COUNTY PARKS FEES ON THE HORIZON?
Thursday, August 18th, 2005 -- 6:22 AM
It may soon cost you to use Clark County parks and boat landings. The Forestry and Parks committee spent nearly two hours discussing the possible implementation of a park entrance fee at a meeting Tuesday night.Other area counties ? notably Jackson and Eau Claire ? have some form of entrance fee for their county parks. Faced with increasingly tight budgets, the committee is looking at entrance fees as a way to generate revenue.
The committee passed a motion ordering continued study of the idea. While nothing is set in stone, the committee is looking at utilizing self-registration stations at most of the county-run parks and all of the county-maintained boat landings. Daily passes would likely cost $3 per vehicle; season long passes would cost $20 per vehicle.
The committee is also discussing charging $10 per ATV, but ATVs would only need a pass if they stop and utilize a county park, not if they?re just passing through.
Forestry and Parks director Mark Heil says more analysis is necessary. There are still questions surrounding enforcement of any park fee program. The committee will likely discuss and possibly act on the idea at their September 13th meeting.
--The committee raised the standing timber firewood permit fee from $15 to $25 per cord to bring it more in line with the market value of the timber. The ?clean-up? permit remains $20.
--The committee denied a proposal from Discover Wisconsin. The Wisconsin tourism program had proposed including Clark County in a special ATV-emphasis TV program to be shot later this year. It would have featured Clark, Jackson, Adams and Iron counties and would have aired 3 times over the next two years. The county would have had to pay the $7,500 production costs. In denying the proposal, Heil said the committee decided that it may be better suited for a different agency.
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