The Marthasville Board of Aldermen declined to revisit a proposal to develop an RV park in the city at their Wednesday, July 15 meeting.

Mayor David Lange said he recently spoke with Missouri Department of Natural Resources (DNR) officials, who remained supportive of the project. While DNR understands that bids received in June, ranging from $1.29 million and $1.82 million, “were extremely high compared to what our original budget was,” Lange said, out of more than two dozen applications, the Marthasville project was among those that state officials viewed most favorably.

“They really liked our project, and I can understand why,” Lange said. “It’s right next to their state park.”

Alderman Leo Meyer, however, who made the motion last month to discontinue preliminary work on the project, said his opinion hasn’t changed.

The city acquired the Wessel Park property, site of the proposed RV park, following 1995 flooding. The property is located in a floodplain and there is not much it can be used for other than a campground, Mayor Lange and Alderman Nick Lange said.

In 2021, the city set aside $150,000 for park projects “including a basketball court under construction at City Park and a planned RV campground at Wessel Park,” according to previous Record reporting.

The city received a $375,000 Missouri Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) matching grant in August 2025 to help pay for the project, but also had to significantly scale down the proposal from its original plan.

The city initially hoped to create an RV park with 21 RV parking spots, plus parking for cars and a primitive camping area.

“There was going to be a lot of infrastructure, a lot of plumbing, a lot of water, a lot of electric,” Nick Lange said.

The plan was later downsized to include only three RV parking spots, along with primitive camping. 

Grant requirements included that the RV park needed a shower facility. Alderman Lange noted that the nearby Marthasville Community Club has showers that RV park users could use, and the city has a lift station across the street where they could dump waste. 

He said other funding sources, such as the Marthasville Area Chamber of Commerce or RV-related groups, could possibly be tapped to help pay for the project. He made a motion to have Cochran Engineering reach out to state officials to discuss reducing the scope of the RV park plan, without committing to re-bid the project, but the motion died for lack of a second.

Noting that the city likely spent $70,000 to 80,000 on preliminary engineering for the project, Mayor Lange said an RV park could be “a win-win for the city, the county, the state, the whole region” and “a revenue generator,” adding that he knows several residents who take their RVs to other nearby communities for weekend trips.

“Hermann makes a bunch of money off of people like that, and I don’t see how we couldn’t do the same thing,” he said.

Although Alderman Meyer said the city had other more urgent priorities such as street repairs, Lange noted that the LWCF grant would only apply to the RV park project. He said by ending the project the city was “throwing a $375,000 grant out the window” that it worked hard for five years to get.

Aldermen Meyer and Chris DeVore were not persuaded by Mayor Lange’s argument. Alderman Gary Dixon was not at the meeting.

“I don’t think downsizing the project is going to make it work,” DeVore said. “With only three RV sites, I don’t think it makes the project even worth it.”