The Nashville District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced today that Anderson Road Campground on J. Percy Priest Lake will not open for the 2007 recreation season. The closure is temporary and the Corps anticipates reopening the campground in the spring of 2008. The popular picnic area, beach, launching ramp and fitness trail at Anderson Road Recreation Area, referred to as the Day-Use area, will open April 18.
Reductions in the recreation portion of the overall operations and maintenance budget made it necessary to close Anderson Road Campground, close several campsites and shorten the camping season at a few other campgrounds in order to reduce costs.
Campers who had reservations affected by the closures will be contacted and given a full refund. Reservations may be made at Corps campgrounds online at www.recreation.gov, by calling 877-444-6777.
The reduction to Nashville District?s recreation budget resulted from overall reductions to the Operations and Maintenance budget for fiscal year (FY) 2007. Following several continuing resolutions to the federal budget, a final resolution for the remainder of the year left the Corps? Nashville District with a $5 million reduction from FY 2006 levels. The budget cuts are not related to the repairs at Wolf Creek Dam as that funding is from an entirely different appropriation.
More than 35 million visitors used Nashville District lakes last year and Resource Managers expect the same visitation rates this year.
?We want to provide the best service we can,? said Ralph Ownby, deputy director of Operations, ?with available resources and we can best do that by concentrating our efforts on the majority of recreation areas while temporarily closing one campground and parts of other campgrounds. We regret any inconvenience to campers.?
In addition to Anderson Road Campground, closures will also affect Corps of Engineers campgrounds at Center Hill, Cheatham, Cordell Hull, and Dale Hollow Lakes in Tennessee and Lake Barkley in Kentucky.
At Center Hill Lake, a section of Ragland Bottom and Floating Mill Campgrounds will open later and close earlier in the year.
At Cheatham Lake, Harpeth River Campground will open on May 1, one month later than originally scheduled.
At Cordell Hull Lake, Salt Lick Campground will open May 24, two weeks later than originally scheduled, and 50 percent of the campsites will close on September 4, three weeks earlier than originally scheduled.
At Dale Hollow Lake, one section of Lillydale Campground will be closed for 2007.
At Lake Barkley, one loop of Canal Campground will close earlier in the year.
?We will make every effort to accommodate visitors to Corps lakes at alternate sites in the event their favorite Campground is affected,? said Corps spokesman Bill Peoples.
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