Community members discuss future of HSSP

Community members gathered at Thermopolis Middle School Monday to hear about the progress of the Hot Spring State Park Master Plan.

Wyoming State Parks officials still say the plan is in the developmental phases, with three different routes the master plan can be built towards.

In each of the plans, there is one thing in common -- the goal of updating how water is used in the park.

“One of the main reasons people come to the hot springs is for the mineral waters and we want to continue that,” state parks spokeswoman Tina Bishop said.

Part of the reason the hot spring water remains a focus is because of its diminishing flow.

“This big spring is declining,” state engineer Dave Deutz said.

According to Deutz, information has been collected from the spring during the past 10 years. That combined with older information tells a strong story.

Deutz said during the last 49 years, there has been a two-thirds decrease of water flowing from the spring.

“We’re going to have a resource that is much more limited than it is right now,” Deutz said.

With the parks water resource considered, there are still three different options that parks personnel and a local steering committee have put together.

There is a limited action plan, which aims to do maintenance to the park and to keep things at a status quo; an adaptation plan, which aims to make conservative changes; a legacy plan, which has a wide range of possible changes, upgrades, and updates to the park.

Input from community members is being used to help state parks officials craft the right plan for Hot Springs State Park.

All three plans come from a draft summary of findings that state parks personnel put together. Steering committee members suggested or refined the information in that summary before state parks personnel could create a draft of their findings.

Essentially, the plans come from community input during these meetings.

“It’s what your community is saying they really want to see in the park,” state parks spokesman Todd Thibodeau said.

Yet as the plans continue to evolve, the public constantly scrutinizes changes.

One idea is to create facilities and activities that bring in tourists.

Some community members question if the ideas are long term.

“Are they going to be something that’s here today and gone tomorrow?” Dorothy Milek asked a state parks employee.

Milek’s fear is shared among some other community members who feel that something like a zip line for example, is popular today, but may not be popular in the future.

Other community members fear that changing the layout of the park could create more causes for concern.

For example, there is one plan that proposes a new road be built in the park to allow for more parking spaces.

“My concern would be there would be a lot more pedestrian contact,” Howard Samelson said.

As he explained, having more roads would create more chances for a vehicle versus person collision.

Yet few community members appeared to have a problem with ideas like moving the boat dock to a new location, creating a visitor center, or building a bridge over the railroad tracks to connect T-Hill to the state park proper.

Most changes in the plans have support, but certain details are still being worked out.

Once those details are worked out, the steering committee will decide on which of the three plans to choose from.

The community will have another chance to comment on the plan during an open house some time in September.

Approximately one quarter of the seats were full during the meeting, and some community members grumbled about the low turnout.

Assistant state park superintendent John Fish said the meeting had been well advertised and promoted.

Community members can give their input online by visiting HotSpringsMasterPlan.com and clicking on the Community Forum tab.

“We continue to accept comments there on our community forum,” state parks spokeswoman Mabel Jones said.

The next master plan steering committee meeting will be June 30.