Busy Palmetto Island State Park in Vermilion Parish in 2015 despite budget cuts

While on paper, 2015 was a great year for Palmetto Island State Park based on the attendance numbers.
Marcelle Guidry, the park manager, said this was the busiest the park has been since opening five years ago. That is the good news for 2015. The park ranked in the Top 10 visited Louisiana parks.
During its first couple of years of being open, Guidry said many campers from south Louisiana visited the park. This past year, more campers from out of state stayed at the park.
While the park was busy, it was also operating with a skeleton crew the entire year.
At the start of 2015, Palmetto Island Park lost half of its employees due to budget cuts. At the end of 2014, the staff at the park was up to 12 people. Today, it is down to six. The state cut its seasonal workers.
“We are really under staffed,” said Guidry. “Fortunately, we are getting some good volunteers.”
The use of “camp hosts” and “Friends of Palmetto State Park” have helped fill the void left by laid off workers.
Camp Hosts are campers from the United States who live at state parks and are not charged for their camp site. In return, they help clean the cabins in the park.
In the past, Palmetto Island State Park has had two “camp host” families living in the park. This past year, Guidry added a third “camp host” to help with the upkeep of the park.
Friends of Palmetto Island State Park is local people who help the park operate. They mow the grass and make repairs.
The park lost one of two maintenance workers in 2015.
“Without volunteers, we could not keep the park’s standards up,” she said.
Guidry has high hopes things will improve in 2016 because of the new Louisiana governor and Lt. governor.
“I heard good things,” she said. “I heard the new Lt. governor is in support of state parks.”
In the meantime, the park will continue to do its best to provide campers with a first-class camping experience 365 days out of the year.