Linn County Park manager outlines proposal for increased fees for park use to county commissioners. (Journal file photo)
By Charlene Sims, info@linncountyjournal.com
MOUND CITY – On Monday, Dec. 23, Linn County Commission Chair Danny McCullough continued a discussion with Linn County Park Manager Sheri Loveland and Public Works Director Shaun West during the commission meeting a week earlier. The discussion that began on Dec. 16 revolved around changes that McCullough wants to see happen at Linn County Park
At the Dec. 23 meeting, Loveland repeated the proposed rate increases that she had given the commissioners the week before.
The rate increases include increasing fees on:
• Tent camping from $12.00 to $13.00 daily
• Second tent on same site from $9.00 to $10.00 daily
• Cabins from $60 per night to $65 per night
• Cabin peak days from $70 per night to $75 per night. (Peak days are during special events and holidays like Dancefestopia, Fourth of July and hunting season.)
• Boat slips $8.00 per 24 hours.
• Camping sites range currently from $16.00-$20.00 per night raise to $17.00-$21.00 per night.
The commissioners said they had no issues with the rate increases. A resolution will be prepared for their approval for at the Dec. 30 meeting. Resolutions will also be prepared for carrying over money to funds for the lagoon, equipment and paying for installing the dock.
Loveland reported that she had checked with CivicPlus, a website company that McCullough had asked her to check with about online reservations. Her opinion was that it seemed expensive.
She said that the representative from CivicPlus, Nick Glasgow, had quoted a price of $8,000 the first year for training and getting everything set up and then $3,500 per year after that.
Loveland said that Glasgow wasn’t sure if daily parking could be added to the program.
CivicPlus currently provides the notification system for the county and has made a pitch to the commission to do the county website for an initial cost of $50,000 to $60,000 and then $10,000 yearly.
No other bid proposals were requested when CivicPlus gave their presentation on Dec.2. Since then, Economic Development Director Chasity Ware has told the commissioners that she has met with two other local companies who may be giving bids
County Commissioner Jim Johnson and Commissioner-elect Alison Hamilton had been talking with CivicPlus about revamping the county’s website.
Earlier In the month, Loveland reported on the Firefly reservation program. At that time, she had given commissioners a spreadsheet that showed the present price and how much how much the cost would be to customers if the county used the online Firefly reservations software that McCullough wanted them to use.
At present, the cost to the customer for one day camping is $20. She explained that if the county used the Firefly system, the fee to the customer with all of Firefly fees for each reservation would be $24.28 for one day, for seven days it would be $147.76.
Loveland pointed out that the Firefly system additional fees would still be included for people who paid for just parking or fishing. So, instead of paying the park $5 to park, the fee would be $8.85. Loveland said that the fee for using state parks in the area was $5.06.
Loveland told the commissioners that by implementing those fees the county would likely lose park visitors or they just would not pay the fee. She told them that Ventech, the system that the park is using now, was working well and she thought it would be better to raise the rates slightly and have the money go to the county instead of Firefly and with that money expand advertising for the park.
Ventech charges $1,350 per year for their kiosk at the park that people use to pay for camping and other services. Discussion was held about Ventech just covering the parking, fishing and boat slips and having another company do the camping sites. Loveland said that Ventech would still charge the $1,350 per year.
The next issue that Loveland brought answers to this week were the costs of electricity per unit for the people who are full-time residents on Marina Lane and Viewpoint.
Earlier in the month, McCullough had expressed his concerns with the full-time residents living at the park.
“We don’t allow campers anywhere else in the county,” said McCullough. “We are competing against other RV parks.”
Loveland explained that without the income from the full-time people living at the park during the winter, the park would have to shut down.
“They have the best location in the entire park,” said McCullough.
West explained that the location for the full-time renters was determined by the sanitation connections.
Loveland said that she thought it would be better to focus on developing better advertising rather than targeting the people living at the park.
Johnson asked that Loveland bring information to the next meeting about the price that renters paid on Marina Lane and the cost of electricity there.
The information about the electricity costs per camper that Loveland brought to this week’s meeting showed that on Marina Lane, the average monthly cost for electricity was $97.59 and for the four full-time campers on Viewpoint it was $63.81.
In a text from Loveland, she explained that, of the 11 full-time campers on Marina lane, six have 50 amp service and have been paying $20 per day, the other five have have 30 amp service and have been paying $18 per day. The four full-time campers on Viewpoint, which do not have sewer service but have 30 amp service, have been paying $17 per day. All of these rates will be going up $1 per day with the new rate proposal.
Next, McCullough continued the discussion from Dec. 16 meeting about putting all the cabins on Airbnb.
Commissioner Jason Hightower said he thought that it had been determined that the Airbnb cabin made less money than the other six cabins.
McCullough asked how that could be determined when only one was on Airbnb. Hightower pointed out that the income on the budget showed that.
“I don’t understand why we aren’t doing it,” said McCullough.
Loveland brought up the same concerns that she had the previous week about hiring more help to clean seven cabins. At present, Loveland said she has a part-time person that works four to six hours per week to clean the seven cabins.
She also would need more laundry equipment for linens for the Airbnb cabins. At present, the non-Airbnb cabins that are rented out require that visitors bring their own sheets and towels. For Airbnb, linens would have to be provided for seven cabins and changed by park staff.
McCullough said that that was what he wanted the park to do with the cabins, be on Airbnb.
Both Hightower and Commissioner Jim Johnson said that they would like to get the numbers of what it would cost to go to Airbnb, including the costs of more help, linens, and washer and dryer purchases.
“I’d like to make a decision on this. It’s a no-brainer to me,” said McCullough. “I don’t understand it.”
Earlier in the month, McCullough told Loveland that he made a lot of money with his three cabins he had owned in Pleasanton and that it wasn’t a problem to change the linens. He said that Airbnb took care of everything. He didn’t even have to talk to the people.
At the Dec. 16 meeting, Hamilton, from the back of the room, told Loveland that she needed to have everything online and she did not need to hire anymore help if the cabins were on Airbnb.
McCullough said the numbers would quadruple if the cabins were on Airbnb.
The income of the park was again brought up at the Dec. 23 meeting by McCullough. McCullough continues to focus on the $145,000 cost to redo the 40-year-old lagoons. The county has never put any money back toward the maintenance of the lagoons.
Loveland pointed out that in the past four years the park had brought in an income of almost $183,700. She said the county had spent $12,000 on a mower for the park at that time and $145,000 on removing sludge from the park’s lagoons.
“I’m not arguing with you. I am telling you I look at the numbers. I know what we’re doing,” said McCullough.
“You are arguing with me,” said Loveland.
“And that’s my job, so I am done talking about it,” said McCullough.
During the Dec. 16 meeting West pointed out to the commissioners that the end of year income was higher this year than it had been the last two years. He said that from that year-to-date income of nearly $55,000 he would like to put $10,000 in the budget to fund future lagoon repairs, $6,000 to install the dock that was donated by Evergy, and the remainder be put in the budget for replacing trucks at the park.
McCullough expressed issues with the dock that was donated and delivered for free from Evergy because it could possibly cost the county $6,000 to install it. West had said previously that volunteers were going to help and that the dock itself was worth seven or eight more times than the $6,000 cost.
McCullough has also expressed concerns about the cost of removing sludge from the lagoons. West pointed out that the lagoons should have had sludge removed a decade ago.
West said he understood because the $140,000 for the lagoon clean-out and repair was not in the budget. But that was because no money had been put back the last 40 years for taking care of the lagoon. West said that was why he wanted to start putting money in reserve for the lagoons and replacing vehicles.
Lamb said that it was similar to putting line items in the budget for the solid waste and noxious weed departments.
McCullough said that the county needed to figure what the lake costs including employee benefits.
“My job is to flip a profit out there,” said McCullough last week. “I don’t think the county should be running a park.”
“We’re a county running a park but we won’t run a nursing home,” said McCullough.
West said that it did not seem right to take the employee benefits out of the lake budget when it was not taken out of other departments.
McCullough said that he did not mean to take anything away from the work that Loveland puts into the park but he the budget does not make sense to him. He said he still believed that the park needed gates installed.
At the Dec. 16 meeting there was also discussion on what needed to be done to the infrastructure at the park, including buildings and cabins that needed roofs and cabins that needed decks.
That discussion led to a question about why West was not working on getting a swimming area set up at the park.
West said that he had three locations he was looking at for the swimming area and that a proposal needed to be turned into Kansas Wildlife and Parks
(KWP) and Evergy to approve the swimming area.
McCullough asked what the location was and that he would take it to Don George at KWP to have it approved. West said that it was by the marina so that the area could be watched. McCullough said it could be somewhere else and have a camera.
West said that originally Evergy had asked for a proposal that they would run by their legal and safety teams so he had suggested having an engineer locate and plan the area.
McCullough said that was not needed, and that the swimming area would be a swim-at-your-own-risk area.
McCullough said he would take care of the plan and present it to Don George.
McCullough said, “That’s the end of the story. I am tired of talking about it.”
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