Raystown campgrounds could open if federal hiring freeze ends

JAMES CREEK, Pa. (WTAJ) — Less than a month away from the official start of the season, and the gates at Nancy’s Camp Boat-to-Shore at Raystown Lake have been closed and could remain that way all summer.

In the fallout of the Trump Administration’s federal hiring freeze, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Baltimore District, which manages Raystown Lake in Huntingdon County, is short-staffed this summer.

“It’s certainly weird. I’ve been here 17 years and we’ve never had this,” said Matt Price, Executive Director of the Huntingdon County Visitors Bureau.

Price said with USACE now over a dozen rangers short, and only weeks away from campers showing up on their shores, Raystown Lake had to gate up Nancy’s Boat-to-Shore, typically open year-round. It will remain closed until further notice. Seasonal campgrounds Seven Points and Susquehannock will not open for the upcoming summer unless something changes and USACE can hire seasonal rangers.

“There’s also a required amount of training. They have a minimum 43 hours of training that the seasonals have to go through to meet federal regulations,” Price said.

If the freeze remains in place past mid-April, that training would push into peak seasons for boating, picnicking, swimming and camping, creating what Price called a nonstarter for the camping season, preventing the federally managed camping areas from opening all summer.

Another challenge that could impact the recreational areas is a freeze in the federal funding that ensures the safety of the beaches USACE hoped to keep open during the upcoming summer. Price said the rangers are currently unable to use the credit cards provided to them by the federal government to pay for mandatory water testing for both water lake goers drink and what they swim in.

“Pennsylvania requires all public bath facilities, public swimming facilities to be water tested weekly. And so all of the beach areas fall under that. So in order to keep the beaches open, they would have to submit those water tests weekly,” Price said “If they don’t have the credit card to do that, the private labs that do these tests aren’t willing to wait a month or two for the government, the federal government, to pay for those tests.”

The federal hiring freeze is an effort for the federal government to cut unnecessary costs, according to the Trump Administration. But officials with Raystown Lake said, if anything, it will cost the federal government hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost revenue.

“My understanding from Corps of Engineers is it’s in the neighborhood of $400,000 to hire and pay all the seasonal employees for what they do for the year. The impact of closing the campgrounds, however, is a cost of $1.2 million in revenue. So by no means does it offset it. The federal government will be taking about an $800,000 loss by closing these campgrounds,” Price said.

The campground closures could impact the local economy past Raystown Lake itself.

“If everybody that got a reservation canceled, chose to not come here at all, it would be an impact in the neighborhood of, $7.5 million at a minimum, probably higher, in visitor spending to the area,” Price said.

Price and USACE want the hiring freeze to be lifted in time to get seasonal rangers onboard and trained in time for the start of the season and, at this time, will not be canceling reservations already made. But if they can’t hire in time, they hope the remaining recreational areas and leased camping areas that will remain open this year will be enough to still bring in the tourism dollars the area relies on.