TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Sarasota, Other Counties Raise Their Park Fees

ADVERTISEMENT

By DOUG SWORD, Sarasota Herald-Tribune

Published: November 24, 2007

SARASOTA - It will cost about $1 million more for Sarasota County residents to use their county parks in the coming year.

Beginning this month, fees for swimming pools, tennis courts, camping, the county shooting range and facility rentals are increasing - and in some cases, greatly increasing - as the parks department tries to make up a $877,000 cut to its budget.

The same thing, on a smaller scale, is happening in Manatee and Charlotte counties as they turn to higher fees to fill budget holes after being squeezed by last summer's state-mandated budget cuts and facing a near certain second round of cuts in 2008.

The net result: While property owners will save a few dollars on taxes, the more active ones will get hit with an array of fee increases.

People using parks in Manatee County are projected to pay $264,000 more in fees next year.

In Charlotte County, commissioners raised parking fees at county parks, boat ramps and the beach from 50 cents an hour to 75 cents an hour.

In Sarasota County, the increases are more substantial.

It used to cost $11.22 for two people to play tennis on Payne Park's clay courts, but it now costs $14.96 an hour.

A day pass at Knights Trail Park Shooting Range is now $11.17, instead of $5.98.

An annual swimming pass for the four county-run pools has doubled to $374.

Increases for rentals, such as meeting rooms, have doubled, tripled and even quadrupled.

There is a method to the fee hikes. It will cost far more to participate in less popular sports, such as lawn bowling. Meanwhile, the cost for renting ball fields for adult leagues will go down.

The aim, says Parks Director John McCarthy, is to cut the county subsidy for less-popular forms of recreation but to keep free the things that lots of people do, such as hiking and biking.

Public reaction to the changes has been all over the board. The biggest complainers have been sticker-shocked seniors at the Arlington Aquatic Center irked over the proposal to raise the daily fee from $1 to $4.

Meanwhile, regulars at the shooting range actually campaigned for major fee hikes because they feared the county would privatize the facility and rates would go up even more.

It was the size of the rate hikes that irritated people, said Valerie Kerwin, a regular at Arlington Pool.

"If it had gone up gradually, I think people would've been a little less shocked," she said.

The Parks Department got so many complaints about the elimination of the rate for senior swimmers that it reversed itself. The new senior rate is $2, double what it was previously. An annual membership is now $239, up from $95.

A Sarasota County comparison study found that the county will charge more for a daily pass for adult swimmers than neighboring Manatee and Charlotte counties, though passes for children and seniors will be lower than Manatee's.

While there are a host of new fees, much of the parks system still will be free. There are no fees for just going to any of the county's 84 parks, or its many trails, or taking the pooch to a dog park.

The centerpiece of the parks system - the county's beaches - are still free, for now. Sometime in the next year, however, Sarasota County commissioners are expected to look into parking fees for its biggest beach parking lot at Siesta Key Beach, and other county parking lots at beaches.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT