Editor’s note: The Green Bay City Council on April 21 unanimously approved the Parks Department’s proposal to add a pay-to-park option at Bay Beach Amusement Park.
Green Bay’s Parks Department on April 15 proposed to charge for parking for the first time in some spots at Bay Beach Amusement Park, citing rising costs to upkeep the city’s second most-visited attraction.
Under the proposal supported by the Friends of Bay Beach organization and unanimously endorsed by the Parks Committee with some hesitation, a roughly three-quarter-acre area near the pavilion would be turned into a pay-to-park zone. About 5% of the park’s total 1,440 stalls, or 69 spaces, would be the first paid parking spots ever at the park.
For a $7 fee paid through the mobile parking payment app Passport, visitors would have the right to park all day at what the Parks Department billed as “premier parking.” Any ADA-designated spots would be exempt from the charge. As elsewhere, the city’s Parking Division would oversee any enforcement action.
Parks Director Dan Ditscheit presented the request as a cost-conscious effort.
On the part of the amusement park, in operation since 1892 and given to the city in 1920, expenses had increased. Ditscheit said the park “was a much larger park than it used to be” with new rides and facility upgrades requiring more staff, whose salaries have historically made up the largest chunk of the park’s expenditures.
And after paying the bills with the revenue it generates, the park was struggling to put aside enough money to plan for needed capital improvements, Ditscheit said, like new siding for the pavilion and worn parking lots. With the rising cost of materials in recent years, “Our concern is their ongoing maintenance is just going to fall by the wayside because we don’t have enough money to put into these improvements,” Ditscheit said.
He estimated that revenue from paid parking in the first year would bring in between $30,000 and $40,000, all of which Ditscheit said would go toward a general amusement park development fund.
On the part of visitors, Ditscheit said that keeping the park affordable was “our No. 1 goal” and that the Parks Department was “not really that interested” in raising ticket prices or the cost of concessions.
Ruling out raising the cost of prices elsewhere in the park, the Parks Department settled on monetizing some of the most desirable parking spots. The choice to pay was optional with abundant parking elsewhere, Ditscheit said. He continued that most of the people he’d talked to about the proposal were unwilling to pay for such an amenity, but that some were eager to pay for the convenience of being close to the entrance.
“I view this as a trial,” Ditscheit said. “I’m proposing, ‘Let’s give it a shot.’”
Parks Committee members expressed reservations over adding a fee at the amusement park where a ticket is 25 cents and admission is free, though ultimately and unanimously voted to recommend that the City Council on April 21 approve the proposal.
Council and committee member Joey Prestley called the request “not my favorite thing,” but said the amusement park was “sort of unique” as a cheap attraction compared to those in other cities.
Council and committee members Jim Ridderbush and Melinda Eck said they put aside their initial skepticism and dislike of raising prices, with Eck calling her choice a “difficult decision to make,” but that “this can help continue making it affordable for others.”
“It just stinks to see very family-friendly, cost-effective things change, and it’s tough for people,” said council member Ben Delie, who chairs the Parks Committee.
Jesse Lin is a reporter covering the community of Green Bay and its surroundings, as well as politics in northeastern Wisconsin. He also writes a weekly column answering reader questions about Green Bay. Contact and send him questions at 920-834-4250 or jlin@usatodayco.com.
This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Pay-to-park option at Bay Beach Amusement Park? Green Bay committee says yes
Reporting by Jesse Lin, Green Bay Press-Gazette / Green Bay Press-Gazette
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