Hiedie Whitman, manager of the Indian Lake and Kiser Lake state parks, was the guest speaker Tuesday, April 16 at the Legislative Impact meeting at Mary Rutan Health Center, 1134 N. Main St.
The Logan County Chamber of Commerce organizes and hosts the monthly meetings at various locations around the county.
Whitman, who has served the state park system for the past 29 summers — the last four in her present position — touched on several topics such as park revenue and statistics, tornado recovery, eclipse handling, on-going algae and vegetation removal efforts at Indian Lake as well as current and future park projects.
“I think we rank Number One,” Whitman said, in telling attendees Indian Lake State Park with an annual revenue of about $2 million currently ranks third in the state behind Hocking Hills and Mohican state parks.
ILSP’s revenue comes from several sources like the 500 state-owned boat docks and 6,000 private ones that bring in about $687,000 annually, she noted.
There are 460 campsites — 360 primitive and 100 full hook-up sites — that generate about $187,000 yearly along with the camp store that makes around $67,000.
The park manager relayed there is a good symbiotic relationship between the park and the businesses and private home owners around the lake, especially with hosting things like fishing tournaments and other events on state-owned park land and water.
Of the approximately 182 businesses in the Indian Lake region, some 40 percent are either on the water or within a mile of it, she said.
Whitman said she feels fortunate to work at ILSP because of the strong backing the park gets from the community to deal with the challenges like handling damage from the March 14 tornado and ongoing efforts to combat vegetation growth in the lake.
Fox Island was the area hardest hit by the tornado, the park manger said.
But fortunately the park’s $350,000 playground and shelter house on the island were largely unscathed, she said, and remain closed temporarily while park staff ensures the playground is safe to use.
Whitman said state construction and dredge crews, totaling about 20, worked for two weeks solid to remove debris from the lake. Lake debris removal efforts are expected to continue through the summer, she noted.
Boaters who encounter debris in the water are encouraged to contact the park office at (937) 843-2717 to share its location so it can be removed. Many smart phones have a compass feature which can provide longitude and latitude coordinates to “tag” debris and make finding its location easier.
She was impressed with the magnitude of volunteer efforts, like volunteers from an area prison who spent two weeks here helping clean up debris.
Asked if the park does water testing for swimming safety, Whitman said tests are conducted weekly starting around Memorial Day and there is signage at the boat ramps about precautions concerning debris.
“I feel like we’re in a better place (today),” Whitman said about the on-going three-year effort to remove and control harmful algae and other vegetation issues.
Dr. Jennifer Jones who holds a Ph.D. in water resource management from Michigan State University and is a certified professional watershed manager has been assisting the park with Indian Lake’s water problems.
The waters of Indian Lake have been vastly improved since Dr. Jones survey of the lake in May 2023 that stated it was” turbid, with low water clarity, abundant algae, and actively growing aquatic vegetation.
Some 900 acres of the were sprayed last year and four harvesters were used by the park to remove invasive Curly-Leaf Pondweed and Coontails.
Dr. Jones provided an update via YouTube on the status of vegetation issues at the lake earlier this week.
Whitman praised the park staff of four full-time employees and as many as 55 seasonal ones. Park staff was able to get everything but some mowing done a full month before the normal season starts following the tornado to have the park ready for eclipse viewers.
The campsite was completely full and she roughly estimates 6,000 to 8,000 people utilized the park or the lake during the eclipse event.
She said the park hopes to have a new CD3 boat cleaning station in place by Memorial Day at one of the boat ramps so out-of-area boaters can clean off their vessels before entering and leaving the lake to help prevent contamination from other bodies of water.
A new nature center for youth is being built at the park and it has partnered with Honda to plant some 50 new trees on park grounds in the last two years.
Some projects in the works include the creation of a $25,000 sensory park that would allow children to play with wind chimes and other sensory devices and an H2O project that will address storm water runoff and drainage issues and create some wetlands at the park.
The park head also said she’s looking forward to doing some fun events to celebrate the Ohio Department of Natural Resource’s 75th anniversary this year with some fun events at the park.