08-21-2008, 11:08 PM
sorry it's taken me a while to get back to this forum. this has been one hectic week. getting the kids ready to go back to school unfortunately takes priority over fishing related stuff.
kentofnsl-i agree that individual letters would be more effective than the same letter over and over. i would encourage people to either edit mine to add their own wording or simply write up their own. however if people do simply copy mine and send it then at least state parks will get the message that people are unhappy about the fee.
rmbring-thanks for joining the conversation and thanks for making the proposal to the board. to be honest with you i had never heard of boat camping or a fee for it until last week. like i've posted before i've rarely been charged the same amount when i actually would be charged the fee at starvation. when paying the fee i was simply told that i had to pay for camping because i was spending the night. i've never bothered to argue with the entrance station employees or dig into it any further. i always just figured that they didn't believe me that i wasn't actually going to camp. i don't disagree that mike nealley has the right to charge the fee i just don't feel it's right to have the fee not included with the entrance fee or included with the annual pass. paying $13 to park in a normally $7 parking spot just doesn’t seem right to me. i started night fishing on a fairly regular basis around 20 years ago. for those 20 years i've fished all over the state and no state park has ever charged me a camping fee except starvation. when entering the state parks later in the evening I have been questioned about whether i was going to camp or not (at least the times when there was an employee at the stations). when i informed them that i wasn't camping that i was planning to fish through the night i sometimes got questions about my lights and safety equipment but nothing more was ever said about camping.
i can understand being charged 2 entrance fees because technically a person would be using the park for 2 consecutive days. i really appreciate your decision to let people fish through the night without an increased fee with an annual pass. i know I’ve never been charged a camping fee at willard. i had no idea that there was such a thing as a boat camping permit. the annual pass is a great value and i think just about everyone i know has one. i really like your idea for overnight parking. I know starvation already has the designated area.
btw willard is one of my favorite places to fish at night. fishing for wipers and catfish are awesome through the night up there.
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kentofnsl-i agree that individual letters would be more effective than the same letter over and over. i would encourage people to either edit mine to add their own wording or simply write up their own. however if people do simply copy mine and send it then at least state parks will get the message that people are unhappy about the fee.
rmbring-thanks for joining the conversation and thanks for making the proposal to the board. to be honest with you i had never heard of boat camping or a fee for it until last week. like i've posted before i've rarely been charged the same amount when i actually would be charged the fee at starvation. when paying the fee i was simply told that i had to pay for camping because i was spending the night. i've never bothered to argue with the entrance station employees or dig into it any further. i always just figured that they didn't believe me that i wasn't actually going to camp. i don't disagree that mike nealley has the right to charge the fee i just don't feel it's right to have the fee not included with the entrance fee or included with the annual pass. paying $13 to park in a normally $7 parking spot just doesn’t seem right to me. i started night fishing on a fairly regular basis around 20 years ago. for those 20 years i've fished all over the state and no state park has ever charged me a camping fee except starvation. when entering the state parks later in the evening I have been questioned about whether i was going to camp or not (at least the times when there was an employee at the stations). when i informed them that i wasn't camping that i was planning to fish through the night i sometimes got questions about my lights and safety equipment but nothing more was ever said about camping.
i can understand being charged 2 entrance fees because technically a person would be using the park for 2 consecutive days. i really appreciate your decision to let people fish through the night without an increased fee with an annual pass. i know I’ve never been charged a camping fee at willard. i had no idea that there was such a thing as a boat camping permit. the annual pass is a great value and i think just about everyone i know has one. i really like your idea for overnight parking. I know starvation already has the designated area.
btw willard is one of my favorite places to fish at night. fishing for wipers and catfish are awesome through the night up there.
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