Bridgeport revisits city parks for upgrades, promotion strategy

BRIDGEPORT – The city has approached the Douglas PUD to upgrade the RV spaces in its parks to keep up with modifications in RV design that require larger spaces to accommodate them.

At the monthly city council meeting on June 18, Mayor Sergio Orozco said the city is asking PUD to reduce the number of RV spaces in the upper Marina Park from 12 to six but make those six wider to accommodate the new wider RVs with double slides.

“When you roll into these parks and extend your slides, you are into the next camper’s site,” said Public Works Lead Matt West. 

West added that during COVID, the city blocked every other site it is already renting just half of the sites available.

“We are looking to do a full upgrade, widen the asphalt, make larger grass areas, and revamp the water, sewer, and irrigation lines,” said West. “The irrigation has been a problem because those sites are so narrow that when the trailers come in and out, they are running over the irrigation fittings, and we are constantly battling the irrigation system there.”

Orozco said the upgrade may be the first in the area.

“We would probably be the only RV park within the whole Omak-Chelan area that would have that capability,” Orozco said.

At the same time, the city wants to revisit its advertising strategy to attract more bookings during the off-season when usage drops off.

West and city clerk/treasurer Judy Brown met with Good Sam Club representatives to discuss ways to increase bookings.

“We have a period in our parks from April until July where they are rather empty until fishing season starts,” said West. “From fishing season in August until October it’s rather empty also.”

Good Sam provided some comparative numbers to illustrate what other areas parks have been doing to boost occupancy. For example, Omak, a Good Sam member, had about the same usage numbers as Bridgeport until Omak initiated an advertising campaign.

“They went from about 1,000 to more than 10,000,” said West. “They were able to get people to come into their parks through the periods of time where there were no people using their parks,” said West. “That’s what we are looking to do.”

Mike Maltais: 360-333-8483 or michael@ward.media