I think people who visit parks want up-to-date facilities. If they don't find that, they go someplace else. That, I think, is why I am seeing more people going to Prairie Creek Park.

We've repaired the cracks and they keep cracking.

We've got to do something. Fowler Park has the Pioneer Village and camping on the lake, which was its drawing card. Now it's not. If you watch most campers today, they have modern, up-to-date equipment. It's not bringing a tent and roughing it. Prairie Creek with electrical hookups has no primitive sites, like Fowler or Hawthorn.

Fowler Park is already more than $6,200 below last year.

People always ask what he taught me. I don't go too deep into it. We worked. We didn't visit too much outside of work. Some things that go unnoticed are just better off unsaid. That takes nothing away from anybody. He's a great guy. He's a great inspiration. He's done it. He's been successful.

A lot of people would rather tour sewers than visit their cousins.