New Alma Landing Fee Proposal

Hey All,

Just want to let you know that the City of Alma is holding a meeting tomorrow about proposing a annual or each time use fee to their landings in Alma. If you want your voice to heard, good or bad, please post it here or report to City Hall at 530 pm tomorrow March 7, 2013

I heard rumor of that from Lee.

Seems like every city now a days is trying to get ALL of our money.

I am surprised there isn’t a Motorcycle fee in place in Alma yet.

I guess if they keep it plowed in the winter.. put in docks in the summer and have some trash cans and maybe a fish cleaning shack..

it is kept up, cleaning shack kept clean, trash cans emptied and just kept looking good!!

that stuff aint free so I would not be against a small launching fee!

I would also be in-favor of letting those who cant afford it get by on a lessor or free pass!

if a couple extra bucks means a guy cant go fishing then thats just wrong..

thats my 2cents

What’s next, charging people to go for a walk in the park because the city cuts the grass and trims trees? Nothing like deterring people from coming to patronize your city I guess. Becoming far too common all over the map….

I like how these towns get money for their landings from the sporting goods excise tax fund (that we’ve already paid into with each lure, rod, etc. purchase) and then charge us a fee to use the landing that we’ve already paid for. Though the fee is usually described as being for “maintenance” most of the time you have wonder “What maintenance?”

I don’t understand why in Wisconsin the boat ramps are much worse on the average than MN yet more often pay ramps.

For those that do not know me I am an avid outdoor enthusiast, walleye fishermen, retired law enforcement and now serve as mayor for the City of Alma, population 850. I have introduced this launch fee proposal to create revenue to be used entirely to keep our launch facilities in good repair, and to have the ability to make improvements. We operate and maintain 3 facilities, two on pool 4 and one on pool 5, and a dock below the dam that accesses downtown. All landings have access to bathroom facilities. With the inability of local units of government to raise the levy to create more revenue cuts have to be made and revenue generated where it can be. None of us want to see our recreation suffer. Cuts have been made to City Hall hours, city worker not replaced, roads not repaired, etc. To give a comparison, our entire sreet repair and improvement budget is 60,000. * 8 years ago the last time the downtown dock was refurbished it cost the tax payers of Alma 40,000
I do not want to see our docks go away, pot holes in our ramps, and recreation programs cut. It costs money to run a city and these days it is not easy. This is not a general fund money maker it is trying to keep and improve on what we have so we do not lose it. Alma is a small city without alot of tax base We do well to have good facilities and I intend to keep them that way. Thanks and please come to the meeting tonight it interested.

Small Towns depend even more on tourism. Pay launches would hurt that. most times pay launches start cheap maybe a couple bucks but prices keep going up look at the St.croix. They charge crazy prices. If i had to pay to launch good chance i am packing a lunch. Fishing is expensive enough gas in truck, boat, trailer maint., bait,etc. Think it would benefit your small town to have business than to charge for a landing that was suppose to be public. You guys going to chisel it out and keep it open and salted for daily use??

I guess I’d be curious to know how some of the business owners in Alma that depend on the people using the ramps feel about this? I’m sure the city has done their homework and come up with some $$$ figure that this ramp fee is going to generate? Have you thought about the the negative impact that it may have on the business’ that could be impacted by this?

I’m several hours away and really have no dog in this fight, but administering fees to something that already GENERATES REVENUE in your community should be reconsidered.

Yes I have taken alll of that into consideration. It will have more of a negative impact if we have to remove docks because of lack of maintenance. Inability of the public to access downtown from the river would be devastating. And we do and will continue to use our heavy equipment to remove ice from the pool 5 landing when conditions alow. Usually by mid February.

You should also factor in that there are two public launch sites, one below Alma on the Wisconsin side and one on the Minnesota side only a short run downstream. Many of those who fish the area will simply shift their launching to those facilities. The people you are targeting are there to fish. They will get the job done one way or the other.

Those from Minnesota have to travel OUT OF THEIR WAY to get to the Alma launch site. I’d be willing to bet that the extra cost with a launch fee added to the cost of extra time and fuel costs will keep lots of the anglers away. A little extra water travel isn’t a hardship for anglers. Cutting into their wallets might be a hardship for some.

Thanks for the heads up though. I’ll just use the launch site on the Minnesota side and any shopping or stopping will be done on that side as well….and that will be felt all the way to Nelson.

Any local service groups, sportsmans clubs, church youth groups, boy scouts, that you could contact that would be interested in “Adopting” an access? “Adopt a Park” programs have proven to be very effective in beautifying communities at no cost to taxpayers or visitors…

You never know, someone might just write you a check just to get their name or logo on a sign.

Hi Bob,

First off, welcome to Ido and Kudo’s for signing on and sharing your point of view.

What is the planned amount going to be?

I am neither for or against at this point in time until I get more info. But usually the locals and fisherman rarely use the city docks( docks near the business area). Only dock they do use is at launch site. I don’t think fisherman should have to pay to take care of the public docks but rather the business people of alma. These are mostly used by tourists. Business’s are the ones benefiting from these docks, except the launch dock. Isn’t there money available from the WI Tourism grants for city docks? I have heard that a fee of 30$-$40 a year or $3-5$ per launch. How do other cities like Lake City pay for all there launches with out fees?

Has anyone surveyed the boat traffic? Doesnt seem like it would be a moneymaker in the end. By time you pay someone to do the books, and pay for a “sticker” system or something and pay someone to monitor the landing, it doesnt seem like their would be a whole lot of money left.
I would venture a guess that a local club or legion could take this under their wing and raise more money off of fish frys or something.
Maybe im wrong but the times ive been to that landing it hasnt been that busy, and a fee will even lessen the numbers

FYI City of Prescott, WI City Boat Ramp.

Daily passes are available at the launch in the shelter. Fees vary depending on the boat length and whether you are a resident or non-resident. Non residents include all people living outside the City of Prescott. Make sure your envelope includes your Vehicle license plate number and the date. Tear off the numbered receipt stub, date it and place it on the dash board of your vehicle. Place money in envelope, seal it and deposit in the collection box. Receipt tickets must be placed on your dash board with the date clearly visible to avoid a fine.

Yearly passes are $35 for residents in the Prescott City Limits and $50 for non City residents. They are a colored sticker that goes on the right hand side of the trailer.

It’s good to note that this launch and it’s parking area is filled to capacity every summer weekend.

We started getting charged for using launches in the city of LaCrosse last year. So I bought my anual pass, and used it twice. Why, because the city landings all suck.

Here’s what we have.
1. Our nicest city landing, has about 45 minutes of no wake zone south of it, so if you want to fish the majority of pool 8, you’d better want to spend a lot of time idling each way.
2. The 7th street landing, just south of the no wake zones, is not a bad landing, except the cuts between that slough and the main channel are so filled in with sand that a 16′ boat bottoms out easily.

3. The other Clinton street landing, is north of the main clinton street landing, thus even more no wake zone to contend with.

Now, this year, the lower landing at Dresbach will be closed from March through sometime in the fall. That leaves us municipal, which I’m guessing will be getting awfully crowded.

Thanks LaCrosse, I hope Alma at least improves their landings instead of letting things get worse like LaCrosse.

proposed fee is $5 daily, 30 for annual pass for city residents, 45 for non resients, that may be high but it is a starting point. Fountain City is $3 daily, 25 fo.r a seasonal. Not familiar with how Minnesota operates. I fish up north around Lake Superior and it varies from 5 for private launchs to $13 with $7 the normal amount for munipally ran launchs. Its getting to be very commonplace. I do believe most private launchs on the river are around $7.

I typically use the public launch below the Dam a few times per year. I won’t be able to attend the meeting tonight, but in my opinion, I hope that you won’t assess this fee to citizens of Alma. They are already paying for the upkeep of the facilities through taxes. As a non-resident, I’ll likely still use the Alma ramp when the situation calls for it; as long as the facilities remain in good condition.

I’m not against a fee if it goes to keeping a ramp in good condition. It does seem VERY silly to say that the fund created by a boat ramp fee would go to maintaining the city dock. I’ve used the ramp many times, and have never used the city dock. To be honest I don’t even like the dock at the boat ramp because it’s way too big for the space there and I always just beach my boat anyways. If there is a fee I would highly push towards $3. This seems much more reasonable and often before at pay ramps I’ve looked into my wallet only to see a few singles. I come down to bass fish the river from St. Paul, and I know if there was a fee I’d lean towards using the West Newton Chute ramp in MN. Nice big ramp with plenty of room, dock, deep water, etc. You do have a very nice Ramp in Alma though, and I’m sure I’d still use it, just not as much.

Thanks for the dialogue…but it is time to get ready for a meeting…and a passing thought..this does not target just fishermen…if any of you are familiar with our marina ramp on pool 4 in the summer it is jammed with all types of watercraft…many of which do use the downtown facility. Hope to see some of you tonight .. stop by and introduce yourself.

Meeting is over…Guess it didn’t matter if you came voiced for or against they were voting on it anyway tonight. Think there was about 10 people that showed up. Some were not sure…Only 1 was for it. However, lots of ideas were brought up how to fix the issue. I thought they would table it to see if anyone like rod and gun club or anyone else could find a way to raise money for it…Nope….The council went ahead and voted anyway. I even gave the Mayor a study that was done about effects of tournament fishing does to a community. Thinking that tournaments might not want to come now that they have to pay launch fee of $5 or $45 a year..He didn’t have time to look at it but they still voted on it…..Couldn’t believe it. Seemed like our opinion didn’t even matter and seemed to be more just a waste of my time…..I hope tournaments still launch of alma or they just lost lots of revenue…I also hope they put it to good use and doesn’t get earmarked somewhere else…

hi Bob
Welcome to IDO,
good discusion and some very good points to consider from many of the posters.
Please keep us updated.
Jack

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Meeting is over…Guess it didn’t matter if you came voiced for or against they were voting on it anyway tonight.

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Govt. and politics at it’s finest…always pushing things in through the back door. Most likely been discussed ‘in-house’ for several weeks yet just becomes public a few days prior to a ‘informational meeting’ which turns out to be the actual vote. Happens all the time…

Hopefully they hold true to their word and put the money to good use if they generate enough funds…keep us posted.

What’s first on the list for maintenance Bob?

Good to hear from you Jarrad and your report on the meeting .Long time no hear from you on IDO .

Maintaining anything is very costly. Most people get that. I hope the money actually goes into the access, not just administration fees. Hard for many to trust any board, council member or politician these days and rightfully so. No matter how good their intentions are, they seem to mis spend allocated fees routinely and then want more. I have used that launch and like it. But have been keeping an eye on the MN one down stream. Good luck with the fee and I hope to see some great improvements to the access over the next couple years.

I think serving on government boards or commitees should be like jury duty, everyone gets their chance, and I think sitting around that table making decissions would change alot of peoples minds about how easy it is. And by the way I get all this grief for $1600 bucks, thats right a 1600 a year.We hope to have everything in place by May 1. Alot of improvement ideas have been discussed. Fish cleaning station at the south landing, refurbishing the old ramp which is better in high water, and an areator system to keep the south launch free of ice. Can’t promise all this will occur but it is my dream for the future. All this costs money which we right now can’t afford. Thanks to those that have posted positive or constructive ideas. Not the bashing.

I find it funny that someone that can have a 60K truck and boat that’s fully wrapped with his picture on it is making the biggest stink on a $30 landing fee. Everyone is so used to getting everything for free these days! Im all for keeping the landing in good condition.

An improved old ramp would be nice in high water. It’s still not bad though. The dock is kind of odd. Would be nice to have a little better set up with that, not sure how? Everything is so expensive, it’s hard for people, myself included, to understand gradual improvments when the funds allow. Would be nice if the idea of donations could be used. Sounds a little less like over taxation.

I don’t mind paying the extra money if it goes towards a good cause with the upkeep of the landing. With the ever changing legislature making it harder to get funding for things like this and deciding what areas need the money that is out there, I don’t see a problem putting that money towards a specific fund that will help out all patrons using the landings. Are there going to be stickers to put on or things to put on the dash?