City Plans to Charge Admission to Garey Park

The city of Georgetown has decided that they are going to charge admission to the new Garey Park when it opens. This has apparently been decided with very little public knowledge and approval. Mr Garey has generously given the land and approximately $5M for development and yet the citizens are to be charged fees to use the park. The city is also issueing $8.5M in bonds for park construction to be paid by taxpayers.

Of course staff will have to be hired to man the park and collect the fees 7 days per week. The city is thus incurring salary and benefit costs for the foreseeable future.

Here are the proposed fees.

With these revenues, the city expects about 70% of the costs will be paid from fees, with the remainder paid from the general fund.