FAIRFIELD — A big change is afoot at Jefferson County Park in Fairfield, with a new campground planned for the park that will be accessed from Key Boulevard.

Jefferson County Conservation Director Shawn Morrissey said the rest of this year will be spent planning for the expansion, which will include a 14-stall campground on what is now 40 acres of farm ground east of the park. The new 10-acre campground will be called Jefferson County Prairie Ridge Campground, and was made possible after the conservation department learned it had received a $450,000 grant from the state of Iowa, which will cover about 39 percent of the project’s cost of about $1.17 million.

Morrissey said construction won’t begin until 2024, and that he hopes the park can open in the middle of 2025.

“It’s a bare crop field right now, and we’ve got to put in roads, water, sewer and electric,” Morrissey said.

Morrissey said the conservation board developed a master plan for Jefferson County Park that included more campground, because that’s one thing that users of the park have been asking for in recent years.

“A lot of weekends, our campground is full and congested,” Morrissey said.

In the wake of the COVID pandemic, Congress passed the American Rescue Plan Act, which allocated money to states, counties and cities. Morrissey said the county elected to devote some of its ARPA funds toward this project, and with the help of Visit Fairfield’s Terry Baker and Grow Fairfield’s Joshua Laraby, the conservation board applied for and won a Destination Iowa grant. Those grants are designed to attract people to visit and live in rural Iowa.

“They told me, ‘Shawn, you’ve got all these projects, you should apply for this,’” Morrissey said. “It was a 60-40 match grant, and the supervisors agreed they’d contribute 60 percent of the cost. We found out on March 9 that we were successful.”

Morrissey said the most costly part of the project is the construction of the new road off Key Boulevard and into the new park. He said, eventually, the conservation board wants to build a road that will connect the existing campground to this new campground, but that’s not part of this project.

“In these first few years, it won’t be connected,” he said. “This will be a stand-alone campground, and it will be meant for big motor homes. They’ll have access to sewer, electricity and water, and be overlooking a pond and 3-4 acre prairie on the east side.”

Morrissey said that the popularity of camping has exploded in recent years, owing to the pandemic since it could be done safely outdoors.

The conservation board’s master plan calls for two four-season cabins and a multiuse lodge and shelter, but those pieces are not funded yet.

“I’ve been here 27 years, and I’d say it could be another 10-20 years before those ideas are implemented, unless we get a huge influx of money,” Morrissey said.

Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com