Park Board passes new permit fees

The Hill County Park Board voted for a substantial increase in Beaver Creek Park permit fees at their monthly meeting Tuesday, and announced that they are increasing their efforts to seek financial support for the construction of a new Beaver Lodge at Camp Kiwanis.

Board member Pam Wilson, who took the lead on restructuring the permit prices, said the committee set up to recommend new prices agreed to the increases she proposed, with the exception of the price of the annual use permit, so they didn't give a specific recommendation there.

The board has been discussing raising permit prices for the past few months, with the board in agreement that after five years of inflation, they need to raise their prices.

"(Inflation is) going up, we've gotta go up," Wilson said, and other board members agreed.

The specifics of how has been less agreed upon.

Park Superintendent Chad Edgar said the committee agreed on most of the proposed fees, but split on whether to increase the price of normal annual use permits from $55 to $80 or to $95, with some concerned that the latter was too steep.

Board member Lou Hagener said he is concerned that $95 is too pricey for people who use the park sporadically throughout the years, but may be too cheap for campers who use the park for long stretches.

Hageners said people who may use the park for part of a day, for something like a picnic many times a year, may get scared off by that price, or decide to risk using the park without a permit, trusting they won't get caught.

Edgar said there are fines for using the park without a permit in that way, but inevitably some fall through the cracks.

He said prices should be high enough to sustain the park and what it needs, but reasonable enough that people voluntarily pay it.

Wilson said she wouldn't support the $80 price because she thinks it is too low, and she thinks that will be evident to people if they are educated on how much that price gets them.

She said $95 covers 6.5 days of single permits, so it has paid for itself after only seven days, and they are still charging very little compared to other similar parks, and once they see that, they will be willing to pay..

"People don't understand that," she said. ""I don't think we're asking that much."

Hagener proposed the possibility of making two separate kinds of annual permits for camping use vs. non-camping use, but Edgar said that would introduce serious complications to enforcement.

Board member and Hill County Commissioner Sheri Williams said if these permits were for a single person she might agree, but they are for a household, which makes a big difference.

Fellow board member and commissioner Mark Peterson proposed a middle ground of $90 but it didn't go anywhere.

A motion was made to adopt the increase to $80, but it failed 2-3.

A motion was then made to adopt the $95 fee, which passed.

The other fees, $60 for golden age annual use, $15 for one-day use, $140.40 per night for reserve sites, $432 for Friday to Sunday reservations, and $648 for Holiday weekend plus one day use, were all approved without objection.

During the meeting Board Chair Jeff Jensen said that the board has received an estimate for their proposed replacement for the Camp Kiwanis Beaver Lodge, but it is far higher than they thought, with a price of $509 per square foot.

Jensen said there is no way the park can cover this with the $1.5 million levee that passed in the last election to support it.

Edgar said he has gotten in touch with a number of foundations that fund projects like this, and while many will not support government entities, he's hoping to find some interested in making up part of the difference.

However, he said, they need to demonstrate that the lodge is a substantial benefit to the people in the area, as well as to the local economy, and they are working on developing a template presentation for further talks with some of these foundations.

He said he doesn't want to mention specifics, as all of this is in very early stages though.

The board also discussed upcoming interviews for grazing committee applicants, approving a series of questions that the Hill County Commission will ask, but after one regarding public perception was struck from the list.

Peterson said he sent the proposed list, provided by Hagener to Human Resources and they said all the questions were appropriate, but not everyone at the meeting agreed.

One question asked what applicants would do to dispel the common perception that the committee is a "fox guarding the hen house" situation, which many members of the board objected to.

In the past few years, the committee has been the subject of a number of complaints regarding possible conflicts of interest among its members, with many saying that there are too many active grazers on the committee.

Williams said she doesn't want to ask this question to applicants, as she believes it is appropriately worded, and proposed to have it removed.

Wilson said she doesn't know if applicants will have an answer for it.

Jensen said he doesn't know that the committee is "the fox guarding the hen house" is the public perception.

Hagener, who developed the questions, and has been a critic of the committee's current makeup and the board's handling of the committee, disagreed.

"I think it is a legitimate concern of the public," she said.

Former board member Ranelle Braaten, a frequent attendee to meetings, agreed, saying that this perception of the committee is very common so it seems like a legitimate question to her.

The question was removed from the list, then the list was approved.

Hagener asked how the board, which makes recommendations on applicants that are then interviewed and approved or disapproved by the commission, would be informed about what people said in the interviews.

Williams said they, as well as anyone in the public, are welcome to attend the interviews, but are prohibited from asking questions or interjecting in any way.

The board also discussed the makeup and name of the newly combined finance, rules and regulations committees, which will be replaced with a single committee from now on.

After some conversation about how large the initial committee is, and how detailed the description they will advertise will be, they decided to continue the discussion at a later date.

The board also approved a number of designs for apparel and merchandise including some provided to them by local graphic designer Paulette Shipp of Soulstar Designs.

A letter to the board from Paulette, read by Edgar, said she was happy to provide these designs free of charge, but requested that she and her company be acknowledged in their advertising for the items.

Her letter said she'd be willing to provide more, as long as it is within her scope of her vision and she assured them that any designs will be professional and tasteful.

Board members offered thanks for her time and work and approved the new merchandise.

The board also heard a brief update on park usage and conditions.

Edgar said they've had some fishers coming through, but usage has been slow this past month overall.

He said they have had some precipitation and snow in the past months but current conditions are fairly dry.

He said there are 1,914 head of cattle on the park, mostly single cows, and they did have another cow vs car incident, the second this season so far.