RPB Rec Board Supports Scout’s Campsite Project

Camping has been a big part of Boy Scout Corey Hampson’s life, and for his Eagle Scout project, Hampson wants to make camping more accessible for Royal Palm Beach residents.

Hampson’s goal is to create several campsites and a fire pit within a 25-acre natural area south of the Royal Palm Beach Recreation Center.

Hampson, who presented his plans to the Royal Palm Beach Recreation Advisory Board on Monday, has been meeting for several weeks with Parks & Recreation Director Lou Recchio. He is a member of Troop 111, which meets at the Royal Palm Beach Cultural Center.

“If you’re unfamiliar with Scouting and the ranks of Scouting, the highest rank is Eagle Scout, and just below that is Life Scout, which I currently am,” Hampson said. “Part of becoming an Eagle Scout is an Eagle Scout project.”

An Eagle Scout project is geared toward helping the community in some fashion.

“Camping is a very big aspect to Boy Scouts, and it’s also a very big aspect to my life,” he said. “I love camping so much that I really want to bring camping to people who aren’t as experienced or don’t have the budget to go on these camping trips and afford all the equipment that camping often requires. The point of my project is to be able to bring this back to our community.”

Hampson explained that for the novice, camping can be daunting if it involves traveling to a park and investing in camping equipment. His project will be geared toward people who aren’t as experienced at hiking and camping.

“They don’t have to go very far, and it’s not dangerous, like some other stuff that we’ve done in the past,” he said. “It’s mainly geared toward novices, youth groups, families, and also I’ve noticed that the rec center actually does a summer camp program. I was thinking that the rec center may be able to incorporate the camp sites into the summer camp program.”

Hampson plans to build four permanent campsites on the hiking and bike trail, as well as a gateway and a fire pit.

The gateway would be placed at the entrance to Preservation Park, similar to a gateway the troop built at Camp Tanah Keeta, the Gulfstream Council’s home camp in Martin County, but smaller in scale.

“We definitely wanted a fire pit, because campfires are always one of my favorite portions of camping,” he said. “We thought about the fact that it could be a fire hazard to have a bunch of fire pits in this heavily wooded area that’s typically dry, so I decided to put the fire pit toward the pavilion, and it will be out in the open, so there will be no real fire hazards. It will be made out of pavers and cement.”

The four sites will range in size from 27 by 20 feet, which can fit about six tents and other camping equipment, to 8 by 12 feet, which he said can accommodate a family of four and one or two small tents.

To prepare the sites, Hampson and his team of volunteers will remove dead brush and limbs and line the perimeters with timber reinforced with rebar. He also plans to remove dead melaleuca stumps that remained after the village removed the trees.

“We definitely want to keep the natural stuff that should stay there, like the saw palmetto,” he said, adding that he chose campsites on the outer loop of the park rather than the inner loop, which is used more by bicyclists and local pedestrians.

The trails leading to the campsites will also be lined with timbers to preserve natural areas of the park. “We don’t want them to create more trails because we want to keep the areas nice and pristine,” Hampson said.

Vice Chair Phyllis Katz said the project sounded like a prodigious task, but Hampson said he plans to do the project over a weekend in October when his fellow troop members return to school. “In the troop, it’s a lot easier to recruit my fellow Scouts when they’re home after summer,” he said.

Board Member Sean Fitzpatrick was concerned about maintenance of the campsites once they are created. “It’ll be great once it’s cleared, but it is a naturalized area, which means stuff’s going to grow back,” Fitzpatrick said. “Who’s going to be maintaining the clearance on these primitive sites?”

Hampson said he is working out the details with Recchio. “This is just a proposal,” he said. “We don’t have all the details down. It may include scouts coming back and cleaning the area once in a while.”

Fitzpatrick also asked about publicity to let people know the campsites are available, and Recreation Supervisor Mike Mikolaichik said staff will post it on the village’s web site, electric marquees and other available media. He added that village staff might be able to assist with maintenance.

Councilman Richard Valuntas, liaison to the rec board, asked about bathroom availability.

“I’m assuming from your proposal, the way it’s designed, there is no electricity or any of that stuff,” Valuntas said. “This is real camping, not hooking up and all that stuff, but I think the bathroom, the closest one is the rec center?”

Chairman John Ruffa liked the proposal but shared the concern about bathrooms and proximity of the campsites to some neighborhoods.

“I know the area very well,” he said. “In fact, there is a little waterway that I have been living across for about 17 years, and I think it’s a wonderful idea. I think it’s a perfect location for something like this. I know that my kids have camped out there in the past.”

Ruffa suggested that some of the campsites closer to homes be moved farther into the park. He also recommended that staff look into installing a potable water line and bathrooms that would be locked, with campers issued a key when they receive a permit to camp. “We do have a lot of hikers, and we’ll have a lot of campers now,” he said. “We have a lot of walkers with their dogs, and there really isn’t any water. I know that’s probably about a 200- or 300-yard run to run a water line, and you’d probably have to put in a sewer line.”

Board Member Shenoy Raghuraj made a motion to recommend approval of the campsites to the Royal Palm Beach Village Council, which carried 5-0.

ABOVE: Scout Corey Hampson at Monday’s meeting.