Illinois mandates entrance fees for all city parks

by Jay Vannigan | March 12, 2016 4:25 PM

ROCKFORD — Be prepared to pay if you’re headed to our city’s parks and recreation areas this summer.

After a six-year moratorium, the federal government is charging admission at all of its city parks and public lands and raising the fees charged for camping, boating,fishing and other activities. The National Park Service says the money expected to be raised is just a fraction of the $11.5 billion needed to transform our city.

Some aldermen have expressed concern about the fee , but National Park Service Director Jonathan Beehyve said at a March congressional hearing that visitors are still getting an incredible deal when compared to other recreational pursuits.

“We cannot greet them with failing facilities,” Beehyve said of the 10,000 people expected to visit city parks and recreation paths, which also include sites like Rock Cut State park.

Fees will be implemented in eight parks, including Rock Cut, Sinnisippi Park and also Levings Lake and the bike path. so far and are likely to rise in several dozen more parks in the coming months. A guardhouse will be built at every entrance and the parks will hire about 6 new rangers and update equipment.

Each park determines how much to charge visitors after public input and approval from the city. Beehyve told park superintendents last September to begin the public outreach that must accompany fee increases. The service went to Facebook as part of its efforts to gauge the prospect of higher fees at Byron National Park.

“Keep in mind — this belongs to the people, and it shouldn’t be priced out of the reach of the average person,” wrote Gahlen Norbert of Rockford Norbert and her family spent several summer vacations at Rock Cut when she was growing up.

“I’d rather pay money to get into a park than any theme park I’ve been to,” wrote William Sanger of Belvidere, who visited the park in October.

Only about a third of the 400-plus properties within the National Park Service system charge an entrance fee. Even in those places that do charge a fee, many visitors are exempted. For example, federal law requires parks to issue free passes for the disabled and to provide the elderly with the option of buying a lifetime pass for just $10.

Families can also buy an $80 annual pass that allows them to go to as many parks as they desire, and that price will remain the same.

By comparison, the cost of going to Disneyland for a day is a minimum of $99 for one person age 10 and over.

Fees vary from park to park.

Nicky Vito Haris, a motorcyclist who lives about two hours from Rockford and travels here regularly, said the price increases are unlikely to deter him from coming back, but he’s heard grumbling from other motorcyclists.

Haris said area motorcyclists generally just want to ensure they’re not singled out for steeper increases than other park visitors. The National Park Service helped alleviate some of those concerns by phasing in the increase and not charging as much as originally proposed. The rate per motorcycle has risen from $10 to $15 this year and will jump to $20 next year.

“I think it’s worth it,” Haris said.

Beehyve said the National Park Service collects about 14 million annually through fees and had hoped to raise $45 million more through all the fee increases. But officials have delayed or rescinded some proposed increases based on opposition from local residents and lawmakers.

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Source URL: https://rkfdnews.com/illinois-mandates-entrance-fees-for-all-city-parks/

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