After a major make-over, a popular state park in eastern Iowa is ready to open on time in the spring. Last week, staff of the Maquoketa Caves State Park, and a park friends group, held a public meeting to talk about the improvements.
Iowa DNR Natural Resources Technician Ryland Richards says the park was closed for four months last year.
"The reason we shut down and did all the work was just because a lot of the facilities and stuff were getting old and outdated, so we wanted to upgrade stuff."
Richards says they re-built the road, updated the campground, installed new lights, and re-built all the wooden boardwalks.
And when the park finally re-opened last August, people flooded in for the rest of the season - through mid-October. He says Maquoketa Caves State Park averages 350,000 visitors a year, with about 1,500 a day on weekends, April through October.
