WESTLOCK – The Town of Westlock’s Mountie Park Campground has had a banner 2022 and will come close to generating close to $49,000 in revenues, roughly 25 per cent more than what was originally budgeted.
Town community services director Gerry Murphy told councillors at their Sept. 12 meeting that they had projected that the campground would make $37,000 this year but have counted receipts of $46,000 so far and may even hit $48,000 or $49,000. Four-hundred-and-eight camping sites were booked throughout the month of August, while they’ve got 122 site bookings for September. The campground opened during the May long weekend and is tentatively slated to close Oct 10.
In a follow-up interview Sept. 14, Murphy said the elimination of the COVID-19 restrictions and the return of big events like the Blue Suede Music Festival, Westlock and District Agricultural Fair and Canada Day has led to jump in numbers.
“I don’t know if we were too conservative as we budgeted $37,000 for revenue and we’ve blown it out of the park — last time I checked we were at $46,000 and we might even make $48,000 or $49,000 by the time the season comes to a close,” said Murphy, noting that the majority of the people who stay at Mountie Park most years are “out-of-town workers.”
“But as far as this year, the majority of the increase at Mountie Park can be attributed to the events that were held in Westlock this year like the fair and the Blue Suede festival which were right across the road.”
Murphy said the campground provides full services to campers for the Victoria and Labour Day long weekends in May and August, then run a “shoulder season” in-between which includes power service to the stalls, but no water or sewer.
