Trailer owners who rent spaces at the Alcova Trailer Park told Natrona County commissioners on Tuesday to remove a word from a proposed lease they say threatens their ability to recover their improvements of their summer homes.

"I would like to see 'irrevocable' taken out," John Shore said at a commission work session.

The meeting marked the next step to resolve issues about the trailer park, which is on land owned by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and managed by Natrona County under an agreement set to expire in 2016.

The park began a half-century ago as a place for overnight camping, and has evolved into a community of 155 spaces with trailers whose owners have spent thousands of dollars to maintain, some of them told commissioners.

Trailer owners sign one-year leases to secure one of the 155 spaces, and pay $2,000 a year for the privilege.

Owners who decide to not renew their leases must inform the county, setting in motion a lottery system in which the commission selects the names of five potential lessees for each lot and the trailer owners can negotiate a selling price, according to the draft lease.

If the owner cannot reach an agreement to sell, the first name drawn has the right to lease the lot and the existing lessee must remove the trailer from the space, according to the draft.

But a sentence in the draft lease - "The termination notification is irrevocable" - puts trailer owners in a bind, Shore and others told commissioners.

"You're giving the purchaser, the new lessee, an advantage over us," Jack Bastain said.

If owners can't get an acceptable price, the county should allow them to rescind their termination notification, Bastain said. "If we don't have a buyer, we ought to be able to get off."

However, the Bureau of Reclamation maintains people who have private property on public land should not be able to profit from a sale, commissioner Barb Peryam told trailer owners.

"Irrevocable" guarantees the lottery system will be fair, and the Bureau of Reclamation insists on this language, Commission Chairman Rob Hendry said.

Some of those at the trailer park have told commissioners about some public land lessees selling their trailers at inflated prices, Peryam said.

Rich Jamieson agreed "irrevocable" should go, saying it would affect the county's relationship with the Bureau of Reclamation and it wouldn't cause any trailer owner to profit.

"When the free market isn't working, the owner should have the opportunity to take it off the market," Jamieson said.

He also urged the commissioners to develop a longterm plan for the Alcova and Pathfinder areas to make the reservoirs even more popular than they are now.

Peryam agreed.

The more Natrona County residents are aware of the trailer park the more it will lead to more competition for the leased spaces, she said. "Once we have that, we will have people tripping over each other to buy your trailer."

Reach Tom Morton at (307) 266-0592, or at Tom.Morton@trib.com.