Those who like to operate radio-controlled devices – planes, cars and drones – may sometime in the near future have a place in Jefferson County to go to do so in safety.
The Jefferson County Parks Board voted unanimously Jan. 8 to designate River Bend Park off Hwy. PP (Twin River Road) in the Eureka area of Jefferson County as the possible site of a county park dedicated solely to radio-controlled devices.
Parks Director Tim Pigg said the vote was an important, albeit preliminary, step to establishing the park.
“This is not going to happen right away,” he said. “This is all in the preliminary stages, so there’s not a cost estimate, there’s no timeline. But we want to see this happen. This will be like Buder Park in St. Louis County.”
Pigg said the approximately 40-acre site was donated to the county more than 20 years ago for a future park site. It is undeveloped, is wooded and is in the 100-year flood plain of the Big River.
“Because it’s in the flood plain, there’s not a lot we can do to develop a (full-service) park there. But it will be a good use for the RC people,” he said.
Pigg said the major work to open the park will be clearing trees.
“It’s not so much a financial issue as it is a labor issue,” he said. “We’re hoping to recruit some volunteers with equipment to help. How soon can it get done? The right volunteers with the right equipment can make a big dent in a hurry.
“It’s possible we could find someone – a logger – who would pay the county to harvest the trees, then we could use the proceeds toward the park. But it’s all very preliminary at this point.”
He said the entire site will not have to be cleared.
“They’ll need a runway (for the planes and drones), but they can fly them over treetops,” Pigg said. “But because it’s in a flood plain, it will have to be grass, rather than asphalt. There’s also been some talk about wanting some kind of a track (for RC cars and other vehicles).”
He said he’s been in contact with RC enthusiasts, and hopes to recruit them both as volunteer labor and to help draw up the rules concerning the use of the park once it gets closer to completion.
“They’ll understand what needs to be in a set of rules – how many planes can be in the air at one time, those kinds of issues. This is their thing. It will be best if they set down the best ways to use it,” he said. “St. Louis County and St. Charles County have rules for their parks, so that will be a good place to start.”
Pigg said his office also will have to consult with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for guidelines on development near the banks of the Big River.
“I don’t know the rules on that, but they will,” he said. “I don’t think we’ll be clearing trees all the way to the river line; my guess is they’ll want us to keep 30 or 40 feet away. And that’s OK – we want to be good stewards of the property and not cause erosion. While we won’t stop people from going down to the river, we want this park to be dedicated to a single purpose.”
Pigg said the department’s approach will be minimalist when it comes to development.
“I don’t know that we can even put a restroom there, since it’s in the flood plain,” he said. “We won’t be putting playground equipment in or things like that. That would defeat the purpose of having a site devoted specifically for RC devices and open up the safety issues that we’ve been trying to avoid.”
Last fall, Pigg asked the Jefferson County Council to approve a revised set of rules for county parks that included a ban on RC devices (except for boats) because of safety concerns.
After a group of RC enthusiasts protested, Pigg agreed on revisions, but the County Council passed an amended set of rules that removed the ban completely.
Pigg said he continued speaking with the group of RC users to find ways to address the problems and find a place for them to operate their devices.
“It’s been a good, open, back-and-forth dialogue,” Pigg said. “I think this is a good compromise.”
He said it’s too early in the process to determine what rules might be put into place to regulate RC device usage in other county parks once River Bend is open.
“We’ll be talking to the RC folks, of course, and we’ll look a lot at what our neighbors – St. Louis County and St. Charles County – are doing,” Pigg said. “Understand that the federal government doesn’t allow them at all in national parks.”