A new campground should be opening this spring in the Grand Island, Neb., area.
The first nine camper pads for a planned 50-site development are being constructed at the Heartland Public Shooting Park. It’s a development that will be created over time as money allows and demand dictates, according to the Grand Island Independent.
Although the city always had plans to create the campground, actual development didn’t begin until last year when the city approved a $15,000 contract with L & L Construction to provide the labor on the first nine concrete pads.
The park makes a perfect spot for a campground because of the existing road infrastructure and layout of what was the former administration area of the Cornhusker Army Ammunition Plant, said Steve Paustian, park and recreation director.
The campground already has a plentiful supply of mature trees — cottonwood, locust, hackberry and a number of pine and cedar, Paustian said.
“We’ll continue to plant new trees,” he said. “It’s not like starting from scratch. We’ve got trees to provide shade from the onset.”
The campground plan at complete build-out features six drive-through sites, a shower house and restroom in the center of the park and a dump station.
Paustian said all of that future development would take place when and if demand warrants.
He’s pegging overnight campground fees to be in the $15 range.
The campground will be open to the general public, but should also make a nice complement to the shooting sports, he said.
” A lot of the (shooting) events are more than one-day events,” Paustian said. ” A lot of people who like shooting, do shooting vacations and have trailers or motorhomes.”
One of those multi-day shooting events is coming up early this summer.
Grand Island was selected last year as the 2008 and 2009 host of the National 4-H Shooting Sports Foundation Invitational. It’s a four-day youth shooting event that takes place the last week of June and brings in more than 400 competitors and their families.
“The plan is to have the campground up and running prior to the 4-H shoot,” Paustian said.
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