Special Needs Road Improvements

The Camp Eastman Development Association is continually looking for ways to match camp improvement projects with funding and discounted materials and labor. CEDA used this successful formula by securing generous grants from the Des Moines County Special Needs Foundation and Catfish Bend Casino designated to further improve the road system at Camp Eastman.
In 2007, CEDA proposed to the Camp Committee a plan improve the accessibility to camp facilities by extending the blacktop from the intersection in front of Eastman Lodge to Wrens Nest, the campsite utilized by special needs groups. CEDA submitted grant proposals to Catfish Bend and the Des Moines County Special Needs Foundation and, after receiving word that the grants had been awarded, contracted with the W.L. Miller Company of Hamilton, Illinois to grade the road and lay the blacktop. Work on the section of road was done during the month of June in between Cub Camp sessions.
2011 saw improvements to another section of Camp Eastman's main road. In 2010 CEDA funded a road grating and graveling project to improve drainage and fill in several major potholes in the road in front of Burg Hall. In the fall of 2011, the same section of road was blacktopped. The cost of the two projects, around twenty thousand dollars, was funded by generous donations to CEDA.