Visitors to Cold Springs State Park near Lewis will find it a little easier to get around these days. In his quarterly update, Cass County Conservation Director Micah Lee reported to the Board of Supervisors during their meeting this (Thursday) morning, that the south driveway was graded and graveled this past Spring, and the road re-opened. He says the park has been getting a lot of use. New signs indicating a one-way direction of travel were installed. Other signs have been ordered that will be placed along the highway, informing people the south access road is available. When they arrive, Cass County Secondary Road Department crews will install them.

Lee says they’ve already received several compliments on the new road. He said the plan for this fiscal year is to continue to upgrade the camping site electrical outlets to 50-amps, which should help to draw more visitors. He said the current outlets aren’t capable of handling the needs of camper air conditioning units. That caused the breaker switches to pop on the older, voltage boxes.

Micah said also badgers have been creating problems on the sub-surface along T-Bone Trail, but the Conservation Department is battling the feisty little critters.  He said badgers chase the ground squirrels and cause damage to the trail bed trying to get to them. The department has been working at filling-in cave-in’s on the trail bed with concrete, but they might have to find another way of attacking the problem in the future.

In other business, the Supervisors approved the purchase from the Schneider Corporation, of “Ripple,” a tool that allows the Assessor and GIS office to cross-check public records systems, thereby improving the accuracy of the data in each system, and it’s hoped, better manage property information. The program costs $6,000 ($4,500 for the program, plus $1,500 for a set-up fee), and $1,125 every year thereafter for maintenance and updates.