to take over management of the reservoirs.
The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission didn’t renew its management agreement in 2020, turning the lakes back to the Bureau. The federal agency wants to clear out the mobile home parks to make way for new campgrounds, cabins and concession buildings.
The reservoirs could be transferred to a local entity via a land transfer bill in Congress. New managers could mean new plans.
But in a joint statement, U.S. Sens. Deb Fischer and Pete Ricketts, along with U.S. Rep. Adrian Smith, said that cannot happen unless a “local entity,” such as a county or natural resources district, can demonstrate “that they are willing to accept the land, are capable of managing it for the public, and will take on the associated responsibilities and liabilities.”
‘We stand ready’
“We stand ready to sponsor legislation to authorize a land transfer but cannot do so without a willing and capable public entity,” the trio said in a joint statement.
The Examiner first reported last week on the plight, and frustration, of the mobile home owners and a local concessionaire who rents lots for the trailers on land it leases from the Bureau.
The trailers — 110 at Swanson Reservoir and 71 at Red Willow — have been there since the 1960s. On summer weekends, the encampments represent two of the largest communities in the area.
Bill Roddy, who has owned a mobile home at Swanson Reservoir for 17 years, said that he was cautiously optimistic that a resolution can be found but that previous offers by Hitchcock County hit a “dead end.”
“In this case, this is our congressional delegation saying they’re willing to support us. That’s a positive,” Roddy said.
‘Private exclusive use’ violated policy
Bureau officials said the leasing of the trailer lots, which are renewed yearly at $1,200 a year at Swanson, amounted to “private exclusive use” of public land, in violation of its policies.
Aaron Thompson of the Bureau’s Nebraska-Kansas regional office in McCook has said that the plan to move out the mobile homes was first adopted in 2005 and that the local concessionaires, who rent out the lots, were aware of that.
A similar policy of removing mobile homes was adopted a few years ago at another Bureau property, Medicine Creek Reservoir near Cambridge.
But local residents said promised upgrades at Medicine Creek haven’t materialized, and they question whether the ambitious improvements at Swanson and Red Willow — which include “glamping” tents, mini-cabins, splash pads and a dog wash — will ever happen.
A looming question is whether local entities in the area are capable of taking over management of the two fishing/boating lakes, which are both in excess of 4,000 acres in size.
Nichols said his county, which employs about 30 workers and doesn’t currently manage any lakes or recreation areas, would need some instruction.
‘We need guidance’
“You tell us we have to do, and we’ll work on doing it. But we need guidance, because this is an area where we have no expertise,” he said.
The Middle Republican Natural Resources District, headquartered in Curtis, is another possibility. It currently manages one small lake at Wellfleet, though that lake doesn’t feature a modern campground or boat launch.
When reached Tuesday, the NRD’s assistant manager, Sylvia Johnson, said her agency doesn’t have the staff now for such work and said taking on the responsibility would require quite a bit of discussion and planning.
“It would take a lot of people sitting around the table deciding what it would look like,” Johnson said.
Nichols, the county board chair, said his three-member board has been discussing options since last year and agreed that the county would seek an agreement to take over management of the reservoirs if no one else stepped up.
“Everybody wants us to do something,” he said.
The county, Nichols said, would manage it much like in the past — leasing land to a concessionaire who would manage the mobile home parks. The lease income would be invested back into the lake, he said.
A formal response to the interest from the Nebraska congressional representatives will be sent Monday, Nichols said.