
The path forward for the Tecopa Hot Springs Campground and Pools came into sharper focus this week as Inyo County officials fielded questions from prospective operators during a Bidder’s Conference held at the Tecopa Community Center. Many questions were answered, offering new insights into what bidders can and should include in their proposals — and what support the County may provide.
Fielding questions at the Bidder’s Conference were Meaghan McCamman, Deputy County Administrator; Will Wadelton, Inyo County’s 5th District Supervisor; and representatives from Inyo County’s Department of Water and Power (DWP), all on hand to clarify expectations, address community concerns, and outline the County’s willingness to partner on improvements where possible.
The meeting mostly drew local residents, many of whom expressed consternation over the County’s termination of the former concessionaire rather than asking questions about the RFP. However, among the attendees was Lance Hamrick, a commercial real estate professional from Las Vegas, who, according to LinkedIn, has decades of experience in retail and commercial property transactions. Hamrick brought his wife, dog and contractor, and was one of the more outspoken participants, asking several questions, including how the County plans to define who qualifies as a local for required resident discounts.
When asked how to define local residency for potential discounts to use the bathhouse, the County confirmed it could be based on license address or zip code. That choice would have to be part of proposal, not instituted by the county. That could be a tough one to swallow for folks who may live local but have out of state licenses.
New pricing rates for visiting the baths remains flexible. As McCamman noted, “no reason they couldn’t change as part of the proposal submission.” New price rates were requested by the last concessionaire and approved by the Inyo County Board of Supervisors for the 2024–2025 season.
In a notable shift from the County’s earlier position that all capital improvements would be the concessionaire’s responsibility, McCamman clarified that the County is open to collaborating where bidders cannot invest alone: “Our expectation for the RFP is that you lay out the vision you think is possible and the county will make investments.”
She also addressed a local rumor about the cost of potential upgrades to the site: “I don’t know where the $400,000 figure is coming from”— this number appears to have come from the former concessionaire, as previously reported here, not any formal County estimate.
McCamman emphasized that County support is not hypothetical: “Over the last two concessionaires we have had, the county has made investments,” she said, pointing to the enhanced sewer lagoon, paid for by the county, for which the concessionaire was collecting RV dump fees. “We do actually spend quite a bit of money supporting this place.”
However, McCamman later clarified that the County does not have a million dollars to invest in the campground and requires a concessionaire partnership in order to make the necessary improvements to keep it running.
Ahead of the new operating season, the County is already stepping in to handle critical work. Before a new concessionaire arrives, the County will complete electrical upgrades, including a revamped main panel by the sewer pond and two new electrical poles donated and installed by Inyo County DWP to raise power lines above flood-prone ground. All electrical work will be done by October at the County’s expense.
County officials reiterated their openness to creative proposals: nothing is off the table, they said — bidders are encouraged to be bold and the County will respond with financial, logistical, and “moral” support where feasible.
However, whether the campground will open as usual in October if no qualified bidder comes forward remains uncertain. When asked about this contingency, McCamman said: “We are not there yet. I don’t know what that’s going to look like. It is my great hope that we get some good bids coming in. What I will say is, one of the reasons we held this bidder’s conference right off the bat, before we held community meetings, is because we know we have an October deadline to find a successful bidder, to get them in here and get this place back open.”
When asked if the County would commit to opening the baths themselves, she confirmed there is currently no commitment from the county to open the baths directly.
The session also surfaced long-simmering local tensions. One resident raised an accusation that this website had played a behind-the-scenes role in the prior concessionaire’s contract cancellation — a rumor the County moved quickly to dispel.
“This has been in the works for a long time,” McCamman responded. “I mean, we came out here and had a walk through with the last concessionaire at the end of 2023 I want to say; and we talked about all the things that were in the lease that were not getting done, and told him that we were serious that they needed to start getting done, and how he needed to change course and what the milestones were going to be, and sent that over to him. So this has been in the works.”
She emphasized that if anything, it was the county that kept on giving the former concessionaire more chances to comply, over many years. She continued, “This is a contractual relationship between the county and the company that was running this. That part of our contract is not really a community thing, I’m not going to go out and say ‘Tecopa, Paul is doing XYZ.’ It’s inappropriate and we wouldn’t do that.
“We had a contractual relationship with a concessionaire. It said exactly what was going to happen if they broke their word in that contract and that’s what happened and we gave them many, many, many chances over several years and then we decided to pull the plug. All of our information and back and forth with the concessionaire is public and has been requested through the public records request process so any one of you can also access that information and it is freely available. We have already collated and sent it out and that’s how that information is getting out, because everything Inyo is completely transparent. Feel free to go to the Inyo county website if you want to make a public records request or if you want to see the volume of information and the letters that have gone back and forth with the concessionaire.”
In a final reminder that success will likely hinge on local trust and insight, local hospitality entrepreneur Cynthia Kienitz shared an encouraging note about the community’s resilience and potential: “We need someone who understands the community.”
Whether the next operator will rise to meet that bar remains to be seen. For now, the County’s message is clear: bring your vision, and they may just meet you halfway.
For more details or to request the full RFP, visit procurement.opengov.com/portal/countyofinyoca
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