The City of Soldotna appropriated just over $22,000 at their last meeting to purchase two more automated pay stations for Centennial and Swiftwater campgrounds.
Parks and Recreation Director Andrew Carmichael stated the stations are often more convenient than having to have correct change or remember to go back and pay.
Carmichael: “What we found over at Rotary park where we put it into service last year is we have a system where people are supposed to pay upon arrival and if they don’t, like the state parks we write a notice to pay but then what we found with having that particular avenue there the incident of those tickets went down.”
The parks and recreation department estimated the station reduced around 66% in failure to pay rate.
Carmichael said it will not replace summer part time employees.
Carmichael: “It should save some staff cost as far as some of those slow periods but it will save in the form of, instead having to track people down as much because they didn’t have change, they didn’t have the 7 bucks to get in, they only had a 20, those type of scenarios. It will affect those so that the staff doesn’t have to go find them and work with them when they could be doing other duties. It will save staff time but it won’t necessarily eliminate anybody but it will allow us to refocus efforts.”
The purchase of those had been approved within the 2015 small capital budget.