Trustees approve Bear Trap shelter grant application with 5,000-user estimate

Converse County Parks trustees voted to approve a grant application to build four picnic shelters at Bear Trap and added an estimated total-user figure to the packet before filing.

Staff presented the final Outdoor Recreation and Tourism Trust Fund application and attached two letters of support from the Natrona Converse Outdoor Rec Collaborative and Visit Casper. Staff described minor edits to the narrative and map corrections that place the shelters at the historic locations identified in aerial imagery.

Trustees discussed how to report expected usage in the application. Staff said reservation logs show roughly 30 reservation-days per shelter in a typical summer (about 90 reservation-days total) and noted significant day use and winter use by skiers that do not appear in reservations. A trustee proposed, and the board accepted, adding an estimated 5,000 annual users to reflect reservation and non-reservation use.

A motion to approve the application with the 5,000-user estimate and authorize the chair to sign and submit the application the following day was seconded, taken by voice vote and carried. Staff said the application would be emailed tomorrow to meet the Saturday deadline.

The project will use the approved estimate and the two letters of support as part of the submission; the trustees asked staff to insert the usage number and the chair's signature page before filing. No formal conditions or funding commitments beyond the application were adopted at the meeting.