Park leaders talk 10-year plan for Chickasaw State Park

HENDERSON, Tenn. — Chickasaw State Park held a public meeting going over its 10-year comprehensive strategic plan. Here’s what’s coming.

Leaders from Tennessee State Parks, the Department of Environment and Conservation, and Chickasaw state park met with the public at Sagamore Lodge Thursday evening to see what is coming to the park over the next decade.

“We’re not really in the resort business anymore. We do have the parks that, historically, have a resort as far as Pickwick and places like that, but I don’t think there’s any plans in our system to expand hotels,” said Ron Elder, park manager.

Rather than expanding lodging, Chickasaw State Park plans to upgrade and repurpose existing infrastructure at the park.

Starting with the short-term goals, within the next year, the park plans to replace all park signs, renovate the group lodge, and update furnishings in non-WPA cabins.

There is a plan to transition to new Wi-Fi equipment and service provider. Also, the park staff plans to ensure that all park trails are accessible by the ADA trail wheelchair.

Park leadership acknowledges that cell service within the park is poor, but there is little they can do about that.

“One thing I would really love to do is have AT&T and Verizon put a tower right across the highway, but that’s outside of our control, but we might work with them to improve cell coverage in the park,” said Elder.

The mid-term goals to be done within the 2-5 year range is mostly internal to the staffing of the park such as re-wording job titles for better reflection.

The main visitor-centered goals in this range are to repurpose the old restaurant building and replace main water lines in the park.

Long term ideas for the park beyond the five-year mark include swapping to preventative maintenance to ensure the renovations remain in optimal condition, increasing staffing, and improving the previously mentioned cell service coverage.

These ideas all focus on the four cornerstones of park management. Those being resources, amenities, visitors, and operations.

If you want to check out the park for yourself, you can find it off Highway 100 in Chester County. The park office’s address is 20 Cabin Lane in Henderson.

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