Woodlawn Regional Park is promoting several important dates for its 2017 season.
The first is their annual general meeting, which will be held on March 8 at the TS&M Woodlawn Golf Club’s clubhouse. The park will discuss their budget and look ahead to the key dates for this year.
Seasonal campers and other park users are invited to attend, said Woodlawn park business manager Aaron-Lee Soparlo.
“This is a good opportunity for them to come and voice their concerns, or share their ideas with what they want to see, and the projects that we’re doing,” said Soparlo.
The park, which has campgrounds along the Souris River and at Boundary Dam, will open for the season on May 19 and will remain open until the end of September. Seasonal campers will be able to move their campers in a few days prior to the 19th.
Online camping reservations will start on March 15. This is the second straight year that the park will have an online reservation system.
For those who want to book by phone or in person, they will have to wait for May, when the park will have staff at their gatehouse.
“Once May hits and the staff is in place, then people can always call in and our staff can assist them with online bookings,” said Soparlo.
People were understanding last year when they found out they couldn’t book campsites in the conventional fashion, she said.
Soparlo admitted there were some bugs to be worked out when they launched the online booking system last year, since it was something new and their staff had to go through some training, but they worked through those issues.
“It’s a user-friendly program, and it’s based out of Saskatchewan, which is nice, because it’s local,” said Soparlo.
Soparlo said they have already received some inquiries from the public regarding when they would be able to start booking campsites.
Woodlawn has more than 330 sites between the Boundary Dam and Souris River campgrounds. There are 112 seasonal sites at Boundary Dam and 55 more along the Souris River. The remaining are available for short-term and overnight camping.
“Boundary has more seasonals and less short-term (campsites), and Woodlawn has more short-term and less seasonals,” said Soparlo.
Soparlo also announced changes for the annual Beach Bash, which is their biggest event of the year. It will be held on July 28 and 29, the first time that it has been held over a two-day span.
Woodlawn assumed responsibility for organizing Beach Bash from the Estevan Chamber of Commerce for the first time last year, and Soparlo said they found it was a lot of work for just a one-day gathering.
She believes the interest is also there to have Beach Bash over a two-day span, thanks to such attractions as live music and beach volleyball.
“We want to grow it a little bit bigger and make it a weekend event,” said Soparlo.
Also, this will mark the first time since 2012 that Beach Bash has been in July. Traditionally it has happened in August.
“Working with lots of the other organizations and the governing bodies (involved with Beach Bash) in the Estevan area, we just found that it was a super busy weekend,” said Soparlo.
She noted it was the one weekend the Estevan Motor Speedway could race in August this year, and there were other events planned for that weekend.
“That’s one of our goals that we’re really working towards is working with all different kinds of organizations throughout the community ... to make sure that we’re all working together, and to make everyone’s event a success,” said Soparlo.
The weather is also a little more stable in July than in August, she said.
Soparlo said the park will likely approach their seasonal campers to see if anyone wants to be part of a volunteer subcommittee for Beach Bash, so that it won’t be up to just the office staff and the Woodlawn park board for organization.
Further details, including the featured entertainment, have yet to be released.
The park will receive $7,500 from the 2016 Saskatchewan Summer Games committee to construct a shower facility at the Boundary Dam beach volleyball courts.
Soparlo noted that this will be the fourth year she has been the park’s manager. Barry Schulte is back for a second year as the maintenance manager.
