HOMOSASSA — Even in the middle of a sweltering Wednesday in August, the sparkling turquoise waters of the Chassahowitzka River ferried kayakers and paddle-boarders deep into its jungly embrace.
The river is a quieter, more locally known secret compared to other, more tourist-centric springs. It bears signs of an older Florida, where parking fees are still paid on the honor system. For years, the Chassahowitzka River Campground has been the only place for out-of-towners to sleep overnight near the river, unfurling their tents under a canopy of pines and palms.
When the Southwest Florida Water Management District, a state government body that owns the campground, announced it would be closing it this fall for a potential sale, many residents were caught off guard. So were the people who manage the campground, who had learned just days earlier that their contract with the district wasn’t being renewed. They now need to cancel campers’ reservations and haul out all equipment by the end of September.
“They blew us out of the water,” said Heather Blauer, the campground’s property supervisor. She said more than 100 people have been calling each day, asking about the future of the campground. She has few answers to give.
The official reason for the closure, according to the district, is the potentially costly repairs to the campground store and a wooden deck that were heavily damaged by Hurricane Helene. Storm data show water surged 8.5 feet above a typical high tide at the mouth of the river the night of the hurricane, sending swelling water toward the campground.
Nearly a year later, the wooden store where campers could once buy fishing tackle and cold water sits fenced off and vacant. One estimate, provided to the Tampa Bay Times by the water district, showed repairing the dock would cost more than $165,000. Repairs to the store add more, with mold remediation alone estimated at more than $28,000.
The building and dock pose a public safety risk, the district said in its social media post announcing the closure, and restoring the campground “is not an effective way to utilize taxpayer dollars.”
But despite the closed store, the campground has been humming along as usual. The boat ramp is swarmed on weekends. Visitors often struggle to find parking. And Dennis Blauer, the camp’s general manager (and Heather’s father), converted his tool shed into a working office where staff mark down reservations, take payments and field questions from campers.
The situation has left the Blauer family, who have managed the property for more than a decade, wondering why the closed store and dock would warrant shutting down the whole operation.
The water management district has said it is waiting for further damage assessments before making a final decision on a sale. Butthe district already sent out property appraisers Aug. 11 to assess the value of the land.
Campers who booked reservations after the Oct. 1 closing date want answers, too — and their money back. Staff told one woman who paid nearly $250 for four nights of camping in November that she wouldn’t be refunded until after the “campground sale is finalized,” emails show.
State Rep. J.J. Grow, a Republican from Inverness, said he met with the district Friday and they briefed him on the storm damage at the campground.
“I think (they were) leaning a little bit toward not wanting to be in the campground business,” Grow said. “Between the damage and not wanting to deal with the campground anymore, they thought about the potential of surplussing the land and being able to sell it — and I am 100% not in favor of that. I think it’s a unique piece of property.”
Grow said his goal is to work with the district and the state to reach an agreement where the property could be leased to the county for $1 a year, and the county could fund storm repairs and manage the campground.
“My constituents love that campground,” Grow said. “I’m against it being sold.”
Facing an increase in questions from locals, the Citrus County commission is also scrambling for answers. In an email shared with the Times, Commissioner Rebecca Bays asked the county administrator to set up a meeting with the water management district. She also asked what the sale process would look like, and whether she could review any comprehensive cost analyses of the hurricane damage.
The idea of losing the campground has enraged Citrus County locals, who plan to protest Sept. 6 in the Publix parking lot near the site. One online petition has more than 2,000 signatures, and camp staff on Wednesday asked kayakers to sign their names to another one before they dropped their boats into the water.
Harlie Bailey, 32, usually avoids public protests but plans to join this one. She and her family spend half the year living in their RV in the campground, homeschooling their kids with lessons spent outside on camp chairs. Her husband, Robert, works nights as a mechanic for road-paving equipment, watching as development expands. They treasure living in a place where the intrusions of the city fall away.
The family sometimes take their metal skiff out on the river after sundown, scooping up blue crabs that shine like diamonds in the water.
“This place means home to me,” Harlie Bailey said. Their move-out date has now been pushed up by a month, and they don’t know when they’ll be back.
If a sale does go through, it’s unclear what the 40 acres will become.
It’s zoned as conservation land, which limits its future uses to prohibit high-density development. The boat dock and parking lot, which after a legal dispute were both determined to belong to Citrus County, will remain operational.
Dennis Blauer said all signs point to the land no longer being used as a campground — like 10 staff members being let go and the quick deadline to haul out all equipment, including their roughly 65 rental kayaks.
The water management district has said thereare no restrictions on who could buy the property, though a sale would have to be approved by the district’s governing board. In its announcement of a potential sale, the water district argued that the campground is not used for conservation purposes. State law typically requires officials to determine the land is not needed for conservation before it can be sold off by the government, though the procedure is less clear when it comes to land owned by water management districts.
Those who love the campground disagree with the district’s stance that the campground is not used for conservation, saying that letting people enjoy nature helps teach them to protect it.
Heather Blauer said the future preservation of the land is more important to her than their jobs.
“More than anything, the land and the river should always be open to the people,” she said. “If it took the ending of us for the betterment of the river, so be it. As long as I know it’s going to remain the same and not be developed.”
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