Friends and Neighbors: Matsutani elated to return to his outdoor Nebraska roots

As the summer warms up, Kent Matsutani hopes to be able to replace the toilet paper more often in the Oliver Reservoir restrooms.

Matsutani, who recently retired from the National Resources Conservation Service, spends four days a week at the site as summer help employed by the South Platte Natural Resources District. During his first 50 days on the job, he has done everything from cleaning, mowing and more to make the park a more useful and friendly place to those who use it.

"I enjoy this," he said. "Even though, with all the rain and everything, it's been wonderful to talk to a lot of the campers that have been coming out here. And a lot of them are ones that come every year and just a matter of using the environment the right way and picking up after themselves. It's been nice to interact with a lot of them."

Although it is his first time working at Oliver, Matsutani is very familiar with the area. Before his retirement, Matsutani spent 37 years with the NRCS, with 25 of those years in Kimball, Cheyenne and Deuel counties. He worked five years for the agency in Hawaii and has also spent time in Washington, D.C., working on conservation portions of the farm bill.

After spending the past seven years at the group's information technology center in Fort Collins, Colo., Matsutani is elated to get back to his roots outdoor roots.

"I talked to Galen (Wittrock with the SPNRD) about just having fun to do this summer and giving me a chance to do some fishing and just be in the outdoors like I used to," he said.

Matsutani's Nebraska roots run deep. He grew up on a farm near Hershey.

"I grew up there milking cows and working on the farm," he said. "We had irrigated corn that my dad had. We milked cows and had chickens and pigs, did sugar beets. We had the whole realm in that little area."

That rural life carried onto his career with NRCS.

"It's always been one of my passions, conservation," Matsutani said. "Being able to see, especially the trees that I planted, grow. I don't know if you've seen some of the windbreaks around here, but that's some of the work that I've helped on, 30 years ago now when I first came over here."

That work has now morphed into his work at Oliver. The spring cleaning started for Matsutani in the reservoir's restrooms, where he cleaned them up to get ready for the summer. He has also been busy mowing and is now battling noxious weeds in the area. He said volunteers have helped with tree trimming and trash pick up. The SPNRD has also put out about 10 new grills throughout the park and repaired picnic tables this spring. They hoped to put bouies out in the lake last Wednesday, but wind and rain prevented them from doing that. They hope to have them out in the near future. Matsutani said the handicapped dock also needs painting, and the beach area needs to be in better shape.

"There's a lot of things that we've still got to work on," he said.

Electricity is available at both shelters on site now. The shelters are available on a first come, first serve basis, although Matsutani said they may be reserved for things such as class reunions or other events.

One of the things coming up in the future include a walking trail around most of the lake. Matsutani hopes to start marking out an area for a walking trail by the end of the summer.

Having someone onsite almost every day helps in a variety of ways, Matsutani said. He is there four days a week, while Randy Gunn is onsite a couple days each week.

"I think it's pretty helpful in terms of vandalism and a lot of abuse on the property," Matsutani said. "I've talked to a couple of them that have appreciated the presence here and knowing that when they're camping, there's somebody around to at least monitor some of the actions that are going on. I just hope that we can maintain that presence so that people are a lot more secure."

Having someone monitor the site does more than keep things secure. Matsutani said he was surprised by the number of people who use the reservoir during the day.

"I was surprised in terms of day use, the number of people that come out here just to park and eat or just take a nap at lunchtime," he said. "You see about a dozen people that just come in and use the facilities and park at one of the sites and then they're gone by an hour or two."

He said the large turnaround area also makes it easier for those who are working on the road construction near Bushnell to stop in and enjoy the site as well.

One of the things that makes the site so attractive is that there is no charge to use it, whether camping, fishing or just enjoying the view. Donations are accepted, both onsite and through an account at Points West Community Bank in Kimball.

"You look at the view and the overall environment here, it's pretty nice," Matsutani said. "You can't (beat it)."

Matsutani hopes the improvements, coupled with warmer weather, brings more people out to take advantage of Oliver - even if it means replacing the toilet more often.

"I'm hoping that it's utilized a little more where we can replace the toilet paper a lot more often," Matsutani said with a smile.