Huckleberries Online

Sandpoint Kills City Beach Fee Plan

Posted by DFO

Dec. 17, 2009 1:41 p.m. • 2 comments

A controversial proposal to charge non-residents a fee to park their vehicles at City Beach during the summer sank on a split vote on Wednesday. The City Council voted 4-2 not to put the matter up for a public hearing, effectively killing the proposal. The council deadlocked on whether to table the fee question, but council procedures prevented from Mayor Gretchen Hellar casting a tie-breaking vote on a motion to table. Councilwoman Helen Newton proposed a $1 or $2 parking fee for beach users who do not reside within the city limits as a response to a standing challenge at City Hall to identify new streams of revenue/Keith Kinnaird, Bonner County Bee. More here.

Question: Did the Sandpoint City Council make the right decision?

Two comments on this post so far. Add yours!

sue on December 17 at 1:51 p.m.
1 or 2 dollars for each car parking at city beach makes sense, regardless of where you live. Where else can you go to the beach all day and park for free? Seems like a reasonable idea to me. I much prefer small user fees to higher property taxes. The city beach is such a beautiful recreational draw, that I can’t imagine someone choosing not to go there for that small charge. If they did, they could park downtown for free, walk the block or so across the walking bridge, and enjoy that beach for free. The argument that Sagle, or Ponderay, or Kootenai, would put a charge on their amenities? What amenities? Ridiculous argument. Upkeep on the beach is paid for by property tax payers right now. I’m not sure why my 86 yr. old mom should be paying for it, and visiting tourists pay nothing.
Cis on December 17 at 11:41 p.m.
I thought it stunk… if they had made it free for Bonner county residents… maybe I think about it…but as Sue mentions, we in Kootenai don’t have a beach. And it just doesn’t seem fair for a mom with kids who want to go swimming, have to come up with parking fee’s. And what about the boat trailers and etc. They take up a good share of the spots on the far end.
Besides the $1 or even the $2 for summer parking would that pay for the $15,000 wage/bennie for 6 months plus the building of a ticket house?

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D.F. Oliveria is a columnist and blogger for The Spokesman-Review. Huckleberries Online was judged the best 2008 Idaho newspaper blog by the Idaho Press Club. And the best 2007 news blog in the Pacific Northwest by the Society for Professional Journalist. Print Huckleberries is a past winner of the Herb Caen Memorial Column contest by the National Association of Newspaper Columnists. The Readership Institute of Northwestern University cited this blog as a good example of online community journalism.