Parks and recreation rental, program fees increase
The city of Whitefish is increasing fees for park facility rentals, youth programs and the City Beach boat launch fees.
The change is meant to ensure revenues are in line with operation costs, according to Parks and Recreation Director Maria Butts.
“Staff evaluated our fees and we saw there were some shortfalls that we could address,” Butts said.
Butts said through a review process staff found several fees that either did not cover the cost of the services provided and/or fees that had never been or not recently increased.
City Council on Aug. 1 approved the new fee schedule. The new fees go into effect in January 2017 with the exception of the program fees, such as the Before and After School programs, which will go into effect Aug. 22.
The Before and After School program fees were last increased in 2012. The before school fee increases by $1 to $7 per day, while the after school session increases by $2 to $14 per day.
The Stumptown Summer Day Camp fee for early registration increases from $40 to $45 per day. The drop-in rate also increases by $5 to $50 per day. The summer camp fees were last increased in 2014.
Fees for the youth basketball, tennis and skateboarding camp programs will all increase. Basketball and tennis fees increase by $10 for the cost of the various programs, ranging from $45 to $55. The skateboarding program increases by $5 to $55. Tennis fees were last increased in 2014, but basketball and skateboarding have never been increased.
Parks and facility fees were last increased in 2013. Parks and facilities are tiered into three levels based upon their highest level of amenities offered and the level of demand.
Depot Park is ranked as the only tier 1 park and its fee for daily rental will remain at $200. Most of the other city parks fall into the tier 2 ranking and their fees will remain the same with the exception of Soroptimist Park, which will now have a daily rental fee of $100, up from $50.
Rental of the Roy Duff Armory building increases from $220 per day to $250 per day.
Rental of the Grouse Mountain tennis courts and fields as a tier 1 had the largest increase for courts and fields. The rental fee is now $100 per day up from $60 per day. Hourly rental increases to $25 per court/field from $15.
The rental of gazebos at City Beach and Depot Park will increase from $40 per day to $40 for a half-day rental.
In addition to the other increases, a special event menu of services was also added. This fee schedule identifies additional special event services that have been increasingly demanding of park staff time, but have previously not held an associated fee, according to Butts.
The menu includes fees such as a $1 charge per traffic cone used and $100 per line painting for sports fields. The permit for alcohol at a special event increased from $10 to $20.
Boat launch fees for City Beach were revised and a new commercial fee was added. Boat launch fees were last increased in 2010.
There was no increase to the daily launch fee of $5, but season pass fees increased from $40 to $50 per season pass, per vessel.
A commercial licensing boat launch permit was added as a new fee in the amount of $125 and requires businesses to purchase this permit in addition to purchasing a commercial boat launch season pass in the amount of $50 per season, per vessel.
Mayor John Muhlfeld said he would like to see the daily boat launch fee increase to help pay for the city’s aquatic invasive species program, which is now funded through the water and wastewater fund.
“Residents are paying for that program now and 30 to 40 percent of our launches are non-resident — who should be contributing?” he asked. “I’d like to see that come back to consider an increase in that fee because those costs for AIS will only increase.”
Butts said the fee was kept at $5 for convenience, but it could be evaluated again for a potential increase.
“We are seeing the impact with the AIS program and we’re staffing that more heavily,” she said. “There could be a way to offset that.”