Maintenance team prepares facilities for happy campers

Every year, around two million people venture out to Nolin River Lake in Bee Spring, Kentucky. Some go fishing or boating, others come for hiking or biking, but regardless, many people stay for camping. Nolin River Lake supports three different locations: Dog Creek, Moutardier, and Wax campgrounds, offering over 300 campsites.

But long before any campers set foot on the grounds, the Nolin River Lake maintenance crew begins preparations in early spring.

“We will clean the pads off and repair any erosion or damage that is done to them,” said Kerry Sanders, maintenance work leader. “We also test the water and electric hookups to make sure all is good to go. If we have some trees that are hazardous, we remove those and clean them up.”

Sanders has been with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for 19 years and leads a crew of three other maintenance mechanics: Mark West, David Anderson and Clay Deweese.

Nolin River Lake Project Manager, Deryck Rodgers, says the team’s contributions are invaluable.

“For a lot of people, visiting a USACE recreation facility is their only interaction with our agency,” Rodgers said. “This crew works hard to make sure that these experiences are positive. They don’t get a lot of attention from the public for the work that they do, but the hard work that they put in each day is vital to those positive experiences. The Louisville District and our visitors are blessed to have crews like this supporting our missions.”

During the summer, they focus on the campers' needs, including making repairs as needed, fixing circuit breakers that fail and water hydrants that need attention. The team also continues maintaining Nolin River Lake’s flood risk management facilities, such as the control tower.

By late October, the campgrounds close, and they prepare the sites for winter while taking on larger repair projects such as water line installs.

“For the shower houses and bathrooms, we will drain those down and winterize them and keep them from freezing,” Sanders said. “We also turn off the heat and let them sit. Then in the spring, we go in, put everything back together and flush everything out, we replace any needed parts, and get them ready for the visitors.”

This process repeats yearly in anticipation of the millions of visitors who spend their summer days at Nolin River Lake.

Sanders and his team continue to improve and keep the campgrounds running. They also agreed that working for USACE has its perks.

“Its good benefits, good people to work with, and working on the lake you get to out of the office, and you work at one of the most beautiful places in the state, it has definitely got its pluses,” Sanders said.