The park manager residence at Union Grove State Park in western Tama County has been an amenity available for DNR staff assigned to take care of the park since it was built in 1960. DNR park rangers and managers were notified late last year that they were to vacate their park residences by November 2022. The Iowa Department of Natural Resources decided to terminate housing options for park staff rather than make an investment of close to $900,000 to bring houses at 23 state parks up to code and up to date on maintenance and repairs. – Photo by Darvin Graham

A change is coming later this year that will remove park rangers and managers from their state-owned houses at 23 state parks throughout the state of Iowa, including Union Grove State Park in western Tama County.

In a story first reported by The Gazette in early February, it was revealed that due to several years of deferred maintenance decisions, the houses maintained by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) at state parks like Union Grove were in need of a host of repairs to address housing code and safety issues as well as updates to broken or damaged areas.

In an inventory of the state park houses being considered for termination obtained by The Gazette, it showed the DNR estimated a cost of $341,000 to address the code issues and another $556,000 to address a variety of maintenance issues and updates.

The maintenance issues identified in the inventory of the 26 state-owned park houses include items like replacing windows, roof repair and replacement, replacing siding, updating old electrical systems and outlets, replacing water and sewer lines and HVAC system replacement among several other things.

According to a state-owned housing report issued from the DNR, the staff houses had been allowed to fall into disrepair because the funds used to maintain the properties come out of the same budget as the funds used for customer-facing park amenities like campgrounds, bathrooms and shelters. Those amenities have been given budgetary priority for a number of years over staff housing.

The house at Union Grove State Park is one of two on the DNR inventory list of 26 that’s classified in poor condition. The other houses are classified in either good or fair condition.

The other state park house to receive a poor rating in the list is the park manager house at Lake of Three Fires State Park in southwest Iowa near Bedford.

According to the report, the house there is in need of $40,000 worth of code-related repair items including replacing windows that are in very poor condition, replacing vinyl siding that’s in very poor condition, damaged flashing around the chimney that leads to roof leaks, outlets installed at wet locations, sanitary line in poor condition and plumbing code violations in the basement.

The house at Union Grove State Park was built in 1960 and is occupied by Union Grove DNR Park Manager Corey Fangman who has been there for approximately three years.

The assessment of the Union Grove park house indicates a total of $35,000 worth of code-related items that would need to be addressed including replacing windows, installing a radon system and CO detectors, replacing exterior side door that no longer functions, installing GFCI outlets in the bathroom and repairing of electrical system damaged by mouse infestation.

Other updates and repairs identified in the report include repairing or replacing siding, fascia and gutter system; replacing of wall covering, floor covering, ceiling and paneling; replacing the concrete stair and path from the house to the park office, installing extensions on the downspouts and hiring an exterminator to combat the mice problem.

The additional maintenance items were estimated at a total cost of $22,000, which would make the overall cost to bring the Union Grove park house up to date $57,000, not including an additional $2,500 per year to continue upkeep on the house once the maintenance updates would be complete.

Local concerns

One of the unique and defining features of the Union Grove State Park area is a community of close to 80 privately-owned homes that share a portion of the 230-acre park with the DNR.

Roughly half of the privately-owned homes are occupied full-time while the rest are mostly used seasonally. The homeowners are represented by the Union Grove Lake and Park Holding Corporation that work to bolster and enhance the park through a number of special projects and fundraising efforts.

“Not many state parks have this much private property right on the lake like we do here,” Union Grove Lake and Park Holding Corporation Board President Russ Pedersen said. “So we try to work with the DNR as much as we can to help fund things or volunteer for things. I always tell people that live here that this is our investment. If we don’t have a lake, our houses aren’t worth anything. So we’ve got to invest back into the lake whatever we can.”

Residents expressed concerns when considering no longer having a DNR staff member living on-site.

Currently, Fangman is the only DNR staff assigned to Union Grove and although he does not work 24/7, residents believe having his presence there acts as a deterrent for illicit behavior.

“We are concerned, a lot of the residents are concerned about not having somebody here full-time,” Pedersen said. “Having somebody here that can take care of ticketing people if they’re on the lake when they’re not supposed to be or just having the DNR truck going around the lake helps a lot.”

The lake presently holds a “no wake” policy that prohibits boats from creating a wake in the lake water that would disturb the environment for activities like fishing and kayaking.

Pedersen said they’ve also had issues in the past with hunters getting into park land that is not allowed for hunting.

The residents at Union Grove have experienced park life without DNR staff not that long ago when previous park manager Roger Thompson retired prior to Fangman’s arrival.

Pedersen said in the months between when Thompson retired and his replacement was installed, the atmosphere around the park was noticeably different.

“You’ll get people come out and do things, because they know that nobody’s really here,” Pedersen said. “During that time we’d see boats racing up and down the lake. And by the time we’d call and get somebody out here, they’d usually be packed up and gone.”

The park is remote and off the beaten path for county law enforcement coming out of Tama, close to 20 miles away. Emergency services can also be spotty depending on the situation given the size of the volunteer fire and rescue departments in surrounding rural communities like Gladbrook, Garwin and Green Mountain.

In DNR’s state-owned housing report they indicated they believed there to be “no quantifiable customer service benefit from housing” staff members on park premises.

The 23 parks being considered in this housing order represent only a third of the overall number of state parks in Iowa, the remaining two thirds operating without staff housing.

The report said an internal housing assessment showed that all essential services are equivalently provided at locations with and without state housing.

According to the housing report, DNR park staff have been given until November to vacate their respective residential properties. Once that transition has been made, it’s expected Fangman will continue working his normal hours and also be available for emergency response.